Top 5 destination beaches

G-town surf this weekend was a bust! Friday waves flattened after the passing of a cold front late Thursday/ early Friday. I probably could have gone SUPing (Stand-Up Paddleboarding) with Brian, but it was partly cloudy and chilly, meaning that it wasn't worth it to me. (3/2 wetsuits will probably be needed until next spring.) I was hoping that the Swell Info forecasts were correct and that choppy, small waves would be possible today(Sunday). However, they were wrong. The north winds, which shifted to the east late Saturday, flattened my hopes. In my Sunday morning update from Surfer Dude Brian, I discovered that he found some small, manageable waves to surf late Saturday afternoon. However, I must admit that the wavecam did not do them justice, because when I went to the page in the afternoon, the waves looked unsurfable.  So, sadly, I didn't get to surf this weekend, which is really too bad since the weather was gorgeous. Chilly definitely; but still gorgeous. And, because it was so beautiful, I ran and biked. I was about to say that I ran and biked instead of surfing, but I can't really say that since running and cycling are equally part of my regular weekend routine. I'm also bummed a little that I didn't get to surf because very soon I will be traveling to Central America for Witch's Rock Surf Camp. I'm very excited since I will be in Tamarindo, which is one of the top 10 surfing destinations on many of surfing lists, and definitely on mine since I took up surfing 3 1/2 years ago. Thinking about my upcoming trip, I decided to list five places I wouldn't mind surfing some day.


1.) Tamarindo, Costa Rico -- I decided to list this first since, although I will be there soon, I still haven't officially surfed there, which means it should stay on my list. Tamarindo, Costa Rica definitely makes the top 10 lists for many surfers and has shown up as #5 and #6 on two lists I just googled. I'm really looking forward to this trip, and I hope to improve my surfing while I'm there. However, I'm not sure location is my real problem just yet. I need a lot of work on form.

2.) Canary Islands/Madeira Island -- These two locations just sound like fun. The Canary Islands made both of the top 10 lists I just googled, but Madeira Island did not. I realize the Canary Islands are part of Spain, while Madeira Island is Portuguese, but they are very close to one another geographically. Reports about Madeira Island say it is a very difficult location to surf, which means I would probably only ever watch the surfers. But, my oh my, what fun!!!

3.) Gold Coast, Australia -- I have had a couple of friends travel to Australia and New Zealand lately and post wonderful surf reports and photos. Australia has always been a placed I wanted to go. To get to surf there would be incredible too.

4.) Huntington Beach, California -- I've been to California a couple of times, but have never surfed there. It made some of the lists I looked at as one of the top 10 surfing destinations. I may get the opportunity to surf there in February if I participate in the Surf City Marathon/Half-Marathon. I haven't registered yet, but I'm seriously considering it. The medal for participating is a surfboard. I already have one friend who has registered for it, and I think I might have been the driving force for him to register. So, I'm feeling a little obligated to run it.

5.) Jeffrey Bays, South Africa -- I had a hard time deciding between this beach and any of the beaches in Hawaii. After all, who wouldn't want to travel to Hawaii. However, South Africa has been on my mind lately since I read a book about waves and surfing earlier this year. Recently, I saw a person's photos of the place, and the waves looked nice; however, the photos I saw were thumbnail size, so I had to do some more investigation for larger photos. In the photos I found on the Internet, South Africa looks rustic, but beautiful.

Other notable beaches include Panama (yet another friend just returned from there with some beautiful photos) and Hawaii, of course (a good friend surfed there and gave it rave reviews). In Texas, I still need to make it to Surfside, Corpus Christi and South Padre. Wow! Will I ever fit them all in? Probably not. But, I can dream!

**photo is from a trip I took to Barbados this year. (Barbados would have made my list if I hadn't already traveled there.)

Surf lingo and more

Since I decided to make a trip to Louisiana this weekend, I knew my surfing time was limited. I wouldn't have time to surf on Friday, and I knew I wouldn't be home in time on Sunday morning to meet up with the usual gang. So, when I made it home from my trip today, I made my way down to the 43rd street jetty alone. And, I sure was alone. I made it down about 3:30. The waves were rough and small, but manageable. A couple of people were playing the water near the shore, and only one other surfer was out. I, basically, had a large portion of the beach to myself. I could practice all I wanted. I took the rip out on my first trip to the outside. I was quickly pulled in and caught the first wave I went for, which was definitely on the inside. I decided that pushing my way through the rough rip wasn't any easier than just making my way out in the middle. And, that's what I did for the rest of the afternoon. I caught mostly whitewater, which was okay since the small waves allowed me to practice my pop-up, stance and turns. I'm not sure I improved any, but I sure had fun playing. I stayed about an hour and outlasted everyone at the beach except for the lifeguard. It was as if I had my own surf spot, and it was a great way to end the weekend. And helped me sort out some of the thoughts I was having about a particular situation.

