2013 Allstar in the Ocean

My big nemesis is trying to hit the ocean waves here in Maine. Trying to get swells, buoys, wave heights and winds all nailed down is a real struggle. Sometimes I get completely skunked because there’s no surf, the waves are way too big or it’s crazy windy. The last time I completely bailed is when my friend Chris said “wow the wind on the beach is worse than the top of Sugarloaf”. He was referring Sugarloaf Mountain, I knew that was bad.

I had a trip to Rhode Island planned to go see The Who play Quadrophenia and I have always wanted to check out the beaches down there. My wife and I were heading out the door for our trip and I looked at the webcam for Higgins Beach (http://www.higginsbeachproperties.com/id46.htm) and Magicseaweed.com and things looked really good, but in the back of my mind I know how hard it is to hit it right.

We get down to Southern Maine and find surfers in the ocean and pretty big waves going off. Un-organized and closing out but good sized, so I am definitely gonna try to paddle out.

The last time I tried this here I could barley get outside the beach break and when I did I almost shot down a wave onto the only rock around that “everyone knows about”. Except me I guess.

So I get in the 2013 Allstar and start to dig out through. I notice board surfers close to me struggling to get out also. One of these surfers just kinda looked at me and laughed and I thought maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.

And it wasn’t. After about 15minutes of digging in and getting bashed I made it out far enough for a medium sized, heavy closed out wave to land on my head, blowing my skirt and ripping my paddle out of my left hand. I remember thinking ” OK I am upside down and I can feel my boat filling up. This sucks”.

I rolled up and surfed that collapsed mess to the beach, time for a new strategy.

Leaving Maine we hit Rhode Island and slept just south of Providence. This was my first time in the Ocean State. I checked the web for wave forecasts and it looked tiny, 2 feet but zero breeze, sunny and 40 degrees. This has an outside chance. We make the short drive to the town of Narragansett and as soon as I get a look I can see some really nice waves right in town. I see some surfers headed out and find a place to change and paddle out. This wasn’t easy as this small touristy town was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The whole beach there was put into the middle of town, literally, but they are digging out.

It was so easy to paddle out and surf the waves. If you were patient enough you could wait for the bigger cleaner sets, but I just tried to catch all of them. It is so fun to launch into blunts and felixes, Pan ams and wave wheels. I have finally found the boat for me. The 2013 Allstar is a ridiculously fun play boat, especially on the medium sized waves i found in Narragansett. I have surfed the Atlantic in Maine, Florida and the beaches of Costa Rica. The Pacific off the coast of Oregon and La Push in Washington State, and this session in Rhode Island was right at the top.

Sometimes you just have to keep on pushing and eventually good things will happen. Oh and the 20132 Allstar just makes it that much more fun!

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQzQEkJC5FY[/youtube]