Stories of Stoke

[OBsurfgirl]

Hi all... I haven't been able to get on here much since Michael switched to the new board - I am on a temporary assignment in Botswana, Southern Africa and I am STARVED for surf stories! I am in an arid climate and no water anywhere for days around...HELP! Take pity on me and share your current stories of stoke with me so I can live vicariously through you all until I get home (not til July 22!)..

Wishing you all good waves (so you can share them with me!!!)

Aloha...

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good waves to all...

[Michael]

Wow, Botswana. How come you are in Africa? I was wondering were you have been. I missed you posts on the BB.
I was in South Africa two months ago, very good experiance. Africa is a wonderful place, friendly people etc., but it has it's many problems (tribal and racial conflicts).
I would like to hear some more about Botswana OBsurfgirl!

I am sorry that I can't give you a good surf story, I have not been in the water since february (arrghhh toooo long). Anyway, I will be entering a competition in 10 days, so I will have plenty new juicy stuff to add to the glide.

:up:

[AquaBoy]

February...you better hit the water NOW Michael. I don't have a really great surf story but its pretty funny.

A couple of weeks ago My friend and I went down to the beach beacuse it was 85 degrees out there was supposedly some surf. When we got there the waves were about 1 to 2 feet. Not great but hey, we just drove 45 minutes, plus there was no one out in line up. So we decided to have a go. As we we're walking to the beach an oldler guy just says, "You guys are going in without wetsuits, man your brave".

I gave my friend a puzzled look..."What the heck is talking about...its almost summer."

So I start waxing up my stick. My friend Wes who's a bodyboarder, immediately headed for the water. I saw him put on his fins and head out. A few seconds later I hear this blood curdling scream. I dash down to the beach wondering what the heck is going on. I find my friend shivering, washed up on the beach.

I said "What happend?"
"Too....cccccolddddd...."

I said "Dude stop being a wuss, it can't be THAT cold"

Boy was I wrong.

I took stick in hand, strapped my leash on and began to walk to the water. I got thinking that if just jump in the water, I would get used to it faster. So I ran as fast as I could and jumped in the water on top of my board. The water wasn't that cold I thought at first. I beagn to paddle and with each stroke I slowly lost feeling in each hand. I was almost to the lineup when a wave broke in front of me, like a moron I went to a duckdive. When I went under the water, time froze...Literally!!! I thought : This is why no one was out in the line up!!!!! I came up gasping. It was artic cold. And all I had on was a rashguard and board shorts. I heard water being thrashed around and I turned to see my friend paddling on his bodyboard. I'm not to sure if he was delirous and laughing or he was crying. It didn't matter, I was slowly losing feeling in my legs.

"What ddddddo you want tttttto do?" he said
"CCCCCCatch one wave and ride itttttttttt into shore"

We both agreed and thats exactly what we did. As soon as we reached the shore we lied flat on out backs in sand, catching rays. Trying to regain feeling in our limbs. The weird thing was that it was 85 degrees outside the water. But water temp was only 50 degrees. We later went and found an indoor pool and spent the rest of the day in whirl pool, laughing at ourselves.

The Morale of story : If you live in NJ and its May...no matter how hot it is...Bring a full suit!!!!!!!!! :)

I hope this cheers you up OBsurfgirl

[Michael]

I now AquaBoy, I'm dying for a good surf session. I am right now in Sweden and there is no surf here.
Good story, I remember my coldest surfing experiance. It was on January 1st a couple of years ago in England. There was still snow on the ground and the water temperature was around 6°C. Naturally I was wearing a 5mm steamer, boots, hat, gloves (you feel like a robot), but it took only 20 minutes before the feeling in my legs was gone. Anyway, I had a good session and spent 20 minutes in a hot shower.

:D

[AquaBoy]

6 DEGREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brah, you must have been wishing for 50 degree water. Thats still awsome that you had a great session despite the cold. When it all comes down to it, only the waves matter. :D

[OBsurfgirl]

hey Michael! Long time no write, eh?

Yeah, I'm in Botswana, working for unicef on an HIV prevention program for 8 weeks. Nothin but sand around me...I am a coastal person so I get a bit freaked being landlocked. But the up side is while there is no surfing, there IS amazing, mind-blowing game viewing, the best on the continent...I lived here 20 years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer so I know the place well. You guys were talking about Hawaii being over developed in another post and the same is true here..."development = great things"...NOT. My old village is now more like a town, its really sad. Anyway, to console myself for not being able to surf for way too long, I am taking myself on safari in a couple weeks, only a weekend but I plan to track on foot and do some night game dries as well...If you've never done a safari, i highly recommend it! But not in Kenya - too commerical, come to Botswana in the off season, like now - its amazing...

