Blogcrowds Blogger Template

Friday, May 30, 2008

Capes, Bays, Coves...Whatever

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 9:46 PM


N WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. NW SWELL 3 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
So, on a rough count...
Traversed 9 capes...
Rounded 5 bays...
And topped many rivers...
Especially if you count creeks...
Passed by at least 2 coves...
Surfed in one of them...
Fished in another...
The surf was meh...
So I drank...
During fishing.

 

Labels: , ,

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Yeah...No

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:04 PM


NW WIND 5 TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FOOT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 9 SECONDS.
I liked him in Dazed and Confused...
A pretty solid portrayal of 70's high school...
But...Surfer, Dude?
Dude!

 

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Grayness

7 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:24 PM


NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. NW SWELL 5 TO 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
It wasn't the greatest session of all time...
But I've surfed a lot worse a lot of times...
Rough start to the day though...
Got a speeding ticket headed to the coast...
I was doing 70 which, I suppose, is speeding...
Anyway, got in the water around 1pm...
Only 1 other guy out on a decent peak...
Paddled out to keep him company...
Since it was the only peak really working...
We traded off waves for a bit...
Then another peak started working...
So we spread out a bit...
The lefts were punchy and short...
A few of them hollowing out enough to tuck into...
For a brief spraying over the back...
The rights were softer...
And rolled all the way to the inside...
Lotsa little fish in the water...
And the barking of sea lions echoing off the cliffs...
Last Friday I saw a whale breaching offshore...
All in a day's work at Surf In Oregon.

 

Labels: , , ,

Monday, May 26, 2008

Flat Spell

6 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 7:32 PM


W WIND 5 TO 10 KT BECOMING SW. WIND WAVES 2 FT. W SWELL 2 FT AT 9 SECONDS.
I can get kinda grumpy when there's no waves...
Hopefully, Wednesday's forecast of 5 foot will hold.

 

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Floating World

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 3:39 PM


~after Rene Magritte

NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BACKING TO SW AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. NW SWELL 6 FT AT 9 SECONDS.

Born in wind and dying by the shore, that's the way the wave goes, since the beginning of time, in an endless cycle. Does the wave know where it has came from, or to where it will go to die? Can the rider understand the chance and energy to create this wave? Can the wave's life make the rider happy? Can the rider communicate his happiness to the sea? Both man and wave are as morning mist, bound to disappear into nothing again when the sun rises. The dew will settle again tomorrow, but not the dew of today. And the wind will blow anew, and new waves and new riders will meet in the floating world.

 

Friday, May 23, 2008

Gone Left

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 9:36 PM

VARIABLE WIND 5 TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. NW SWELL 9 TO 10 FT AT 11 SECONDS...SUBSIDING TO 8 FT AT 11 SECONDS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

Today was one of those days...
One of those good days...
The forecast wasn't promising...
But the payoff was solid...
Head high with overhead peaks...
At high tide it was a bit soft...
But some good drops...
And a few that connected to the inside...
As the tide dropped...
A left started working...
That would offer a wall...
Followed by a quick bowl...
And an occassional barrel...
I shared it with one other guy...
As 10 others bunched up down the beach...
Got my first tube ride on the 10'6"...
It wasn't much of a tube...
Brief, and I had to be as small as possible...
But it was a barrel nonetheless...
And I spent the next hour...
Hunting for them...
I got 2 more...
But couldn't get back out...
It was a great session...
Glassy, calm and uncrowded...
Heading out I passed many cars...
With stacks of boards on their roofs...
Should be a kookfest weekend at the beach...
Glad I came early.

 

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Laying Cobbles

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 9:22 PM


N WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 6 FT. NW SWELL 8 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
Ever wonder how those perfect cobblestone point breaks came to be...
Here's the truth revealed.

