SURF OBSERVATIONS
Equipment Failure -- 11/4/01


Chamber of Surprises

Had a really short amount of time so I blasted out to the North Shore early. No place was really working so I settled to bodyboard once again on Gas Chambers.

As I was walking to the shoreline in the dark, the sky suddenly opened up and poured rain. It was so heavy and the wind so firm that I decided to race back to the car and change to a shortie just for warmth and comfort.

Jumping in, I immediately got a problem. The shoulder zipper on one side of my wetsuit was damaged and did not close properly. On my second wave, the zipper failed and my suit blew wide open. I spent the next ten minutes floundering over the reef, getting bashed by the waves while trying valiantly to put the suit back on. Just wasting time!

Soon enough, Justin and his friend joined me in the lineup. The surf itself was OK, but not great. There were some overhead sets, but a lot of them were closing out.

I favored the lefts which opened up if you were selective. My best wave was a left where I carved into the pocket once, carved twice, then stalled to get a small-kine coverup and out. Shaweeet!

Fortunately, there were no more problems with my wetsuit. However, just the possibility of the suit busting open again changed my riding to a very conservative approach. In a sense, the whole session was dampened because of this.

Aloha from Paradise,
stickman


back