Blogcrowds Blogger Template

Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Frequency

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 11:27 AM


SW WIND 10 TO 15 KT...EASING TO 5 TO 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 3 FT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 16 SECONDS.

I've long said "If you don't surf, don't start"...
Albeit, tongue in cheek for the most part...
But here's another reason to stay outta the water.

From the Surfline article:
There are simply more of us than there are sharks, and we're flooding them out of their environment. We enter the sea pretty uniformly in very particular areas: shallow spots less than two meters in depth, which is a good place to be a shark. Bobbing around where they're trying to make a living, our activities can look a lot like the next fish. And looking at the growth in surfers' numbers, all this is fairly predictable.



 

Labels: , ,

Friday, January 06, 2012

Haleiwa, Hawaii 1960's Postcard

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 2:08 PM


SW WIND 5 TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. W SWELL 20 FT AT 14 SECONDS.
Per Paul Strauch: [The] Photo was taken in the 60's at Haleiwa at its best running 10 -12' on a NW with beautiful conditions... I remember the day well. It was a hairy takeoff because the guy on the red board dropped in on me and in a nano second, Joey Cabell was under me with George Downing in close pursuit. I think I crowded the guy in front of me into pulling out, but my memory stops there. Great day and super crowded since Haleiwa was the place to be!
 
This is not...Surf In Oregon.

 

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Capes and Heads

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:25 PM


"SMALL SWELL TRAINS WILL COME...
FROM THE SOUTHWEST AND NORTHWEST...
OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS."
And we'll go from a 12 second period to an 8 second one but...
Whaddya gonna do?
You take what you get...
And you get what you take.
But I digress...
This post was about capes and headlands.
Seems like Oregon Capes are named for...
Indian tribes, Spaniards and misery...
Well, there's other things...
But those are the more interesting ones...
Anyway...
We'll start in Washington...
Which is essentially Oregon...
Part of the Oregon Territory...
I haven't forgotten...
Cape Disappointment...
Sets a nice tone of despair and depression...
And also typically the result of surfing anywhere near it...
Tillamook Head...
Named for the Killamook tribe...
How'd they spell it so wrong?
Also a tasty cheese...
Arch Cape...
Boring, but I presume there was an arch there...
Cape Falcon...
I have never seen a falcon there...
Neahkahnie Cliffs...
Maybe not a cape...
But pretty impressive...
Cape Meares...
Named for an explorer...
Chapman Point...
Thought I'd throw a point in there...
Cape Lookout...
It could use a better name...
Cape Kiwanda...
Again, an Indian tribe...
I think Cape Epicenter would be a better name...
Cape Foulweather...
Discovered on a bad day...
Cape Ferrelo, Blanco, Etc.
I've lost intrerest...
This was too big a topic.

 

Labels: ,

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Lost Boy Cove

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:17 PM

~photos by Monner (1930) & Richen (2009)

N WIND 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 4 FT. W SWELL 11 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
My friend sent me some pics he snapped during the recent -3 tide...
He was finally able to access the beach at Lost Boy Cove...
The legendary cove is north of Oceanside...
And just south of Short Beach near Cape Meares...
The cove gains its name from an obvious source...
I can't say whether it is based in fact...
Or if it was merely a tale used to frighten children into staying well clear of the cove during a rising tide...
Regardless, the rarity of being able to access this cave...
Which is usually under about 12 to 20 feet of water...
Is pretty rare and possibly a once in a lifetime occurence.

 

Labels: , ,

Monday, April 13, 2009

Pointless

4 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 3:06 PM


W WIND 15 TO 20 KT...WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 4 FT. W SWELL 11 FT AT 12 SECONDS.
I was perusing a website that had beach scenes...
From the teens through the 60's...
And came across this shot from circa 1920 or so...
Look familiar?
Got me thinking...
How many perfect days reeled off that headland...
Between then and the first surfed wave there?
Did people even have an appreciations for what a good wave was?
Probably not, since the majority of beachgoers...
Look at shells or hunt sand dollars...
Or some other pointless beach activity...
And to be honest, aside from surfing...'
Aren't they all mostly pointless beach activities?

