The sandbars of Nantasket are finally shifting back to better form, and the more sizable swells of winter have begun to arrive. I've missed a lot of them due to early sunsetting and having to work days. I did actually have an amazing session across the street from my house last week three days before Christmas. But if I'm really being honest here, I missed out on some epic sessions in Rhode Island on days when I didn't have to work, that in previous years I had pounced. What gives?
Blame it on being too lazy to drive, fear of getting skunked, or being stubborn about there not being waves across the street in Nantasket... I don't know. Some years I'm really feeling the stoke, others not so much. I've actually had two years in a row of not so much. In the span of my 35 years of surfing, there have been plenty of highs and lows. 2015 comes to mind as a high. This year was pretty low. But having that fun session last week, I've come to realize that I miss surfing. And it's absence is on me. I just need to make more effort. I'm going to own it.
The gallery below are some shots I took at the breaks around Nantasket from that day in December. It was on the small side, but it did get better once the tide dropped. I ended up surfing the mid tide down at the last bath house, Richie Burke Park if you read the signage. I got a few shoulder high race tracks on my 7'4 Sharp Eye Blowfish. The session capped off a year where my Rip Curl GPS Watch only documented 157 waves. Now there were at least a dozen sessions where I didn't wear the watch for various reasons, uncharged battery, forgot it at the house, extreme cold shutoff, etc... but more on that in my 2018 Recap blog.
Reviews Coming Soon:
I bought another new sled for this winter- 6'4 Lost Puddle Fish, and a new winter wetsuit- Rip Curl 5/4 Hooded. I also purchased a SoloShot3 to record some of my surf sessions, it's also got a streaming feature. Cool. I wanted to get motivated to start off the new year right and maybe generate some new content for the site. Hopefully the long-range forecast holds up and we get some more swell... and I'll tell you how the new gear works out. Stay tuned for future posts!