Small, But Better Than Nuthin'

At least this gray and overcast May Gray morning dished up some light offshores at the 8 o'clock paddle out. It stayed that way for about 20 minutes before it went dead calm and glassy. The small, but weak nearshore wind swell driven waves perked up and delivered a few fun shoulders before the south easterlies came up and it went to crumbles with light chop. But I'm not complaining. It was miles better than a week ago today.

I surfed the Coffey 6-10 with quad set-up again, only this time I was able to put it on rail in some surfable faces. The board goes good, and the quads allow for smooth rail to rail surfing, with stability. The double fins on the rail really do add drive to the board's performance. The fins I'm using now are straight forward and generic. No mysto foils based on the NACA airfoil playbook. (No knock on NACA, I just have no idea how they work.) But my Future quads work good, even without the lift the NACA foils are supposed to provide. I've got a set of Pavel quads (Futures not LocBox) from a previous life that I think I'll slap in for my next surf. It'll be fun to compare the two sets. Changing fins is almost like changing surfboards. Amazing!

This is my last surf for a few days. I teach tomorrow and administer the final on Saturday. Anyway, this is Memorial Day weekend, the tourists will be thick as fleas on a dog's belly. M will get the bbq goods tomorrow and we'll lock down for the weekend. Beer, bible and bbq...sounds good to me.

And finally, thanks. Thanks to the thousands who have served, and who have bled and died so that I can spend my time here on earth, in this country, in my town and home, with the people I love and who love me. Your sacrifice cannot be repaid. Your actions were not in vain, your lives were not wasted. We will honor you forever.

"According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity.

The freed slaves re-interred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard and built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard. This was a daring action for them to take in the South shortly after the North's victory. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day."


May 21, 2009 (Th)

In: 0805
Out: 0940
AT= 49-52F
WT= 51F
Wx: Low clouds and overcast
Tide: 3.0' Rising to 3.3'
Wind: Offshores to calm to moderate south easterlies
Sea Surface: Glassy to Light to moderate wind chop
6-10 Ward Coffey EPS (Marko Styrolite)/Epoxy Custom

Fin set-up: Thruster/Quad with Future Fins AM1 and Future 350 sidebite quad set-up.
Bathymetry: Sand bars
Deep Water Swell and Wave Face Heights CDIP Archive
Buoy: NWS (Nearshore)
0730: 1.0 feet @ 10.5 WNW
0800: 1.3 feet @ 10.5 WNW (1-3 ft. wave faces)
0830: 1.3 feet @ 10.5 WNW
0900: 1.3 feet @ 10.5 WNW (1-3 ft. wave faces)
0930: 1.3 feet @ 10.5 WNW