Surf

Well its that time of year again for our folks in sunny Taiwan.  The water heats up and you start to see those little flare ups here and there that intensify as the season goes on. The typical season lasts from about July-October but can extend out to as early as April and as late as November in some cases.

When you ask the locals about the best months for surf you’ll see their eyes light up as they say Jo Yue, or September for us haoles.  When the waves start to come in, the long flat spells between the steady winter winds ‘long feng san’ and that first typhoon are easily forgotten.

Last week the boyz got a little taste of what they’ve been waiting for after a slow start to the season.  Reports of waves all up and down the best coast came in.  With not the biggest of waves, but certainly a nice warm up.

I believe last week was just a Tropical Storm headed for Hainan.  This guy has a front row seat for the action about to unfold.

This shot below is of one of my personal favorite waves.  It’s a fickle one that only breaks this time of year, but it offers a lot of variety when it does and can be punchy, which is always fun.  Check out the grab rail technique of that lucky one…he’s got it all to himself and about to get  little head dip.

The nice thing about Typhoon season in Taiwan is that it really opens up the scope of possibilities.  All sorts of nooks and crannies light up and it really tends to thin out the crowds considerably.

Best case scenario is when the storms just skirt the island and hang out or cruise by really slowly.  That is when you get some seriously good surf.  Here is Tha Meystro pulling in on one of the remnants of last week’s swell.

July is when the action starts to heat up and the frequency of storms really starts to pick up pace and so he and the rest of the boyz won’t have to wait too long for the next little bit of action.  As I write this, Tropical storm Chanthu is sitting in the South China Sea kicking up another round of goodness.

They are just getting up on that side of the world and I bet someone is pulling in right….NOW!  Taiwan Pi Jo all around cause Typhoon Daze are back.

All Photos Courtesy of the Gazza!!

Dreamy!!

Check our more Sedor’s vids at Taiwan Bootleg TV and The Board Wok or the Bluebird Video Page

Kind of missing it…even though most of the time it is just like this teaser.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11905226&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Grey Whale Sessions – Trailer from Tyler Manson on Vimeo.

Well it was that time of year again and off we went somewhere off the California coast.  Happened to time it with a building south and west swell and it was beautiful.

When we arrived it was head high on the sets, the next day, Independence day, it was a few feet overhead and we got two three hour sessions, and the day after it was double overhead with exposed reef at low tide.  The picture above isn’t even where we surfed but it was goin off nearly everywhere.  It was hard not to draw comparisons to Indo.

The first day I surfed my first solid wood single fin shape, second day I got a bit more serious and took out my 6’2″ Aloha thruster that I picked up for $20 from a Japanese dude heading back to Japan after a winter here in SF.  The second session on the 4th of July and the last day I rode my Kauai shaped Topper single fin given to me by a good friend who left it with me before he moved off to Costa Rica.  I rode it with Greenough skeg which was more appropriate than I had realized at the time.  I felt like I was channeling some 70’s legend on that thing…stayed up high and gathered a bunch of speed and then would hold a swooping carve into the flats and then do it all over again.

Independence day was the best, the sun was out, slight offshores and we even got it all to ourselves for a little bit.  I was so stoked.  Sure didn’t feel like California.

On the last day, we pulled up to the spot and saw about 4 other guys in the water catching some fun ones.  We had seen and felt some of the biggest swells of the three days that night and morning as we made our way from the anchorage so we were expecting it to be much bigger.  We jumped in the water thinking that maybe the swell direction was off or something.  We were able to catch a few waves before the mother of all sets rolled in.  I found myself scratching for the horizon and just barely making it under a three or four wave set from hell.  After that set, everyone cleared the line-up and pulled up anchor.  It was pretty classic!

It was a great way to end the trip and I cannot wait until next year!!