surf-matic

Hitting the lip on a Sunday swell.

This weekend marked the start of winter: fickle wind and the promise of waves. While the conditions weren’t spectacular, they show that the ocean is transitioning from her peaceful summer form to the the chaotic creature that is winter at sea.

Hookipa during the fall and winter is not the most reliable spot for wind. Sometimes the wind is so light, you have to swim out 100ft to the wind line. I’ve had days where I’ve had to swim out around the rocks and to the channel before having enough wind to waterstart. And of course when the wind is that light, the waves are normally massively over mast high.

This weekend had the bad wind with none of the big surf. The wind seemed to die around 2 most days of the week (with Sunday being the nice exception of the wind going for most of the day).

In these light conditions, having a big board is key. If you can’t catch waves, what’s the point? In tough conditions, equipment is everything. Being tuned right can make the difference between sitting on the beach and sitting on the line-up.

This coming week, I’m going to make sure I’ve got everything ready for the AWT contest here at the end of the month. I’m excited!

I love the feeling of my board turned on its side against a hard-hitting lip.

Coming down through the foam-- I love the look. I made this one and it felt pretty good.