surfers unite.

[Chango]

Getting your kids to surf!!!

I waited 11 years for my son to tell me he wanted to learn how to surf! He started on a Wavestorm foam 5’6” Fish. Now graduating to a poly board!!

I barely got outta this place without buying me another board!!

 

[FL shaver]

Awesome passing the stoke on! And that looks like a great shop!

I’m onto the grandkids now. This 4 year old is getting a late start! His 2 year old sister enjoyed a little board time, too!

Excuse the blurry frame grab...

 

[Chango]

Awesome passing the stoke on! And that looks like a great shop!

I’m onto the grandkids now. This 4 year old is getting a late start! His 2 year old sister enjoyed a little board time, too!

Awesome! I love it!

I know in general it’s a sad state of affairs, but a glimpse of positivity in the midst of the current health crisis is a beautiful abandoned beach. No waves on this day, so my boy grabbed a boogie for some boogie skimboarding:

 

[FL shaver]

Solo ride out to Captiva for a Hurricane Marco session. I was surprised and happy to see that Marco was in the Yucatán Channel and hadn't died on the peninsula yesterday afternoon. I loaded the Jeep last night and had trouble getting to sleep. I wasn't expecting epic with such a small tropical storm, but I was expecting ridable with offshore winds. It's been quite awhile since I made the drive.

Kites just before the toll to Sanibel were the first sign that Marco was heading toward hurricane status.

Felt for this guy suffering up the bridge into a head wind. I think he appreciated the cow bell I keep in the Jeep for those laboring on two wheels! I've only done this ride out and back once.

It's always a relief to see something breaking after the 45 min ride. This shot is from the south side of Blind Pass. I walked over the bridge and surfed small longboard waves all the way to the beach for more than three hours. Two young ladies and another guy were out briefly. All stoke. Also had a dolphin and a manatee crash the lineup. These parking lots will be closed for renourishment for 60 days beginning September 6th. Two months of prime hurricane season. :-(

Heading home!

 

[FL shaver]

Got home at 5. Thought about taking a nap knowing there was still a wave from Marco and the start of Lauren. Looked at cams on Captiva, Sanibel, and Ft. Myers Beach. Elected for the smaller wave at FMB given the shorter ride and the drift wouldn’t be as bad. No water pics, but here is the bridge over Matanzas Pass and back, as well as the bridge back to Cape Coral. Killer sunset at FMB looking toward the Sanibel Light from the water after 2 hrs of thigh+ waves. Tomorrow might make a third day...

 

[FL shaver]

*Laura!

 

[FL shaver]

Surfed both yesterday and today at Blind Pass in Captiva. Clean both days with more size today; up to head high. Not all time, but very good for our break. I am so tired. Spent over 4 hrs in the water today, starting with a Larry Mayo 5’6” Tug, but switching to the log as the tide filled in. It was getting a little less consistent when I got out, but there were fun nuggets still coming in. The sand that has been carved away has improved the high tide wave, but that will all be undone in the next 2 months.

The first shot is a screen grab from a Captiva restaurant’s live camera. It’s deep there, and doesn’t reflect the size at the Pass, but it had me salivating at work.


I find it very hard to take pictures of other guys getting waves, so I apologize for not getting shots of better waves!

 

[FL shaver]

Bonus weekend surf day today! Ft. Myers Beach with TS Sally just WNW. Big wind, so I went to a sheltered spot that needs a SW angle. Surfed 5 hours! The first 3 1/2 on a longboard in drifty chop with a stiff sideshore wind, but a line would appear now and again. I took a break at 1 for food and water and strapped the longboard on the Jeep. I was looking at it from the lot and I couldn’t leave as it started looking cleaner with a lower tide. It was waist to chest and clean! I haven’t had as sweet a cleanup at this spot in almost 30 yrs. Pics are all from before I went out.

 

[Chango]

When We were kids our parents had a SUPER strict rule against surfing on weekdays afterschool. It was weekends only. They didn’t accept it as a healthy lifestyle. Like it was gonna make us drug addicts and flunkies or something.

