Met up with Tommy Abatello (aka Tommy-Talks-A-Lot) and went out at Riddle around 1pm. The waves looked great, but Tommy said he though it was way too shallow. We talked each other in anyway, any boy I am I glad we did. The waves surfed even better than they looked. As we walked towards the ocean, Tommy reasoned that conditions didn't matter too much because "sometimes it only takes one" [wave to keep you stoked]. I disagreed saying three was my quota to get the tank off empty.
Nah, he said, sometimes it only takes one turn.
There was only one gut out. We watched him ride about four waves kicking out at the end of each.
"Well, we're about to ruin this guy's fun" Tommy said, genuinely half remorseful.
After Tommy and I both took off on nice peaky rights, I was paddling back out when the guy spoke to me.
"I been out here for 40 minutes" he said.
"Glad someone else came out."
"Yeah, we saw you on those last few", I responded.
"Looks good"
I guess we weren’t ruining dude's fun after all. He was stoked to see us. Cool.
After stretching his lunch break well past the point, Tommy had to paddle in. He was frothing. I couldn't get out, so I had to stay. I had brought my Town & Country 6"2" thruster out. It was a board I didn't ride much. Super thin with a killer set of fins. Rockered out. I took off on a head high right that ended with a closeout section. Instead on straightening out, however, I chose to shoot straight up to the top and then, to avoid the closing section I carved a huge turn off the top and cruised right back down what was left of the clean face. The rocker had done its job. The light bulb went on...twice. Sometimes all it takes is one turn.
Monday Nov 14th Gee Gee’s & Riddle Ave Squan
Today I got the idea to pull out one of the weird boards in back of the shed that I never ride. I pulled out this pop out that I usually give to (non surfing) guests just to paddle out and get a little sun in the summer. It’s the beater. This is not to say the board is in bad shape, it is actually damn near mint, as it never sees water. It is a pig/fish called The Spoiler. It’s 6’2” and 2 7/8 with a mini swallow tail and a thruster set up. Some previous owner had the audacity to put a traction pad on this thing that I’ve left on. I threw this and my 9 ft log in the truck and headed out. When I got to the beach I saw 3-4+ feet of perfection. A persistent south swell was lighting up every jetty. Slight offshore winds groomed hollow faces as the waves peeled from right to left almost all the way down the beach. This was gonna be a real easy session I gloated to myself, thinking this thick round board was just gonna make it so simple that I might not even have to paddle! It didn’t take long to realize that this little board was a dog. While you could catch waves with relative ease, the board didn’t paddle the way you might expect given its dimensions. I popped to my feet on a nice right and got ready to feel some acceleration and…nothing. This board was so slow; I couldn’t believe it. I took off on another one and figured I’d put it right in the pocket and let the wave energy do the work…nothing. Finally, on the third wave I put my front foot all the way up on the nose like you would a long board and it begrudgingly accelerated the slightest bit. I was practically nose riding as this board made its sluggish way down the line. Wow. I was not stoked. I struggled with this board for about an hour taking right after right till I wound up at Riddle. At that point I went in to grab the log, but it was pretty much too late. The wind had shifted and conditions were less than stellar. I took a couple lame rides and went home pissed. That board went right back to its place in the back of the shed. Maybe see ya next summer.
Riding "The Spoiler" in Puerto Rico 2-3 years ago.
