Newsletter

Newsletter May 3, 2004

Ok how many of you actually cranked the AC over the weekend? That was something else. 82 degrees in Hampton...and there were Tiny Elvis Waves too!

Someone asked me this week if "we're into the summer pray for surf mode yet". I told 'em we're always in the pray for surf mode. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. But I knew what they meant. It won't be long before we're all jumping at ripples. "Dude it's a solid 2 FEET we're on it!"

We got people coming and going on surf vacations this past week. The Evans family took off to Hawaii as did Heather, Nohea and Julia. Word has it that Rick, Matt and Mikey Evans got waves on both the North Shore and the South Shore. People overlook the fact that Hawaii is perfect in the Spring. Most of the heroes have left and the BIG surf has started to come down. For an East Coast Surfer you can't beat it. Marky J and Bobby Morgan have struck deep into Mainland Mexico...olas grande!

Hey here's something funny to report. The other day I dropped my son "Mackey V" off with his buddies Jesse Gould and Kyle Howard at the Wall to go surfing. Now these kids are just 11 and 12 yrs old. I think I'm a semi responsible adult so I felt like I should stay and watch them for a while. But I had to go to work. So I left them out there surfing in the clean 2-3' swell. They had it to themselves. My office has several computers. I simply turned on one of the monitors to the Wave Cam and I was able to watch them all surf. When they finally came out of the water Max called me on his cell phone. "Dad come and get us please." I told them to "Get back out there! The surf looks good! I'm looking at it right now!" They all laughed and then they paddled back out. You can call it a wave cam but I'm calling it a baby sitting cam!

Pray for Surf. Pray for Peace.

Ralph

Our man Phil Carey snapped this shot of an impending set wave about to unload on this dude's head in Tavarua's infamous Cloud Break. Are you one of those who think that duck diving's not important? Think again. You better know how to duck dive when you travel and you better know how to duck dive around here.
Dive deep and often. photo by Phil Carey

YESTERDAY
This is a photo of my old dog Caley. It was taken in 1974 at the Wall. We used to push her into waves and take photos of her. I have some old movies of Caley Surfing the Wall on a closed out day. Infact, she's in my movie THE WALL 2000-2001.
She was a good companion and she loved the ocean and all the Surfers. When I'd go surfing, she'd wait for me by the water's edge. She'd check every single surfer who came out of the water to see if it was me. She had a decent bottom turn but couldn't get barreled for beans. We spread her ashes over 10th Street when she finally passed away 16 yrs later.
Surf dogs...they love us.

photo by Mitch Cirella