Well isn’t the grass always greener on the other side(or in this case blacker and whiter)!? Just like I always miss the east coast when I am not here, I was missing La Jolla a bit this morning too when I was watching the cam. I couldn’t help but think “boy, a 3/2 and no booties sure would be nice for a session” haha. I never really get homesick during the days no matter where in the world I am, but at night it’s a different story. Oh well, I’ll be back soon enough. Here is what I was looking at this a.m..

It’s not Mc’d’s but I’m lovin’ it! I enjoy the North East so much. Last weekend I was surfing a spot where a kid was hailed by his grandparents to come in and get some water and eat a little left over turkey real quick. It was the first time I had seen anything of the sort but sure enough, in ten minutes he was ready to go for another few hours. How awesome!! And then today, there were some fun waves around town and even better yet it felt like a ghost town. In fact, the only person I bumped into before paddling out was a 50ish year old lady who stated, “this isn’t a good beach to surf, you should go south”. I must have given her the crazy eyes because she instantly retracted and said “BUT I don’t know anything about surfing”. Haha. Hard to beat fun peaks with only one friend out…or at least that’s what I think. Here are some of the empty lineups I passed.

Summer Sessions is on fire lately! In case you didn’t see this photo in a recent ESM online feature here it is:

Tyler is one of the owners of the shop and was in Senegal with me. He has been trying out all sorts of new equipment and it doesn’t look like the 5mm booties are slowing him down a bit! Such a well composed photo. Congrats to Ty and Brian Nicholson photography for capturing a gem!

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.

Warren Smith

Craig Anderson

My buddy Natty who got the shots. Thanks amigo!

I was super excited to find out ESM(Eastern Surf Magazine) included a little blurb on me in their new issue. Thanks guys!

I know a lot of you out west haven’t had the opportunity to see the magazine before but I recommend checking it out as you will see lots of good surfers you won’t see elsewhere shredding some beautiful backdrops. They have the current issues on their site and it is easy to browse. The current one has lots of cool photos and stories dealing with super storm Sandy.

To check out the whole issue online just click the following link: http://www.easternsurf.com/ISSUES/ESM_ISSUE_165/

My friend showed me a thread that a guy had started going on Facebook a couple days ago and I honestly forget his name or I would give him due credit(leave a message below if you like and I’ll approve it). A few people I know, along with a few I’ve heard of, and some I have never met yet. It was basically about crowding in the New England area. Just a little venting between friends and obviously nothing wrong with that at all. I even found a few comments super funny. One that made me laugh most was a person I’ve never met(yet have a picture he took of me as my background photo on FB at the moment) Brian Nevins to Everybody’s good friend Ralph Fratello basically(and I’m translating without approval or affirmation of my translation, but I bet I’m close) saying “we love you Ralph, and yes the waves were very fun. Now can you let us chat?” lol. Here is simply my take on what I read:

I must have been in the same lot with yourself and everybody else involved in that thread. After assessing the conditions and noting other factors such as over amped out of towners(myself included), a couple cordial gentlemen and people who couldn’t even put together a “hello”. I decided THAT was not the scene nor wave style I wanted get into. I drove away quietly to go find one of the many other options around. I wound up surfing with a good friend and a few nice kids and I’m pretty sure we all had a great time.

Here’s what I snuck off to, and maybe due to karma(maybe not) I got some fun waves with some cool people and even luckier yet Jon Walsh just so happened to have his lens pointed towards me on this gem.
I hope everyone got some fun waves recently and remembered to have fun. That’s what I went to the beach to do. You too, right? IT’S SO EASY TO BE COOL, and it usually makes everything more fun. So remember. When a parking spot is full, sometimes it’s a sign to park somewhere else. _!!!/

I have lots of cool/funny stories to share and one of these events inspired me to ask my amigo Joel Feid to do another guest article on What the Schnell?! Here’s a little background of one story. So I’ve been in New England since arriving back from Senegal and the seasons have certainly changed since my last visit 6 weeks ago. The water is now getting into the 40’s and the air with wind chill was 22 when I paddled out this morning. There are some things that you certainly don’t want to do here that in other climates might not be of any consequence. Long story short, I ran out of gas for the first time ever going to check the surf the other morning, and this is what helped fuel Joel’s piece. Here it goes…

That was a solid streak – Thanks long holiday weekend and ocean storm! 3 great days of waves followed by some super fun leftovers today if you knew where to look. Mr. Schnell came back through town after a trip to Senegal and I was looking forward to some stories. He’s about as amped as I am to surf whether it’s knee high slop or overhead barrels. Adult groms basically. Well things don’t always go according to plan…When a 630 surf check call is answered by “what does it sound like when you’re running out of gas?”, I should have known it would be a gem of a morning. To avoid details and a drawn out blog here’s some tips on HOW NOT TO DAWN PATROL!

– See how to hype a swell. This will get you amped for that dawn patrol you were hyping up all night – https://whattheschnell.com/2012/10/25/take-this-advice/
– Borrow a friend’s car and don’t check the gas level. Especially an extremely fuel efficient truck like a Durango. Then hop on the interstate and assume you’ll make it to your destination. Worst case, you run out of gas and your bud that’s almost at the spot will gladly detour, buy you gas and find you on the highway so you can add to the count in the lineup.
– Milk the break that’s been firing and empty the past couple mornings. Surfing is not trendy so crowds are never a problem. Friends also don’t talk about the spot they surfed if they had a good session.
– Take your own car. No carpooling allowed. Vehicles are hard to recognize, especially if there’s any form of stickers on them. It will be harder to know if it’s good somewhere by the lineup of cars and anybody pulling up will be stoked to see all their friends at the same spot.
– There’s six guys in the water with multiple peaks – damn it’s crowded! I wish it was all Quebexicans!!
– Document it. If people can’t see it, did it happen?
– Once you’ve had a sesh sharing some waves with people you know, go rant about the crowds online without naming names. That won’t point any fingers – social media is so 2010. No one will ever see it.
– You know that term “you should have been here yesterday?”. Well, you should have. See “document it”

On that note, I think that’s a Thanksgiving swell people in New England will remember for a while. Most of us take ourselves too seriously. Lighten up, appreciate the area we live in and the fact that most crowds are familiar faces. (Disclaimer: I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t mention how much I can’t stand the crowding that has plagued most of our spots in the past 10 plus years. Unfortunately it’s here to stay. But that’s why we having a pecking order, right?!)

