Surf Dilemma for the Dogs

After my last surf session, I am glad to report that I was officially able to peel back the hood on my winter wetsuit.  Sure, I still need gloves and boots, but the hood was off.  Popping the top is always a great sign of things to come, but it leaves me in a bit of a dilemma in terms of my gear. 

Brinley says, "time to pop the top."

When it came time to purchase a winter suit, I maxed out and went with a 6 millimeter O’Neill, and in February I generally have few regrets about this.  But, in the transitional seasons I find myself too warm in the big daddy, as the suit is affectionately referred to, but too cold in my 3 millimeter.

I realize that this is very convenient problem and that plenty of people in the world should wish to have such worries.  I also understand that this “dilemma” hardly warrants blog space, but if you have read this far I will share my options with you as I see them:

1. I buy a 4 or maybe a 5 millimeter suit for the transitional seasons, which in New Jersey amounts to a month in the spring and a month in the fall.
2. I stop whining and suck it up, wait for a warm spell and forget about winter altogether.   
3. I buy a one millimeter top to put on under my 3 millimeter suit, and let my lower half, including my spindly legs, freeze. 

Being that I usually ascribe to the sentiment “less is more,” I am inclined to go with option 2.  After all, it is May already.  But there is still one deciding factor to contend with, and that is the reports from MagicSeaWeed, Localswell, and Surfline. 

Winter days will come again...

If the stars align, and a peak swell should develop where I want hours of water time in absolute comfort, I will be off to buy that suit.  Of course this is wishful thinking on my part.  The reports look marginal at best.  None-the-less, I am only an impulse buy away from having the session of my life! 

I can hear the wetsuit makers praying for waves- it is money in their coffers after all.  And the best part about it is I can hear them so clearly without that damn hood on my head.

I hear ya dog. Summer time is cool.

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Happy New Year!

Below are ten very unofficial suggestions you may wish to adopt as resolutions for the year twenty-eleven.  Either way SeaSandSurf wishes you a year of peace and good times. 

1) Don’t hate on the beach that is growing on the floor of your car.  Sand is beautiful.

2) Drink more pre-surf coffee so you can stay warm during those winter sessions.

3) Don’t doubt it- when it’s your turn to go, paddle and go.

4) Road trip!

5) If you find yourself mind surfing in the middle of the afternoon then you must be doing something right.

6) Don’t let the boss know.

7) Surf on a day that is beyond your comfort zone, even if it means a surf trip to Tahiti.

8) Go ahead, hoot that stranger in the line-up into the wave of the day.

9) Snake one for old time’s sake.

10)  If anyone can get away with wearing a pair of purple Uggs you can. No, for real!

A special thanks to Daniel “Surfer Into the Woods” Yackewych for helping to formulate the scientific list above.

Pulling Me Back In

I know it may be a little too late (or early) to revisit Earl, but Tim Bourne of Identity Surf shot a great video of some Jersey surfing that I wanted to post up.

For me, the video could not have come at a better time. 

Let’s face it, most of can’t surf whenever we feel like it.  There are jobs, families, responsibilities and all of the other facets and complexities of the day-to-day that can keep us out of the water.

Personally, this will often cause a disconnect.  So wrapped up in my busy life, I will at times forget what it means to be a surfer.  I will even occasionally think that I may be done.  “Who has the time?” my brain will tell me. 

It is in moments like this that I am reminded of the infamous line from the Godfather III when Al Pacino says,  “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

As a surfer, I don’t mean say this with the same brutal angst felt by Michael Corleone.  I actually apply the line with the utmost gratitude and affinity for those who help share the stoke.  Afterall, if I stopped surfing today I can’t turn State’s Witness.  The best I can do is tell you about a few unknown breaks that work best on a south swell at mid-tide.

So this time, with the burdens of “all things life” feeling, well, burdensome- it was Tim’s excellent video of a bunch of guys getting glad on the waves of Earl that drew me back in. 

 

Now, I will feverishly follow the reports in the hopes that I can get in the water again soon.  Happily thinking to myself, “yes, I am drawn back in!”