The ASC Feature Pic: Dan King about to be shacked

If the wind does not come around by time you guys leave it's going to be a mess until it does. After the switch, depending on how strong a NW flow we get, the surf should be ok. Tide is low 6:15 am so it will be incoming all morning and outgoing all afternoon which will kill the swell if there are strong offshores. I'm betting the morning will be better than the afternoon, but I've been wrong as recently as Labor Day. The swell is there, the key will be which way the wind chooses to whip it.

Good luck men. You know what you have to do. Semper Fi. Tippycanoe and Foonboy too.

-Foon.

Running on three hours sleep, I figured to be catnapping on the trip down to the shore.  Instead, Dan and I talked constantly on a range of subjects from our possible long weekend trip to PR in 5 weeks to the Iraqi war buildup to what's sour with alt.surfing these days (profiles driving away new and old participants) and what's fresh (Joanne VanMeter's trip to the Maldives and her giant leap forward in surfing).  In between, I chatted via cell phone with Mike Law, Doug Rhodes, and Foon.  We met up with Mike at the WaWa's and continued our high speed chase to the surf.  Foon filled us in with the North OC conditions and Doug reported about 10 folks on the disorganized, waist high peak at NJs.  We agreed to meet up at N. Rehobeth after a quick check at Trestles East.  At low tide and slightly disorganized and mongo winds, mostly pitching dumps we decided to check IRI which Doug reported as breaking outside on his trip north from Bethany.

N-IRI looked about as crappy as usual these days, but one could see S-IRI going off with a mix of longboarders, shortboarders and a ton of boogers.  Off we went, checking it briefly, suiting up and charging down to the water.  Three or four main peaks were going off: north by the jetty and what I will simply call 2nd, 3rd and 4th peaks.  Dan spent a little time with Doug, Mike and I at 2nd peak before moving over to the predominant left on 1st peak populated by 2 to 3 longboarders.  Later on he moved down to 3rd peak.  He shacked deep and charged everywhere.  Mike Law was a dominant wave hog on 2nd peak, scoring lot's of waves, long rides and shack and smack time.  Doug was blasting away on his classic Dewey Weber - love it's classic tomahawk DW skeg!  I did my best to live up to my handle, rodNDtube, scoring plenty of tubettes and best of all, no dredge slams.

The 4th peak was simply sick, larger, dredgier and sick.  Some very talented bodyboarders, prone and dropknee, were pitting so deep that you could sense their desperation.  They also dredged a fair share of slams.  Someone on the beach captured the exhibition with a good looking camera setup... I am sure these pics eventually will appear on Delawaresurf.com or one of the other pages.

Mike Law and I trunked it and could feel the chill after about 1-2 hours. Dan and Doug were comfy in their shorties. Later in the day was plenty fine trunking with the warmer air and sunshine.  Foon passed on the morning session with hopes of us scoring some cleaner surf in mid-OC later in the day.  See below what you missed?!

- RodNDtube

Indian River Inlet-Southside pics by rodNDtube (click on pic for larger image)	S-IRI empty hollows	Short board shack attack
Shoulder high?	Where is that guy?	Verandah, green room... ?
Riding the high line.	Left speed down the line	This guy had fun
Tubette time!	Can you spell kuver upp?	Our Dan King gets covered
Someone's inside the right!	Coming out!

OC Inlet #1 OC Inlet #2 OC Inlet #3	After saying our farewells and looking forwards to ASC Guys Weekend, Dan and I headed south for some brunch and surf conditions that could handle the continuing strong and increasingly northerly winds. Chatted via cell with Foon who was still awaiting better wind and tide conditions.  He invited us by the Bunker but we never made it.  Dan needed a few surf supplies so after lunch we stopped by Shoreline Board Shop -- discovered they were having a huge season shutdown sale so we did our best to buy out the house. I finally bought my Gath helmet (you'll love the UNC light blue color, at half price), some lycra shorts (50% off), and some Redley Soft Blades ($30 for all flippers). Dan also picked up some goodies. Continued giving Dan the DMV tour... checking out the OC Inlet and pointing over to the Wedge (which looked to be going way off the scales but I did not bring the raft <un-grin>).  Called Foon again, but no answer as he was catching some rays down at the beach with his lovely wife. We ended up making the plunge into the OC Inlet surf since some nasty looking waves were banging the coast off the jetty.  If the rip to and out from the jetty wasn't so bad we would have stayed longer than an hour. Nonetheless, we each caught a few good ones.  I suggested we head down to Assateague to see if there were better pickings.  On the way south we drove by the old Wedge channel paddling launch zone, told some old war stories and continued on. BTW, there is still some beach scenery down at OC... some of it nice and some of it not so nice :) Assateague was being killed by the wind... so what the hell, since we are on surfari, let's check out another venue, Chincoteague.
Dan: "Can't believe what I keep seeing on the East Coast!"	Dan's kinda woman in red.	Rod's kinda woman in blue.

