Sandy gave us a pass....

Here on Breakwater Road we weathered Sandy with just some very minor damage. The winds and rain yesterday afternoon were the only real issues we faced. Sadly, many of the barrier islands along the NJ shore took the full brunt of this huge storm and were not as fortunate as we were. More news and photos can be seen here http://www.facebook.com/#!/JerseyShoreHurricaneNews

All the best & stay safe!

Cape May - Monster wave during Sandy. Photo from Exit Zero

Sandy's on her way...

Inside, down the beach.

Checked CM this morning. It was high tide and it had some size but not much form. Saw Chad D. get into a few of the better ones that rolled through. Stood on the beach watching and talking for about an hour then came home. And even though there were a few that looked good, it just didn't look worth the effort. I must just be getting picky as I get older....

                                                                  Be safe out there! 

High tide HQ line-up 

Yukon (left corner) shooting from the sand and another inside right down the beach.

                                                           

Tres Vaqueros

    My three Vaqueros

      9'2"  -  8'3"  -  7'9"
After diving into the world of displacement hull surfboards about 4 years ago, I found myself both excited and frustrated all at the same time. While I had fallen in love with a long hull from Scott Anderson, I was still looking to grow in my hull experience by trying out boards from other guys on the same trip. So while I was having fun on my 9'2" Anderson, I wasn't able to find that same stoke on smaller boards. The talk by many in the know was that these boards only performed well in long lined up point waves inherent to southern California and that they just wouldn't work in our east coast beach breaks. But having found a taste of how well this type of board design did perform in the waves in our area, I felt that people just hadn't really put in the time or effort to see that these boards do work over here.  Taking the advice of someone whom I consider both a talented and knowledgable boardrider, I began my search for a board from the planer of Marc Andreini. After a bit of research, it was quickly apparent that other than a small surfshop in Brooklyn, Marc's boards weren't readily available on the east coast. So after a few months of craigslist searching, a 7'9" was up for sale in LBI. I jumped at the chance and a few days later it was mine. Right away, I knew I had found what I was looking for. Easy entry into the wave and then so fast down the line with little to minumal effort on my part. Frontside, backside, just a, "sit back and enjoy the ride" type of feeling. Or, pump it a little and shift into 5th gear and let it run.  The board seemed to want to ride the wave as much as I did. So as time went by, I rode my longboard when it was small and my Vaquero was in the water for everything else. Since that craigslist find a few years ago, two others have since joined my quiver and I can possibly see one or two more additions in the future.
A 10'3' glider perhaps?  :)
Aloha

A rare gem by Del Cannon

I had the chance to slide into a few waves on this board at Bolsa Chica a few weeks ago. Truly a very special board. Here are a few words from the boards owner...

"It is 10'2", tapered stringer that is near non existent towards the nose, step deck. Outline and layout is that of a long "magic sam". I have seen quite a few DC logs that have a similar outline to mine, but I have yet to find anything as thin flexy and bladed out. Nothing even close. Being that he a smaller manufacturer, he didn't crank out a model like the big guys, so I'm thinking it was a one off."

This AM at the Rocks

Offshore and clean is always a good thing on an early Saturday morning surf check. Some fun 2' -3' surf with an occasional plus set showing up now and again. The sun was in full effect as well. After staring into it for minutes at a time, when I paddled for a wave I had spots all messing around in my vision.

View from the dunes

 

A couple of the fellas checking it.

And I thought I was the first one checking the surf this morning. Wrong! Saw momma and a few of her kids along the road on my way in.

The new board even makes old faithful look good! :)

San Diego trip wrap up...

Well it was a week ago today that I returned from SoCal. So many good times were had that I will continue to re-live those fond memories for quite a long while.

The Crew  :)

Larry in Michael Miller's shaping bay getting a first look at his newly glassed 11' Andreini glider

Ray with Marc Andreini @ Church

Church, looking toward San O

Roach phoning home @ Swami's

Mr. Siestas and Olas himself, Tom Wegener

Her name is Elizabeth and she's a sight to see. Saw her again a few days later at Bolsa Chica. Heard one of the fellas refer to her as "thunder buns". Its fitting! :) :) ;)

Don, owning the inside zippers! The girl in the foreground is one of Marc Andreini's japanese clients. There were a ton of Vaqueros in the line-up this mid morning at Church.

