HOME | DINING | MOVIES | LIVE SHOWS | ARTS | UPCOMING EVENTS
ARCHIVES | ABOUT | ADVERTISE | CONTACT | DISTRIBUTION
entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
<< What's Eating You? | Main | The Jock >>
beachwise
by shaun robbins


Morning Break

      Nor’easters are good for producing sizable choppy surf, but on rare occasions can turn into super fun surf. Fortunately, we received a mixture of both a few weeks ago. The weekend brought large choppy surf that started to clean up on Tuesday once the West Northwest winds showed up. That night, my friend Ryan and I charged the large, somewhat choppy sections as a warm-up for the highly anticipated waves that would be there the next morning. The two of us battled the pounding sets as we paddled outside to take advantage of the somewhat calmer current and larger waves. We dropped into some good waves that night, but nothing like the following morning.

      The next morning dawn patrol crew consisted of three, Ryan, Matt, and myself. We met up at our usual break just before 7 am, and set up our cars for the swift drift. We all felt a little cold and tired walking the road to the beach, but that was quickly overcome when we came out onto the beach to find semi-glassy 6 to 10-foot bombs with only a few people in sight. The three of us quickly paddled out and began catching waves right away. We were taking massive drops, pulling into barrels, and enjoying the long lines that were ahead of us. Each of us enjoyed dropping into the biggest wave we saw, riding down the line, snapping the lip a few times, and pulling the sickest airs out of the back of the wave only to paddle back out and do it all over again.

      Unfortunately for me, my last wave of the morning came a little sooner than I would have liked. The wave I chose was an 8-foot bomb that completely jacked up at the last second, causing me to make a late drop, which turned into a full-on freefall for the entire 8 feet. When I landed on the flat, the wave knocked me down, and rung me through the washing machine effect about 3 times. To make it even worse, when I popped up to paddle back out, I discovered that my board had broken in half. My buddy Ryan was paddling back out and saw one of the greatest wipeouts of my life unfold, and told me his version of the story laughingly, once he found out I wasn’t pissed, when he got to shore. That evening, I borrowed a board form my buddy Chris, and charged it until nightfall. While this session was not even half of what the morning had been and was packed with other surfers, the surf was still sizable and fun.


forecasted conditions

      Once again we enjoyed some surf, and hordes of surfers came out to take advantage of it. Lucky for us our good fortunes continue, as we will have waves again this week. On Thursday we will have a strong East wind blowing in around 20 knots that will produce some sizable choppy surf. The wind should start to die off late Friday or sometime Saturday, and with it will go the sizable surf. No fear though, because once the wind swell is gone some small but ridable longboard waves will stick around. But don’t take my weekly word for it, call or log onto your local report daily to find out what the present conditions are for your favorite break.

Entertaining U Newspaper, eujacksonville.com. Published by N2U Publishing, Inc. 3101 University Blvd., South #201 Jacksonville, FL 32216. Copyright N2U Publishing, Inc. 2006. Reproduction of any artwork or copy prepared by N2U Publishing, Inc. is strictly prohibited without written consent of the publisher. We will not be responsible for errors and/or omissions, the Publisher's liability for error will not exceed the cost of space occupied by the error. Articles for publication are welcome and may be sent to the following address: 3101 University Blvd., South #201 Jacksonville, FL 32216. We cannot assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. For information concerning classified advertising phone 904-730-3003.