style: john haffey

I let go

radness from Oldy

Critical Sliders from Nathan Oldfield on Vimeo.

ego trippin through the weekend

so sore today and my nose and cheeks burn from too much sun and wind. all good remnants of a weekend full of surf. on Saturday evening Blacks and JB and I paddled out at the hamster wheel around six in the evening. the waves were glassy and lining up nicely along the point with the occasional overhead set. it was a ton of fun but lots of work too.

we'd walk to the top of the point and jump into the drift. within seconds you'd be at the takeoff spot. then it was a matter of paddling up the current to try and stay in position until you could catch one. the good ones dropped you off far inside. then it was get out and do it again. quite a tiring session but relatively uncrowded and a great vibe.

yesterday the local surf association held the annual spring surf contest. it was a great time. the contest was a true community event with the men's open including guys from 16 years of age all the way to their mid 30's (yeah that's me). I entered the men's open and the longboard. I gotta say that there's no better way to temper your ego than to compete. the surf was not ideal, two to four feet with howling onshores at a point does not make for ideal conditions but everyone charged it with an open attitude. I had no chance in my first heat of the men's open scoring a meager 3.75 total points out of a possible 20.

in the longboard division I didn't fare much better, squeaking by the first heat with a .1 advantage to make it to the final. I felt good in the water in the longboard final. I got a wave as soon as the horn blew and caught about five or six total in the 20 minute heat. I got out of the water exhausted from paddling against the current but confident in my surfing. I was disappointed to come in fourth place when the winners were announce -I'd really hoped for a top three finish.

but then this morning I had to laugh when I saw a photo of myself trying to inch up to the nose. I look as if I'm constipated. so after a good laugh at my lack of style and form I feel like it was a great learning experience and I'm glad I did it. maybe I'll even enter the longboard division again in the fall.

I think perhaps the most important thing I learned from my first contest surfing experience is that I surf because it's fun. because I love to surf and not because I want to be better than others. so long as I have that outlook I think surfing will continue to be a positive part of my life. and for this I am stoked.


in other news check out my latest entry in Drift Magazine

hurtin in NYC

big rouge sets coming through last night. the fog was so thick that you'd barely see them out there till it was too late to try and out paddle them.

I rode a few waves but not many. it seemed like for the first time I was pushing the limits of my 5'8" fishy. not enough rail for the amount of water moving.

I tried going late on one that swung wide. I never had a chance. the rip moving along the rocky headland was powerful and relentless.

I was way out front when I went on the wide one, within two minutes I'd been dragged and dunked all the way into the bay, gasping for air between exhausted duck dives.

this morning I feel sore and tired. my shoulders are sore to the touch and my energy levels below normal. a good sore and tired though -no matter the conditions, surfing is always thoroughly satisfying -thank you very much.

the buoy reading at 6pm yesterday was 11.5' @ 13 seconds. wind ENE 11 kts gusting to 15. water temp 35.6 F.

off to New York City this afternoon. the little bruiser will get to see his aunt in her element. and B and I will enjoy some Mexican food, heavenly pizza slices, and urban absurdity.

alive in the ether

inspiration is like the ether. if it’s there we cannot see it. Monday night’s amazing sunset session set some ideas straight for me and left me inspired.

one: learning the nuances of a board takes time and patience

two: that patience pays off grandly as I explore new parts of a wave

three: I can slide my foot back over the fins mid-face to power through a turn –just gotta be present in the moment to remember

four: slowing the wave down and watching it while it does its thing in front of you is stupid hard

five: if I can manage to slow it down then I can surf it with more poise than a flailing monkey dancing to an accordion on old cobbled streets

on a side note –stoked to have a new side project with Drift magazine. I will be writing a jazz inspired blog a few times a month.

four on six

• surfed four of six days
• one day on three fins
• three days on four

Wes knew it before the big labels got to him

style: RT

RT of Warbles calm and collected


snagged this one from Grass is Greener

surfing is...

it’s not always about clean waves. surfing sometimes is about suffering through storm surges shortly after the fronts move through. the whole time paddling to stay away from stray sets and maybe, just maybe if I’m lucky to get the right one come my way, I go, and it’s good.

other times it’s about waist high little peelers –steep enough to speed me down the line drawing subtle lines across the small wavescape. one after the other the experiences add up to nothing, so quickly the memory fades from one ride to the next.

other times the pulse is strong and the swell stacks on the horizon like rows of energy moving through space. the crowd thinned by skill level and sometimes timidity. sometimes surfing is swinging around last minute for late take-offs. “damn I’m not gonna make it….” and then for the next ten minutes I'm bounced around like lotto balls at midnight, through the rock garden on the inside until the current lets go and I can make my way out front again.

surfing is not static.

it is not dictated by governing body.

there is no way to document mentally my experience.

it is in fact simply put –experience.

it is the moment of allowing intuition to take over -and muscles, bones and tendons to connect with neurons to ride time as it moves through space.

