March Madness

After painstakingly flopping out of bed at the not so bright hour of 4 a.m. to go get some shred time in, I meet Austin in the parking lot behind Seton Court. I hop in his Civic coupe and we drive down Cold Spring and park across the street from the Tacoma. After loading the sticks and rubbers into the bed of my truck we are on our way.




The stoke factor as we are leaving Baltimore is at an all time high as our last session together two weeks ago ended in leaving the water after bobbing around in the fridgid ocean for two hours because there was nothing else to do except bob- there were no waves.




The two and a half hour trip went by extremely fast as it normally does. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts to get two medium coffees with three sugars and cream and two donuts (its a combo meal for a little over two bucks). We arrived at the inlet in a stylish manner to a bright, brisk, and beautiful six thirty a.m. sunrise. It had not fully risen yet, but you get the point.







"So uhh, where's those waist high waves," said Austin.




"Ha," said myself in response.




We waited a few more minutes and saw a few sets that could have been waist high roll in, but had a feeling that a west wind might do more good up north.




"Fags go back to Rayhobeyth," shouted some female voice from the distance. O the feeling of being welcomed by living trash cans.




We beem up north a little bit stoping at eighteenth street and see some nice sets. Sneaking into a secret heated bathroom to change, we suit up and skimmy back outside to grab the boards and throw a little spray. After face planting the sand because of tripping on my leash, I see Austin ahead of me paddling through some nice almost chest sized glassy sets. There is also no one to be seen, except for the two or three scavengers down south.







The morning session lasts for about three hours. After not dropping in on a solid clean wave in almost a month, letting these conditions bleed through my veins was the only thing I had left to do to satisfy my addiciton. The feeling of watching a perfect, glassy, waist high left come to me instantly warmed me up in the brisk march morning. I heard Austin shout, "outside!" and paddled out and left to get the shoulder. I dropped in and pumped off the bottom turn into a few more carving turns, and swung my hips and shoulders around into a cut back. Austin can attest to the amount of spray the cut back threw.




I see Austin bang out a few DK's and three sixty's and even catch a small barrel. There is nothing like being in the water one a nice day with your bud surfing fun waves. I would start to reflect and talk about the importance of this, but there is more to the story!







With the tide coming in we go for our last wave, which always ends up being last five waves until that air reverse is landed an hour later. The secret heated changing spot is again misused as water and sand is violently flung amongst the stalls. Austin and I scurry on out as not to be seen and we pile in the truck and head on over to K-Coast. While he tries to wheel a deal with Hairball, which is not going to work by the way for future reference, I check out all the boards that have been in the shop since summer and are on clearance sale. Not really needing a board at all I still find a 5'10'' Sharp Eye fish that strikes my fancy. Sadly I don't get it, however, I do get Single Fin: Yellow, which is highly recommended to all people who like surfing and chill stuff.







After getting the stoke level through the roof again from being in the shop we head north because there was some St. Patty's Day parade that made us not want to go south. There was no actual thought that we would find waves, but after checking a few spots we end up at Southside. People don't really surf here, its a bodyboard spot because of its wedge-like breaks. With this bit of knowledge to the reader it is now a fact that I do not know what to expect, only a dumping heavy wave... sounds like fun!







We see a local guy out there and decide to put back on the sobbing wet, cold rubbers that we cherish so dearly. We both rush into the water... Austin rushes into the water, I take my time because I have know idea what is going on right now. I paddle close to the jetty of the inlet and am waiting for an outside left which never comes. Austin shouts over to me to scoot on over and take a smaller one. Seeing how shallow the breakzone was I was hesitant to drop in. I took a nice little left which ended up being a very powerful waist high wave, this doesn't sound right, but the wave bowled up and had a strong air section at the end. Southside is an amazing wave.





After about an hour I became more daring and taking larger set waves. A good chest or head high set came in and I went to paddle for the left shoulder. I still can picture Austin cheering for me as I go to drop in. Even before the bottom turn I picked up so much speed and made it into the gut of the wave. I continued to carve and pick up more speed in an attempt to air off the shoulder. As soon as I saw the wave bowl up I turn to the top and ollied off the lip. It took a few tries to land it, but this waist high day turned out to be alot of fun

My mood was the best its been in a long time.



This is a perfect example of getting a well deserved session after paying your respect to the wave gods. The surf report can only say so much, you need to get out there and experience all different kinds of conditions at different spots. There has been many times when the reports have said waist high and I show up and its not waist high. The radar doesnt show how deep the water is going to be at certain spots, you need to look at the tide charts and see how deep low tide is going to be. Thats my advice- go shred.