Surf

Went to have a look at the waves this morning and came across a 20+ft whale getting washed up on the beach.  As I came over the dunes you could smell it…different from the normal seal smell that you get but equally pungent.

There were a couple surfers right out in front of it picking off some waves…when they came in were shocked to find out they had been surfing right near the bait.  They had paddled out a few blocks down and drifted right past it.

The plan is to bury as deep as they can.  High tide at around 11am should push it up on the beach a ways and then they can get busy digging its grave.  I’ll post a couple more shots later.

Well the past couple weeks we’ve had a string of small little souths mixed in with wind swell and small pulses from here and there.  A couple fun days, some shortboardable and others requiring a bit more length and girth.

A couple really beautiful days last week where I was completely surfed out and then quite a few typical fogged in Sunset days as well.  Keeps the crowds right!

The past three or four days, low tide in the evening was the call.  It would look pretty flat all day and then we’d get some peaky little lines come through.

This guy was rippin’.  We’ve got more swell on the way for tomorrow and the weekend so I took a lay day to rest up and get ready.  Looking forward to some fun ones.

Gotta love the souths especially when they are big, but even when they are small.

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.