Pleasant surprise

There’s been a lot of action here in New England since I arrived back from Africa. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post titled “how not to dawn patrol” I have a lot of cool stories to share. Here is another.
Generally there is a strong correlation between MY arriving at Logan international and WAVES arriving along the shores of the NorthEast. I don’t find too many kindred spirits like me that enjoy the extremes of New England, be it the accents, beauty or bone chilling water. There are a few however, and whenever I’m in town I try to meet up with them. On Friday I made a run to meet up with one of these friends Nathaniel Graham. When I pulled up with my buddy Ryan I could see Natty was already in the water and the waves although far from perfect looked like they offered potential for a good time.
It was freezing out and I mean this very literally, so a person doesn’t want to kill too much time outside putting on gear. I quickly hopped out to throw on my suit and to my surprise at the next car down was Craig Anderson and a couple other friendly guys. I said hello, told them I was shocked to see them(especially this time of year) and then wished them good luck hunting down some nuggets as I’d be excited to watch since I’m a huge fan and I wasn’t sure if we’d be surfing the same peak. I then ran out and began my own hunt for some of the good ones coming in. The conditions were kind of tricky but some would open up into some nice little left tubes. I managed to line up one of the bigger ones and was trying to backdoor it as that allows you to get an extra second in the barrel and draw a line that leads to a higher probability of exiting this particular wave. Of course being my first session coming from 75 degree water the 6mm booties had their way with me and I caught the toe on my board. Instantly I was getting jacked up WITH the lip instead of tucking just UNDER. As I was going over the falls upside down I noticed Craig paddling out and I could only hope that I was providing a good laugh. It was of course a great ice breaker(no pun intended) and I wound up chatting with him and the other guys for a bit. One of the other guys was Warren Smith, who like me had rented a place in the area and was enjoying how cool the area is and the recent run of waves. Another of the guys was living down in New York and they were all super cool and I had fun surfing with them. I also got to see my buddy DJ and it was actually his birthday. So happy bday bud! All in all it was a great session and I had a blast watching those guys. Natty got out early and let me steal a couple screen shots with their approval of course. Remember to check out Nattys blog which I have a link on the side. It’s called “the dump” so click and check out all the cool stuff he has been up to lately. Also check out what Warren and Craig have been up to as they were very nice and shredding with great style in some frigid water.