 

Labels: ,

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Velzy-Jacobs Pig

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:00 AM



"You know how our most famous design came to be?" Jacobs asked about the Velzy-Jacobs pig board. "In the balsa days, there was a lot of sawing involved, and Velzy wished we could just leave the tails blocky to save the trouble. Well, on one board, he just left the tail fatter than anything and had her glassed. When he saw the finished board, he shook his head and said, 'It looks like the ass end of a pig.' MuƱoz tried the thing out at the pier, and it went great."

 

Labels: , ,

Friday, August 22, 2008

Death Trap Redux

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 4:13 PM


NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING VARIABLE 5 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
I'm not a religious man...
Although a life in the ocean...
Has definitely given me pause...
On more than one occassion...
The Oregon coast might be God's country...
Surely, one among many...
But words from Jesus apply...
Out of context though they are...
"...If you shall say to this mountain...
Take up and cast thyself into the sea...
It shall be done."

 

Labels: , ,

Monday, August 18, 2008

Carpet Bagging

13 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 3:38 PM


SW WIND 5 TO 10 KT...BACKING TO S 10 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 FOOT. W SWELL 4 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
I don't know why...
But when we'd bomb hills...
Luge style on our backs...
I don't advise it btw...
We called it Carpet Bagging...
I don't know why...
I do know why we didn't do it standing up...
Clay wheels and roller skate trucks...
Things changed in the 70's...
Polyurethane wheels...
Fiberflex decks...
Tracker trucks...
Were a few of the improvements.

 

Labels: , ,

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Coquille & Bandon

0 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:17 PM

N WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

THE FERRY CROSSING MASSACRE

By Dick Hancock

The Na-so-mah band of Native Americans lived near the site of the presentBullards Bridge and were generally a peaceable people but the arrival of the white man aroused problems. The encroachment on their lands and the subsequent decimation of game put pressures on their way of life. Where from time immemorial they had lived at peace with their environment; suddenly an entire new civilization was imposed on them. The results were tragic for them.

In 1851 a party led by Colonel T'Vault set out from Port Orford to establish a trail to the interior. After much inept wandering through the wilderness,they gave up the task and attempted to return to the coast via the Coquille River.They engaged an Indian to carry them in his canoe downriver and when about two miles above the mouth, they encountered a band of the Na-so-mah neart heir village just above present day Bandon. While attempting to go ashore, they were attacked and several of the soldiers were killed. Of the remaining men, two made their way to Port Orford and two others went north to the Umpqua. Mr. Parrish, the Indian Agent at Port Orford, with a group of soldiers went to the Coquille villages and met with the chiefs, who assured him of their willingness to be peaceful and a truce was negotiated that held for several years.

With the discovery of gold at Whiskey Run in 1853, miners flocked to the area and once more friction started. An Indian was found in possession of a horse that was identified as having been stolen. The mooring line on the ferry scow at Bullards was cut and accusations were made that the Indians did it.

On January 27th, 1854, the chiefs were asked to come to a meeting to explain about the various incidents. They refused and the twenty militia men at the ferry crossing called upon the miners at Whiskey Run for assistance. Twenty miners responded and were formed into three detachments. The next morning, at dawn, they attacked the three villages. The villagers, aroused from their sleep, put up little resistance and were gunned down as they attempted to flee. Fifteen men and one woman were killed outright. Two other women were gravely injured. Of the attackers, none received even the slightest wound. The houses in the villages were burned and the possessions either destroyed or captured.

In 1856, the remaining Indians were gathered on a temporary reservation at Port Orford, preparatory to being taken to the permanent reservation being established at Siletz. In Mid May, the Na-so-mah ran away, returning to their old home at the mouth of the Coquille. John Creighton took a band of men and, finding them at their old home village, attacked and claimed to have killed nineteen. The remainder were returned to Port Orford and soon taken to the new reservation.

Thus was closed that phase of history for a people who had inhabited the lower Coquille River area for untold generations. Five short years of tragedy for a proud and peaceful people.

