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1998

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1998

Postby Major Lazer » Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:26 pm

What we're you doing 20 years ago. Where were you surfing? How were the waves? What boards were you riding?
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Re: 1998

Postby Spent » Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:48 am

Good thread. I was 23 and surfing every day at that point. Well, every day there was swell. My life revolved around surf. Mostly surfed alone and had my stretch of coast back home in Wales dialed. Worked in a surf/ skate shop until I got fired for hooking up the kids too much. (Owners were wankers who knew nothing about surfing/ skating and mistakenly believed they could make money...) pre-internet made paying attention to weather charts and really knowing how other breaks would look after checking the local indicator. The waves never got big but I had a lot of nooks, crannies, beaches reefs and points to check on various conditions.

Only used one board, a 6'4" x 19" x 2.5" swallow tail thruster with glass in fins shaped by Welsh shaper Roger Cooper. It was a magic board that I left in the car on a hot day unfortunately and a rail collapsed in on itself. 6'4" is still the magic length for my 'performance' shortboards but they have more width and rarely get used... ha ha...

Other than that I was skateboarding a fair bit, including Thursday night Vert sessions, writing a shitey novel and making a lot of bad life decisions.

But yeah '98 was a highlight year for my surfing.

Then I moved to Oregon in late '99 to become a weekend warrior, and my surfing went to shite... until I figured out what boards worked and where to surf...
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Re: 1998

Postby Major Lazer » Tue Oct 02, 2018 10:33 pm

It was a good year for me too and I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was living on the central coast in a small blink of an eye village, but one with some charter compared to many of the bland forgettable towns up and down the beaver state coastline. I had a few fickle and unique (for OR) spots on lock miles from my front door that were in the prime of whatever cycles they go though. My buddy and I always joke how many OR spots are on 10 year cycles with sand.

September was good that year with great conditions and weather and some ridiculously fun swells that lit up the reef point set up. Semi critical drops due to some rock hazards followed by tube section to rippable wall over mostly sand. Zero crowds for the most part and there were really only 3 of us that surfed. Guys would come from the towns to north and south on occasion. A couple valley guys also seemed to be tuned in, but they only showed here and there and missed many good days. The best was the FedEx driver who would pull up in his work truck and surf. But there were many times I surfed solo. The river mouth beachie was also good that year, a more reliable spot year to year, yet sharky AF. A couple good south swells lit up a left bank there that Sept which was hollow and overhead for a few days. Water was warm as it gets too. I surfed there before work between swell events almost every AM the tide was right as the offshore winds howled out of the canyon that time of year making average wind swells ridable.

I only had a few boards at the time but remember oddling over some newly delivered Lost shapes at the local shop which was 30 miles away. Mainly the 1st version of the Round Nosed Fish. I had 2 boards one was a 6-6 thruster 20 x 2.5 and another 6-6 I believe that was a kinda like a modern grovler plane shape wide nosed with a thumnb tail. A board I would ride sub 6' these days, but back then it served its purpose. Both were shaped by Tom at Ocean Pulse and I believe they had removable FCS systems a 1st for me back then after years of glass ons. Also had one of those new at the time zipperless Rip Curls with the velcro closure. Easily the best stretchiest suit I had ever owned at the time.

I was living right on the beach playing house with my now wife at the time. It was a true test of our relationship. Many of or friends were living in cities like SF and Portland starting their careers in their mid 20's, while we lived isolated on what at times felt like the edge of the earth. I had a good job I prob took for granted at the time, didn't pay for shitt, but I was outside 90% of the day and was able to keep my eye on the ocean. Even surfed at lunch on occasion and was logging water time before or after and on my days off. Moonlighted as a waiter at a local cafe a couple nights a week too. The weather radio marine loop was my forecasting tool the time, but honesty I just surfed when there were waves.

October came and the swell continued. 1st week tides were off for my local, but scored french like beachies up the coast several days in a row at the beach with the jetty. We would often go up there to shop and hit the brewery for trivia night. The 2nd week shitt lit up with howling offshores and 5-6 at 20. The local reef was firing and large. Out of nowhere one AM Josh Mullcoy and a couple other SC boys showed up with a Tahoe snow photog (Ruben Sanchez) and put on a barrel clinic. It was heavy and a kid from up the coast and I surfed the other spot a sand bottomed point like set up, which was large but not as critical. Waves were so long we'd get out and walk back around to the jump off point.

After that run and by mid October the storm cycle had kicked in relentlessly. La Nina was flexing early and was only surfing on my days off hiding out in a river mouth when the tides were right surfing a mushy but long left 20 miles south. I do remember one Sat in ealry Nov at the beach with the jetty that was glassy gun barrel grey and going off, but with the shorter days surf was only on my days off by then. Additionally I had been detailed to forestry and biological surveys deep in the wet dark forest and couldn't get those lunch seshies in I could when I was a ranger on the beach.

