Rocks - Igneous and Conglomerate

The waves were there, but the trip had a bit of doge and run to it.  

We met in the parking lot across from Topanga, jumped in the truck and headed north, it was around noon.  The storm was there, surely we would score.  In our heads we were all picturing monster sets looming on the horizon that magically find us in the line up and take us for the ride of our lives!...  

The talk began light, mostly just (.5) a truck full of frothing surfers amping on the session ahead.  

The conditions were about as perfect as perfect gets.  It was center of the sun hot with a country big blue sky floating above.  The water was warm and clear, no wind, sheet glass, it felt like a magical mid August day and here we are November fourth - summer finally came.  

While every spot did look good on the way up, we just knew that the swell was hitting much better up north and the waves would be be double maybe even triple the size.  Example - we drove by Zuma and it was waist high, the Strand was triple overhead.  g'nuff said.  County was showing some size but we drove by with no hesitation.  Bigger and better by friend, push forward, ese.  There were about 5 or 6 guys out at Super Tubes and it was doing it's thing.  Next, was a spot I mentioned in the first post, and it was reeheeheealy doing its thing.  Right when we pulled up a set rolled in.  We watched the first couple waves and jetted down to Super Tubes, beating the set there and watching the glory unfold.  It was good but we decided to make moves and keep on the search.  

After checking the left on the backside (wasn't working) we pulled back up to the cliff and watched a few set's come in and it was certainly the biggest and best we'd seen yet.  6 to 8 ft faces standing up pitching and running down the point.  There was a healthy pack in the water, picking off late drops and stand up tubes all over the place.  The line up could surf and they weren't missing much.  If I was by myself I would have gone out for sure.  I had surfed there before and was completely comfortable with the wave.  I had the right board and was ready to roll.  My buddies weren't so hyped (.5).  They said something about the ovaries being inflamed, so we drove north.  

The txt report we got on the Strand said "big and chunky".  Good ol' C. Compton was right.  The north end was easily triple over head and was sending lefts reeling into the harbor.  The type of waves that are even hard to mind surf.  Just looking at it you know your in for a shit paddle with a bunch of current and side shore rip that never seems to let you out.  Although that may be a good thing, sometimes as soon as you do get out a set pops up on the horizon and you wish you didn't.  This was that sometime and we knew it.  We reeeealy wanted some of that nor-pac juice and were trying to talk each other into it.  

Lines like...

"I think it's doable" and "Oh look at that one, all the way through!" and finally "don't be a pussy"

All classic lines that get thrown around at almost every big surf session.  They would have worked and we were all set to go, especially after checking the south end which was half the size and twice as clean.  Yet still, the thought of long right walls, glassy and perfect with size and power to boot, kept calling our names.  The road beckoned ahead (.5).

The next spot was supposed to be this mystery peak off an unidentified no-name exit just after state beaches.  A brief search on little gas landed us at Emma Wood listening to some guy amping on the session he was about to have.  To me, it seemed as if he had just torched a giant ball of meth about 15 min. before talking to us.  He was jacked and missing teeth, we were low on gas and hadn't yet surfed - it was time to go.  

A short drive back south got us some gas and a C Street spot check.  Not happening.  Overhead but mushy and inconsistent and shifty.  Totally and utterly lame, (.5) let's go.  Back north to the queen we go.  

As predicted, the Rin to the Con was good, actually it was really good.  Note quite "day of days" material, but definitely good.  We watched from the railing at the top lot, amped a bit, ran into some old friends (.5) and off we went into 4 - 8 ft. Con.  

If our goal was to score the best wave on the coast for that swell then, well, we succeeded.  The only problem was about 300 other dudes figured Rincon would be good too.  Oh well, no worries, we all still got our fair share of waves.  Peter and I both got magic makers from the Indicators all the way past the river-mouth.  If that was our goal well then, we were successful.  

