Offshore

Clean conditions with a moderate NE breeze. Waist to chest high with fair shape. Peaks are popping up in all the usual places; sets are a little walled up but there are some shoulders on the reef if you paddle hard enough. Not really all that juicy but way better than yesterday. 14 people out paddling here and there trying to stay warm and most likely shivering uncontrollably in between sets.

Sun is out, sky is clear and it's Friday; what more could you want? Luke, that's a rhetorical question; no answer necessary.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Clean Micro Lines

Clear, crisp, calm and cold. Ankle high lines have kept the line up vacant. Not much wave action to speak of but 3 guys are giving it a go at the sandbar in front of the grass. Very lake like. A good day to bust out that SUP you have secretly stashed in your garage? Come on; the one you don't want any of us to know that you have yet you need to get out on for some practice. In some uncrowded yet familiar waters. Now would be that time.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Lines Out to the Horizon!

Clean, crisp lines as far as you can see. Translating into shoulder to head high surf breaking close in due to the high tide. Smooth, clean faces with razor edged lips. The sets are kinda walled up but the in between stuff looks pretty good. 8 guys out. The reef is the sweet spot this morning.

Now if we could figure out this runoff caused pollution...

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Eye Candy: Vans Triple Crown Sunset; Finals

It was big; 8-12 feet.  Not epic north shore big.  But big enough.  Plus this is Sunset Beach; where even on small days the rip can take you out to sea in a split second if you don't know what you are doing or right back out to the line up if you do.  It was cleaner than the previous day but still warbly and bumpy with side shore winds. Every once in a while some bombs (15 to 20 feet by my reckoning) would show up and plow through the line up. No takers.
Four finalists; John Florence (Hawaii), Adam Melling (Austrialia), Michel Bourez (Tahiti) and Hank Gaskell (Hawaii) had all made it through 4 days of intense heats and sometimes sketchy conditions.  John was very relaxed and truly looked like he was having fun.  Adam and Michel were power surfers, throwing down some powerful moves and taking some incredible beatings and kept on ticking.  Hank (as he said on the stand after the event) was just glad to be surfing at Sunset with just 3 other guys; anything else would just be the frosting on the cake.
Check out some of their waves:

First up,  Hank Gaskell

John Florence rips one off the top

Adam Melling lip bash

Michel Bourez cut back

Adam cranks back into the oncoming face

Michel sets up for...

this!

John follows up with a cover up of his own 

Now for some of the barrels of the heat:

John starts off with this incredible barrel on the west bowl (6 wave sequence)

 Michel comes right back with this:

 Hank in the green room.

Michel comes up with this incredible wave that covers him up twice; makes the first one but gets pinched on the second (7 wave sequence):

John then drives right into this

Adam charges into this smoking, frothing barrel and makes it out the other end (6 wave sequence)

 Quietly on the hunt, with 2 minutes left, John drops into the wave that puts it out of reach for everyone else.

To the west, Kammie Land.  Check out the rip and boil in the foreground.  Yikes!

John wins first, Michel gets second, Adam third and Hank brings home fourth.

All photos copyright Gary Erbeck