 

Labels: ,

Friday, July 11, 2008

Slab Creek

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:37 AM


N WIND 15 TO 20 KT...RISING TO 20 TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. GUSTS UP TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 6 FT. NW SWELL 4 FT AT 7 SECONDS.
This photo was taken at the A.N. Gilbert family camp at Slab Creek on the Oregon Coast in 1880. Further research has discovered that Slab Creek was the original name for Neskowin in Tillamook County. In 1887 the area was known as Slab Creek because of a quantity of slabwood that had washed up from an earlier shipwreck. The name was changed on October 7. 1925 to what the Indians called it, Neskowin, meaning "plenty fish". The name was pronounced with an accent on the second syllable, rhyming with "how". The group is seen standing in front of what is known as "Proposal Rock" several feet off shore. The women bathers are in knee-length dresses and the men are in knee-length pants - the bathing attire of the time.

 

Labels: ,

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Three Rocks

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:31 AM


N WIND 10 TO 15 KT. GUSTS TO 20 KT IN THE SOUTHERN WATERS. WIND WAVES 2 FT. SW SWELL 5 FT AT 13 SECONDS.

Three Rocks, located near the mouth Salmon River…
Has a long history of native inhabitation and associated legends…
The Neschensney tribe told of a ship wrecked in the river long ago…
Tales of strange men, buried treasure and murder...
Bits of wreckage found in a shell mound…
Along with non-native 2 skeletons…
One of them 8-feet tall...
According to the legend the ship…
Described as "a monstrous canoe with wings"…
Entered the mouth of the Salmon River and wrecked…
The legend tells of three men, one a giant black…
Left behind to guard valuables from the wreck…
The others left on foot never heard from again...
The three lived among the Neschensney…
The African worshipped as a god…
But the native later killed all three men…
Their remains within the shell mound…
Reportedly show evidence of violent deaths…
One of the leg bones shattered…
A two inch bone spearhead found…
Lodged at the base of one skull…
A large stone embedded in the skull of another…
Other artifacts of the shell midden included…
A broken iron receptacle…
A whale bone war club…
And a crude stone pestle.
Two different galleons disappeared without a trace...
The San Antonio in 1603 and the San Francisco Xavier in 1707…
These galleons carried gold ingots and cotton cloth…
And the already famed cakes of white and yellow wax…
The San Francisco Xavier is thought to be the legendary "winged canoe"…
That wrecked at the base of Neakahnie cliffs…
Do the bones of the lost San Antonio lie…
Beneath the shifting sands of the Salmon River?

 

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Quivira

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 6:15 PM


S WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. SW SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

When Phillip III of Spain discovered among his fathers papers a sworn declaration of the existence of a populous and rich city named Quivira, the King of Spain made every effort to learn more and to discover it's location.
In 1601, the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico City, Conde de Monterey, appointed Sebastien VizcaĆ­no the General in charge of an expedition to locate safe harbours in Alta California for Spanish Galleons to use on their return voyage to Acapulco from Manila and to search for the mythical city of Quivira, one of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. While exploring along the northern California coast, a storm separated VizcaĆ­no's ship the San Diego and Martin d'Aguilar's ship the Tres Reyes. VizcaĆ­no is believed to have reached the present Oregon-California border, while d'Aguilar continued up the coast and may have only reached as far north as present-day Coos Bay.
Aguilar reported sighting a "rapid and abundant" river that he did not enter because of the current. He then returned to Mexico because of scurvy among his crew, he arrived in Acapulco with only 5 survivors. It is unknown what river he sighted, but maps referred to the "Rio d'Aguilar" in the 1700s. The river that Martin d'Aguilar was reported to have found and that could never be located by later navigators, was supposed by some to be the one leading to the great city of Quivira.
Quivera, for many years in the 16th and 17th centuries, was shown on maps and charts as laying along the coast of what is now Northern California and Southern Oregon. On Mercator's map of 1569, Alaska [Anian] is clear and the coast below Alaska is Quivira regnum, the kingdom of Quivira and continued to be shown on maps as late as 1750. The kingdom of Quivira's ruler was the bearded, white-haired Tatarrax, reputed to sleep upon beds of roses. Some reports described Chinese ships located within the harbor of Quivira. Quivira was located on a bay at the mouth of a big river, farther up the river was another city by the name of Tuchano.
An old article from the Port Orford Post describes a storm in Flores Creek in 1881 that uprooted an ancient spruce tree that grew upon one of many mounds in the area. The big tree's root spread, several feet thick and many feet across, opened up the ground like the lid being lifted off a box. The rock exposed was unmistakably cut stone "bearing quite plainly the marks of the stonecutter's chisel". The stones seemed to lie "as if a wall had tumbled down". Other mounds were excavated by people of the region and similar cut stones were found in many of them.
Remnants of the lost Kingdom of Quivira?