Surfing Heritage Museum

Grant vintage loggin at Church

Another sweet Vaquero

Rincon, just to the right of center. We didn't make it that far north. Maybe next trip....

Aloha!!!

San Diego Part V

The International Surfboard Show @ the Del Mar fairgrounds on Oct. 6th. In a word, it was overwhelming. I felt like a little kid at Disney for the first time. Old boards, new boards, surf legends, world chanps and just a who's who in surfing. Saw some incredible boards and met some awesome people. Glad I was able to enjoy it with my friends. Good times and since Grant snuck in the 12 pack of Tecate, we enjoyed not having to pay $8 for a beer!

Best in Show! Yep, its an Andreini!

Stringerless!

Board meeting - Grant Nakata and Matt Calvani

Marc with Wade's 10'3" glider over his right shoulder.

John Wesley makes some fine surfing boards. Fins too.

Wade digging on a vintage Con.

Pretty sure this guy was in a movie I saw.   : )

Larry's son letting him know what he thinks about all this surfing stuff.

Vintage Bings. These two were only $4K each.....

Lance Carson

Kook and a Cooperfish!

Aloha

San Diego Part IV

A couple of random shots of our first few days...

Danielle - fist pumping at Church. The lady was rippin!

 

Decisions, decisions... Do we walk down to San O or up to Church??? And which board are you riding???

Andreini glider, Michael Miller Drifter, Weber performer, vintage Dave Sweet and a Rick UFO

Michael Miller shaped this the week prior to our arrival and gave it to Larry for all of us to have a go on. How cool was that! I did not get a chance to surf it until we went up to Bolsa Chica mid week. It was worth the wait as the board was a joy to ride and just flat out ripped. Fast, manueverable, and a great paddler. We got the chance to stop by Michael's shaping bay on our way to the airport to check on one of Larry's boards and to say thanks to Michael for allowing us to put his Drifter through its paces.

The Cardiff surfer statue

Sunset at Swami's

San Diego Part III

Mr. Marc Andreini

 After my first morning session, I walked back down to try and grab a few shots of Roach during his 5 hour marathon session and ran into none other than Marc Andreini himself. Talk about feeling like a little kid. Not wanting to look like a total kook but at the same time wanting to say hello, I just went over and said, "Thank you for doing what you do!" (As the man builds some awesome surfboards!) Nice as can be he said thanks, and then asked my name. We spoke for a moment and then I was treated to watching him slide into his first wave of the day. A very cool experience.

 

Marc slides into a nice one at Church

And he surfs as good as he shapes!

Once back up at the cottage and amped about Marc, some friends of Roach showed up in their van.
Grant and Danielle had driven down from Long Beach to meet up with Roach to talk, trade, and surf vintage longboards. While I was impressed with the old boards, I think Roach found a little slice of nirvana in that parking lot that afternoon. You could see that "little kid in a candy store" look in his eyes. :)  Some serious vintage board conversations took place and the stoke level of everyone involved was off the scale.

Boards, boards, and more boards!!!

Danielle & Grant - the surf couple extraordinaire!

San Diego Part II

Still stuck on east coast time, day two began at 4:00 am for me. Wide awake with no chance of falling back to sleep, I got up ate a light breakfast and waxed up the 8'3" Vaquero that Larry had dropped off the night before. The sound of the shorebreak just below our cottage gave a strong sign that there would be some fun surf once the sun arrived on the scene. As the guys all started to roll up in the pre dawn hours, board selections were made and the stoke level was super high. Once down on the sand, it quickly became apparent that the surf was looking good and the Trestles crowd was in full effect. Never had I seen so many people in the water so early in the AM. After getting my first rock dance out of the way and out into the line-up, I sat for a few minutes checking out the crowd and trying to figure out where I needed to be in order to get a wave. Quickly decided to get out to the main peak and hope I could get into one that would sneak by the crowd. It was a good call as I got into one pretty quickly. Riding Larry's 10'3" Andreini glider, I got in early on a solid head high right and my southern California cherry was gone! :) Long right walls were the call of the morning and many, many waves were had by each one of us. So cool to be out there with Roach and all of these new friends that had welcomed us with open arms. Good times!!!.

First morning's view toward Church

Roach at Church

Larry waxing up the Michael Miller Drifter and his 10'3" Vaquero glider waiting for me.

Tres Banos just north of Church

Delaware John, Roach and Larry. One session down, plenty more to go.....