Why be so obsessed about surfing? Cuz it's a way of life, man. What else would compel me to get up at 6 am on my day off? My roommate and i left the house at seven, we were in the water at about 8.30. Technically not a dawn patrol, as I think that constitutes seeing the sunrise from the beach, but it's in the right direction. We went to a surf spot called le truc vert (the green thingy). It's about an hour drive from Bordeaux, some of which can be in frustratingly slow traffic on the ring road, but ends blissfully on a bumpy road through pine trees and dunes. At first we surfed a smallish wave which was doubled up, meaning the swell was not evenly spaced, so you get two waves where you should have one, and it lacks the power to push you. A few were pretty fun, but it was a bit frustrating. After an hour we got out of the water and saw that the sand bar further down the beach had gotten shallow enough to cause breakers. The waves were forming larger and much cleaner. The wind turned directly offshore, which keeps the waves glassy and rideable. For a few hours, all the elements came together. i took out hans' board, a 7'6", and rode six or seven of the best waves i've ever had. One even started to tube as i was going down the line. The lip hit me and i fell, but i was still ecstatic. It was closer to a tube than i've ever been in my life. The feeling of a wave starting to turn on itself with you in the eye of it is something i can't describe. Using a longer board than my 6'3" made it a lot easier to get up- i could start early and go down fast, bottom turn, hold the line. When we first got there it was cloudy and dark, but we could see the blue sky to the south. Bit by bit it worked its way towards us, eventually heading north and resulting in blue from one horizon to the other. It was like a line in the sky, the dark heavy clouds on one side and the high, light puffy ones on the other, split down the middle as though with a knife.
Why be so obsessed about surfing? We come to this spot a couple times a week, and usually at least one of the necessary elements to a good day of surfing is working against us. The wind might be coming from the ocean rather than the land, which makes the waves break quicker and messier. Or from the side, which makes little waves that interfere with the ones you're trying to catch. The tide might be too high so that the waves don't have enough power to push you. The swell might be too small, or mixed up with wind swell, or just doubled, or even too big, all making it difficult. The sandbar underneath the wave might be too straight, so that the waves break all at once, closing out. But to have one day where you get to your spot and everything has come together: the tide, the wind, the swell, the sandbar, the sun, the lack of people, it's a day you experience a couple times a year. The spot that looked like this on other days:
Finally looks like this:
You probably can't tell from this tiny picture, but that's a 5-6 foot swell, an 8 second period, 10 knot offshore wind at two hours after high tide. Long, peeling, glassy left-handers. You obsess for days like that.
Why be so obsessed about surfing? We come to this spot a couple times a week, and usually at least one of the necessary elements to a good day of surfing is working against us. The wind might be coming from the ocean rather than the land, which makes the waves break quicker and messier. Or from the side, which makes little waves that interfere with the ones you're trying to catch. The tide might be too high so that the waves don't have enough power to push you. The swell might be too small, or mixed up with wind swell, or just doubled, or even too big, all making it difficult. The sandbar underneath the wave might be too straight, so that the waves break all at once, closing out. But to have one day where you get to your spot and everything has come together: the tide, the wind, the swell, the sandbar, the sun, the lack of people, it's a day you experience a couple times a year. The spot that looked like this on other days:
Finally looks like this:
You probably can't tell from this tiny picture, but that's a 5-6 foot swell, an 8 second period, 10 knot offshore wind at two hours after high tide. Long, peeling, glassy left-handers. You obsess for days like that.
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