KEEP THOSE STOKE STORIES COMING PLEASE!!! ;)

[Duck]

Obsurfgirl

I had been waiting for over 2 years for the State of Cali to get their ca ca together concerning the boat hoist at the Gaviota State Park north of Santa Barbara. Gaviota is the poor man's gateway to the pulsing, fertile waveland more commonly known as the "RANCH". I'm sure you've heard of it, and maybe experienced it as well...anyway the hoist came back on line recently, with a requirement anyone operating the hoist be a trained certified operator, also two people would be the minimum for launching. Park staff have been conducting classes routinely for the last couple of months. Of course I made all the "bro" contacts to get your arse down there and get qualified so that I would have a large pool of "potential" first mates to help me launch. Only one did, until Thursday, when Steve called and said he was gonna go ahead and take the class that Saturday. Guess what? The hoist had come on line the Wednesday previous, and I was scheduled to go Sunday morning with the one "bro" that attended the class earlier. So I thought to myself, "self, why don't chya haul the boat down with Steve and let him take the class, then launch afterwards for a 2 1/2 year hiatus shake down cruise, we'll take boards too just in case we run into some south swell bump".
We left about 08:00 hrs Sat. morning. I was expecting a line and a crowded parking lot. To my utter surprise, when we pulled up to the entrance booth, not a soul in sight!! The attendant said there was a line to get into the park when she arrived at 07:00 hrs. We took care of business, then rolled into the day use part of the park where you ready your vessel in preparation for launching, we saw two other rigs with trailers>>>HEAVEN!!Things went sweet, cept the new, bigger 4 ton hoist is set up a little different. After Steve had returned truck and trailer to the day use parking lot (and did his business, I might add) we were off. Man, was I pumped, but nothing compared to Steve, he'd driven into Hollister but never seen Bixby. As we neared Ranch House Point, ya could see a little bump showing, past rights and lefts 4 local out, Augies was showing, Lefts and rights>plenty people, Johns Pond>overhead, Cojo>foot overhead, Perkos>2 foot overhead, Governments>shoulder to head, but not really doing it. Perkos looked best, but unfortunately the other two boats were already on it. So rather than use the 'ol Ranch honour system of hanging and waitin' for a couple of 'em to retire to the boat for SnackNnap, we opted for solitude at the infamous Cojo with nada company!!
When we arrived back at Cojo, two other surfers had walked in from Hollister and preceded to paddle out. We watched for a couple of minutes and decided to anchor out. Just as we set the anchor, a nice set rolled thru prompting us to rethink and anchor out a little furthur overin the channel. Talk about stoked!! When we finally hit the water it seemed to get more consistent with the incoming tide and the predicted increase in swell thru out the day. After about an hour one of the walk in surfers exited the water. Turns out the other walk in (Jim) was surfing the Ranch for the first time ever at the tender age of 45. He was from San Diego area, nice guy too!!! Said he saw the movie Big Wednesday (some of it was filmed at Cojo)and just had to surf the place some day. Of course I had to ask him the question, "was it everything you expected?" Yes and then some, he said. I felt like I had knew the guy all my life, we exchanged email addresses. After soaking up the golden rays shooting the bull with Jimbo, Steve and I paddled out to the boat for SnackNnap. We were burnt after out first four hour session! Just as we heaved our selves over the gunnel, two more boats pulled in. They had just finished the hoist class at Gaviota and slide out for a surf. They were hooting and a hollerin'like a bunch of 14 year old groms. Steve and I were stoked for them, we hated to see the point go unridden..especially since the swell was on the rise!! Needless to say, after suckin' down two Pacificos (with a wedge of lime) and inhaling down two monster sandwiches (lovingly prepared by our significant others, thank you Maria & Holly), lights out!!!
Steve awoke first, then my crusty eyes popped open. One boat had left, the other three guys in the other boat were still surfing, but they couldn't last too much longer, they'd been out for over 4 hours. The call, drink one more Pacifico, then hit. Just as we popped the top, the three surfers started the paddle back. Just as we were finishing off that last precious drop of Pacifico another boat was spotted to the south of Cojo Reef, heading our way. They pulled slowed to our port side and said "You guys launch at Gaviota?" I had a chill go thru me all the sudden, the question had been posed, "yeah, why?" The hoist is down, the cable snapped on the boat that launched after we did!" Well, I thought to myself, isn't the first and surely won't be the last time. Steve was nervous, chill I told him, never no worry, brah! Now in my younger days, I would have welcomed the news, just would've anchored out for the nite, done it plenty, but I'm a just a wee bit more responsible now, we opted to surf, then worry about what to do when we got back to Gaviota at dusk.
Neither Steve or I regret it!!! It got better, Classic Cojo, no one but us!! The ride back to Gaviota was surreal, zen like. The moral of the story is, "ya just never know" nothing looked good on all the models. I told Steve when he arrived that morning that we just might get lucky.......lucky, I'd say we struck gold, Cojo gold.