 

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Running Water

0 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:58 AM


NW WIND 20 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 5 FT. W SWELL 10 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

...the land is darkened. ...the sea breaks on a pale line of shore. ...waves run to the foot of hills that are like rocks planted in green water. ...clouds never still. ...black unwinking eyes watch their chase. ...colors laid out in patterns on rocks continually changed. ...shadows rise from their knees. ...black precipitous flanks of screes washed with rain. ...crags flash suddenly with gold. ...no ground in the world more mysterious. ...no land so bare in nakedness and so rich in luxury. ...so warm with sun. ...so cold in pitiless rain. ...so gentle and pastoral. ...so wild and lonely. ...with sea and lake and river. ...the sound of running water.

~excerpted and adapted from Walpole's Rogue Herries

 

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Lil A Frames

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 7:25 AM


SW WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING W 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 FT...BUILDING TO 4 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. W SWELL 4 FT AT 11 SECONDS...BUILDING TO 6 FT AT 11 SECONDS IN THE AFTERNOON.
This was pretty much the same as what I got yesterday...
Chest high A frames up and down the coast...
Every spot I checked seemed to be showing...
Tempted by many, but settled on a tried & true...
Looks like more of the same this morning...
With the swell building through the week.

 

Saturday, May 17, 2008

The Circus

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:25 AM


S WIND 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUST TO 25 KT IN THE MORNING...EASING TO 10 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 4 FT IN THE MORNING...THEN...SUBSIDING TO 2 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. W SWELL 8 FT AT 12 SECONDS.
I headed down south on Thursday afternoon...
Hoping for some waves...
But 4 hours of surf at a north coast cove...
Led me to opt for cold beer...
Over crowded, windy closeouts...
There were definitely waves to be had...
But the beers were easier to catch...
There were "No Parking" signs everywhere...
"Tow Away Zones" and orange cones...
"No Overnight Camping" & roped off zones...
Yesterday, the PC cam caught it all...
A roping, lined up right wall...
Peeling off the cape...
Right in front of the The Circus.

 

Friday, May 16, 2008

Unfortunate One

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 7:47 AM

N WIND 20 KT...BECOMING NE 10 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 5 FT... SUBSIDING TO 3 FT. W SWELL 10 FT AT 13 SECONDS.

Yesterday I was feeling alright...
Today, stuck in the valley...
And knowing I'm missing this...
With winds swinging to the NE...
I can think of a certain beach...
That could be very, very good today.

 

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Fortunate Son

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:39 PM


N WIND 20 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 5 FT. W SWELL 10 FT AT 12 SECONDS.

I'm the one, I'm the one...
The one they call...

Y'know...
Some days...
It's good to be a surfer...
Some days...
It's a pain in the ass...
Other days...
Like today...
It's a blessing...

Today I felt like Roy Batty...
At the end of Blade Runner...
Where he says...
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe"...
And the beauty of it was...
It was just another day of surfing...
But it was a memorable day...
For many reasons...
The otter...
Swimming in the lineup...
The Sea Lion...
Checking it out...
Offshore winds...
Holding up my lefts...
A rainbow...
In the middle of a rainless day...
Sunrise to sunset...
Session on the coast...

Saw some friends early...
And a few later. as well..
Drank some beers on the North coast...
And some on Central coast too...
Saw a legend...
And the not so famous...
Mingling...
On a great day to be alive.

 

Monday, May 12, 2008

Wreck of the Czarina

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 5:37 PM




SW WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. W SWELL 9 FT AT 11 SECONDS...SUBSIDING TO 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

