The best surf documentary Ive ever seen, maybe even better than the first Endless Summer.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PmX8sqyWFUY

Check it out, pick up the DVD if you have any interest in surfing at all.

Looks like a great movie!!
60-80 foot waves though, yikes. Too rich for my blood.
I was always a 5-6, maybe 8' max kind of wave rider myself, as a rule.

My 'how I got humbled on ocean' story, if you've got the time;

I lived on the North Shore for a couple of years, when I was stationed on Oahu in the Army. This was from 1997 to 2001. Surfed nearly every day, and loved it. Never had the nerves to paddle out on the big days though.

I was out at a place called Puena Point one time, surfing on the outside with some local guys. (There was the outside, where it could get really big, and then there was a spot near the inside of the reef where the local surf instructors took the new students to catch the small stuff.) My stepdaughter’s boyfriend was out there with me, he was short-boarding it, and I was on my 9-foot HIC long board.

The sets were about five minutes apart, and they were real nice clean 4-5 footers, just like the surf forecast advertised. (What they call a 4-foot wave on the islands is what the Cali-coast guys call an 8-foot face.)
It was supposed to get big later on in the day, but not until later. We were all catching rights, since that fed you out into cleaner water for paddling out into the lineup. (Surf straight on in, and you could get back to the beach and the parking, after negotiating a jagged outcrop that was rumored to be some old burial spot. Catch a short left and you might end up in the hurt locker, getting pounded by wave after wave with no easy current for paddling back out.)

I caught this one really good wave after I'd been out there an hour, and started to go right after I dropped down near the bottom. This big local guy had also caught the wave, just to my right, and maybe he thought I didn't give him enough room, so he hedged toward me, and then back to the right.
This forced me to turn left for a second, and then I tried to switchback right.

That was a NO-GO, since the wave was large-ish and closing out. Shit.

I bailed off the board and planned to clamber back on and paddle back out to the outside before the next sets came in. (This had been about the third wave of a set, so I reasoned that the seas might stay somewhat flat for a few minutes. Boy was I wrong.)

I came up out the foam and tugged my leash toward me, and looked out on the horizon. As I blinked the water out of my eyes, I thought, "Hmm, why is the sun gone away?" Then I saw the large, dark, swelling face of a REALLY BIG wave forming. (Big for me, anyway.) Behind it, the rolling swell of several more big ones was visible for just an instant.

I panicked, and started to try and paddle furiously toward the west, to maybe climb over the face of it, but there was no way I was going to make it. I saw my buddy paddling hard, and he and two other guys just escaped over the left wall as it began to roll up to full height. Full height was about 8-10' by Hawaii standards, or just about a 20 foot California face.

I was hovering over about four or five feet of shallow water over the reef, and thought, "Shit, I am going to die, and my new wife is going to be a widow." I bailed off the board and hovered slightly face down just as the wave crashed in front of me. It looked like a three story apartment building falling down when I last looked.

BOOM!! it crashed, and man I got worked. I got washing-machined hard, and drug-under like I had never imagined possible. Somehow, I didn't break my head open, and started to try and swim up thru the violent foam, but the tow was horrible. It took forever, but I finally popped up for a gasp of air. The HIC was still attached by the leash at least, but no time to try and escape, the next wave was already here.

2nd wave was maybe even bigger, and it thumped right on top of me.
B-BOOOM!! I got worked worse than before, and drug-under longer. I thought I was deaf, and I couldn't tell up from down. I didn't think I could hold my breath any longer that time, because I was getting really tired. I almost gasped in some water, but finally did come up for air before I drowned.

Same story, 3rd wave hit before I could get even a moment of rest. I figured that I was f**ked now, and figured that I was going to be too fatigued to fight my way back up this time around. Sure enough, it took forever and I inhaled in some water before I broke the surface on the foam.

I coughed and wheezed, retrieved my board, and luckily the 4th wave was breaking out much further. I figured I could maybe get aboard, turn inland, and catch the big white water swell, if it wasn’t too big and turbulent. It almost overtook me and worked me over, but somehow a burst of adrenaline allowed me to paddle, catch the face of it, and catch a ride. I rode the foamy cauldron in, and turned gently left and right to try and milk it all the way home.

As I finally rode the remnants of the wave in to and past the surf students, I paused to realize that I was riding the board with my hands on my knees, wheezing out the salt water and snot, and was more tired than I could ever remember. My right calf and shin hurt, bad, and the right side of my board had a huge gouge knocked into it. It was taking on a lot of water, I reckoned.

Better the board than my skull, I reasoned. I was lucky to be alive.

