Sunday, November 3, 2013

Pretty fall Fridays

Since I had to travel out of town last week to a conference in Philly and missed an opportunity to surf, I was itching to get back out into the water. I had been following the surf reports and it looked as though the best surfing for the week would be Friday morning. I wasn't sure how long the pretty little waves would last, but I was hoping that they would be around in the afternoon. I found out a little earlier in the week that I would need to be sign some legal documents at 1 p.m., so I knew that not only would it be the afternoon before I could make it down, but it would likely be late afternoon. The initial forecast called for the waves to be gone by mid-afternoon, but that forecast changed as the week went on. Thank goodness!

I made it to G-town at approximately 3:30 and surfed until almost 6 p.m. The waves were still spectacular. Although I originally went out on the east side of the 43rd Street jetty, I ultimately decided that the waves looked better on the west side. On the east side, Dude Brian was the only one really catching any waves. I caught a couple, but easily got tossed off the board when waves doubled up. I couldn't figure out how to correct the issue. It's as if it was beyond my control. I decided to try the west side of the jetty even though most surfers were on the east side. I'm so glad I did! I caught wave after wave and had long rides and practiced turning. I pearled once though, which reminded me that I was taking too much time popping up. I definitely need to keep practicing that. I need to get up faster...I need to get up faster...I need to get up faster. All in all, I had many great rides and was so glad to be back out. And, I wore my shortie, which means we are slowly returning to wetsuit weather. By Saturday it was flat and, today (Sunday), although the waves were trying to rebuild, they hadn't re-formed quite enough.

Long Beach Island, NJ was
beautiful, but FLAT!
Last weekend, I had hoped to surf before my conference. I took a day of vacation and flew up early, rented a car and made my way to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. I loved the beach and had a great room overlooking the shore. Alas, they had no waves that weekend. I still had fun, and visited a huge Ron Jon Surf Shop that boasts being the original shop. It opened in 1961, and I loved looking at everything in the shop. I bought a mechanical surfer gal that I can't wait to try out in a bucket of water. I was upset that I didn't get to surf, but I've decided that it was a sign that meant I would have to go back some day. Everyone was so nice in the town, and I look forward to returning to try out the New Jersey waves.