Your most memorable wave

[BoMan]

Tell us what happened and why its at the top of your list!

For me it was a party wave with my Dad. He drove down to Santa Barbara from the Bay Area to help me settle into Anacapa Hall at UCSB. When the work was done we rented a couple of logs and paddled out at Devereux. Dad was a good body surfer but had no experience on a board. He made up for his shortcomings with enthusiasm. We started out riding inside ripples and he managed to stand up on the second try. I'm sure the sound of his hoot made it all the way back to Isla Vista! After that he insisted on paddling outside for something bigger. We sat in the windy chop for quite some time before his wave arrived. He was prone and facing the beach putting all his trust in me. Bad idea "Should I paddle now?" he asked several times. When I said "go" and joined him on the wave I could see him hauling @$$... head down, arms flailing and water churning. He got so far ahead of the wave that it lifted his tail and plunged the board into a spectacular pearl. (You know where it spyhops into the air)

He surfaced in the soup with a smile on his face and said "that was awesome!"

[tomthetreeman]

Mine was last week at Pilgrim (Pt. Judith), Hurricane Jerry. It was a slightly overhead bomb where I barely made the drop, cut a massive bottom turn, caught up with the curl, and managed three huge cutbacks and top turns with my 7’8” single fin. The wave just went on for so long, it had like three distinct parts, maybe more. The paddle back out long but was worth it.

Since I’ve only been surfing just over two years, my most memorable/best waves are recent and keep happening as my progression gets better. Previous to this it was at Black Rock on Block Island... A big, fast peeler I was able to carve up and down multiple times.

Tom

[oldmansurfer]

I am not sure what my most memorable wave would be since I have so many memorable waves but none of them for the reasons as your wave. I do remember surf sessions with friends and very rarely family but not a wave in particular for that reason. I know for many surfers their surf buddies raise their level of stoke but I found myself resigned to surfing solo due to not having enough friends or any family interested in surfing the same waves I want to surf at the times I wanted to surf them at If I look at my memories of waves then the one that I seem to remember the most details is the wave I caught at Concessions in Honolulu This is what I wrote previously about that wave ........

I was at UH and heard the surf was up in Town so I grabbed my board and walked to the beach. I got to my usual breaks 3's and 4's and the waves weren't breaking right for that swell but I could see the Alamoana bowl was breaking so I paddled across to Magic Island and the bowl was too crowded but on the far side was a break with only 5 guys out and it looked nice so I went out there. I heard it was called "Concessions" and later that it was called "Tennis courts". Anyway it was right breaking wave and was about 4 to 6 foot that day which would be wave faces up to 10 feet and real hollow, tubing out.

When I got out there these 5 guys were being possessive about the waves. One guy would line up on either side of me so by convention I had to let the surfer in the more critical position take off but when I backed off, the surfer in the more critical position backed off too and the other surfer to my right in the less critical position would take off. I knew I could take off deeper than any of them because I was real good with late take offs and could usually take off deeper than most other surfers. So I positioned myself at my limit which was likely well beyond their limits and I kept paddling until the deeper guy had to take off. He didn't a couple times and I caught those waves but then he went for it. He usually ended up wiping out and I did this repeatedly but I think he got real tubed on at least one wave. That was fun for a while but I still didn't catch many waves.

I noticed there were bigger sets (8 feet) coming in that broke outside about every 15 minutes and no one was riding them so I paddled out there and sat and waited. On the first wave that came in I got in the tube and when I came out one of them was paddling up the wave so I cranked a hard turn right next to him spraying him with water in a sort of fade back/cutback maneuver. The fade back turn slowed my board and I got in the tube again and when I came out another of them was paddling up the wave so I cranked another turn and sprayed him and got in the tube again. When I came out a third surfer was paddling up the wave so I figured what the heck and sprayed him too and got in the tube again. This was turning into a great wave and as I was in the tube for the fourth time I found myself wishing one more of them was there when I came out and my wish came true. I sprayed him too and got in the tube again. When I came out there were no more surfers but I cranked a hard turn anyway and got in the tube again. These were not clean tubes and each time I was completely covered in foam and also completely covered by the tube. The end tube ride collapsed on me but all in all it was a fantastic ride.

I paddled back out and the group of them paddled toward me. I thought ok now I am going to have to fight them. But they just talked to me and asked me if I was from there. I said no I was from Kauai. They said "Oh! That explains it. We just wanted to let you know we were going to let you catch waves now." And just like that they quit trying to hog the waves and we enjoyed the rest of the day surfing together and talking story. They were basically good guys but hated the invasion of surfers from elsewhere pushing them out of the spots they surfed since they were little kids.