I'm wet, in all the right places......

Duck

[sunnypatti]

What's Up OBsurfgirl!!!

I haven't been on the board much as of lately myself, but I guess I came on at the right time.
Last night I had one of the best sessions of my life! It wasn't even that big... maybe 2-3, but totally clean and lining up! I caught about every wave I paddled for and worked every face like I never have before. It was awesome and I felt so good and satisfied after that session. I'm finally getting used to the 8'1" mini-longboard I got last November, after having to get rid of my old fun-shape, known by me as my MAGIC SUNSHINE (thank you Claude Codgen!!). We had surf all weekend here on Folly Beach, SC. Head-high last Friday night... out of nowhere! Sometimes I actually think I am a skilled surfer... good waves aids in that, though.

Hope all is well for ya!

[waveodaday]

Yeah, the small, corduroy waves are soooo fun! I went to Crescent City last weekend, the surf was choppy, but not bad. For anybody interested, the Noll Longboard Classic is going off up there in October. I've never been in a contest, I don't really have awesome style, just surf. You guys? What king of moves should I be working on for a longboard contest?
October is the best time up there though.
Now I'm back down in Arcata, chasing the sand bars for nice surf! Maybe see you there?????????
*Uh, not really too good of a story, but on the small, rolling waves I like to get up on the tip of the nose to get me into the wave, I'm all curled up, then walk back to do some turns.
You guys know that song by Beastie Boys, "egg raid on MOJO" ?? Well, there's a guy who I see out and I refer to him as kookie. But only in my head ya know. I see him doing the cobra with his back ya know and the wave always breaks on him before he stands up. Then he's usually up and going, but when I see this happening on a big set I sing, " Big set on Kookie, big set on Kookie."

[AquaBoy]

Howzit All!

I just got back from a session in the most inconsistent surf imaginable. I hadn't hit the beach in so long so still jumped at the oppurtunity. The great part about was that I learned a whole bunch about my local break.

Like I said before the surf was super inconsistent. But every so often a set of 4ft waves would come in glassy and perfect. But everytime this set came in I missed it. I would always be in the wrong spot. There was a longboarder out and he was always in the right place. After catching several mushy waves, I became desperate. So I finally came up to him and asked him flat out "How do you do it?" He laughed and went on to explain to me how when the tide drops and rises how the sandbar changes and shifts...etc. In the end I surfed with him I finally caught a couple of solid waves. It just goes to show how much I had to learn about my local break. I learned to surf in Hawaii so I knew jack about Jersery beach breaks. Despite the low quality of waves I was stoked to be out there and learn all about my local spot.

[wavegirl]

:D Wavodaddy, how's the waves up there? I used to live in Brookings. Beautiful up there. Miss the mountains, and empty roads...
Give anything to be back up in the redwoods, but no work no money anymore.
;) Keep me posted on the haps up in Arcata please.
Haven't had a good excuse to come back home in over a year. Maybe time to check out the cold water and surf with the great whites again!
Brookings, is happening with surf these days.
When I was a kid no one surfed there. Now everyone does!! Should've opened a surf shop there, when I had the chance!
:up: But I oh so love Trestles, and the surf conditions down south.
Sorry Surfer girl in Botswana, no real stories to up your stoke, been landlubbed myself with an injury.
But now can surf, and small, small,,,, :( waves down here right now....

Peace and pray for surf!!

[OBsurfgirl]

Hey you guys! Thanks so much for all your stories! I am FINALLY home in SD now and trying to get back into the water...weird after being landlocked for 4 months! Thanks again!


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good waves to all...

[wavegirl]

Welcome back OBSurfergirl! How was Botswana?
:) How's the waves down SD way? Up here in Venice it is 2'to 3' mostly walled beach breaks. I too can finally get in the water again... :D And am stoked!
Now if only there was some size!!
But I think after work tonight, I am going out whether it is trashed or not!! Probably head to San Clemente this weekend, at least there will be some size! ;)

Peace out. And Welcome back!

[Skatie]

Ok, ok, so maybe my post isn't gonna be all that long... :) BUT, I do have some hopefully uplifting stories of stoke. Um, so this week at Fenwick, MD...there were some small but fun barrels and i had myself a nifty little session. I learned how to do floaters and cutbacks about a month ago. This contest season went chronically well too. I won my division in both MD and DE so i'm a happy camper :) I WANNA GO SURFING, but poop I have skool now :cry: Here's to the existance of the weekend warrior. Hey, there's always next summer, rite? :cool:

Later,
:eye: ~k@TiE :eye: