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Got
good surf epics? Send em off to me directly. (See link below) Just make sure they're 650-700 pixels wide. NO bigger NO smaller. In fact if you have any questions about the size, email me first and I'll write back. Start shooting crackie!! Ralph's Pic Of The Week |
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If you want to access the Pic of the week from past weeks click here. Archives |
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July
20th, 2008 And
it didn't really matter how far the Cape stuck out to block this
south swell, there was such a long fetch, that it was only a matter of
time before the lines from this ground swell swung wide and found their
way to the Northern beaches. And really, the crowds were not that bad all week long. There were many days, when I didn't see anyone I knew, for an hour or two. Then, there were days, when I saw everyone. It was a wave fest unlike anything we've had since 1995. Why can't all the summer swells be like BERTHA? Anybody out there got an aunt, grandmother, or Mom named Bertha? If you do, call her an tell her we all love her. OK last week I made the comment about how none of our local surfers are doing the things that most pros are doing on a regular basis. I want to retract that statement and say I was wrong. Why? Well, one of those Bertha days I saw Casey Lockwood do a HUGE backside air and stick it on the landing. I saw him do several 360s as well. And I saw Mike Stanek do a big air and run through several moves that had a few of us doing double takes too. So
I guess it's not that we don't have the talent, we just don't have the
consistent playing fields. If we had surf like Bertha all Summer
long, well, we'd have more than our share of hot surfers. I'm convinced
of that. No question. I'm
sorry to say, that I witnessed several myself that were clearly unwarranted
by those who should know better, and by those who just don't know any
better. It's
kind of a rehashing of last summer's RALPH'S TIP OF THE WEEK. There
are really just a few rules that need to be mentioned. But they need to
be mentioned again. Otherwise, somebody's gonna get hurt. |
And
there were several injuries this week as well. Broken legs, stitches, and
ruptured ear drums. Unfortunately, I was the recipient of the latter. It'
was not the first time. In fact, it's the third time in my surfing life, that I've had it happen. And, if you talk about irony, well this latest one takes the cake. I was driving up the coast on Wednesday to finally get in the water and shoot video when I mentioned to Mackey V that it was back in the summer 1989 that I had shot movie footage during Hurricane Gabrielle. I had at that time (or so I thought) shot some incredible footage. Only to find out that the condensation with the housing I was using had killed the film. I think you all know where this is going. Sure enough, the first hour and a half my video camera and housing was saturated with condensation. It was only after a couple hours, that I could start to get the footage that I was hoping for. The only problem was, the crowds got thicker, and once people see the housing, well, they become blind to all others. Including surf etiquette. It was frustrating to say the least. Yet, I swam and shot for 5 hours that day. Treading water. No fins. No flotation device. Just constant swimming, and a thing we Marines were trained to do in Boot Camp, called "Drown Proofing". I'm happy to say, that it still works. But the real parallels to 1989 and Hurricane Gabrielle was, that was the last time I ruptured my ear drum. The first was in 1978 while surfing alone in February. If you've ever had this happen to you, well you know how freaky it is. Complete vertigo and throbbing pain in your ear. Not fun. So when it happened to me on Thursday morning during a super fun, super charged, surf session, well it bummed me out. Dam...I was so upset. I still am. It's my own fault. I looked for my ear plugs before paddling out, but got so impatient, that I said, to hell with them and went out against my own better judgment without them. It was a costly mistake. I pulled into a hollow inside section on my backhand, and got the full force of the lip drilled into my left ear. I hung in there for several seconds, before the thing finally drilled me into the sand. I came up in the first stages of Vertigo land and a metallic taste in my throat. I tried to fight it off and paddled back out. It was then, that I had to face a set wave and did a simple duck dive. Well, that was it. Total out of control spinning. Sick to my stomach, I closed my eyes (something I learned after the first two times) and caught the next wave in on my stomach. When
I hit the beach I could not walk for several minutes. Chris and
Jill Caisey came to my aid (Thank you guys). But I knew, there
was nothing to do except cry. I did not, but I did curse myself. Out of
the water for several days, weeks, months? Who knows? I only know this...there's
another storm coming up the coast. Cristobal. I need to figure
out how to cover my ear, so that no water gets in so I can surf this new
swell. And you know me, I'll figure something out. Duct tape? Remember
my friends...Surfing heals all wounds.... |
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Yesterday
1980 Jay "Rat" Hammer on his Aipa Stinger
(Above)
Long boards, short boards, no boards. It was open season out there Friday
afternoon.
(Above)
Another BERTHA DAY.
2008 Today-July , 2008 Before Bertha
Today 2008 PARTING SHOT- Head Dip and Rinse
Above)
Don't really know what's going on here. But my guess is disaster is one
second away. Olsen
 Click On Wave to Go Back to The Top.
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