Anyway, after that day I was just about RUINED. I never went back out without a lot of fear and trepidation. (Down at Barbers Point beach I felt safe, but up North there was always the fear that an unexpectedly big set was going to come in.) I still surfed a lot, but overcoming the big, throbbing set of ovaries and fallopian tubes thumping around inside me was tough, brother. I always paddled out with a calm, cheerful demeanor for the friends, but inside I was a wreck.

I was reassigned to Fort Leavenworth in early 2001, and a very small part of me was ready to put the ocean behind me.

I went back to Oahu a year or two later for my stepdaughters 21st birthday, and even surfed a few times with my buddy Steve. He knew my fear, though, and f**ked with me unmercifully.
"Hey Sparky-boy, they say there's going to be some big Grand-daddy waves coming in today. Watch out for them Growlers!!'

And then he'd laugh like hell.

http://surfermag.com/photos/images/mag_4601/39-puu.jpg

Nice.

I went out in a hurricane swell once, hurricane Erin. This was a long long time ago, I had to be maybe 10 or 11 at the time. But let me tell ya, the waves were about 10 feet and it was choppy as hell, and the drift was horrendous. Me and 2 friends decided to give it a shot though. After about 20-30 minutes trying to get out, we made it to the outside, and the ocean was very very angry. But nontheless I caught a wave, to this day I think it was the biggest I ever caught, it was well over twice the height of me (I was probably like 5'4 or 5'5 at that time, so maybe 10-12 feet) I ate it after the drop in and was tossed like a rag doll for what seemed an eternity. The wave broke my leash and thus I lost my board. After being under for probably 20 seconds I came up completely dissoriented. But I swam into shore. My board washed up about a half mile down the beach 10 minutes after I got to shore. Good times.

Ive been out in many a hurricane swell since then, but that was my first, and what a humbling experience it was.

The last one I went out in was by far the best surfing I ever have known. Hurricane Ophellia, It was August 05 I believe, about 5 months before I joined the Army. This storm sat about 100-200 miles offshore for a week. Literally just sat there, a whole week. It pushed in 8-10 foot waves for that whole week straight. Best part was the winds were offshore, so it was glassy the whole time. Everyone and their mother spent that whole week surfing. I took my weeks vacation on the second day and spent the hours of 6am - 5pm just surfing. My arms were rubber at the end of everyday lol. God I miss the ocean.

Yep, Hurricane Ophelia was sitting off the Florida coast on 7 September 2005 when I was down there for my granddaughter's birth. (Melbourne, Florida.) Great ocean, great waves.

I got to borrow my daughter's long board for one short afternoon while we were down there, and paddled out just to remind myself how badly your paddling muscles can atrophy in just a few short years of being land-locked. I think I caught one good wave the whole time, but it was worth it just to get in that water.

(I was chanting this mantra the whole time I was out there digging around in the chop, "I'm not getting old, I'm not getting old, I'm not getting old...")

:(

Yep, Hurricane Ophelia was sitting off the Florida coast on 7 September 2005 when I was down there for my granddaughter's birth. (Melbourne, Florida.) Great ocean, great waves.

I got to borrow my daughter's long board for one short afternoon while we were down there, and paddled out just to remind myself how badly your paddling muscles can atrophy in just a few short years of being land-locked. I think I caught one good wave the whole time, but it was worth it just to get in that water.

(I was chanting this mantra the whole time I was out there digging around in the chop, "I'm not getting old, I'm not getting old, I'm not getting old...")

:(

Ha, nice, you were there. Yeah, I was in Melbourne at the time :) I went up to second light however, (in front of Patrick Airforce Base to surf) Ah, yeah was Sept, not Aug, my bad cant remember that stuff. I just remember it being really easy to paddle out because the sets were comming in so nicely and uniformly. And the waves were just so nice.

Good times, sir.

That time I paddled out during Ophelia, it was on Indialantic WAY south of Patrick and Cocoa. Just a mile or two south of the public beach across from The Longboard House. (My geography is terrible.)

Here's hoping both of us end up on the water with longboard, real soon.
:thumbs:

(And hoping also that the ocean doesn't kick our ass.)
:(

http://philip.greenspun.com/images/200501-chile/200501-la-serena/two-guys-walking-out-of-surf.3.jpg

Good times, sir.

That time I paddled out during Ophelia, it was on Indialantic WAY south of Patrick and Cocoa. Just a mile or two south of the public beach across from The Longboard House. (My geography is terrible.)

Here's hoping both of us end up on the water with longboard, real soon.
:thumbs:

(And hoping also that the ocean doesn't kick our ass.)
:(



Not that far south, I know exactly where Longboard house is. Right at that light there is a Starbucks, Coldstone, and Walgreens. Its maybe, MAYBE 20 miles south. Ive surfed there numerous times as well. Oh im a shortboarder btw lol.