Oregon shipwrecks are the stuff of legend and lore...
Sad and tragic stories of lives lost and cargo destroyed...
Through the years countless coast cruising vessels have perished...
Many in the Coos Bay region since settlement in the 1850s...
One of the more catastrophic losses was the steamship Czarina...
She wrecked January 12, 1910 near the North Spit of the Bay...
A 216' steamer outbound from Coos to San Francisco Bay...
Bearing a load of cement, coal, & 40,000' of lumber on her deck...
The 23-man crew and single passenger...
Hailed from ports in Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Norway
Germany, Portugal, Spain, Argentina and the United States...
The January 21, 1910 edition of The Coos Bay Times...
Announced the disastrous news of the Czarina wreck...
Subheadlines from the tragic story read:
"Last of Six Men Lost in Breakers Last Thursday"...
"Some Drop From Mast and Others Jump in Futile Effort to Reach Shore"...
"Second Body Unidentified"...
Built in Sunderland, England in 1883 as the steamship G.W. Jones...
She was valued at $100,000; with a cargo estimated at $20,000...
The afternoon of January 12 she steamed over the bar...
On what was to be her final voyage...
The day was partly cloudy...
With an east wind blowing...
And seas, as typical, were turbulent...
As she faltered on the bar...
A succession of huge waves hammered her...
First carrying the ship to the South Spit...
Where she blew a distress signal...
Then the waves drove her north...
Into the watery teeth of the breakers...
As five feet of water flooded the engine room..
The coal fires were quickly extinguised...
And the powerless ship was at the mercy of the waves...
The Captain ordered anchors dropped...
And the ship settled broadside, parallel to the distant beach...
The Czarina was stuck 1,860' from shore...
As her lifeboats were smashed to pieces and washed away...
All attempts to launch a surfboat were unsuccessful...
And efforts to shoot a lifeline also failed...
The ship's lost cargo of lumber floated in the surf...
And increasingly heavy seas prevented rescue efforts...
By Captain W.A. Magee of the harbor tug Astoria...
And by the steamer Nann Smith herself heavily loaded with lumber...
The crew, meanwhile, sought refuge in the rigging and wires...
All throughout the long and cold night...
Bystanders on the beach lit fires to offer encouragement...
To the doomed crew members clinging to the rigging...
As the rigging gave way, and the ship foundered...
Slowly, one by one, the exhausted men dropped to their deaths...
Buffeted by strong winds and fierce waves...
Some fell into the chilly Pacific Ocean...
Some to the ship's deck, only to be washed overboard...
The next day, only the mast and men holding it were left...
Of 24 men aboard, only one survivor...
The 1st assistant engineer who had clung to a timber...
As he neared shore a surfman dragged him to safety...
Few of the crew were wearing life preservers...
An inspector from the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service...
Later accused the Keeper of the Life Saving Station...
Of failure to fulfill his duties and "professional unfitness"...
The Czarina, insured for $70,000, was a total loss...
More horrific was the enormous toll of lives...
In what was described as "an appalling marine casualty."

 

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Crusty

10 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:37 AM


NW WIND 15 KT. GUSTS TO 20 KT IN THE MORNING. WIND WAVES 4 FT. W SWELL 10 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
I actually don't really care what other people ride, wear or do...as long as it doesn't adversly affect me of course. But as I parked my car the other day to go surfing, I felt a bit understickered...I only had a parks pass in the corner of my windshield. On Friday, in the water, I was perplexed by the people that had chosen to surf shortboards in dribbling knee high surf and by the few longboarders that combed, rewaxed, stretched and then secured their leashes in antipation of the DOS (Double Over Shin) waves, and the one guy who charged the waves... running out to the lineup. Literally, when he stopped running he was almost outside...when he concluded his session, about a half hour later...he ran back in, highstepping through the shallows.
I guess people feel the need to take surfing to the next level...whatever that is. I can admire a powerful cutback or snap off the top...but the wave needs to invite it. Too many of these moves are forced onto little dribbly waves that can't support these acts...as a result, the attempt generally looks inept and inappropriate. I guess the only way you can boost airs or learn other tricks like them is to repetitively fail in multiple attempts, I don't really know. I never practiced maneuvers while surfing, I just surfed. If I saw a walling section that needed to be raced, I raced it. If a lip threw and I was in the right spot, I tucked into it. When a shoulder fattened, I'd swing the board around back into the wave.
Surfing is alot of different things to different people I suppose. But for me, surfing is about the waves themselves...what the wave provides, what the wave dictates to the rider...not the opposite. Currently, for me...that requires a longer board, with a single fin and preferably, no leash...lining it up, finding the trim spot and gliding down the line.