 

Labels: ,

Monday, April 21, 2008

Woody Brown 1912 - 2008

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 10:46 AM

~photo by Skip Tsuzuki

SW WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT. NW SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
Woody Brown, legendary big-wave surfing pioneer died last week in Kahului at 96. Woody, with George Downing and Buzzy Trent, was photographed charging giant Makaha in 1953. That photo triggered the mass exodus of California surfers to Hawaii…surfers like Greg Noll, Pat Curren and Mickey Munoz.

In the late 1930’s Brown lived in La Jolla and described surfing the big waves of PB Point on a hollow paddle board. "The biggest place was down at PB -- Pacific Beach; that point there where the sand beach comes up to that rock point, where La Jolla starts, you know? There's houses there, now, but it used to be all bare. We built a shack there and you climbed down the cliffs to go out. They form out there off the rock point and then swing in. But, the point would make 'em break way out and they'd have a nice shoulder going in. You'd pull out before you got to the regular break. I've seen that 20-25 feet. Being a point, I'm sure it was 25 feet."
Following the death of his first wife, Brown left La Jolla for Hawaii in 1940 and never left.
In December 1943, because there was no surf in Waikiki, Woody Brown and his friend Dickie Cross paddled out at Sunset Beach in a rising swell. The surf rose quickly, a heavy rip preventing them from paddling in. They had passed Waimea Bay previously and thought they could paddle in there, but by the time they got there huge surf had closed out the bay. Some outside sets Brown estimated at 60 feet…”You could paddle 10 paddles and you're still going up the face of the wave!”.
As the two scratched over the giant sets, Brown described Dickie Cross losing his board. “…these big sets would come every 10 minutes. So, [Dickie] was going in and I would see him go up over these swells and come back out off the top. The next one would come and he'd disappear and then I'd see him come up over the top and it looked like he was trying to catch 'em. Yeah, that was the only thing I could think of. Finally, one wave he came up over the top, he'd lost his board.”
Brown tried to paddle in for Cross but had to turn to face an incoming set, ultimately ditching his board and diving deep. By this time the sun was setting, there was no sign of Cross and Brown dodged monster set after monster set, eventually washing onto the beach too exhausted to stand. He and Cross had been seen from shore, he asked about Cross and was told “…we never saw him after he got wrapped up in that first big wave.” After Cross’ death, Brown didn’t surf the North Shore anymore and surfers avoided Waimea Bay for nearly 15 years afterward.

 

Labels: ,

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Blue World Order

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 9:32 AM


NW WIND 20 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT W 20 TO 25 KT NEAR SHORE. WIND WAVES 5 FT. NW SWELL 14 FT AT 11 SECONDS.

Today's coastal report (from Speelyei):

Woke up to an inch of thick, white hail covering all flat surfaces. It roared down for two hours last night, and this morning had sun breaks; but everything has been dripping like it's raining since I got up. Now it's snowing, thick, wet, big flakes, and the sky alternates from broken clouds to impending leaden doom.

