Cold Stroke Classic

Chuck Patterson congratulating Kurt Byron the Elite winner.


J-Mac



Middle of the pack.

Stand up paddle boats.

DW

Really cool event, with a great turn out. Everyone looked tired and happy.

More SD Xmas Shots

Run Forest, Run!

Butch and I went back & forth 3 times to Sunset Cliffs and Mission Beach at 6am trying to make the right call. Sunset Cliffs wasn't breaking because of the extremely high tide. I didn't know at the time that it was still an hour before completely full. Mission Beach looked BIG on the sets. I know from previous surfs that it thumps when overhead. I was trying to avoid surfing a beach break. Tourmaline's was small. We decided to hit Mission instead of waiting on the tide to fall. We scored a fun 2 hour session.


One final shot before leaving.

Sunset Cliffs at low tide. Much easier to get in than high tide. (See previous Thanksgiving post) Everyone out enjoying the tide pools.

This is "Garbage". Yep, that's it name. I call it, "Don't bust your ass running down the steps to get in spot".We surfed the break to the left of this picture aka. "Garbage South". The sets were chest to head, overhead for us. Hollow take offs that can suck up and give small barrel.

Butch aka "The Golden Bear" getting some pool practice on his new ULI and Werner three piece adjustable paddle. The golfers didn't know what to think.

The Inside Scoop.

We got a little schooling from Jim and Chris from ULI. They had never seen the C4 ISup. Jim tells Chris to pick my board up and Chris says "about 8-9lbs. of pressure'. What! I pumped the shit out of it. ULI provides a pressure gauge with their boards. He was right on the money. In addition, the pump they have is smooth and can crank out the psi's with little effort. Unfortunately it doesn't fit the C4 inflation valve. They also inform me that when I do get the pressure up, the valve washer blows out when you release the pressure. This causes you to find something thin to help reinsert the rubber washer.

It was really cool seeing all the ULIs. They come with Kevlar strips down the center of both sides for rigidity. Seem to work compared to my board. Or could it be that I have half the psi's?

We also saw two prototype boards, a 9ft and 8ft. Pretty cool stuff. These guys were great. Jim lent me his paddle to use for two days and gave me a new leash.

West Coast Holiday Surf

Butch about to take the ULI for a demo surf at Mission Beach. This is Jim Weir's board, the owner of ULI corp based out of San Diego.



Butch's first wave of the morning.





Perfection.

The "Golden Bear" taking the drop.

Now at the bottom.

I believe this is me shot from the shore,

This day was a super high tide at 7ft. The waves were chest to head on sets. I forgot my leash but had one on a surfboard I have kept in Butches garage in the desert for two years. It broke on an overhead bomb that stuck me on a paddle out just 30 minutes into the session. Luckily, the tide was super high and you could wait between sets to get out. I got caught two more times by sets and had to make the swim. You can see the shorebreak was pumping.

The word was, a few days prior, this beach break was unsurfable because of the size. The tide was dropping as we left and was starting to wall up and get vertical with bigger sets.

More about the ULI and photos to come..

California Update.

We ISUPed last week with good surf. Photos to come. Just will say, we miss out on surf, but they miss out with sunsets, sunrises and great beaches!

Eventhough, our head high equals their waist high. I've surfed a 2mil without booties and been fine.

8 Hour Barrelfest

Session #1 6:45a -12:45p

Session #2 3p -5p

Sore as hell.

Santa, I Have One Wish...

I want a 4X4 van with big tires, an extended roof, custom interior for camping and surf racks for my quiver!

..."You'll shoot your eye out kid."

Surf this week!?*

The B-Dog and I hit the inlet way outside yesterday. A surprise leftover swell in the waist high range. We SUPed the sand bar next to the red bouy and both caught a great set wave. The tide was going out with light offshore winds and it still had waves coming in.


Saturday looked hopeful and now Magic has it forecasted for Sunday. Of course, I fly out on Sunday at 6am.


On the bright side, I may get to ride my doll on vacation. Butch may get to try a ride on a Uli Lopez in San Diego. We'll make it a double date. I'll even buy the coffee!


I have my Channel Island 6'2'' Al Merrick for sale (check out photo to right). I believe it is one of the best top to bottom shortboards on the market. I surfed it well at 175 lbs in warm water. I have it at the Surf House, Carolina Beach.


Getting ride of your boards is TOUGH. Every board is connected to a fond memory of a day in the water. Something we never want to forget and spend a majority of our time trying to relive.