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beachwise:
a surfing story to tide you over
by shaun robbins

      Damp, dark days have a way of keeping everyone away from the beach, including surfers, and this day was no exception. It was a rainy day in the middle of the summer, and the sky had a weird haze to it when I arrived at the pier. Only a handful of surfers were out, no doubt due to the weather and the small surf. The surf was a glassy 2 feet at best, barreling as any small wave does, and had a long line that pealed all the way into shore. Since I had driven 20 minutes to get out the beach, and I was light enough to catch anything back then, there was no way I wasn’t paddling out.

      I paddled out away from the other surfers just as the rain stopped, and claimed my own little section of water. A few rides into the session, the surf began to increase in size to about 3 feet and kept its good form. Wave after wave I enjoyed jumping on and pulling my favorite trick, which at the time was a floater, and paddling back out to do it all over again. All my waves had seemed the same: drop in, ride down the line, pull a floater, and ride some more. This was until I caught the best left of my young life.

      Paddling for this left, it seemed no different than any other left that I had ever gone for. Right after I had jumped to my feet I realized that the wave was catching up to me faster than the other waves had done during the day. Instinctually, I crouched and tucked into the barrel, as I had done unsuccessfully many times before, anticipating the lip of the wave closing over me and flipping me over. The lip of the wave did come over me, giving that hollow sound that a tube makes, but it didn’t wipe me out. I had made it out of the first legitimate barrel of my life. It had felt like a lifetime, but could not have been any longer than a full second. Amped from coming out of the barrel, I continued to ride down the face of the wave and gave it two nice snaps. After that wave I paddled back out, not to catch a wave anywhere close to the one I had just ridden the rest of the day.


forecasted conditions
The famous Lake Atlantic is in full effect. The surf is gone, and looking at the charts there doesn’t appear to be any surf in site, not even for longboarders. Our best chance for surf is for any type of weather system, Nor’easter or hurricane, to come into the area bringing some waves with it. Unfortunately for us, it does not look like there is anything out there remotely close to being able to cause this to happen. Keep an eye on the weather channel, and your fingers crossed. But don’t take my weekly word for it, call or log onto your local report daily to find out what the present conditions are for your favorite break.

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