After a few pumping days on the East Coast and probably the biggest South swells this year, expectations for the surftrip down South on the weekend were fairly high. Mine were anyway. On Friday, surf newsletters were full of epic pics up and down the coast. I found it hard to sit still at work anymore in anticipation of the trip.
We drove down Friday night already to get the early morning surf in. Saturday morning, the troop (7 girls and 1 guy) gathered to check the local surf spots. The one two seconds from our house looked pretty awesome. Glassy, 3 ft beach break. But we had our hearts set on the reef break that was a 10 min drive away. So the convoy headed there. To our disappointment it was not as good as we expected it to be. It looked wobbly, massive and dirty. Not the best conditions to paddle across a shark breeding ground. It’s scary enough if it’s clean and only medium massive.
5 surf checks at different breaks and 1 hour later, we ended up surfing where we first started. So much for that lesson learnt (which I thought I had learnt before): If you are lucky enough that the first surfspot you check is pumping, don’t go and look for another spot that might be pumping even more … what are the chances? Well, chances are that the first stop is blown out by the time you get back to it again and you don’t get a good surf in at all. Well, lucky enough the wind stayed down for a bit so we all got a decent session in great conditions in.
We were not so lucky in the afternoon. Everything was pretty big and windy. Only me and another mate gave it a try. Paddling out was hell. After ten minutes paddling I made it out to the line-up only to get sucked under a massive set. Well it was about 5ft which some may say is not that scary. But it seems really scary if you are the only one out (lost my mate at that stage) in very messy dark brown waves (close to that shark pit) that keep on coming at you and you keep duck diving but don’t move forward or backwards and your are just stuck in one spot. Scary shit. Eventually, the waves let go of me (thank you ocean) and I paddled straight back to shore. I don’t panic easily but I started to freak that time.
By Sunday morning the wind had settled. It was super smooth everywhere. The reef was still not lining up properly so we’ve surfed one of my favourite semi reef/beachies down there. So much fun in 3ft waves again. They had a bit more power behind them then the ones the day before but shorter rides in general. Either way, it was a fun morning with the sun out. 2 hours of paddling took it out of us. We all retreated for a nap before we made our way back to the big smoke. Usually we surf some of the breaks in the avo on the way back but we’ve decided to check the reef one more time. And dadadadaaaaa it looked nice. Like one of the locals said, it’s not all time but hey how often do you get the opportunity to surf there.
The problem with reef is, yes they come with good waves… they also come with a long paddle and it’s always bigger than it looks. It was solid 4ft with the occasional bomb coming through. One was particularly massive and I happened to be far too far on the inside. Luckily it was soooo big, that it broke far out. I did not even see it. All I saw was a foam wall out of nowhere and I was left wondering where all this whitewash was coming from while some of the guys further out got smashed. Other than that I had an amazing surf with my last wave my favourite of all. A dude caught this pretty big wave far out. He’s been on it for a while but decided not trying to make it past the close-out section before it reforms. I did not see that coming so was not really in a position to take off. I turned around anyway and just paddled for it. I heard my mate laughing at my kind of hopeless attempt to get onto the wave in the last second BUT I MADE IT and it was my wave of the day. Excellent surf. Surfed out and happy.
That was the second trip down there in a row with awesome surf. Are we going to be a third time lucky for our annual Easter Surf trip down there? One can only hope…
Looks like there is going to be surf all week. Yay. Well towards the end of the week it looks a bit dismissal but you never know, that might change…
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