Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Record


W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT.
W SWELL 11 FT AT 14 SECONDS.
TONIGHT NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING N 20 TO 25 KT.
WIND WAVES 2 FT...BUILDING TO 5 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT.
W SWELL 11 FT AT 13 SECONDS.

Skip Frye, when asked he surfed 365 days a year, replied: "I doubt it".
In the background, his wife replied: "I don't".

Skip with his wave calendar...recording tides, winds, swell and spots ridden.

I started this blog to post some surf art and Oregon surf. It progressed to include daily forecasts and the occassional surf report from Oregon surfers. Upon realizing that there are only so many Oregon shots to utilize, I decided to add images and commentary on Oregon history, usually surf related, and classic surf shot and surf legends.

It's a double-edged sword, I love living in Oregon and surfing here. The people I meet and surf with are real and there's still soul and adventure along this coast. Yet the other side is that, even here, there's the slow creep of progress (if you can call it that) along Oregon's shores. 10 years ago, places I could surf alone, now feature a dozen people out. Uncrowded by most standards, but the trend is onward and upward. Only a couple Oregon breaks are what I would characterize as "heavily localized". Others may have a local crew on it but the only instances of confrontations occur if someone steps far out of line. Even with the crowding (there were 3 people out today at one of Oregon's most popular spots), I drove past several non-spots that had waves that were just as good as established, named surf spots. There are empty waves if you look for them.

I try to keep this blog about surfing in Oregon pretty minimal, without naming or posting blatantly obvious shots of Oregon breaks. We'll see how it goes...

3 comments:

Chum said...

Tuesday we checked a lesser-known spot you had a photo of earlier in this blog. Nobody out and the waves looked pretty decent. Without knowing what the rips were like or the safest place to jump in, we opted for a break we knew better.

In that case, our decision paid off, but there's always the fear of the unknown that keeps certain places empty.

Anonymous said...

"Yet the other side is that, even here, there's the slow creep of progress (if you can call it that) along Oregon's shores. 10 years ago, places I could surf alone, now feature a dozen people out. "

wow...Comments like these are the problem....

Reminds me of a child who found the swings for the first time,stood out front of them and claimed immediate ownership vibin the other kids,spending so much energy worrying about hiding something that will never be yours.

And since i've been here longer than you, i think your the Progress" and would like you to stay out of the water.......Is that selfish ??

Anonymous said...

Anon

Sorry if I offended you somehow...

You can have the big swing.