Author: Bluebird Surf

Jo-Yue!  One of the best months for typhoon action and word is that the Island of Formosa is getting hammered with good swell.  Lots of fun days and some pretty epic days thrown in for good measure.  Judging from the reports it sounds like the crowd is right too.

For us cold water surfers, how inviting is the picture above.

or below.  I mind surfed these on a variety of boards already.  Like pulling in behind the peak on a longboard and just drawing a really high line or dropping into the flats doing a big bottom turn and then snap stall under the cascading lip.

On the one below I’d be droppin’ and lockin’ like the Gazza says.  One hand firmly planted in the face.

However you look at it, da boyz are up to no good.  With the kind of swell they’ve been seeing one can only imagine.  F$@&ers!

When you think of Munich you probably think of Oktoberfest and frothing Steins, and loads of cleavage of course hanging out of those lovely drindl’s.  Well if you are like me you also think of river surfing.  One of the more famous spots to river surf is in Munich.  Nowadays upwards of 100 surfers a day hit the standing wave situated in the English Gardens known as the ‘Icy Brook’ or Eisbach.

I surfed it back in 99′, well attempted anyway.  It is really tricky and can be treacherous since about 20 tons of water flow down it every second.  It was cold, shallow, and since the water was moving so quickly it was tough to get out if you fall off in the wrong spot.  Expect a few dings on both board and body your first time.  According to recent reports you can get as many as 25 people waiting in line for a shot at it.  When I surfed there it was a long wait and there were only a 4-5 guys on it.  The locals ripped it up and for many of them, this was the only type of surfing they ever did.

Back then it was illegal which I didn’t realize, but supposedly at times you had to keep an eye out for coppers while you rode the waves.  When I was there it was raining and cold and only a few guys on it and they didn’t seem worried about much of anything.  Anyway, now it’s officially legal and even the mayor has chimed in saying that he thinks its good for the city’s image.  Win Win!  The cool thing is that now that the city plans to embrace its surfing image they might put up/create a few more standing waves in the city that river surfers could ride…could be interesting to see if other cities follow suit.

Read the full article I read and paraphrased from here.

Eisbach from chris knorr on Vimeo.

Even though we here in SF haven’t had much of a summer to speak of thus far, I can feel that it’s just around the corner.  Pretty soon we are going to start getting those beautiful sunny no wind Indian Summer days with north west swells starting to feel out the coast.  Almost there!

Photo Courtesy of Saves The Waves Coalition…become a member today!

Made a trip out to the Oregon coast to see what I could see.  First time I had been on the coast north of Lincoln City.  Wasn’t much swell and I didn’t have any of my gear, but took the trip anyway to just poke around.

Traveling to the coast was beautiful and the closest thing to it in California is probably up near Crescent City and Del Norte.  On arrival was awe struck by the sheer scale.  The roads to some of the neat little coves had full on coastal rainforests that looked Jurassic or like something out of a movie.  Really incredible. Big ferns, and moss hanging off trees like spooky halloween costumes, green green and more green everywhere you looked.

We found some empty beaches that looked like they could keep me busy for hours.  Driftwood treasures, unique shells and who knows what else.

The local surf shop told us that it’s often just too big and gnarly.  The summer they just get windswell since the souths don’t make it all the way up there, but the fall, winter, and spring it goes off.  The types of boards I saw reinforced that it can get pretty serious.  The locals in these parts have quite the reputation as well.  We ate at a killer little joint called The Relief Pitcher up there.  I highly recommend their albacore sandwich and burgers.  Some of the friendliest people around…but who knows how that changes when you start taking waves.

This summer has been the foggiest I can recall in years here in SF and so I felt right at home cruising the coast up north.  It was 80 degrees inland and as we came within ten miles of the coast the temperature started to drop and got down to 52 by the time we hit the beach.  Came across beautiful scenes like the one above.  I plan to go back in September or October to sample some of the spots I stumbled upon.  One in particular reminded me of a set up you’d see in Taiwan, a real thigh burner, except a lot colder and more consistent.

Topped it all off with some local brew.  Looking forward to getting my real session in.

Jay Alders’s new piece ‘Sweet Aspirations’.  I like the look on the SeaGulls face…