Wednesday, April 8, 2009

DRY BARRELS - MY FRIENDS - DRY BARRELS

Faaite Day 3!
We finally scored the surf to cancel out the 30 day slog to get here. Just two of us in the water, emerald green barrels reeling through. When we first surfed this wave 2 days ago it was described as follows:
"Finally scored some nice overhead waves at Faaite's lefthander yesterday. Beautiful groomed tropical left point break, bit like Telescopes in the Ments. The righthander is a kamikaze A-frame which starts Ok with a nice pit but then runs straight onto dry reef (gave it a wide miss) ... looks like its only surfed on spring high with a huge swell. The left runs over a very shallow ledgy reef with 2 linked barrel sections. The first section pinches high making it hard to exit, the second section runs out over virtually dry coral heads, gnarly. Kinda have to wait for the bigger sets, we caught the tail end of the swell yesterday, i think it was bigger and better the day before, but also very windy. But hopefully that new swell hits tomorrow, then we will get a better idea. About 3 or 4 locals, all on body boards, the one guy rips stand up on his body board, go figure. Some epic snorkelling but yet to catch anything worthwhile on the rod. "
By this evening it was well overhead, low tide and a very light offshore. Dry barrels my friends. Dry barrels. As the swell grew this evening it just got better and better. Golden sunset over sheet glass perfection and i am not blowing smoke up yer ass. Two wave sets every 5 minutes with just 2 of us out (me and Andy) makes for a pretty special session. I had one stand out wave, I backdoored a solid 6 foot pipe, I had to claim it, and did. Who needs pets when you have a pigdog? Yes it was a dream day, an entry on the good side of shimmi's ledger. Its a class wave, medium length, tight and tricky barrel until it goes overhead, hard lip to hit, dodgy to cutback, many menacing coral heads if you fuck up. I wont bore you with wave descriptions any further. Also knocked two fins out of my 6'4, now riding my 6'0 four fin in hollow six foot surf. Its not quite like Tom Curren riding his fish at Bawa, but its getting there. In the end we are just so stoked to have found a wave which is offshore all day long and picks up the regular swell. Those are the 2 most important ingredients when you explore for waves. Who knows how good or long it will get on a really solid swell?
STOKED!
G