5/20/08 Rodanthe

SW 25-30. 4.5/RW74. Very little loop progress, ramps not lining up, balls not lining up either. First session on the Sumo 400. Good combination, way better for me than the old 370. Billy, Bob.

5/19/08 ODU

W 20-30 5.4/Acid. Decent but gusty session with Billy. Some decent jumps, tried throwing myself over the front of the board a-la fwd loop with some success, trip to Hatteras tomorrow could see more progress.

5/9/08 Anderson Point

The first session here. SW/ 20-25 6.2/102. Really good session, a place we will definitely frequent more often. Nice starboard ramps, really big port ramps way out by the markers, it is big water, and to get to the nice swells you have to really go far out. The wind died and I swam for a while until Contos rescued me with the Cat and an Exocet Cross. Knight, Billy as well.

5/8/08 Avon

Well I invited Billy to come with Raav and I on a planned trip to Avon. While everyone is friends it is always an adventure to bring someone new with us. You just never know...
No problems, the ride down was full of tech talk, chick talk, food talk, nothing reallt important. We went directly to Avon Sailhouse and got our 2 NL mast plugged by Margaret. Olaf was his usual off-putting self. Raav got 12 footstraps, Billy and I got some downhaul line. Went and got Contos' useless brand new 5.5 Warp from sailworld. Tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Hit the turnout with solid 5.4/Acid. Raav on 5.0 Ice/FSW 85, Billy on Hucker 4.8/Seatrend ATV. Weeds negligible, reef was decent, not great. We all had some nice moves and jumps, some real high. Stayed out there for 2-3 hours, came in for Chicken Parm subs, and then back out for 6.0 sailing until dusk. Ride home was full of pot, beer, and going over every single sailing event over the past 6 hours. Nice. Got home after 10PM. Nicer.

5/3/08 Rodanthe

Flat water. SSW 6.2/102, then winding up to Acid/5.4. Sailed all day fast, and turned great, including some fast tacks. Getting on the Acid was so nice compard to the 102. Just so easy to pop out of the water, and the jibing was just unreal. Rowland, Mckendree(s), Perkins, Marcy, a few others. Only a handful of decent airs, really only 1 or 2 that I got excited about, the ramps were just not lining up. Transformers will be fun if I can ever get anyone down there to sail.

4/24/08 Corolla

Surfed with Pat and Josh at the lighthouse ramp. 3/2 and booties. Some OK knee to waist high waves. Used Pat's Jed Noll board, liked it but not as much as my last board. Also looked at the CSS at some of Mike Cherry's new Jed Noll's and unfortunately found nothing I liked.

4/22/08 Buckroe, Raav in Rare Form

So Raav began texting me last night about sailing today. His "idea" was to go to East beach at 6AM and sail until 9AM. The funny part about this was that Spurgeon family NEVER sees 6AM under any circumstances. Having said that he did call around 6:30AM and started his "sell." Usually I am the one trying to get him out from in front of the TV and into the water but today it was him trying to get my ass out of bed and on to a board. So we agree to meet at East Beach at like 7:30.
I load the truck and begin the grim trek down Hampton Blvd, stopping at the newish 7-11 to get some "coffee" and a "sausage and egg" sandwich. A knucklehead woman was blocking me in as I was trying to back out of the parking spot but eventually I made my way out of the parking lot. As this was occurring, Raav was arriving at East Beach and was discovering that there was no wind. He called and I headed back to my apartment, he was headed home. I called him from in front of IWindsurf to tell him that it was blowing at Buckroe and that we should go. To my happy astonishment he made the turn onto the interstate and drove to Buckroe. When I eventually met him there, the wind had died, but he had rigged his 5.8/100. So we bullshitted for an hour, looking up IWindsurf on his phone every 4 minutes and reassuring eachother that it would eventually blow. George Lam showed up and Billy M shortly thereafter. The two of them threatened to go to Factory but relented after Raav and I promised not to sail naked.
After a while it picked up. I was on 6.2/102, Raav on the 5.8/100, Lam on 6.8/117, Billy M was riding a 5.6 Hucker and his new Seatrend which, in a stroke of pure genius, he was able to procure from Hatteras Island Sail shop using hardball negotiating tactics and the Jedi Mind trick. Knight was getting his teeth cleaned.
The wind was ENE at 20 gusting to 25ish. Nice. Very nice jumps. Some beautiful ducks by Raav, some nice wave riding on the inside by everyone. Wind strengthened, my jumps got bigger and more frequent, Billy got faster, George got overpowered, and Raav's board got smaller. We sailed like this for about an hour, jibing close, off the lipping and generally impressing all the chicks who had been lining up on the Buckroe pier as soon as word got out that Raav and I were on the Peninsula.
After the wind let up we were all commiserating on the beach when Knight showed up. We knew it was him because his teeth gleemed through the windshield of his van as he pulled into the parking lot. Mr. Contos had a wrestling match with the high rise bridge on 64 and looked pretty beat up when he showed. He unloaded an Ultra Cat, and wondered if he should rig his 9.0. All in all a really fun session.

We all jetted around lunch, each with different thoughts on his mind, and in a different car.