Eastside Surfblog past entries

12/31/08

I always check the surf forecasting sites before I sit down to write and it seems a pattern is emerging here. There’s surf somewhere else. The model shows a big ol’ glob of red out in the Atlantic on New Year’s Day. That’s swell in the 35-foot range, but the direction looks like it is heading somewhere else. I’d hate to be in a ship out there. Makes me want to barf just thinking about it. Being a lifelong surfer, you’d assume I have the sea legs of Captain Cook, but the truth is I could get seasick on a floating dock if it was windy enough. Surfing the East side as often as I do, I’m always amazed at the sight of the ships coming and going in what I would consider to be pretty rough conditions. Better them than me, because to get me out there in 35 foot seas you’d have to plaster a Dramamine tablet the size of a hockey puck to my forehead with duct tape. But I digress.

It looks like the holiday weekend will be sketchy at best. Maybe the northeast wind will bring some of that swell here, maybe not. But the “somewhere else” spots look pretty good. If you’ve got some money, bonus points or the transporter from the starship Enterprise and the time, the Caribbean could be the spot and Puerto Rico will most likely retain its reputation as the Hawaii of the Atlantic. Lucky dogs. Come to think of it, why didn’t we ever make those guys a state? Is there some reason they are better off without statehood or are the 50 states better off without a 51st? You never hear much about it one way or another so I guess everybody is happy – and that’s what has me worried. Maybe they’re plotting something. Well probably not, looking at the swell model again, they’re probably trying to figure out whether to ride the pin tail gun or the short board. Hope they get a really bad wax rash.

It was fun to surf with BlogSon1 and BlogSon2 over the holiday. Gratifying to see the little rats still had it after being off at school for so long. I broke the mould and surfed the Folly Pier a couple of times over the Christmas weekend. BlogSon1 and I had a couple of fun sessions over there and it was cool to be in the water with some of the West side boys like Burbo, Dave and Big Ed. Before the second session we had, BlogSon1 and I were checking it at the fence in the motel parking lot when a cop came up to us. It went like this:

Cop: “Do you know that you are trespassing?”
Me: “No, I didn’t.”
Cop: “Didn’t you notice all of the large signs everywhere that say ‘No Trespassing’ in giant orange letters, the orange fencing around everything and the ‘Do Not Cross’ tape that you had to step over to get into the parking lot?”
Me: “I, ah, well, live over, ah see, thought that, ah, someone else, ah, weekend, ah….”
Cop: “You need to leave right now.”

I’d hate to be a cop at the beach. You’d have to deal with lunatics like me all day long. I swear I didn’t see a single sign or the orange fence or the tape or anything- even though they were EVERYWHERE. He turned out to be pretty cool though, and we shared a laugh later when I left my watch on the roof of my car and he was trying to figure out what to do with it when I walked up. He has probably memorized my face and used the police artist to draw a poster for the wall of all the other clinically insane to be on the lookout for. Guess I better lay low over here on the East side until the heat’s off.