For me, the waves are only half the fun.  It's all about the adventure.  Reading the report, seeing the waves coming a week in advance, rallying the troops for the trip, food, gas, .5'ers, seeing old surf buddies in the water, it's all part of the deal.  That is what keeps me coming back for more, the good times getting there and the people you meet along the way.  Oh ya, and the fact that because I rip so freaking hard!!  Ask Kenny Powers.  

RIpping on the regs, out.  

  

Hello Everyone,

 

Just a friendly note...  The last two weeks of camp are almost full.

 

If you would like to attend The Greatest Camp on Earth in the next two weeks, please email as soon as possible.  As always our registration is first come first serve, so please let us know now!!

 

Thanks to you all, we have had another great summer and look forward to closing it out with a BANG!!!

 

Hope to see you all soon.  As always, feel free to call or email anytime. 

 

All the best,

Das Jesson &

takeyourfaceoff:

http://firstpointmalibu.com/

In typical fashion, I outsmart myself and think, "huh, connecting from 2nd huh?...  better surf third an ditch the crowd"

After about 30 minutes of wallowing in my own poor decision making skills, I admitted defeat and start drifting my way down the point, couple quick ones and bam, I'm right in the thick of it at 1st/2nd/i don't even know what to call it but it is firing!! The swell is building and dudes are pouncing on everything that moves.  Oh, and one more thing, the wind is hoowwwling from the northwest at 25knots plus.  

Let's review the scene:

- Head high plus Malibu

- Connecting from second point all the way through 

- Howling 25knt NW wind that peels layers of skin off your ears

- 300 of your best friends 

To describe the scene as dynamic would not fully give it justice.  Surfing the bu' is a very surreal experience. The Malibu guys are usually way f-ing cooler than everyone else, just ask them.  Their gear is always dialed in and leaning on the wall for display, for some reason they never get cold surfing in duck tails and other stupid non-functional wetsuits, and their style is this weird mix of, "I'm from Malibu but I party in Hollywood and I have tons of dough but I dress like I'm broke" tools.  The chicks, well, who really cares, they just kind of sit around in mesh caps, low cut bikinis, and over sized aviators.  They all kind of look the same and I can't say I've ever really cared enough to start a conversation.  

Overall the bu' is a definitely a scene - I like to go on Sundays...

Back to the Surf...

After bailing on third, I finally succumb to the wonders of bombs connecting from second all the way to first.  So here I am right in the thick of it, battling it out with the crowd.  My buddy Dylan describes the line up as being comparable to being at a bar full of dudes and one hot chick - everyone jockeying for position, mean-mugging each other, and putting their moral fabric on the line for on any possibility of snagging a wave.  Gnarly.

I caught a quickie that shot me just inside the main line up.  I kick out as see the biggest set of the day pouring down on me, "oh boy, here we go...

In the midst of duck-diving and paddling around guys, just trying not to get run over, I see Dylan screeeeaming down the face of a sizable set wave.  Lines of intense focus etched across his brow, his mouth puckered tight in anticipation of dodging paddlers and connecting sections.  Whew... Peter and I see him scream by and we already know, if he makes the section, he'll take it to the beach.  Sure enough, 15min later we see him back in the line up and the glory story flows like wine at church.  "Dude I got it all the way to the houses!!"  Mind you he's on a 6' 3" single fin his brother shaped him and he just took a 2' overhead wave all the way from Second to the houses... unreal.  

In between getting slapped in the face by the wind and trying to get, ...just-a-lil-deeper, I see a set looming and start slowly making my way towards the horizon.  I don't want to paddle too fast and tip everyone off on what's coming.  I'm at the top, if I paddle, they all paddle.  I quietly pull myself toward the incoming set.  

The first wave I let go, the second the same, third as well, 4th... I'm on it.  Enough of the line up had cleared out on the first three and this was my shot, if I could get into it the wave was mine for the trimming.  Scratch, claw, scratch scratch claw - I'm in!  

