Paddle at the "Narrows" 64th Street - First Landing State Park

Saturday morning, 0900 hrs, Bill Gassett and crew set out on a SUP paddle at 64th St.  They were invited to paddle along with the core kayakers and canoe paddlers from MAPA. Bill and his wife Anne are the areas top distance paddling gurus for stand up.  They are always stoked to pass the aloha about the distance stand up paddling sport. 

Here is an email that I received from Bill about the event:

We (4 of us) knocked out between 3.5 and 7 miles of solid SUP training at the 64^th Street State Park.

It was cool, very light wind and the work out was awesome…money in the bank.

MAPA has a core group of paddlers and they are full of aloha.

It’s always good to see you guys. Thank you for the “trophies” Rusty. Staying Alive!

More events like this will set anybody, interested in distance or race SUP’ing, up for success.

So in the spirit of Keep It Simple SUP’ing you are invited to paddle out on the Back Bay in Sandbridge next weekend (weather dependant) in the first ever “Suck Mud and Go Blind” SUP race.

Something like 4 – 7 miles of paddling in the shallow water of the Back Bay around a bunch of duck blinds.

Course to be decided race day in order to exploit wind and swell for the most fun.

We will send out another email mid-week with directions to the house and a semi-solid idea on the course.

No race fee, no registration other than writing your name down so we can keep track of who’s on the water and MANDATORY fun.

We will try to have separate SUP classes based on what people bring to paddle.

Speaking of…our kindred ohana of outrigger and surf-ski paddlers are invited.

Aloha,

Bill Gassett

Some fun sessions amid flatness

I’m as big of fan of summer-like weather as the next guy, but I equally distain the summertime swell pattern that we’ve seemed to settle into after an absolutely pumping winter.

The last consistent push lasting around a week in mid-March being such a recent memory makes this new era of flatness all the more difficult to swallow. April showers (and wind) make waves, usually.

That said, the Surf and Adventure crew, my old surf buddy Todd Elder – who I recently reconnected with – and I managed to log a few really fun sessions even though the predominant sea state has been classic Lake Atlantic.

Since that week in mid-march, Virginia Beach has been treated to just two viable swells, each lasting little more than a day at a time. The Outer Banks received its usual shot of better quality surf from both of those outbursts and managed to use its open-ocean exposure to pick up a couple more than didn’t quite make it up this way.

March 21’s evening session blew in a southeast windswell that turned on First Street in the waist-to-chest range that provided some fun waves despite the onshore conditions. Josh joined me for the morning session the following day, and conditions were better with an offshore wind, but the swell dropped a foot or so in size.  It was nice to squeeze in some fun waves, especially with a bleak swell forecast looming.

Then came a layoff that lasted until the following weekend, when another southeast blow produced a long, but soft, waist-high wave. Nothing special, but again, something to hold us over until Tuesday, March 30, which produced the shot of Forrest you see at the top of this blog.

Sick.
 

My friend Rocky, originally set to roll down to the Banks with me on this day, couldn’t make it due to work, so he connected me with Todd, who I came up surfing with through high school. We lost touch as we both pursued our college educations. As I began a career in writing post-school, he worked feverishly to save money to go on months-long surf trips. Smart guy.

It was great to reconnect with Todd, and the bond of surfing assured that we became instant buds. Turns out we are both equally obsessed, which worked out for the next two sessions we would catch.

So Todd and I charged down to Hatteras for the afternoon’s incoming tide. After stumbling around the maxed-out sandbars of northern Hatteras, we decided to surf in town at a spot we thought looked right (we heard later we should have kept heading south towards Avon, but whatever, we had to get wet).

We were rewarded with overhead, barreling peaks that pitched as far out into the pit as they were tall. Completely intense and we were both getting shacked on these gaping rights. Meanwhile in Sandbridge, the boys were scoring head-high nuggets of their own.

Then it went flat again. Virginia Beach is still in the throws of this spell, which looks to end tomorrow with a northeast blow. The Outer Banks broke the cycle for a few of these days, and Todd and I were on it for super-fun, rampy stomach-high walls in Hatteras for April 3’s morning sesh before hitting our favorite high tide spot in town for a fun-but-soft surf.

While I’m sure the OBX sported a rideable wave in some form through the next week, it took six more days for it to really turn on. Josh, my longtime best friend Ronnie and I charged to Frisco as a southwest windswell looked to get groomed by north winds around midday on Friday.

That it did, and some short-period grinders were keeping me and Josh on our toes while Ronnie filmed from the beach. Unfortunately, the zoom on his camera (we were pretty out there) and the steep, bowly, stacked-up surf made logging quality film too difficult. All the evidence needed for the booming barrels of the day can be seen in the clean break of Josh’s board.

That brings us back up to date. Hopefully the next few weeks will be a touch more active, but as you read, even when things get bad, waves still find a way around if you take the time to go get them.

• John Streit.