Yesterday's post was a recollection of the drowning of Bruce Zumbuhl by an Anonymous poster...here's another account from a surfer who was there, John Brewer:

In Feb 1966--a week before I left for the Army--we were surfing The Cove in the morning. It was frigid but the shape wasn't bad. Maybe 4-6 feet. The skies were slate gray and the wind was whipping S.E.
At lunch we went to Bill Fackerell's. Came back at maybe 1or 2 and the surf had come up big time. The Cove was 8-10 and building; and that wave (Wally's Bathtub or whatever it’s called now) was beginning to show. There were (2) guys out "surfing" in front of The Lanai. We could tell immediately that they had no business being out. One guy had a polka-dotted board and the other had a pop-out from a rental shop. One of the surfers had a skimpy O'Neill Surf-John type suit and the other had just a thick, short-sleeved 1/4" jacket made by a shop in Portland. The water temp was probably no warmer than 50 degrees and the air was maybe mid 40’s.
The "Seaside Guys" were there (Mark Collins, Jerry Harrington, Dallas Cook, George Daggatt and I think the Hansen bros were there too). "Body Whomper" showed up, also (can't remember his name). Bill Brewer, myself, and Mike Nitsch were there. The crew as described was witnessing a spectacle. The rip was working, but every so often a set would break farther out and come pouring in along the rocks from halfway to The Point to The Lanai (where we were).
Nobody else went out. As you can imagine there was plenty of hooting and groaning every time a set came through. One guy finally got collected by a big pile of soup and somehow was able to hold on to his board and make it in to the sand beach at up at Seaside. The other guy lost his board. By this time the waves were giant—who knows how big—because I don’t think any of us had a clue as to how big the outside waves were breaking. Suffice it to say that they looked really big from the parking lot; and the outside waves had to have been what? A quarter to a half mile away?
Anyway the guy who lost his board kept trying to swim in against the rip. We’d been watching for maybe a half hour, and by this time the guy was maybe level with The Point and a few hundred yards NW. By now everybody on the beach knew the guy was in serious trouble—alone, chugging NW, out to the open ocean in the rip. “Body Whomper” was always the guy who would be out body surfing in anything. He was capable and brave. A couple of guys suggested that maybe he could go out and get the guy, but he said no way.
By now, the guy was out of sight from our vantage at The Lanai, so we all headed up to where Kopra’s place (before Kopra) was, so we could get a better view. Someone finally called the Coast Guard; but the chopper was down south somewhere worrking another incident.
We’re up on the cliff, maybe 100 feet? The guy was now so far north that we needed binoculars to see him—just a tiny black speck. He was taking these sets on the head. We could see the waves break, trailing white water hundreds of yards and with every wave it took longer for the speck to reappear. Finally he never showed again. The chopper arrived as the day was getting really late and dark—fifteen , twenty minutes after he finally disappeared. His body showed up a week later at the mouth of the Necanicum River.

John Brewer

 

Labels: ,

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Drifters

6 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:15 AM


SW WIND 15 KT WITH GUSTS TO 20 KT...BECOMING S 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 35 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 FT...BUILDING TO 6 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. W SWELL 8 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
In about 1725, Clatsop Indians discovered shipwrecked sailors, whom they called "tlohonnipts"---meaning "those who float (or drift) ashore.", on a beach near Satsop Spit, which was located on the Oregon side of the mouth of the Columbia River. Another word, "passissiuks"---meaning "those who wear clothes", was also used in describing these men. The Clatsop themselves, wore few if any articles of clothing. They astounded the Clatsops by building a fire on the beach and then began popping kernels of corn in a copper pot.
Clatsop oral tradition records that an old woman from the village of Ne-Ahkstow, about two miles south of Clatsop Spit, spied a whale or an giant canoe that had trees growing out of it. A bear-like creature emerged and so frightened the woman that she rushed home to alert the village. The Clatsops found two men with beards who possessed metals unknown to them. Somehow the ship caught fire, but the Indians recovered iron, copper, and brass fittings.
Word spread quickly among the tribes of the coast and interior and all wanted possession of these strangers as slaves. Ultimately, the Clatsops yielded up one man to the Willapas on the north side of the Columbia River, he lived with them near Willapa Bay and later disappeared, his fate unknown.
The remaining Clatsop slave was put to work converting metals into useful tools and earned the name Konapee the Iron Maker. As he demonstrated his abilities to the tribe, he was granted more and more freedom. The very area where he worked was referred to as Konapee and was a village site near present day Astoria.
The explorer James Cook, noticed in 1778 that the natives seemed familiar with iron implements and weapons. In 1811, Gabriele Franchere recorded meeting a man of 80 named Soto, who claimed to be the son of Konapee, one of the original sailors stranded on the Oregon beach. According to the old man, Konapee requested permission to travel to the east and was allowed to travel as far as the Cascades, where he met and married the man's mother. Konapee reputedly lived in the vicinity of Vancouver Lake, and later left the area again heading to the east. He was not heard from again, although his son, Soto, remained in the area.
Soto was highly regarded, a Tyee or Chief; the village where he either lived became known as Sotos Village. When Lewis & Clark were returning east in 1806, they came upon a lone old Indian, presumably Soto, sitting in a canoe among many vacant canoes, near Vancouver Lake at The Great Falls of the Columbia. They asked him where he was from, and the name of "Shoto Village" is recorded in their journals.
Konapee and the other "Bear-Men" survivor of the shipwreck have generally been considered to be the first European men to live in the Pacific Northwest, likely Spaniards plying the waters between Manilla and the New World. However. Konapee's naming of his son, Soto, indicates a possible alternate origin. Soto is also the largest Zen sect of the Far East. But Soto may simply be a derivation of the name Spanish name DeSoto. Lewis and Clark were told that Soto was indeed the son of a "Spaniard" named Konapee,