Chincoteague Sunset

Cool vintage 1950 buggy

After checking a few other spots, our first session was at IRI South side (DE) with Mike and Doug.  SCORE!  Very fun chest to head high, steep, fast, and pitching thick and hard into very shallow water. Everyone in our group scored a ton of waves and got shacked silly.  I shared the left off the jetty with two longboarders (wrong tool for this job, thank huey) and they pearled hard on every single wave.  It was hilarious, and I started giving them waves, just to watch them do it again and again.  ;->

Eventually I moved on down challenge some 4th peak filth:  air-drop takeoffs into fat-lipped gaping caverns, in super shallow water.  A bunch of the highly skilled and suicidal local boogers was all over it.  I got crunched hard on a couple of rights,  then moved over to the less crowded and only slightly less demanding 3rd peak, for some quality tube time and more physical abuse.   Fun!  I can see why Rakeem420 swears (literally) by this place, it is the bomb.

By this time the wind was stiff sideshore, and things were starting to get lumpy.  Mike and Doug had other things to attend to, but Rod and I were loking for more surf.  We headed S, to look for spots where the wind direction would be offshore.  We stopped on the way for some much-needed food (at Dumpsters), and raided the end-of-season half-off sale at the local surf shop.  We checked a couple of spots in OC midtown but weren't quite impressed enough to paddle out.  Ended up at the OC Inlet, kicking ourselves for not throwing Rod's inflatable boat in the back of the Cragmobile, so that we could paddle accross to the OC Wedge, which was surely firing wiith a very favorable combination of swell and wind directions.

Instead, we eneded up doing our second go-out at the jetty (OC Inlet, MD).  Head-high+ sets were regularly pounding onto the end of the jetty, and spinning some very impressive right-hand barrels.  The wind was strong side-shore and the strong littoral current was pushing around the end of the jetty into the ebb-tide outflow from the inlet. This made lining up on the end of the jetty very difficult.  We snagged some fun ones and took some more beatings.

I had just  taken my last wave in when Rod rescued a longboarder who had gotten caught in the current and was heading for Europe.  The guy was paddling non-stop directly against the current and not gaining any headway.  Rather than turn and paddle perpendicular to the flow, he panicked, ditched his board and tried to swim it in.  Rod paddled out to him, coaxed him back on his board, and then pushed him in through the current.  Good thing he had his paddling gloves!

From OC we headed south to Chincoteague, VA.  We expected that the southern end of the island would maximize the combination of swell and wind direction.  It was a very pleasant drive through rolling meadow and woodland on a beautiful, sunny afternoon.  Well, if you ignored the 15-20 kt N wind.   We got to Chincoteague, drove to the end of the road, got our gear together, and hiked a couple of miles down the beach to get to the point.  When we got within sight of the point, we
could not see any of the ESE ground swell, just lots and lots of ENE windslop.  As we were hiking, Rod casually mentioned that the area is known to be somewhat sharky, and that he had seen numous sharks on his last visit there.  Great, hiking for miles to surf shark-infested wind slop.

Nevertheless, we paddled out for our third time, in our third state, and each got a few semi-clean, semi-peelers.  Another couple of miles hike back along the beach (against the stiff headwind) brought us back to the Cragmobile.  The truck was happily stocked with cold, refreshing beverages, and these we enjoyed greatly as the sun set over the salt marshes.

I dropped Rod off at 10:30 pm, and was in my own door at 10:45.  It was a long day, but definitely worth it.   I have to say that surf on the DelMarVa has greatly exceeded my expectations so far.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the Weekend Road Warrior EC Tour 2002:  New England on 10/6 & 7.  Hoping to surf Cape Cod and/or RI next Sunday, swell permitting.

Crag Rides Again! (crag_t_bagger@yahoo.com)
posted to alt.surfing
Date: 2002-09-30 15:43:52 PST 

Todd

Rod Scolds Todd (for good cause as it turns out)
Todd... tell us the truth... You either want to (1) stay up and party all night and bang late into the weeee hours or (2) go surfing with the Snake instead of us!

Forget what the wind is doing in Annapolis right now and even overnight -- consider what is forecast for tomorrow at different locations along the coast.  Check the NWS Marine Forecasts on ASC Forecast page... also check the Experimental Images from that same section for Md and click the NE arrow for Delaware and check the winds there, too.

Whatever your decision... Charge It!

- Rod

Swell:  NE, E, SE, S - Pretty inconsistent but Kyle was beginning to show with some decent lines.  Saw a bodyboarder get one of the sickest barrels I've ever seen in MD...

Weather:   Partly Cloudy, Temp - upper 60s early to 70s. 
Water:  Getting chilly.  71-72F.  I trunked it but started getting cold after about 2 hours. 
Crowd Factor: About 30+ guys out when we showed up.  Thinned out drastically as the sesh progressed.  Got grossly snaked on a nice head-high wave but the guy sincerely apologized so no biggie.

Nice to finally meet and surf w/ Doug.  I scored a nice deep barrel on my first wave...saw the lip out in front and all...didn't make it out (does that still count?).  Anyway, I landed a bunch of waves today for such a short sesh.  I'll have surf dreams tonight!!!  Rod and Dan were charging!  Saw a ton of insane late drops.  Doug had his share too as he was workin' out that new board.

Fun day fellas.  Thanks for the company!

Saturday night report:
NE winds 10-15 mph, waist high surf in North OC with clear skies and very cool temps. Not much chance of good waves tomorrow. Congrats to those who scored today.

-Foon

alt.surfing's Rod and Dan Reply:  "Where's your desperation???"

Can't wait for the guys weekend..... I hope the surf gods are behind us.

Doug