another shot of the new board

 

new board

 

My new board from quiver! it's a 6'7" by 19.5" by 2.5." The nose is 11.75" and the tail is 14.75". The shaper also made my a slightly shorter and thinner board and said I could choose from the two. I thought of buying the smaller board, but he talked me into this one as everyone here thinks I'm tall and heavy, when I actually feel skinny when I go back to the U.S. Anyway, I asked for all orange and this is what they did. I kind of like the yellow band. The shape is much more aggressive than my fish, with a bit more rocker, and is double concave on the bottom. It's also not epoxy like my fish, so I have to treat it with more care.

steep to fat in nothing flat

surfed again at punta rocas yesterday afternoon. like saturday and sunday, it was 6 feet, but it was very tough to catch a wave. the takeoffs were super steep, and then fattened out almost immediately, becoming so fat you couldn't hitch rides or stay up once you had popped up. the only difference from saturday, i think, was that the tide was a foot or two higher, so the waves couldn't wall up as nicely. and i went out on a much floatier board. on saturday i used a skinny 6'8" thruster, which i was afraid wouldn't float me, and i caught plenty of waves. on wednesday, i went out on a fish of the same length which is extremely wide and barely caught anything. nature is fickle.

who's going surfing?

 

trying out the new life vest

 

punta rocas

 

a shot my wife took at punta rocas on sunday. i went to the break saturday and sunday and it was nearly perfect both days...

punta rocas

nice waves at punta rocas this weekend, with 5-6 foot waves that are about the ideal height for the break. anything bigger and it is too much for most riders. 9 feet forget about it. at 5-6 feet, it's forgiving enough so that if you drop in late you don't get pounded, and still the waves are fast enough to be challenging and fun. i saw a brazilian guy do a floater that went on forever. it was gorgeous to watch. went out on a an old 6'8" thruster that a friend of mine left here. kind of a mini-gun shape. i was worried it wouldn't do well but it caught plenty of waves and was incredibly responsive. this week i should pick up my new board and my repaired fish. woo-hoo!
photos coming soon of big phil at the beach with his life vest on!

back in the water

surfed this morning for the first time in two weeks. lots of big, mushy, blown out, fat waves. it took me an hour to catch a good wave, which lasted a long time and felt nice but a bit slow on my 7'2" beater that weighs a ton. i'll take out a lighter board next time that a friend left with me. i'd come back to lima thinking i could pick up my new board, and my repaired fish, which lost two fins, but my shaper is sort of missing in action. so patience is required.

waves in slo-motion

an insane surfing video from wired spotted by a friend who reads the huffington post

ooh dat smarts

 

an old friend of mine got smacked by his own board in san diego the other day when a rogue wave popped up out of nowhere, leaving him too little time to duck dive. he ditched his board, but boards do weird things in big waves. more and more, i'm seeing the value of gath helmets, though i still haven't had a chance to use my new one. heal quickly NT.

big phil is getting ready to surf

 

who's getting a life vest?

 

back in town

got back into town today and hope to surf soon, but in the meantime check out one of my favorite blogs, which always has amazing photos

big swell

i surfed caballeros yesterday morning with a couple of friends. a big swell with 9.5 foot waves that were too much for a lot of breaks. it was a challenging day. heavy fog so thick that you couldn't make out points of reference on the shore to position yourself on the break, peaks that were shifting left to right, a current that kept pulling us outside and over to the rocks, and every few minutes a huge set would roll through and you'd have to duck dive three times in a row, hope you didn't get stuck on the inside and then start the process all over. i was paddling out at one point during the session and looked up to see a breaking wave and my friend looked like an ant relative to the all the water behind him. once the sun came out, about 2 hours into the session, i finally caught some waves. but on the last nice wave i caught, just as i was standing up, my board felt slippery and twisted in a strange way. i looked at the underside and saw that i'd broken two fins and two hole plugs during the session. i think my leash tangled around them in a wipeout and they snapped off. most days aren't that challenging.

early morning session

woke up at 4 a.m. itching to surf and made it down to the water by 5:45 a.m. first ride was the best, a nice left down a line that was walling up and lots of fun. it flattened out later on but still is a great way to start the day. wednesday is supposed to bring 10 foot waves.
here's a blurb from an old friend, and a photo he took, i love the imagery: "went out the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean and spent a week fishing with a couple of local guys. We'd take a dhow out a sunset and sail over to where the waves would break across a coral reef and fish from the back side of the wave, throwing big lures into the white water and pulling them out like injured bait fish. Caught a ton of fish, little bit of everything. The guys didn't speak a lick of english so we'd gesture about what our game place was; troll for sail fish, jig for grouper or cast for trevallie."

longboard cruisin'

the last two times i went out in lima i was so tired of the fat waves that i vowed to ride my longboard on the next outing, which is what i did today. three nice long rides, one that took me all the way to shore on faces that went on forever. on my third wave i finally figured out how to get around a section that fell in front of me the previous two times. good cruisin' fun. but i really did feel like i was driving a bus. i've heard people say that riding a longboard is about being on top of the wave, whereas a short board puts you in the wave. i couldn't agree more. i hadn't ridden my longboard in at least six months, and it felt funny. it's just a whole different world.