The waves were slow weak thin lipped waves but real hollow and great for getting tubed. I never surfed this break again but I was glad I did this day. This had to be one of my best all time waves in terms of the beauty and because I repeatedly got completely deeply tubed and just for the satisfaction of spraying those guys who were trying to hog all the waves.

The above is what I wrote before. What I remember not written there is on the takeoff I got covered up and thought I was going to eat it but came out of the tube. I also remember that on each cutback I reversed direction below or in front of where the lip had touched down. I remember thinking " I didn't know you could do this." I also remember that each tube ride was very moist with so much whitewater dropping down from the top that I could not see out of it till I got closer to the opening. I also remember how great it felt to do that fadeback cutback turn. It was a very powerful turn and it felt great to do it. I remembered thinking I need to remember this turn because I had not ever done a turn quite like that before. If those guys said "we didn't know you could surf like that." I would have answered "neither did I".

[jaffa1949]

One of many but this one has a full mention because the day before I had been rag dolled down the reef and had the yipps for the rest of the session.
A better day and I went to the head of the lineup far up the Point , the wave normal has three distinct takeoff zones, but right swell direction and the wave runs for 350 Yards/ metres along the reef edge.
you go to the point by boat, I was frothed to recover to non yipped state.
a running launch off boat straight into the take off, drop and turn and drive mostly the high line with drops and bottom turns to keep making the speed necessary to beat each section that was visibly forming.
This photo was taken about half way down the line

350 metres, I only habe enough legs to do 6 Waves like this.

[BoMan]

350 metres, I only have enough legs to do 6 Waves like this.

When you're as good as Jaffa you get out when your LEGS are tired... not your arms.
Love the photo!

[Silvery]

Great story old man

[SnakePlissken]

Jaffa, I thought I was the only one with the webbed gloves! Nice

Most memorable wave; the last one ridden

[Silvery]

Do you find they give you an advantage paddling

[jaffa1949]

Do you find they give you an advantage paddling

Some think so, some don’t!
They can evoke shoulder problems!.
They do not make up for poor paddle technique, a number of Aussie surfers also have them for skin covering against skin cancer
Zinc cream, rash shirts,and sun hats.
Quite a few of my contemporaries have died because Australia is the skin cancer capital of the surfing world

[SnakePlissken]

It seems to me that if they can cause shoulder problems, that means they're putting more force on the shoulder and therefore more force in the water.

[BoMan]

They can evoke shoulder problems!

Can confirm. I bought a pair and they never made to the ocean! I used them for 400 yards in a pool and was done for the day.

[312T4]

Great Pic Jaffa!!

Here's my best session - a dream, but for real:
https://serendipitysurf.blogspot.com/20 ... ssion.html

[123456]

most memorable wave was a while back, first international trip (northern costa rica during the wet season) with a couple of my mates. had surfed all day at a local spot (somewhat of a secret I think?) with a handful of other bros. were completely surfed out, headed back to the room for a beer on the deck and a snack, then saw a wave right in front of our spot (private beach) starting to jack up.

it'd looked uninspiring the first few days of the trip, kinda sheltered in this little cove, inconsistent, but still pretty, so was good for a warmup swim before we ventured out. this afternoon though, it all changed. sets started rolling in around head high, some bigger, NO ONE WAS OUT. my mates and I grabbed our gear as fast as we possibly could, one of them borrowed my backup board because he was in such a rush he didn't want to go down to the car. paddled out easily through a channel and had the session of our lives. the guy who borrowed my board was in such a rush he failed to realize that there were no fins on my board, so after he caught his first overhead screamer, halfway down the face was all it took before he spun out, bailed (without incident) and watched us from the shore.

it's me and my best friend out in the water, the sets are maybe 3-4 waves per, not crazy, so we don't worry about taking the first wave of a set (something usually not advisable in my experience). I take off on what looks like a normal wave, going left (somewhat towards a rock jetty, but not dangerously close), turns out this was the set of the day. wave jacks up to 9-10 feet (biggest of my life up to that point), manage to get a couple of turns while going as fast as I'd ever gone, no way to go off the back so I pencil dive and think I can hustle back out. long story short, that was also the set with the most waves of the day so my best ride ended up being my worst hold down, but I made it unscathed. I will never forget that wave or that trip.