 

Labels:

Monday, February 18, 2008

Anybody Check Indian?

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:47 PM

~Photo by J. Horne


S WIND 15 KT. WIND WAVES 3 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 15 SECONDS.
Today's post was initially intended as a brief recap of today's surf...
A surf that was special most in the sense it was the first in a couple weeks...
But then, of course, looking for the right image everything changes...
Surfing the web for a shot that showed a rock I had noticed failed...
But this shot basically was the view during every paddle back out...
Pretty majestic but also a maelstrom of sorts...
The waves definitely felt a bit bigger than the 5 foot forecast...
But they were rideable, if a little bit messy...
Seeing the shot of Terrible Tilly...
Made me think of other iconic Oregon images...
The Haystack Rocks, whether at Cannon or Cape K...
The Glenesselin and the Peter Iredale...
Coves and capes, points and spits...
Taken together this famous lighthouse carries some weight...
And here's an excerpt from the site I poached the shot from:
It was September 1, 1957, just past the stroke of midnight when Keeper Oswald Allik darkened the light on Tillamook Rock for good. He had been ordered to extinguish a light that had served mariners for over seventy-five years. Also silenced was the steam fog siren that helped mariners during times of low visibility. A not-so-personal whistle buoy was replacing the lighthouse called “Terrible Tilly”; Oregon’s only offshore light located roughly 1.2 miles off Tillamook Head.

As its name implies, the lighthouse is on a rock. It is situated about twenty miles south of the Columbia River on less than an acre of basalt. It guided ships safely along one of the state’s most hazardous sections of coastline and directed them into the Columbia River shipping lanes.

We’ve all heard the saying, “its not just a job, its an adventure!” That must have been exactly how the men felt, working on the isolated island. After being on duty for up to three months, they were granted leave. But the leave was only for two weeks. They probably felt as if they never left the Rock.

The real adventure was when they left or returned to the Rock. They were placed in a sling-type rigging called a breeches buoy that was tethered to a derrick. If the person was lucky, the sea was calm. Many times the conditions were too dangerous to offload crew or supplies. More than once a person lost his life. One killed on "Tilly" was a master mason trying to survey the rock prior to construction.

In 1881, with Tillamook Rock Lighthouse’s construction completed, the revolving first order Fresnel lens was lit for the first time by the Principal Keeper, Albert Roeder. The construction proved to be an engineering feat, taking over 500 days to complete. At the time it was the most expensive West Coast lighthouse ever built. Later that honor was bestowed upon the St. George Reef Lighthouse off the northern California coast.

