During all my days of surfing, a few sessions stick out. These sessions are the ones I'll remember the rest of my life. Whether I chose them because of the size/quality of waves, the ambience, or the overall experience these are the days I'll remember when my surfing days are over.
I was in El Salvador on this New Year's Eve. My friend Mauricio and I arose around 5:45 to check the surf. As we were walking up to the beach, we couldn't see any swell action and we sulked the rest of the way to the beach. The wind shifted offshore after five minutes of our watching the 3 foot waves peel perfectly on a new sandbar.
We grabbed our boards and literally waded out to the "lineup" As usual there was no one there and we had our choice of waves. Lots of crisp, little barrels that you'd have to pigdog even frontside.
We hit it for about two hours and I got one of the longest barrels of my life. My longest barrel lasted for about five seconds. It closed out, but since it was small, I was able to straighten out.
I had been checking out Hanalei Bay all week for any sign of swell. Finally, a north swell hit and I was out there. The water was a azure-turquoise color and the water was in the lower 70's. I had rented a board from a mom-and-pop rental place in Kapaa. I watched the peaks for a few minutes and tried to figure out the quality-to-crowd ratio. I chose the main peak dubbed Pinetrees by the locals. I timed the sets and paddled out fast. It took me a couple of bogged takeoffs to get used to Hawaiian waves. Since there is no continental shelf, the waves don't slow down and focus all of their energy on the reef or sandbar they ultimately meet up with.
After I got used to the board and the different types of waves, I caught some great waves. One in particular stands out. Being the only goofy-foot at the peak I ended up having the left to myself. I had been out for about fifteen minutes and had witnessed nothing but a lull thus far. I saw a substantial bump on the horizon and paddled for position. I was kind of far out and was able to lean my weight towards the nose of my board to ease myself into it. I managed ti side-slip down the face of this beautiful green wall. It didn't look like it was going to pitch so I kept did some carves. Suddenly the wave seemed to jack and I started pumping for speed. I tucked just under the falling lip and was completely surrounded inside an emerald circle of water. I felt a little spray on my back and made it out of the barrel. This wave is memorable to me because of the color of the water, the lazy, happy atmosphere in the line-up, and the picturesque view of Hanalei (a peak above Hanalei is the rainiest spot on Earth) I got immediately after exiting the barrel
This session occured fifteen days after I graduated from High School. I had just arrived in El Salvador and had decided to spend the night at the beach the day before. We arose before dawn, broke into my ex-stepfather's pantry and grabbed a few pieces of bread that we wolfed down as we were grabbing our boards and heading towards the water. It was still pretty dark, but the sun was just beginning to come up from behind a grassy knoll. The first hint of light revealed flawless, absolutely perfect peaks that were firing in both directions. It was about 5-7 foot and my friend Pando (named after an anatomical deformity) and I were the only ones out. The waves were hitting the sandbars kind of strangely, the waves would peak up slowly, recede just for a second and then form into a full-on barrel. The takeoffs were so mellow that I got lazy on a few and got thrashed. I remember this one wave in which I had total tunnel vision and I kept going but came out of my crouch. My head got caught in the pitching lip and I went flying over the falls and smacked my back on the sand underwater. It hurt pretty bad, but not enough to stop right then and there. My friend Pando was getting barreled both ways and looked like he had seen it get like this quite a few times. Unfortunately, though, the wind turned onshore at about eight A.M. and wrecked the waves for us.
It was a crisp Saturday morning and I took a friend I was teaching to surf out to Del Mar. The reef was breaking really nicely but the crowds were just awful. It was about 6-8 feet and kind of hollow. There were a lot of longboarders out but a lot of them seemed to back off a bit because of the steepness of the waves. I ended up getting about five waves to myself in about two and a half hours, and they were real gems. It was completely glassy and the bottom turns were a real pleasure to execute with no resistance from the water's surface. The only thing that bogged this session for me was all the kooks and spongers that kept dropping in on me and the ones that didn't feel like duckdiving and therefore wrecked the wave for me.
My friend and I packed our bags and started driving out to Huntington Beach at 9AM. We stopped at the Carl's Jr. at Trestles and considered staying to surf there. We finished our "brunch" and decided to move on. We arrived at Huntington at around noon and it looked just awful. My friend was PISSED. I told him that since we drove all this way we might as well go out and he agreed. We were catching a few good ones here and there but we were pretty cold because it was overcast and the onshores were blowing pretty hard. We went in because we needed to put some more quarters in the parking machine with the ticket dispensers and we tried going out closer to the pier but still on the South Side. The clouds lifted shortly thereafter and the waves got pretty good. It was kind of mushy but it wasn't sectioning off at all. We ended up surfing until about 3PM and decided against spending the night in Huntington.