Some notes can be taken from this photo. Notice how Joel’s whole body, not just eyes and face are in the barrel? That’s a good idea and some people would even say that is what’s required before telling your buddies you got stuffed in a tube. Just takes practice, and we all bent only at the waist at one point. Even Slater! (Which Slater, Kelly, Dylan, Sean or Evan is up to you to decide as we are all our own judge and jury…)

Some notes can be taken from this picture too. Notice the idiot who is freezing holding the brand new $20 gas can on the side of a freeway(actually that’s a lie. It’s a toll way and they LOVE charging for it. Especially when you forget you need to carry cash to drive back here!)? This is a BAD idea! When freezing is ten degrees warmer than the current outside air temp, running out of gas can be more than just a pain in the ass, it can be dangerous! However, since we’ve all done dumb stuff, remember to help others when they are in the middle of their “crisis”. Haha. Thanks again Joel!

I have dreamed of visiting Dakar, Senegal for about the last six years, which was when I first stumbled upon its geography on google earth. So obviously when the opportunity arose a couple weeks ago I took off to Senegal with a one day notice and I had no idea how things were gonna go. What I did know is that my buddy Tyler McGill would be arriving the morning before me and had lined up the place to stay on Ngor Island(Now for those of you who don’t know Tyler, I think he may be the only person I know that is “luckier” than me. He parlayed winning a bet walking from Boston to New York into a CBS gig in which he got to do all sorts of cool stuff. I’ll save a lot of time and just let you google him on your own). So he only mentioned that the place was owned by the now famous Senegalese rapper AKON! Now if you didn’t google Tyler yet, it is no stretch to think he may be friends with him and that was my first thought. It also worked out that my girlfriend Jen was able to sneak away and having heard AKON owned the place I figured she’d be in for quite a treat! Now remember this part of the story for later.
At 5:30a.m. on the 10th we headed to the airport in SD. Upon arriving in Chicago we saw our connecting flight was delayed and it was going to make it almost impossible to make our flight from Washington DC to Dakar. Sure enough, long story short we wound up missing our flight in DC(see my previous post for more details if you haven’t read it already). This wound up costing us two days but we eventually got another flight and made it there. After escaping the mobs outside the airport and getting a boat out to the small island of Ngor we made it to our room. First glance revealed Tyler was passed out under his mesquito net with beads of sweat dripping off his face. Bad news is that it was 7a.m. Haha. He woke up as we entered and I looked up to see a ceiling fan not spinning. Of course my first comment was “scared to use the ceiling fan cowboy!?” I knew something was up when the look on his face was half “death stare” and half “you’re screwed” haha.
If you’re not familiar with Ngor island it’s the first wave the guys surf in Africa in Endless Summer I. However those guys stayed across the way in the government hotel. Apparently ever since then the island has decided to keep its cool small island vibe and pass on being connected to the power grid of the mainland. Any electricity is generated by wind and solar and in very small quantities. VERY COOL(unless you brought 3 cameras an iPhone a gopro and a MacBook Pro lol)!!! I could now see as well why the ceiling fan I joked to Ty about wasn’t spinning or cooling anything down lol. Also the toilets were 100% manual. Again, fine for Ty and I, but not if you brought your girlfriend and it’s NOT what she was expecting haha. This was why I mentioned AKON owning the camp earlier was because we were envisioning this crazy lush compound haha. Anyway, after a quick freakout Jen adapted very well and realized how cool it was to experience the “local style” as I put it. AND after spending ten days there I totally recommend staying at Ngor island surf camp as Jesper who runs the camp and their staff are amazing people! Just go knowing that you shouldn’t be an energy hog haha. There are a few fun waves on the island or if you want, Alassane, Kouka and Mua will take you to any of the other great waves on the mainland. The other great thing about limited electricity is that you get to met and ACTUALLY socialize with tons of cool people from all over the world. I had only drank 8 beers this whole year up until this trip but i probably drank 50+ more along with some local moonshine “whiskey” since there were plenty of Germans and beers on the island and most nights were passed drinking and playing the card game “bullshit”. It was so great not having people on their phones 24/7. The vibe in the water was great as well. Everyone is just so happy to be surfing and “localism” isn’t even a thought. I had so much fun sharing beers, waves and good vibes with Jen, Ty and everyone else we met.
It was an amazing trip and I couldn’t wait to get back and plug in to share. Of course my first meal back in the US landed me with food poisoning(ironic?), wrecking thanksgiving but oh well, I’m still so thankful! As I said we had lots of cameras etc so I’ll be posting more pictures to follow but here are some from two of them. Sorry for the delay on posting anything. All pics are by myself or Jennifer Pitman. Enjoy!

@mattberky New England clips would be coming sooner than later but…
After 5 years with not one issue my MacBook fizzled today. Sniffle sniffle 😥😭
Here’s a couple stills from the video for now.
_!!!/