As a parent I went 180 degrees. You’re done with homework? Your grades are good? And you wanna surf after school???? Let’s go! It’s hella better than sitting at home playing Fortnite with your friends.

No waves on this day. So paddleboarding was the call. Taking advantage of a pandemic empty beach.

 

[FL shaver]

Delta in SW FL. First look at it at 8 AM. Disappointing. Water was too deep and the wind was already on it. Stayed out for 3 1/2 hours anyway, because that is what you do when you surf the GOMEX.

 

[FL shaver]

For “my” birthday, my wife got a Ben Gravy 6’6” rounded pin soft top......
for my grandchildren! It was actually my out-loud thought a few weeks ago that got her thinking about it.

Anyway, Cat 2 Zeta appeared in the Gulf and I ran out to Captiva to give it a surf, to make sure it’ll be safe for the kids. What a fun swell! Up to head high. This very floaty, high volume board forgives the late takeoff, but is pretty slow down the line unless you’re way up on the nose. Still had some fun ones. Had to deal with jellyfish, which I hardly ever encounter around here. Rushed back home for work after, and I can’t wait to get the kids on it!

 

[FL shaver]

I took that board out again yesterday. Substantial SW FL cold front surf with sets coming in well overhead. It is way too floaty for serious surf. I can't duck dive it. When I tried to reposition my front foot after one drop, I couldn't get my foot unstuck as each time I tried to unweight it the board came right back up into my foot.

 

[FL shaver]

Fred Sunday at Blind Pass, Captiva. Loaded three boards and headed out to the islands. Unfortunately, a dredge project is underway (always at peak hurricane season - one good cold front will sweep it away) and one of the parking lots was fenced off with some militant workers fiercely defending it. Walked back across the bridge and paddled out with an outgoing tide at Wulfert Pass. Lucky for the dredge guys this wasn’t a bigger storm or all their equipment and pipes would have been submerged.

Super clean left lines with takeoffs in the shoulder high range. Had a couple 100+ yard rides on the 9’6”. So fun!

 

[FL shaver]

Another very good cane swell from Ida today. The day started flat, but by the time I made it to Captiva it was overhead on sets and uber clean. I was the only one out. There were storms moving 50+mph in the outermost bands of Ida earlier in the day, which probably kept the Sanibel parking lot open. Eleven second long period cane swell with warm water is such a gift for SW FL surfers! Heading N tomorrow morning for day 2 of Ida, but I'll be hoping for the best for those in LA and MS.

 

[Scarry Knight]

I don’t surf. I admire you that do. Did a small bit of street surfing...ldp on a Roe Triton


Took this some years back at Flagler before one of the hurricanes.

 

[Chango]

I’ve been getting into paddleboarding more and more. Not so much to surf, but for exercise. Doing laps of the beach park. Perfect day today to go with our boys.

 

[Rhody]

Holy Toledo thread revival!
I’m not a surfer but I did just watch the HBO series 100 foot wave. Incredible!

 

[DesertIguana]

Well I spend my of my life surfing from San Clemente, CA - Santa Cruz, and. Forget the places north of Santa Cruz but it was all good.

Never aspired tone a Pro Surfer, did want to go to Hawaii and hit popular spots. Never had funds to do.

Surfing was more fun then being at JBHS, so I would cut class, to Surf.

 

[Rhody]

I admire surfers but personally I have trouble with a SUP. So I’m useless.

 

[FL shaver]

First surf in the GOMEX since 09/11/22, before Hurricane Ian. We have had bizarre weather for June, with several days of SW flow. I drove the length of Estero Island, across Lover’s Key, to Bonita Beach. The goal was to push the grandson into a couple of knee high waves on a soft top and maybe paddle into a couple on the longboard myself. The devastation from the hurricane is still overwhelming. The area will never recover to pre-Ian in my lifetime. Another wave of storms moved in on the drive out. The flyover of an army chopper while I sat on my longboard was straight out of Apocalypse Now.