Through the years, the Rock was assaulted by violent storms with damaging winds and huge waves. More than once storms proved to be too much, flooding the tower with a torrent of water with debris large enough to smash the windows of the lantern room over 130 feet above sea level. In 1934, one of the most damaging storms to hit the Rock destroyed the original lens. Chunks of concrete leveled parts of the tower railing and ripped up the landing platform. The lighthouse was left without a means to communicate with the outside world. One of the keepers put together a makeshift radio to deliver an urgent message to officials requesting assistance and notifying them of the storm damage. Even today, winter storms continue to batter the Rock. The only sounds you will hear coming from the Rock today are the barking of sea lions and the calls of the birds that make the Rock their home. It is now a part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Labels: , ,

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Canoeists

1 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 12:10 PM


W WIND 15 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 3 FT. NW SWELL 11 FT AT 13 SECONDS.
Typically surfers hate (to varying degrees) other surfcraft...
Longboarders look askance at hopping, waggling shortboarders...
Shortboarders scowl at LB'ers sitting outside picking off set waves...
Long and Short boarders alike grimace as a kayaker approaches...
Boogie boards, SUP'ers, Tow-in surfers all get their share of vibe...
I've only personally witnessed a couple occassions of canoes in the surf...
Generally it didn't work out too well, with the boat quickly swamped...
But old footage of canoe surfers at place like Killer Dana...
Showed a lost skillset that likely won't be renewed anytime soon...
Despite all the hating, and vibing and assorted doled out ridicule...
I have seen surprising developments over the last 15 years on the N. coast...
Body boarders sliding one of the more localized peaks in Oregon...
Perhaps it's a sign of the passing or mellowing of past enforcers...
Or maybe the wave has finally been overrun with outsiders...
And the locals have to pick and choose their turf/surf battles...
Either way, it was a surprising sight given the history of the place...
Are the days of severed elk heads no more?
Say it isn't so!

 

Labels:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Blanks

3 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 8:56 PM


N WIND 15 KT...BUT NE 10 KT NEAR SHORE. WIND WAVES 3 FT. NW SWELL 8 FT AT 14 SECONDS.
Blanks for Speelyei's future board.
Arrived early this AM to find the swell a little crossed up...
A couple guys out but no real waves to speak of...
Watched some spinning cylinders just off the cobbles...
But too weird and warbly and close in to the rocks...
As both surfers proned in after a session of few waves...
I decided to check a cove that I thought might hold promise...
Walked in with my smaller board but again, not so hot...
There were head high waves, but they were closing out on the bar...
I thought to myself "The 10' 6" would be the better board"...
Watched for a bit as the sun rose behind the south cape...
Then opted to head into work and check it again later...
Got a call that the central coast was no great shakes...
And they were headed north to the same cove from the morning walk...
Headed down myself at about 2 in the afternoon...
And hiked in, with the 10' 6", and high hopes...
The waves were about the same but there were a few coming through...
There were peaks that quickly spun off left and right...
Detonating in a cylindrical implosion on a shallow bar...
I suited up, and knelt to attach my skeg...
Then realized I was missing the screw...
I had a smaller Frye flex fin so I opted for that...
Then decided to go with the side bites since it was kinda hollow...
But I forgot my fucking hex wrench...
So, 10+ feet of board and 9 inches of rudder it was...
Getting out was a breeze, stand in waist deep water...
Wait for the wave to close out and come over as a whole...
Jump over and paddle quickly to the outside, that was it...
Paddled into the first few and ejected quickly to aviod the close out...
After a bit a meaty right showed and I moved into position...
As the wave heaved I swung it around...
Only to see a wide eyed kook on my line...
Which forced me to crank it alot harder off the bottom...
That's when the flex fin failed me...
I slid ass, but at least I didn't kill him...
I caught a buch of waves, but paid the price...
I got caught in top to bottom close outs more than once...
I got clocked by the board several times...
And it's alot of surfboard...
Right now, I have a lump on the head...
A bruised calf...
And a swollen elbow...
Good times.

 

Labels: ,

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Daniel Webster was...

2 comments Posted by Wave Farmer at 11:22 AM


SW WIND 30 TO 40 KT...EASING TO 25 TO 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. GUSTS UP TO 45 KT EARLY. COMBINED SEAS 17 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 11 SECONDS.
...not a surfer.
“What can we do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting, and not a harbor on it? What use have we for such a country? I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Ocean one inch nearer”
~Daniel Webster (American Statesman, Senator and Orator, 1782-1852)
Well...actually, there weren't any surfers on the west coast then...so maybe he can be excused.

 

Labels: ,

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)