12-03
The surf up here has been mostly out of control for the past month…
Storm after storm set the rain gauges to spilling over…
All-time records were set…
Following that, we get a cold snap that lasted for a week
with snow and ice making the roads DANGEROUS…
After living up here for sixteen years I’m used to all of this by now,
but it was nice to see some east winds in the forecast,
coupled with a long interval swell of reasonable size…
So early in the morning I loaded up the Benz with boards and headed out in the dark…
(above) First light…
A short lived empty parking lot…
(above) Finally a break in the weather…
Mt. Rainier is the bulge on the horizon…
(above) 7:00 am
Swell: 6’ @ 13 sec..
Wind: SSE @ 10-20kt.
Air Temp: High 30’s
Water Temp: Getting cold…
Ready to Surf Factor: 13 on a scale of 10…
Board of Choice… 11’6”
This wasn’t a set wave…
The sets had about eight waves in ‘em…
Stepping up in size with each wave…
I was liking waves number four or five…
They were overhead to double overhead…
The wind got stronger until it was really hard to penetrate unless you were right there…You know what I’m talking about…
Combine that with the fact the other guys in the water were mostly on 6’3”s and really had no clue how to surf these conditions…
For me it was absolutely perfect…
Free range on the expanded playing field, on a conditions conquering machine…
It just doesn’t get much better…
I surfed for over three hours then went in with the peaking tide…
(above) Post session pics…
There are way more “surfers” out these cold days than there were five years ago…
Fortunately most of them get no further out than you see here…
Lots of unridden waves…!!!...
A shame and a blessing…
(above) Get ON the boards…
You ain’t walkin’ out to those…
You can see the wind factor pretty well here…
(above) The Olympics…
The air temp at the beach felt as cold as it might have felt on a summit…
And it’s not even winter yet…
(above) High tide slope on that wave…
Still worth paddling out to…
After a Snow-vember to remember,
a sunny, offshore day is just what I needed…
Bring on winter, if it’s gonna be like THIS…
(above) Every one of ‘em thinks they surf…
(above) Driving by The Shipyard, here a smaller one gets ready for launch…
Time to head home and take a nap…
Paul
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