Safe in a Crowd

Decided to see if there was any fun left from this weekend's swell today. I headed over to Strathmere in the evening in the hopes of avoiding the weekend crowds and making the most of the leftovers that may still be in the water. My timing was off, unfortunately.


In the offseason, Strathmere is beautifully quiet with little more than empty, wide open beaches and sagging shore cottages mixed with the occasional shiny new condo. So it's for this reason it takes some time to get adjusted to the crazy personality change it takes on in summer mode.
Despite the Later time slot, things were hopping. Didn't see anything working at the first spot, but did see a pretty cool truck that looked like it had some sort of shower hookup on the rack for when you got done surfing. Despite the lack of waves, there was no shortage of boards on the beach.
Next spot check, nothing happening except a drunken fight at the steps by Mildred's restaurant as a guy tried to explain to his girl "it was only Facebook chat and Skype." he also yelled "Are you kidding me?!" about fifty times.
Finally a couple blocks north, I found a little wave pushing through even with the high tide. Steered clear of the Stand Up Paddler and assortment of other waves riders a few yards away and managed to snag a handful of waves while taking in the sights on the beach an in the water. Here's to summer. Get it while it lasts.

PS- On the ride home I saw a different truck that had a killer changing tent hook up hanging off the cab. Looked handmade and looked simply like someone rigged a hospital curtain off their cab. Killer idea.

Where We Started

Drove around looking for waves yesterday afternoon and stumbled upon this scene in Strathmere. Took me back six or so years ago to another classic photo hanging in our house.
Ended up finding some gentle waist high waves with howling winds a little further down Ocean Drive and surfed until dark alone.

Here Where Nothing Grows

This is about as close to a surf picture as I've got for the past week or so. The thing I hate about winter is the window for swell is so tiny before the winds just blow everything out. Yesterday was pretty warm, sunny and...completely flat. I haven't been in the water for almost a week and missed two opportunities after assuming nothing would be going on. Note to self: When the wind is cranking to almost 30 mph, there may still be a chance to paddle out!

Here is the welcome mat, minus the "E" in Strathmere:

Lost out on a Carpenter Ant test press on eBay yesterday too!