Hot Summer Nights

Tonight I surfed Cardiff reef till dark.  At first when I paddled out there were quite a few people out.  The stand up paddleboarders were being especially annoying.  But I waited them all out, and soon there was about 4 of us in the lineup trading off perfectly peeling, waist high waves.  The lefts were holding up well and were great for practicing some nose riding.  I was on my 2+1 more high performance longboard.  Not quite what you’d call a noserider, but it does noseride well for how thin and light it is.  I got some great rides…on one memorable wave I pranced up to the nose, hung five, retreated and did a sweet cutback to finish it.  I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t count a noseride unless I can successfully step back and finish the wave.  No sinking the nose, no falling.  Anyone can run up to the nose and sink it, so I can’t really count those anymore.

The sunset was really nice, and it was peaceful floating out there in the lineup without a lot of surfers around.  It’s funny how on a Saturday night one of the most popular spots in California can be pretty empty.  I’m lucky to be able to experience that.

Two weeks ago I did a mini California road trip to Santa Barbara with Lori and Val.  There was no surf in Santa Barbara (at the iconic Rincon) because the predominant swell in the water was from the south.  Santa Barbara is blocked from receiving south swells due to the shadowing of the Channel Islands.  However, we stopped at Uppers on the way there, and on the way back surfed Malibu.  I took my 9′ Takayama Model T to get the full effect.  It was really windy but the lines remained relatively clean.  I really want to go back there on a warmer day with a little less wind.

malibu lines

hipster boardbag

dora's wall

Check out this video I made of our crew hitting Rincon Puerto Rico for a week of fun in the sun and surf.  We weren’t greeted by roping 6ft walls of perfect swell, but we made the most of what we had.

This is my first venture filmmaking with the Canon T2i, and I had a lot of fun using it.

took some more shots, this time at Cardiff.

cardiff speed lines

done for the day

yellow singlefin

The weather has been really great here in San Diego lately.  We’ve had 3 Indian Summers it seems like.  On Sunday a bunch of us went surfing down the street at Avocados.  I took the opportunity to put on some flippers and swim around with my waterproof camera:

For Thanksgiving I’m going to be going up to LA to hang out with Donny and Katrin (my cousins).  We did the same thing last year and it was really fun.  I think we’re going to be going to Disneyland again.  Should be really fun!

So I surfed in the Cardiff Green Surf Expo contest today, just a little local surf contest. I did the Jr. Women’s shortboard. I’ve never surfed Seaside reef before, and holy crap is it fickle. I paddle way outside (paddleout is included in heat time???) and sit for a while. nothing. everything that comes through is fat and mushy, I can’t even catch anything. I look back and there’s 4 minutes left in the heat so I paddle back in and try to catch an insider…something, anything. I catch a closeout. Great. So my whole strategy backfired and I’m in a lousy mood. I have to go surfing to redeem myself and surf myself out of my funk.

So I roll down to Cardiff and break out the longboard. This is the third time I’ve ridden this new log that I bought off Craigslist. It’s a 9′ Takayama model T. Single fin, classic shape, but not too heavy. The third time’s a charm, I guess, as I really felt dialed in and felt like I had a handle on the board. I managed to get a whole slew of cheater fives. Man, that concave in the nose really helps. It just lets the board lock in. All the other logs I’ve ridden didn’t have concave.  I felt so stable a few times that I stood up straight and tried to do some sort of soul arch.
Finally I got a nice long section and walked up, planted my left foot on the nose and felt solid. Brought the right foot up. Score!! I got two feet on the tip. I don’t know if all ten toes were over the edge, but for all intents and purposes I got both feet up on the nose. Holy crap it’s wobbly! the board started going side to side and I tried to stabilize it but after a few seconds up there I promptly fell off. But what a rush!   I also got thrashed pretty good a few times. A sneaker set came through and I tried really hard to get up and over but it shot me up and backwards and I went through the spin cycle. Another time I was trying to stabilize my board in the wash and got bucked off, fell in front of my board and got clocked in the head. Ouch. But all in all it was a great session. Loving the new log, nice change of pace from shortboarding all the time.

Noseride at Ditch Plains, Montauk

The title of this post means: I got completely annihilated while riding my longboard, not that I kill it on a longboard.  I recently got a new longboard off of Craigslist.  It’s used, but still in very good condition.  I bought it from a guy who bought it off this pro surfer named Kaitlin Maguire.  I looked her up and it turns out she came in 2nd place this year in the world championships.  Cool!  She apparently sold the board in favor of one with more rocker.  The board is a Takayama Model T, which is one of Donald Takayama’s retro shapes.  Best in surf shoulder high and under, it’s a cruiser and noserider.  I’m still getting used to turning it.  Sometimes I try to turn it from the middle which I could do with Meghan’s longboard (which is a tri fin), but with this board I really have to turn it off the tail.  So, sometimes I just fall over haha.  I really like it though.  I took it out for the second time today at Cardiff reef, which is a nice right reef/point.  The waves were glassy and not too big, so I wasn’t too worried about cleanup sets.  However, by the end of the session the waves really started to pick up and I got completely trashed a few times.  The board even knocked me in the nose, luckily not too hard.  Seems like something could tap you on the nose and it still hurts a lot.  I feel like a kook but I really have to wear the leash right now.  I have a hard time hanging onto a longboard in head+ surf.  Maybe one of these days I’ll be confident enough to ditch the leash, but not yet.  I’m somewhat decent at cross stepping and getting to the nose, but I’m really inconsistent.  Sometimes I have a session where I just can’t get it right, and other times I’ll feel super good.  Just need to longboard more.  Anyway, the board will be really fun for the smaller days.  I hate getting worked in big waves with a longboard. I want to feel like I can control the board, and once the waves get to a certain size I feel a bit helpless.  With a shortboard I can duckdive it and I have control over it.