 

Friday, May 09, 2008

Minimum Meets Maximum

0 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 11:43 PM


VARIABLE WIND 5 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FOOT OR LESS. NW SWELL 3 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
I drove around alot today...
Spot A, Spot B, Spot X, Y & Z...
I talked, I looked and I called...
I pulled in, I pulled out...
I looked over, up, down and around...
I went to this store and that...
I gave them my money...
I got me my beer...
Because the waves weren't...
They just weren't...
That said, I surfed some...
Quite awhile actually...
Sharing waves with a bunch of folks...
That really weren't surfers...
Some were, but most weren't...
Going right when there's only lefts...
Hooting at knee high dribblers...
Extreme stretching during same...
Selecting a sub 6 foot board...
For a three foot swell...
All signs of citizens that don't surf...
Not that I have a problem with that...
It's just that it became entertaining...
And all the more so with every beer...
The sun was shining...
And the wind had a hint of offshore...
But the sauce was weak...
Can't have everything.

 

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Flex Is

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 5:23 PM

NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 4 FT. NW SWELL 6 FT AT 8 SECONDS.

Swell is dropping...
Wind is slacking...
Fin is flexing...
Eagle is gliding.

 

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

When There's Waves

4 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 9:19 PM


NW WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 5 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT 13 SECONDS.
Obviously the setting is incorrect...
But I'll tell you what...
When I get to the beach...
And there's waves...
I'm not one of those to check it for 20 minutes...
No Yoga poses waterside...
Maybe a stretch or two...
But even that gets missed if there's an empty peak.
Anyway, surf was pretty fun today...
Longish, better than expected session...
Some solid head haigh sets coming through...
I was beset by a gaggle of kayakers...
Actually I paddled out to where they were...
Because there was a peak there...
And they weren't properly utilizing it...
The kayakers hooted alot...
I didn't like that...
I don't like kayakers in the lineup...
Hooting kayakers are even worse.

 

Monday, May 05, 2008

Wind Protection

0 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 4:33 PM


NW WIND 15 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 2 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT. NW SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
Some people will go to great lengths...
To get out of the wind...
But the lulls at this spot...
Are interminable.

 

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Zero Growth

5 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 6:45 PM

N WIND 20 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 5 FT. NW SWELL 8 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

I was reading a post on the OSP tonight...
For those of you that don't know what it is...
It is the Oregon Surf Page...
The post was about the lack of new members...
Members besides "Free Viagra" and "Giant Penii"...
The poster (who I know & respect) offered the opinion...
That the new registration protocol has stymied new surfers...
I pondered that possibility and came up with my own conclusion...
Surfing is done...
It is a colassal waste of time...
And people have finally recognized it as such...
It is the only explanation for my solo surfs of late...
So remember and dont take offense to my longstanding advice...
If you don't surf, don't start.

 

Friday, May 02, 2008

All Good

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:14 PM

SW WIND 5 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. W SWELL 8 FT AT 11 SECONDS.

It really all just came together today...
Supposed to be windy...
Not windy.
8 foot swell on Wednesday was messy...
Today, not messy.
Friday often brings weekend crowds...
Surfed solo all morning.

Got up early...
Paddled out to an empty lineup...
Surfed head high peaks...
For two hours by myself...
A combination of rights and lefts...
The rights a bit soft...
The lefts the occassional screamer...
The paddle out was forgiving...
With channels offering easy access...
Wave after wave after wave after wave...
After three hours of paddling...
Got a little lackadaisical...
And got schooled...
Too casual on a late backside drop...
Later got impatient...
And took off on the first wave of the set...
Only to get caught inside...
Tired and watching the biggest and best...
Waves of the day reel and explode on the bar...
While I did fruitless battle to gain access back outside...
In any case, a 4 hour session was reaped...
There were days when that was nothing...
But they seem fewer and farther between these days.

 

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)