On the way back down I suggested we stop at Leucadia to check Grandview. We did, and it was just firing! We went out for about an hour and a half and I got this one 3 second barrel that was the neatest barrel I think I've ever gotten. It was a bit cloudy and the water was this deep green color. As I caught the wave and tucked, I looked down and could see the reef. All of a sudden, the lip broke over my head and I let out a mini-hoot that echoed in the tube. I came out with my hand in the air, much like Slater in the Pipe Masters Finals in 1995 against Rob Machado. The only difference was that there was nobody in the channel to high-five.
This session was my first at Kilometro 59. Memin took me there and we lucked out and paddled out during a lull. About ten minutes after this, these double-overhead bombs came through, with more than enough waves for everyone there (about eight people tops.) The waves that came through were these just perfect right reef-pass mackers that made me shake with fear and excitement. Memin had paddled out and I saw him bag a nice, long, and thick wave. I was out of position for the duration of the second set and ended up getting slammed. I remember going for a duckdive and the wave's turbulence hit me with such force that it would twist my neck, no matter how hard I tried to keep it heading in the direction that would cause the least amount of resistance. This is definitely the most powerful wave I've ever surfed.
After a set or two of the above I was able to take advantage of an extended lull and fall in the pack with the locals. A wave came through and I heard Memin screaming, "Dale, Pfeifer!!! Dale!!!!" I was barely able to catch it, popped up, and leaned back towards the face of the wave so my backside rail would hold purchase in the wave's face. The rush I got was unbelievable, I could hear my board skipping across the water as I eventually did a drawn-out bottom turn and carved at the top, only to get hung up in the lip and tossed headfirst into the impact zone.
After about three hours of paying dues, I got the hang of it and nailed a wave from the outside lineup to the inside bowl, got smacked around inside the barrel and ate it. I went in shortly thereafter...
On this particular day, I surfed with Memin at La Bocana. Since we were both goofy-foots and had been surfing rights all summer, we were anxious to surf some waves we could see while we were on them. We pulled up to all-time La Bocana. The paddle-out was tough as we dodged hard-hitting 5-7' foot sets. La Bocana is one of the most powerful waves I've ever surfed. A miscalculated duckdive will leave you either five feet deep against the reef or bouncing around in the impact zone like a barney.
Anyways, La Bocana was just firing. The sun was out, the air was almost as warm as the water and the sea lice was nowhere to be felt. One particular wave I remember broke more towards the inside. I overpaddled for it and ended up dropping in late. As I got to my feet, the wave had began pitching just over my head, leaving me in an awkward crouch, trying to hold my rail on the face while still getting to my feet. I looked out towards the channel and saw Memin paddling past, smiling, and shaking his head in disbelief. I stuck my arm in the wave to stall and this shifted my center of gravity towards my upper body, made the transition to the flats within the barrel and rode in ecstacy towards the light. I made it to the shoulder and just collapsed. (*WebMaster's Note: This is still my best barrel to date!!!*)
This session took place in La Libertad beachbreak. I had just gotten dropped off at my ex-stepdad's beach house and ran to get my board. As I paddled out, I noticed that there were long lulls between sets. I tried setting up in the middle of the pack (three surfers strong, all friends of mine) and was having no luck catching any decent waves. I paddled East a ways, toward a left I call El Arenal, because it breaks at a pretty permanent sandbar. Wave after wave kept coming. They were 2-4' and I had a peak on my frontside to myself. The waves were coming in quickly and broke fast. I caught a couple and started pumping and pumping, getting my speed up. I tilted my shoulders to my right and leaned back. I went down the face of the wave and smacked the whitewater with a backhand snap. I'd keep pumping and go for floaters when the right merged with the left. Wave after wave came in, almost identical. I surfed until it was dark. As it got darker, the takeoffs became scarier because it was harder to see the trough in the backlit conditions. I liked this session because of the fun atmosphere, the sunset, and the fact that after every wave, I'd jump off my board and walk back towards the peak.
