Winter Surf

Winter Surf from WaterTurtle Productions on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoyed the video...

Rob, Ralph, and I ventured out for a 2 day coastal road trip last Monday and Tuesday. Monday was real nice and sunny with air temps in low 50s and water temps in mid 50s. We were covered head to toe in rubber and felt very comfortable in the water. We settled on north end Carolina Beach with nice waist high waves, some higher, and you could find a nice peeler once in a while. We're still learning to work the wave but had a blast. The wind was straight offshore and approx 20mph. It was a new challenge paddling into the wind to catch a wave but they were clean waves for the most part. The spray coming off the back of the wave was pretty intense and made some fantastic rainbows.

After a couple of falls, I realized the wind was catching my board and flipping it high up into the air. This scared the crap out of me because you never knew where the board was going to land. So I went in and grabbed my helmet. In the video and pictures, you'll notice some blue things sticking of my shoulder. That's my Sanyo Xacti waterproof camera I had strapped to my upper arm. The blue things are little floaties attached to the camera in case I drop the camera in the water, it will float.

Late in the afternoon, we met Stan from High Point, NC and Zo from Virginia and surfed with them for a while. Always good to meet new SUP'ers. We were on the water from 11:15am to 5pm. Needless to say, we were worn out. After a big heavy Mexican dinner, it was tough to keep my eyes open as we were watching Brett Favre attempting a comeback in the 3rd quarter over the Bears on Monday Night Football.

The next morning, we ventured out to Wrightsville Beach for more SUP surfing. But the wind chill was 19 degrees and we chickened out from getting into the water. We scoped out some nice wave spots and definitely plan to return there.

Rob has some good pictures here.

Here is one he took that I lifted off his blog. Its me coming out of the water and taking my sweet time in the shorebreak...not realizing what was getting ready to hit me. This is the moment that shorebreak wave hit me from behind...it felt like someone ran at me with a full speed tackle right in the back. I was momentarily stunned but somehow didn't fall and lose the board and paddle. But that hurt and I can still feel the sting of that hit.



Here are some GoPro images including a couple of falls...









More pics...


Sunrise from the hotel room


Carolina Beach pier


Ralph, Rob, and Mac (thanks Stan for taking the picture)



Ooh...nice wave


Rob and the waterturtlemobile