Rode Batch on opening day that year, Thanksgiving and it was also the grand opening of the NW chair. The feast consisted of 7-11 burritos that year. Came back after a few days of shredding and back to backed with a surf truly living the PNW OR dream. Had a couple sessions on the outer bar off the head in the town to the north late Nov, but I was underguned on a 6-6 and took more beatings than waves and realized I needed a step up. I worked until Christmas and was then my seasonal appointment had expired for the year. Drove down to Baja 1st week of Jan but that's a whole other story and a year I surfed like it was 1999. :D
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Re: 1998

Postby Tex » Mon Oct 08, 2018 8:32 am

Hmmmm....98....that would have made me 26. I was back in Seattle after doing a short tour in Manzanita. I was engaged and wrapping up my BA at SU. Yes, way too old be only getting the Bachelors but that was the whole reason for moving to Manzanita full time. So I was working at Mariott and had wrapped up my first extended surf travel trip to Costa Rica, my wiife and I were down there for 8 weeks, we dropped $3k for the whole trip including airfare. I was surfing a 7'0 Pin Tail custom from Ricky Young. 96-99 were the years doing deep WA surf exploring. Found all the spots, drove my @ss off, camped in cars and on beaches....good times. Some of the best waves I ever got were on the reservations.....
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Re: 1998

Postby Major Lazer » Mon Oct 08, 2018 8:41 pm

Costa was so boss back then. Cheap AF and easy living. I was there in 95 for 3 or 4 months and 97 for 1. Haven't been back since, but the plan is to get the fam down there maybe early next year.
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Re: 1998

Postby smithgrind » Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:31 pm

In 1998 I had been living in Portland for five years and I was most likely living in SW at 20th and Jefferson St. The access to 26 West was just up the street which made for snap decisions to go coastal very easy. I was surfing quite a bit in those days, usually twice a week with one of those trips being an overnighter. By that time I had converted to riding an LB exclusively. It was a 9' Raven shaped by Matt Calvani during one of his many trips up from SoCal to shape boards for Bill Fackrell's Raven surf shop in Seaside. I don't think I did much surf traveling in those days, just hitting the usual spots from LC up to Seaside. I may have wandered up to Westport once or twice by then. I was juggling a few time consuming interests during the late 90's, rock climbing and snowboarding were always in the mix so it was go go time all the time. I don't recall all the epic swells, the fresh track powder days and pitches of 5.11 - 12 on solid rock but I do remember it was a wonderful collection of good times with great friends.
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Re: 1998

Postby Tex » Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:25 pm

Watched a TON of surf vids at the Raven Surf shop back when I was living in Mazanita.....pretty chill vibe in there.
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Re: 1998

Postby Tex » Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:27 pm

I know I have some journal entries from that year but they are in temp storage for the move. Once I dig out the journal, I will post a few more details from that year.....94 WAS THE BEST THOUGH
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Re: 1998

Postby Howly Wolf » Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:13 pm

In '98 I lived a block away from the beach; some ledges to skate, but no surf to speak of. My life would be very different if some waves came through, but whatever.
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Re: 1998

Postby Major Lazer » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:36 pm

Mystic gaes awf brah!
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Re: 1998

Postby Howly Wolf » Thu Oct 25, 2018 5:12 pm

HA! Taffy and tubes all day long in Old Mystic Village, right? I was a little up the road in New London and recall that crowd being kind of standoffish-- I guess they didn't want to blow up the spot...
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Re: 1998

Postby X-squid » Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:01 pm

Damn - good thread idea . I was 23, living a 5 minute bike ride from Huntington Beach Pier just a year out of the Navy. I pretentiously decided around then I was some sort of soul-surfer hippie and ditched my shortboard for a beast of a noserider.

Used to bike up Huntington St over to Main and paddle out under the pier pretty much every morning after work (I worked graveyard for years - good for surf; not so much for social life.) That was probably the year I took a shot to the face from the rail of said noserider. 8 stitches later... looked like someone took a Louisville Slugger to my face.

Great year overall though - I got married (just went over 20 back in February,) was making great money for a 20-something... if I could live a few weeks in the past, that would definitely be top 5 on my list.

I'd bring my fish tho...
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Re: 1998

Postby Major Lazer » Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:43 am

Cool stories..... figured this topic would resonate with the skeleton crew here.

Anybody see this yet? Digging the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Rx6-GaSIE
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Re: 1998

Postby Tex » Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:11 pm

both of my boys were asking me to take them to that flick this weekend.....I was already out of highschool mid-nineties and was about to get engaged....damn I am feeling old.
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Re: 1998

Postby Spent » Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:44 pm

Didn't Larry Clark already do that one?

Seriously though, that could be today. My daughter (14) and her crew have full mid-90s hang ups. Skate style and all. Some of them are rockling full 90s style boards. Also, I'll be jamming some Wu-Tang, Gangstar or Del and they love it. They even borrow my f*cking clothes. Except size 36" Dickies are my legit size these days and not intended for over-sized 90s steeze... I had to ban her friends from wearing my sh*t the other day. What the hell are they doing raiding my closet when I'm at work... ? Makes me feel a little weird as they should really hate me. Although, the other day I skated by their high-school and I think they were actually making fun of me, which they should be. F*ckers. "Your dad just skates curbs." Too right, I do. At least surfing is not cool at all with this group of runts.
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