This session took place at the so-called secret spot in El Salvador. Pando was in school, so Chamba and I had the entire point/reef break to ourselves. The waves were about 5-8', all rights. We surfed from 3-5:30. The premise was pretty simple: Line up at the take-off marker (an almendra tree) and watch for the sets. Adjust your position according to incoming wave, paddle hard, pop up and throw yourself over the ledge. This spot is always a challenge for me, because it often consists of taking off late. This spot deserves all the credit for my (questionable) backside arsenal of moves. I remember catching one wave, with Chamba paddling out from the last bomb, and going up the face trying to get some speed going. I bobbled and almost ate it. I made it down and was rewarded with a nice face section. I carved back up and threw my weight to my left, resulting in a satisfying ssssshhhh sound as the spray hit the water behind the wave. aaaahhhhh... This session is also memorable because I got Dengue fever the next day and was sidelined for ten days.
On this cloudy day, I went up to Beacons. It looked pretty classic, and not too many people. I paddled out and was kind of bummed about the gloomy weather. But the waves still looked great. I made it outside relatively dry and paddled south towards a seldom-surfed peak. The wave would jack up and it would stay that way for a while before pitching a mush ball. It wasn't hollow at all. The shoulder was sssssooooo glassy and steep. I would drop in late, do a very slight bottom turn and explode towards the lip. I was not surfing well on this day, my timing was way off, but I was able to do a couple of satisfying floaters. I also remember a silky-smooth cutback I was able to do, thanks to the glassy water surface. I surfed for about two and a half hours. My hands got numb from the cold and I got lobster claw, so I had to go in because I could no longer paddle.
On this day I made my usual trek up the coast. Everything looked decent, but I knew that the farther north I went, the better it would be because of the swell direction. I decided to surf Grandview. It was about 10 AM and the sun was out so I trunked it. It was glassy, and it seemed that only groms were out. I paddled out just south of the stairs and duckdove a few. Before long, these bumps would start pitching into these full-on barrels. I remember dropping in and immediately doing a snap-stall, followed by pumping in the barrel. The longest one I got was three seconds, but I ate it on all of them. Still, I got some nice tube views and managed a few snaps off the top towards the end of my session. I left the water very satisfied and cheerful.
This session took place just south of fifteenth street. I paddled out with my friend Forrest. WE WERE THE ONLY ONES OUT!!! I don't know if it was because of the events that had taken place the day before or what, but it was empty. We couldn't believe it. I again was trunking it, this time at 8 AM. The waves were so steep, it was unreal. I would drop in and do a turn off the top, and then, if I made that would smash the whitewater and float down to the trough. Forrest bagged some nice ones as well, it was cool to see him with a big grin on his face on his longboard. I also invented a move I haven't been able to imitate since then. A roundhouse cutback, but, instead of snapping when I got to the foam, I did a floater as the lip was coming towards me AND I EVEN PULLED IT. True story. :o)
I was in Playa Hermosa Costa Rica on this Friday afternoon surfing in a strange land where I knew no one. It was great. The waves were 5-7' and reeling. The lefts were barreling like crazy and for some reason, I was dominating them. I was definitely at the top of the pecking order, I felt like Gomes at Pipeline. I remember one wave in particular in which I dropped in late bottom-turned and pumped hard. I could hear the fin of my temporary board howling from the speed, I figured it was a little loose or asymmetrical. Then I rose up and did a huge snap at the top and met the lip, which catapulted me onto the flats. In retrospect, I should've stalled for the barrel, since it was so hollow on that one. Next time.
I was at Del Mar for this super sesh. Either I've gotten a lot better or the crowd at 15th St has mellowed out, because I felt like I was the best one out there. I went up towards the top on one wave and it was a mushy lip. I tapped the lip and went into a semi-tailslide, my trailing arm in the water. Pulled it nicely and continued on down the line to do a floater, but then I fell. Also, on a right this time, I dropped in late bottom-turned hard and did a sick snap at the top. I got hung up on the lip, but then I continued down the face and did a nice cutback. When I rebounded off the whitewash, my tail slid out. I didn't recover from the slide, but damn, it looked good (or so I thought at the time).
WOW! Seaside was double-overhead+ Del Mar was maxed out and as I drove north I saw a perfect, HUGE left peeling. I abandoned my plan to surf Cardiff Reef and immediately pulled into the mondo-lot. There were lots of closeouts this day and I was definitely on edge with the sets. After taking several beatings duckdiving, I spotted a mellow right coming towards me. I paddled hard and looked back once more. WHOA, maybe it wasn't so mellow. I thought to myself, "I'm taking all these beatings anyway, and I'm in position for it, might as well go." The offshores did their best to keep me from catching it. I buckled down and went down the face sideways so I wouldn't get sectioned off. The wave jacked up and I gazed into the jaw of this beastly right, running towards me like a freight train and quickly passing me by. Bummer. I kicked my board up in the air and took the punishment, during which I almost lost a booty.