it is transcending sense perception and thought without the Buddha or the bahgavad gita.

it is experience and nothing more.

style: strauch

style: robyn kegal

lines

got two two days of login in this weekend. cordless, five-over and glide and trim. you can see small kine lines comin in here. 4' @ 11 seconds is better than nottin. Blacks 'll tell ya

"when in doubt, just go. what else ya gonna do?"

surf by bike trip

I've been kicking around the idea for some time now of doing a Nova Scotia surf trip by bike. the idea comes and goes each year and I've yet to commit to it. today I got the bug again.

when I first arrived in Halifax in 2006 I set out to scout some possible surf spots on my bike. I've always been quite skeptical of the interweb surf sites so I knew that I'd have to go and check for myself. the photo above is from one of my initial scouting sessions. this little spot can get good sometimes when the wind is right. the prevailing winds do not favour this spot however and I often go months without surfing there.

that photo was from the first and last time I ever took a ride to the ocean. seems silly not to do it more often.

perhaps if I could get an accomplice to come along on a bike to surf trip I may be more motivated to go through with it.

don't worry

four dubyahs

who: an 18 year old kid outta high school with a little grit, no sense, a library job for gas money and a white Karmann Ghia

what: a passion for moving across space atop magic carpets - concrete or water didn't matter

when:same as now -as much as can be fit in between things that otherwise matter less to him

how: with graceless abandon, sometimes timidity, in the heat of summer, with duct tape, no leash, behind the beach house after the hurricanes with no one out north of the pier, with cigarette dangling sometimes, with disregard for self harm -mostly always -no always passionately.

adventuring

big bombs. shifty. high tide refracting off the headland and making it all warbly.

got a few really good ones, a few not so good ones.

got pitched on about a 10 foot face, hood filled with ice water and felt like I would pass out. stunned as I finally came up for a gasping breath.

another wall of white water. try to duck dive to no avail. the white lifting me and pressing me down down down towards the bottom.

cold. stunned.

paddle exhausted towards the bay and back to position.

all in all a good session but I won't make a habit of going far from home. more hours driving than surfing.

still it was just a friend and I on a mackin point, the bows of the trees laden with fresh snow, the water a deep turquoise, and the sun shining it's mid-winter warmth on our faces.

tired tonight.

a good tired.

forward trim

I've been really diggin the longboard again lately and the feeling of forward trim. saturday morning I surfed alone for a little over an hour on some little knee high rights. the waves had just enough wave face to allow for perfect trim. the feeling of standing on the board motionless while gliding across the wave face is like no other. there's no posturing, no macho antics, just the board beneath your feet and the passing of time as energy through water.

this year I've resolved to learn to surf all of the boards I have and to not acquire any others. with the exception of the mini-gun, my quiver consists of high volume boards -from the 5'8" fish, to the 6'0" speed egg, to the 6'3" old yeller seventies singlefin, my shortboard quiver is made to catch waves. so that's what I plan to do. I want to take the time to learn what it is that I like and dislike about board design so that I can get closer to the feeling of surfboard as extension to my body.

one thing I know for certain, the high performance shortboard is not my idea of the most fun to be had. I prefer the ease of paddling and instant speed of a board with a wider front end. performance shortboards can be super fast with constant rider input but I find that that approach does not allow me to notice what's going on around me as my focus is singular. with the high volume shortboards speed is built in so that I can focus instead on the way that the wave forms and unfolds in front of me.

I am also a fan of style like Jay Adams skating a pool or Gonz skating a rail or as in the photo below, Tyler Warren in forward trim. style is harder to come by when your shakin yer tail feather trying to keep the board from boggin. and there's nothin less stylish than me struggling to surf a performance shortboard -the hops and wiggles are more akin to a red wriggler on a hot summer sidewalk.



inspiration:

Picaresque
Warbles

sunrise & sopes

first surf of the year

had my first dip in the ocean in the new year today. the water has gotten a bit colder since the last time I surfed at home -about a month ago. I rode the log for about two hours in mostly waist high glassy rights. today was most definitely a login day. lotsa guys on shortboards but only three of them could make a go of it with such small mushy surf. the photo below is from a place I checked but chose not to surf. looks good too though.



it's a new year and really for me that don't mean much. my calender seems to revolve more around surf seasons. the difference this year is that I start a new job in two weeks. over the past three years I've had a lot of flexibility to surf when there is swell. I have certainly taken advantage of that freedom too, missing nary a swell with just a couple of exceptions. in job interviews I always make it clear that work/life balance is as important to me as pay. usually that approach pays off as the old saying says "you never know until you ask."

really though I am looking forward to a little change even if I am apprehensive about not surfing as much. perhaps one day soon I'll figure out the angle to surf more and work less. in the meantime I'll keep hustlin for more water time.

sloppy choppy and thats all we got

D$ on bamboo


our man on the beach Burry got some shots of proof that fat floats

hangin with D$

Florida beach breaks are
like day old tortillas

soft and crumbly