Lately, I've been thinking about some of the surf lingo I hear or read. I'll either hear someone on the beach use the term or read it in something about surfing. Part of me wants to use the term(s) myself so that I can sound like a surfer; however, I feel silly doing it. Not sure what I will do about that. For now, though, here are a few of the terms I will concentrate on either using correctly or not using at all.

1.) Dude -- I've decided that I will only use this term with the king surf DUDE Brian. I never used the word before I started surfing. I would hear others use it and even see it written sometimes, but it never felt "right" coming from my mouth. Lately, I've been slipping it more often into my vocabulary, but it still leaves a funny taste unless I'm talking about Brian. So, I will probably only use it with him.

2.) Sesh -- One of the websites I frequent is Billy Blues' G-Town Surf site (http://www.g-townsurf.com), which not only provides a webcam of the 43rd street jetty, but also gives Billy's forecast on what is to come wave-wise and offers a daily array of pictures from the beach. He often speaks of the day's surf sesh, which is an abbreviation of session. I've heard a couple of other people use it, and I've seen it in print when speaking of a specific time on the beach. However, I just can't use it. It doesn't roll off my tongue. I want to use it, but when I do I finish the word: "Sesh...ion." The "ion" part just comes out. Maybe one of these days...

3.) Cowabunga -- This term is an odd one. I never even realized it was a surfing term. I remember it from approximately 20 years ago when my then young nephews were watching the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles cartoon. One of the turtles always used the term "Cowabunga." However, for the past four years, DUDE Brian has been using that term to talk about waves or a particular ride or even one of his lessons. I just looked it up in the online urban dictionary and found a listing for it that stated it was a surfing term from the '60s. Go figure. I don't think I'll ever use it, but it makes me smile when I hear others say it.

Those are the only three that have been bothering me lately. I'm sure I'll think of more, but that will be in another post. For now, I'll just go to bed and dream about a yelling "cowabunga" had a local surfer dude during my next sesh.

*photo above taken at the 43rd street lifeguard station last week. It will probably be moved out soon when the beach patrol quits staffing lifeguards for the winter months. I don't remember that happening last year or the year before, but Brian says it will. Ummm...I'll be curious to see when it does.

Pretty little waves in October

Lately, the 43rd street jetty has either provided choppy waves or no waves at all. Forecasts predicted the latter for today, so I was ready to either use a SUP or just sit on the beach. I was planning to go down because Brian had specifically requested that Robin and I come down to pose in photos for a possible new ad; a winter ad that would show us in wetsuits. Robin suggest we shoot early so that the sun wouldn't be quite as harsh, so at 7:30 this morning, I found myself at my Sunday morning surf spot with Robin, Brian and Neil...the usual Sunday crew.  Neil came early to help take photos and, also, to surf. We all were ready to get in the water since we could see nice, little, surfable waves waiting for us. And, we were ready for them.

We went to the west side of the jetty. The waves looked a little more organized on that side. And, they were. All four of us went out, and we all caught waves and SURFED! I can't speak for the others, but I had a blast. I'm pretty sure they had fun too. I practiced paddling out, but realized that on days like this, it was always easy to do. It's on the rougher days when I'm trying to use my 8'1" that I struggle to get out. AARGH! This should be getting easier. Days like today make it seem like it is. I caught just about every wave I tried to catch. I practiced turning and riding the wave down the line. I even took a few steps and walked on the moving board. I experienced one small hiccup, however, when I tried to use Neil's board. I slid all over the place. I pearled and slipped. Neil's board is pretty, but instead of using wax, he uses some spray on substance for grip. I find it difficult to use. Of course, part of the problem could have been that it was at the end of three hours of surfing. All in all, though, it was a great day. I got in a good workout surfing.

I've added a photo of the waves.  Note: The surfers in this photo are not me since I'm the one taking the photos.