March Mayhem

[Major Lazer]

Fug Slopeysands..... really don't like that wave. Unless the winds are up I am taking my $ elsewhere at the moment.

[pra_ggresion]

Haha, yeah I was just joking about that part.

[Tex]

Everyone knows 3RD Creek is the real deal.

[Tex]

ML....I think you and all the ss locs think exactly the same way on that spot.

[smithgrind]

Fug Slopeysands..... really don't like that wave. Unless the winds are up I am taking my $ elsewhere at the moment.

Which wave, dub star? Plenty of different waves to rag on down there

[Major Lazer]

Well there is one wave down there........ but it only breaks few and far between. I'll report back on the reasons why the place is overrated IMO.

Was playing tour guide over there Fri and Sat. Small mushy weak wind swell. Cold spring north wind. Not to gusty, but cut right through you unless you were one of the many Benders with puffy jackets. Chilly on the beach! Took my girls out, but nothing for Dad to get to excited to paddle out for. Time to get 7'6" mid length pop out out of storage.

March was good though. To much driving as usual, but flip flopped from Hood to Coast and scored some fun days. Surf was better than expected, but not expecting to much for April. Gravel grinding season is close, so looking forward to less car time and more on the bike.

[Spent]

March ended OK. Dawnie on the central coast. Looked like shite at dead low tide but the family were in bed and I had a couple of hour window so I paddled out anyway. Took awhile to find a peak and then got a few tiny close out tubes until the tide pushed in opening up some shoulders. The single fin felt really nice on the hollow ones. Barely any one out. Got two and half hours of some surprisingly punchy waves considering the lackluster swell. Then the wind came up around 10am and it was off to Otter Slop with the daughter and foamy. After she got bored I took her board for a spin. First board I've ridden this year (Apart from the 'step up' on New Years Day ...) that wasn't my mid length egg. Felt good. Think I'm ready to get quadtastic again but fearing the jump from 7'2" to 5'8"

[Major Lazer]

Felt good. Think I'm ready to get quadtastic again but fearing the jump from 7'2" to 5'8"

Now or never for the most part...... will be hard not to ride that new board from about now until Sept-Oct.

[Clamchowdah]

I too made the trek down to SS on Saturday. Decent enough day to whip out the LB and had some fun in the slop. Good vibes for the most part but still Will never understand the passive aggressive attitudes and snaking in waist high mush. It wasn’t even that crowded out. Still got some good reps in and staying tuned for this weekends swell and wind, would love to get one more Strait run in before summer duldrums hit

[Tex]

I have gotten some freak spring swell up in the SDOJ...always a good time.

[Tex]

HOLD Up....ML...you are actually Dub!?!?!??! f@#K dude....I never knew.

[Tex]

I was looking at that swell for SS on Sat....didnt look good enough for me to pull the trigger. Plus I had been up on Orcas for the past week. That skate park is ill and they were repairing all the cracks. Sun on Orcas is so freakingly amazing. Rain on Orcas is kind of brutal.

[BOX]

A couple of weeks ago my back started feeling super sore and tight. I’m an active guy, so I figured it was from a hard workout or something. I popped some Advil and shrugged it off. It gave me some trouble for a day or two, but on the last Sunday in March I woke up feeling fine, the weather was good, so I grabbed my board and headed out to Agate.

The conditions weren’t too bad, but something wasn’t right for me off the start. Barely could get anything going. The water was a bit rough and at one point I got knocked off my board and took a huge trip through the spin cycle. After that my back was fckd. Popping up was beyond painful (and not just to watch as usual) and I could barely stand on my board. I was in crazy pain that night and the next day I could barely move. I’m just now finally able to put on my shoes and socks without pain, though it’s still pretty tight to bend.

I haven’t been to the doc to confirm, but based on the symptoms, I’m pretty sure I have a herniated disk that’s aggravating my sciatic nerve. Don’t know what kicked it off, but that day at Agate was apparently the straw that broke the Box’s back. Anyone else here ever deal with sciatica? What did you do to get yourself back in the water? Other than popping pain pills like skittles, I’ve been taking it easy and stretching regularly. I’m slowly getting better, but I tried doing a couple dry land pop-ups earlier today and it seems like I still have a ways to go before even thinking about heading back out.

Worst part is, I’m leaving for Hawaii in a couple of days and looks like surfing the Big Island is going to be a no-go.

[Major Lazer]

Sorry to hear that BOX. I have had back problems for over a decade now, but my 1st acute incident was similar to yours. I had been getting this mildish pain in my butt, like literally for a while. And then one day after a fun and rare uncrowded Spring session at the Slot at Steamer Lane my back tightened up and I had the same limitations pain you describe.

It wasn't the session itself that did it, it was just the tipping point and probably when the bulge from a herniated disk reached critical mass. I went to see an ortho at Stanford and was diagnosed with a L4 herniation and sciatica. I started PT and rehab which he recommended over surgery, but the kicker was I had a month long trip booked to OZ and NZ a month after it happened. Long story short is it got a little better but ended up trashing it surfing and driving all around on my trip.

Over time it healed and I've had incidents and another herniation where it has locked up on me for months at a time and I still have pain fairly regularly, but the acute incidents are pretty rare these days. If I feel something, I lay off it for a while. So if I were you do your research on rehab and dont surf or do anything that will aggravate it for a while and let it heal. I also think stress plays into it as well. So hang in there and do what you can.

Its not the end of your surfing life, which is what I thought when I did it and was one of the reasons I moved from the surf rich zone of the Bay Area and SC to the surf desert that is Portland.

[X-squid]

March was the first full month I have not surfed in 5 years... that kind of depresses me. No, really depresses me. Too much middle age life going on currently.