On Friday, I must confess that there simply is not enough swell in the frigid waters to tear me away from a hopeless bureaucracy and need to arise early so as to attend to my niece's performance in the Nutcracker. (Bumpy 2-3' NE wind swell.)

On Saturday, I must confess that Christmas and Three Kings Day shopping must be done. A date for breakfast at Chick's in Annapolis preceding the annual shopping extravaganza will start the day off. Domestic dedication is the call... it's the least that can be done for my wife to otherwise so willingly supports my fascination with surfing. (Building NNE winds and waves in the morning. NW flow due in the afternoon.)

On Sunday, I must confess that the day will be dedicated to resting, football and wax stripping plus a quickly rising aversion to little, cold water surf in the face of warm water reefy shallow water swells later in the week.

Have a great surf you core dudes (and dudettes)!

Rodrigo 'PR-7' Rodriguez _\m/

I have not surfed nor seen your beautiful creation in 4 months! And I  have another 4 to go!

Ha, ha. Have fun tomorrow, everyone! 
Be sure to post back and keep the wave starved informed and sane.
+Justine

Rodrigo 'PR-7' Rodriguez _\m/

Merry Christmas Doug

I must confess, late last night, I sat alone staring at my board and slowly stroking the rails.

C

my confession: im skipping work under the pretense of "school duties" and surfing all day tommorrow :)

todd

Punchy

I know, long time - no hear.  Glad to see all the new folks and that the club is staying so active in this freezin' balls water.  Next weekend I'm heading home to FL to surf some warm(er) waves with some old friends and family.  Merry Christmas and God Bless.

Mike

Mike

Chris: I must confess, late last night, I sat alone staring at my board and slowly stroking the rails.

Karrie:  Now, thats sad... really sad.  LOL 

Chris:  Especially when I got wax all over my hands???

ButifulFyrGodess

I confess that I'm not sure half of you guys are going to make it to Spring and this whole confession thread is starting to creep me out :0

-Father Foon

I was referring to the need to hang out with you guys. I have enough honey-do lists to take me to my death bed. It would be nice to do something outside of working around the house..... Jeeeeeeessssss.....

I never said I was gay or happy for that matter....Just envious of the kitchen passes you guys seem to get.......

- Doug

I confess that Neal and I got SHACKED this morning in chest-high, long, hollow, glassy lines. 

I also confess that we surfed NJs alone until about 10:30AM when someone else finally paddled out. 

I confess that I apparently have not mastered the backside floater re-entry. Every time I tried it today (many times over closeout 
tubettes), my board took off for another planet, without my feet. 

I confess that 5mm booties were not thick enough for a 4 hour dawn patrol session.

:) Aloha boys and girls!

Kirk:  I got cocky a few times after having success with backside power turns and off-the-lips, despite the frigid water and layers of rubber and 2 month old board. I paid severely when I decided that "from here on out, I'm going to try to bust an air every time I pull out." The first time I tried it, I squatted down to grab the rail, looked behind me (to the face of the wave), and got a mouth/nose/eye/ear full of lip-age. That was the last thing I remember!

It was actually kind of funny.

- Kirk

Neal Carver
The real Secret Santa 

Was in my yard on Wednesday night and felt a breeze from the west---crap!!! Wind already offshore!! Was hoping there would still be some swell energy left over thursday morning, and there was. The early offshore switch scared away most of the crowd. Everyone thought it would be flat. 

Met Neal at Parole at the late, luxurious time of 4:50AM. Headed down the road and had very little traffic all the way into town. Got to NJs right around dawn.....gate closed, one truck already there. Luckily, the guy was a super amped kid looking for big mackers, he looked disappointed as he came back from "the walk" and got in his car and left. Neal and I walked through the woods, across the dunes and saw---a set of 4-5 footers rolling through---clean with no one out in the lineup but a few sea ducks. Didn't wait for more waves, just ran back to the car and suited up. Everyone (on the web reports later) said it was knee high and crappy at Indian River.

I had never ridden my 7'8" backside, despite having it for 2 months--been blessed with NE swells all fall. I knew I would be challenged by the semi-critical point break at NJs, having to drop in backside. Whatever, better to learn now than later!!

Neal and I took a little while to get dialed in, but both of us eventually started working the waves really well. Waves started out 
consistent 4' and clean, had to catch it in the perfect spot b/w the too-weak shoulder and the too-critical closeout section. Those who have surfed NJs know what I mean, but that space is about a 10' diagonal line, that's it. Occasionally, we would catch 2 CLUTCH waves a piece in like a 5 minute period, and we just kept looking at each other, like, "Damn, that was like a surf video." 

