Larry has arrived. Here are some early shots from Wednesday and Thursday in the gallery below... plus the Dawn Patrol stats from my watch. The wave conditions are unfolding as I predicted, with mostly long walled-up lines and close-outs. It is however getting more consistent and larger by the hour. Just to compare sessions from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, I caught twice as many waves in the same span of time. But the initial swell started to show in the early morning hours on Wednesday, and by lunch time yesterday it was a solid waist to chest with an occasional bigger roller coming across the sandbar. Then the tide got a little too deep for my spot. There were long waits between the better sets for most of the day. Before dark it got a lot more rideable on the lower tide.
Then this morning things continued to improve. The lines were broken up on the lower tide and the south wind helped create a more peaky situation. It was still a fast walled-up line, but most waves were makable all the way to the beach if you worked it right. GPS was malfunctioning on the watch due to a passing storm- giving me credit for a 435 yard ride (which I deleted) but also missing several waves, while miscalculating distances. On one particular wave, I took off on the outside, at E street, and rode it all the way to the sand on G street... and the watch registered 37 yards?? Yeah no, it was 150 yards easy. But it's difficult to pay attention to stats while you're in the middle of a surf session, let alone troubleshoot an apple watch while you're in the ocean.
ADD IT UP
I was able to get 4 different boards in the water on Wednesday and Thursday, and that made things interesting. Here are my Larry surfs so far, by the numbers...
9'0 Vec Performance Longboard - 1 session, 51 minutes, 6 waves, 275 yards
6'3 Lost Puddle Fish - 1.75 sessions, 129 minutes, 18 waves, 928 yards
6'2 Vec Crowd Control Model - .25 session, 30 minutes, 4 waves, 318 yards
9'6 Christenson Bandito - 1 session, 72 minutes, 12 waves, 653 yards
Early Larry- Wed + Thu = 4 sessions, 282 minutes, 40 Waves, 2174 yards
Long Larry- 129 yards, Lost Puddle Fish
Fast Larry- 12.6 mph, Christenson Bandito
Top Larry- Thursday 3:35pm session takes the prize so far. The conditions were waist to chest and the tide was almost dead low. There was more east in the swell, with some south wind crossing it up. I rode the Lost Puddle Fish and caught 12 waves. Two waves were in the 100 yard range, and six of them were near 12 mph or slightly faster. That's actually pretty fast for sub-head high, on Nantasket Beach. Waves go slow here. I credit the Puddle Fish and its above average ability to generate speed. I rode it as a thruster with Rob Machado Tri-Keels, which is my favorite fin set-up for this board when it's peaky.
PHOTO GALLERY & STAT SLIDES
FORECAST FOR FRIDAY
Overall, these surf conditions are way better than flat, and the best is yet to come. Tomorrow COULD be really good if the forecast holds up. We'll just have to wait and see. I've been tricked too many times to get my hopes up. I hope you're getting waves where you are! In my neighborhood?? Send me a message, let's Go Surf