I angle down the face and lay into a long drawn out turn off the bottom and rocket up into the face.  I'm dodging people with every turn, roller-coaster ing my way through the main section and on into 1st point.  15 top turns later, I see Peter half down the point, we high five as I ride by.  I'm flying, the board is perfect, off the bottom off the top - all the way to the houses. 

I had two of those -  2nd to the houses, step off on the sand, relish in the glory.  

Only at the bu'  dynamic indeed. 

 

I don't really have some great story to go along with it, just thought it was interesting.  Send feedback to isurfcamp@gmail.com

I've heard all the tales about Super-tubes and seen the clips of Tommy Curren killing it on a head high+ day back during the 83' El Nino.  Big, heavy, grinding barrels - taking off at the rock, locked in the whole way.  Unreal right?  ...We'll come back to that.

Every time we drove up to the strand my buddies and I would always mythicize the whisper that was super-tubes and the craggily pits that surely waited ahead...  Most every time, no such luck.  

Oh well, no worries, the strand was usually firing and the warm burritos from Pepe's always put us in a coma for the ride home anyways.  Giving us more time to dream of one day scoring super-tubes like Curren did in 83.

So here we are taking countless drives up and down the coast for the last, I don't even know how many years, not even really thinking about it so much anymore, but it was always in the back of our minds.  Not as if we always talked about it, but everyone  threw it a glance when we drove by.  After Deer Creek, it was the major break between County and The Base.  

I know there are all kinds of various bends and set-ups along that way, but none of them really break with enough regularity to hold a proper name.

So here I am, the winter of 05 and I'm with a girl I like and we are headed up to my buddy's place in SB.  On the way up we caught Rincon on the dawn patrol, about 4'-6' and really good!  That afternoon we met up with my buddy and had a magical midday session at Naples.  The sun was out and the skies were a warm tropical blue, not a cloud in site.  The waves were head high and rising, sheet glass.  The swell was clearly building and as sun ran down, I was already frothing for tomorrows session.  The swell was capital B Big with and exclamation point on the end. what.  

The next morning the girl and I jump into the truck and head strait to the strand, I was confident the bars would hold.  They did, ...kind of.  It was triple over head, easy, and miraculously they actually held that classic "marching triangle" shape.  It was breaking way the f out there and there was a lot of water moving around.  The current was heavy and the peaks were shifty, the water was dark, and it was triple freaking overhead!  All I had with me was my 5'8" Robbie Dick, negotiating the paddle out would clearly be an issue.  Just then, the girl says to me in her sweet as a peach tone, "oh cool, are you going out" 

And I'm thinking to myself...

ya right, I can't make it out, it'd be like a 45min. paddle!

well, you don't want to look like a softy in front of the little lady do you?

No

well...

Then I say to her, I would but I think it might be better somewhere else.

Oh ya, she says.

Ya, I say, too much water moving around out there, kinda disorganized.

Which was true.  It was totally disorganized.  But at the same time, there were triple over head A-frames rolling in and pitching from top to bottom.  One of those waves would have made my year, probably a lifetime - and I left, ran back to the truck like a little school girl. 

So now I'm driving south on the 1 and am am kicking myself for not paddling out at the strand.  My inner monologue is ripping me a new one right now.  So right after I pass the base, I see the sand dunes on my left and try to distract the girl by telling some lame "sliding down the dunes" story.  Hoping to take her mind off of me being a softy for not paddling out earlier.  

And then it happens...

Not Super-tubes, better.  I can't say where exactly, but I've driven by it a lot and never seen it even close to this good.  Check the clip below, I'm the goofy footer.  copy and paste.

That's what I stumbled upon.  This wave took me from, the guy who didn't paddle out, to being, the guy who found the mysto spot.  

In truth, I didn't really find anything.  It was a total fluke.  All those years we were looking at Super-tubes, little did we know where the true gem lied. 

Oh ya, and I married the girl.