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Surfing
On May 20th, 2004, having never surfed before, I book a room at The Jolly Roger on Topsail Island, in North Carolina, for a surf weekend with my friend Ben (who'd spent a lot of his youth living and surfing there). I buy my first surfboard on the 21st. Actually, Ben lent me the money because payday wasn't until Monday and the conditions for the weekend look promising.
So, at this point, I'm booked for a weekend and I'm into my friend for almost $500 for a board, and I've never surfed. And some people accuse me of being impulsive! Bah!
Day 2 of Total Beginnerness
This was only the second day I'd ever surfed. The day before had much better conditions, hence no photos -- Ben was too busy surfing to take pictures of my repeated pearl dives (although I wish we'd got at least one of them on film). This day however, was way too windy according to Ben, but I didn't care. ...I learned quickly how big a current sideshore winds can generate.
"That's not a wave, that's a ripple!"
Tail End of Hurricane Frances, 2004
Michelle and Jeff and I left Charlotte on the Saturday of Labour Day weekend, in Jeff's little red truck. We got to Topsail and checked-in to the Breezeway in time for me to surf the tail end of Frances, but only for about an hour, and then it got dark. There was no time to look for good spots, just jump in and paddle.
I got hammerred pretty hard a few times, and held down for quite a while once. It was...interesting. It's hard not to panic when the water is pushing you down faster than you can swim up, and the bottom is out of reach of your feet. Definitely a new experience.
The rest of the weekend was blown-out mush. Barely surfable. I went out anyway, and had one of the best drop-ins I'd had to date. The waves were about five feet. I timed one just right (rare for me) and got to ride down the whole face. Man, do you ever get going fast! It's pretty much the same feeling as dropping in on a 5 foot mini-ramp.
Nasty, nasty chop and strong rips. Getting out was interesting to say the least. Notice the diagonal waves that come in from some other direction -- they didn't help at all.
Finally get out there. There were a few nice waves, but Frances was definitely leaving the area, although I did catch a couple rides.
Time to go home. Sets are shrinking and it's getting dark.
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