We both got cocky and got later, and later, and deeper, and deeper with our takeoffs until we were both eating it on every single 
dropin. During one of our "good spells", Neal watched me from the inside as I dropped in backside--holding the rail up--as the lip 
raced right behind me. Stood up, kicked the tail around, and dropped in again, headed another 50 yards down the line. As I was paddling back out, I watched Neal get tubed on takeoff, tubed about 20 yards down the line, and pull off a perfect floater about 20 yards past that. Sweet!

Later, the swell became more NE. Huh? The models hadn't called for it. By 10:30, one other surfer (the asian guy with the windsurfing board) had joined us and was picking off the inside lefts on the 2nd point. 1st point was dead. The 2nd point outside isn't breaking well--you can tell it has something to do with the rocks on the bottom. A 10-yard wide peak will break in 5 places at the same time....weird..3rd point was dead. We left at 11AM and headed back to the western shore. The end of the short-lived swell---captured!

Unfortunately, Mike "Flips" Phillips advised me that he would not be joining Kirk and myself for a mid winter surf.  He advised that he was in the middle of erecting the crib purchased for his soon to be son.  For those of you who don't know Flips, he is a rocket 
scientist.  Literally!  But from past experience, I know that those cribs with the sides that slide down are one of the most complicated devices in the world.  So I'm sure that when Flips declined our 5am departure, he knew he would still working on that thing as we paddled into our first set.

Excited, I awoke before the alarm and headed out the door.  I almost wrecked on some black ice on the way to the Parole meeting spot.  I shouldn't have been surprised to see Kirk "The Vampire" Mantay was already waiting for me.  I quickly loaded my 6'6" into his econoride and we headed off.  Kirk handed the toll both operator the money and mention "5:13…. that's a respectable departure."  Kirk and I talked about all kinds of odds and ends as we headed east.  We stopped at the WAWA and got some hot java.  My cell phone rang as I was squirting whipped cream on top of my vanilla cream coffee.  Funny how my coffee taste have gotten so fufu.  Anyway, it was Rod, sounding sad and desperate as he made his way into the city.  I advised him that he would get a call after the first spot check.

Kirk and I rolled into NJ's on the verge of dawn.  We were the first guys there.  Yeah, looking sweet.  The gate was closed so we hoofed it through the forest and out to the dunes for a look-see.  We immediately saw a long chest high peeler reeling off the jetty.  Clean as a whistle.  There was another one right behind it.  That was all we needed.  We high tailed it back to the car.  I phoned Rod and advised of the clean conditions and the surprisingly warm 78-degree air at the beach, hehe.  As we were pulling out our sticks and suiting up, another car pulls up.  This guy hops out and says "see y'all down there."  He grabs his board and suit and heads through the trees.  Then another car pulls up.  Now I'm thinking, this sucks; it's going to be crowded before we get wet. The first guy never put his suit on.  We pass him on the way down to the jetty and he advises that he is in search of something bigger.  Well whatta you know, we ended up getting it all to ourselves.

As we paddled out a nice set of three waves came rolling in. They broke just off the jetty and on down the line.  The swell had a 
little too much east to give us those long sweeping lines.  However, the east swell and offshore winds provided us with a bit more speed and power than usual and allot of lip to work with.  Not the mushy peaks we normally deal with.  Kirk and I quickly got it wired and found a take off zone about 10 yards off the jetty.  The larger swells were about chest high and there were plenty for the two of us.  However, there were really long lulls between these green beauties.  That may explain why the crowd never showed.  Kirk and I had a blast in the chilly water and air.  We were hooting at each other on the paddle outs and screaming as we tucked into the little hollow sections.  It's amazing how the right conditions can transform two 30 year olds into kids acting half their age.  Some of the best memories from the day were watching Kirk take off on a nice little wave close to the jetty.  He had a very contorted backside stance as he was cautiously stalling his board right before this little hollow section peaked.  Then he shifted his weight forward and dragged his inside arm as the lip pitched right over his shoulders. It's so cool to see that from 15 feet away on the wave's shoulder.  Kirk also had some amazing backside take offs that I did not think he would make.  He swung that fun board around and had that rail buried inside the jacking face.  I had some fun rides as well.  I took advantage of hitting the lip a little more often than ducking for the curl.  I guess the cold water subconsciously kept me above the flush zone.  However, I did get two good cover-ups that I busted out of with enough speed to continue the ride. Another memorable image came when Kirk and I were paddling out and we just watched these empty peelers, backlit and hollow, just rolling off the jetty.  Absolutely pristine!  Kirk and I had it all to us for almost three hours.  Finally another guy paddled out but the east swell was starting to 
diminish due to the tide and a NE swell that started to fill in.  We were starting to get cold and a bit noodle armed so we called it a day.  The ride home was uneventful other than watching Kirk turn shades of purple after I made some comment about letting oysters go extinct.  It's always funny to see Kirk react to a half ass statement relating to something he has spent his life studying.  Hey, I was just making sure he was still awake at the wheel!

Can't wait to do it again! 

Neal