Idiotic

After about six inches or so of snow yesterday, I took a shot at there being a little swell left around this morning before the forty mph winds and NFL games drove me straight into my couch. It was super cold and the roads in Ocean City were pretty sketchy early on, but I soldiered on, hoping to at least grab a few before hypothermia set in. The night before I had been listening to Mental and appropriately enough, I had "I'm a fuckin' idiot, I'm a fuckin' idiot" bouncing around in my head as I scrambled up the steps to first street.

I could stare at the ocean all day and never get bored. I'm not sure this picture even does this morning justice, but I knew my time was limited. Saw a few little waves rolling in, and knew the wind would beat it down pretty quickly, so I grabbed my gear and headed for the beach. Maybe I headed out too quickly, because in my attempt to navigate the drop at the shoreline, I realized that the one section was just a snow drift and consequently fell forward into the snow without my gloves on yet.
There were a couple nicely lined-up waves, but overall, I was fighting a losing battle. The tide was filling in, the winding was blowing out whatever swell was left and my body's core temperature was slowly dropping by the minute. I grabbed one last microwave after what felt like an hour long wait and headed it. I was still very clad to get out and get to have 1st all to myself at least one day out of 365.

Hand in Glove

There were waves yesterday...well sort of. The forecasts were showing a small bump, but the cameras were showing what looked to be less than that and with the air temperature and lack of daylight, it was one of those days where I was really on the fence. I knew that if I didn't go, I wouldn't be missing much, if anything at all; but at the same time, I hadn't been out as much as I'd like, so I ended up grabbing my gear and headed over the bridge.

Although the days are starting to get longer, daylight is still at a premium, so its a race against sunset in the afernoons during the winter. After checking one spot and seeing how tiny it was, I drove around until I found a spot that still tiny but at least ridable. It was cold, but nothing too bad. Little wind, the air and water were probably both in the thirties. As I paddled out I suddenly felt a rush of water in one of my gloves...not good. This was the first time I used my thicker winter mittens to surf and it was very apparent that there was a hole somewhere in it. Each time I went to paddle, the glove would fill with icy salt water slowly numbing my hand and crawling up the sleeve of my wetsuit to chill my arm. Sitting out in the line-up, I studied the glove to find a nice puncture hole in the palm of the glove making the 5mm glove pretty much worthless. I surfed for about forty five minutes, which wasn't bad considering my hand was slowly turning into a claw. With the tide coming in, it looked as if the waves were inproving slightly, but my hand could take no more. Here is a post-session shot of the claw:

Windows

A shot of Atlantic City from last night. Somehow, in what was supposed to be dinner down the street, ended up with us in AC. Insert "Let it Ride" reference right here.

I went to bed last night with crossed fingers, hoping that things would be decent enough this morning to warrant paddling out finally for my first session of the New Year. It is pretty pathetic that there are almost two full weeks of 2009 in and I am just getting in the water today. Anyway, here is a shot from the beach this morning toward the south end of Ocean City. About waist high, very clean and very windy. It was a lot of fun, but within the hour, the wind had beaten it down and it was in the process of becoming flat. Luckily, I was able to take advantage of the small swell window and get some fun ones.