Surfing. Travel. Photography.
I saw that the North Shore was pumping this weekend, so much so that Surfline put the Pipe cam on the front page! It gets me thinking, ‘Hey there’s gotta be a wave from that swell on our beaches somewhere!’. So, I go and check the forecast- 2 to 3 feet. I know what that means; waist high at best. ”What the hell,” I thought. Get wet.
I arrive with my new ‘Anderson fun board’ stuffed between the baby seat and the front headrest of my Toyota hybrid. I didn’t stop at Starbucks on the way, but I am still a stereotype. I put on my wetsuit, feed the parking meter, and tuck the board under my arm. It feels good. It’s been sitting in the shed with the black widows for awhile waiting for this moment. I am excited to ride the ankle snappers breaking on the high tide sandbar. It is miserably small, but I am stoked.
The water is crisp, but not cold and I paddle just a few short yards into the lineup and catch a wave right away. It’s a ’straight bowl’ closeout and I ride it just a little way into the beach and kind of kook it on the sand and hear a distinct CRACK! Damn- My fin! I know it without looking. My first wave and I destroy my board. The right fin is missing and the board looks like some toothless hillybilly missing a front chicklet! What the hell. I kept surfing my ‘twin fin’ for the rest of the session. Aquatech can deal with it later.
Jim was on the beach shooting the session and caught this photo of me (below) with his Nikon setup (D700- 500mm lens). He did a great job because I am convinced it was much smaller than this photo shows and didn’t look this fun. You can see more of his shots from this morning’s El Porto Session and others from his site here. I would like to thank Jim for the photo and for keeping my key for me while I surfed!
The only thing that’s bothering me is that Dave Wassell above at Pipe has a much better wave than Dave Collyer below at El Porto! It’s not fair! Look what Hawaii gets! Oh well, I’ll be buying that ticket soon enough…
The SickShots blog is written by Dave Collyer and covers his favorite topics of Surfing, Travel, Photography and Life. Dave has taken more shots in the Mentawai Islands than anyone and can be hired for your surf charter or for your surf trip anywhere in the world. He also shoots weddings and portraits in his studio or on location. Dave maintains a huge image archive online of his best work. When he is not on assignment he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.
sick speed blur, yep you should have been here yesterday pipe and Haleiwa was pretty sick.
At least your diggin’ those rails boss. Ha. Can we go to Hawaii and call it “work” ?
Looks Fun!