It’s so funny, people keep asking me if I’ve “turned into a longboarder,” or something similar. It’s like there are two different breeds.  Screw that! I’m gonna get good at both.  Shortboarding is awesome and I love it, I won’t stop doing that.  But taking out the longboard is a treat, especially when it’s small.  It’s like getting tired of chocolate ice cream so you get coffee flavor.  It’s the same thing but different.  It’s cool..I like both.  I got really into longboarding back home over the summer since there were so many perfect, small longboard days to take advantage of where shortboarding would be a waste of energy.

I forgot to write about this when it happened, but I figured I’d mention it here before I forget again.  So a few weeks ago was the ESA Espo’s Surf Contest at Ditch Plains.  ESA stands for Eastern Surfing Association, and they run contests and such all over the East Coast.  It’s a sanctioned event, which is cool.  Anyway, I won first place in both Women’s Shortboard and Women’s Longboard.  That’s cool.  They gave us some very big trophies.  I’m not quite sure what to do with them, so they’re sitting on my dresser right now.  What was also fun was that Kurt and Jamie were also in the contest.  I worked with them at the Surfhampton Surf Camp for the past two years.  Anyway, they both won their respective divisions – Jamie won the Open shortboard, which is basically like winning the entire contest, and Kurt won the Master’s Shortboard which is the age division group, beating Jamie in that heat.  Anyway, between the three of us we had a ton of trophies.  Team Surfhampton basically swept the ESA Espo’s Surf Contest

ESA Trophies And Contest Poster

Team SurfHampton Sweeps The ESA Espo's Contest!

Tuesday I had the best waves of my life.  Hurricane Danielle seemed a bit anemic at first and didn’t send us the swell that we though she would.  However, on her way out something conspired to send us some bonus waves, and the conditions were as perfect as they have ever been in Montauk.

When I arrived in the lot I was expecting the usual shoulder high Ditch waves.  However, everyone was absolutely buzzing, and Corey said that he had just caught the best wave of his life at Trailer Parks.  Corey is not one to claim that kind of stuff lightly.  Other folks were saying that it was amazing.  People were tripping out.  I saw a set roll through Trailer Parks and it looked about as perfect as can be, but it was fast and looked like it was a little sectiony.  So I decided to walk down to another cove and paddle out.  The first wave I took off on was this incredible left hand wall that seemed to telescope forever.  I saw the lip feathering over my head as I raced down the line.  Dave was surfing ahead of me on his SUP, but I didn’t mind – there was so much room on the wave.  I was screaming at him “Holy crap this is insane!!!” as I sped along the face.  The crowd was light at first since nobody had expected the swell to pick up like it had.  All the forecasts had called for the waves to be knee to waist high.  I surfed for three hours and had some of the best, most perfect, and longest waves of my life.  There was not a drop of water out of place, like something out of a dream.  They were the kind of waves that artists paint in their dreamscape images of perfect days.

The best part was the absolute stoke that radiated through the lineup.  Everyone was gushing.  Someone would catch a wave and race 100 yards down the cove, and as they were paddling back out you’d just hear them yelling “Oh my GOD!” in joy.    Dalton caught one of the longest waves I’ve ever seen.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so jubilant.  Claire and Andrea were getting amazing rides.  I saw Andrea drop in and just grab her rail and rocket down the line.  People were stoked that I was surfing so well — Claire informed me that Woody told her “Hayley’s kicking everyone’s ass out there, dropping out of the sky,” as she was heading over to surf.  Dave was telling me I was ripping.  Some guy told me he saw me drop in late on this one wave and just saw it barreling behind me.  Everyone was talking about this “late drop” that I had, which I kind of remember as a turn and burn style drop on a wave that snuck up on us.  All the drops were just so smooth since the waves were so perfect.  I’m not one to try to bring praise or attention on myself, but I have to admit it stoked me out to hear everyone’s comments.  Just three short years ago I would have been afraid for my life in waves like that, but I did not experience an ounce of fear that day.  California has taught me well.  Everyone was telling each other they had the most epic waves.  The stoke was overflowing.  I know I sound like a crazy surfer, but it’s true!!!

I’m still waiting for some more pictures to surface from that day, but here are a few that showcase the perfection of the waves over the whole weekend.  These are of Ditch at Trailer Park, not of the cove I surfed.  Unfortunately none of these photos show the size of the best sets, which were easily at least 2 feet overhead.  I saw Dave take off on one set wave that may have been 3 feet over his head.

These photos were not shot by me.  I think Drew took them, and Tommy took the first one.

Click the pics for a slideshow or to see them bigger.

Dreamscape

Corduroy

Fun Leftovers