Midnight Runners strike... naah, we didn´t... It generally sucked.

(Johan) Jay and me made the world’s longest road trip for the worlds shortest surf sesh..

(Jay)
Johan arrived at my house, a little later than he'd planned. I didn't care because I had no other agenda than to tag along and enjoy the company. When he arrived to my house, he let his dog Rusty hop out the back to relieve his natural pressures. I thought it was ample time to let my dog, Nanuq, get out and show Rusty around.
While they were frolicking Johan and I packed up my gear into his car. When that was done he came in and greeted my wife and checked out the work we were in the middle of doing to our living room. Once we finally got hold of our dogs again, we were off.

The long drive started with some good conversation and guy talk, which is usually a prelude to some good music and obnoxious singing which we did almost the whole way to the destination. This trip was only made possible because Johan had some "business" to do in Sundsvall. The roads were much better than what Grant and Andrew had experienced a week before but they were still too icy for subsonic speeds. This of course subtracted time from our surf trip with every kilometer we drove.

We finally arrived to a secret location (as are all of our surf spots). We took a look and it was pretty but not quite what we were looking for. So we continued to the next spot. We've so far been calling this place "Lefties" just to differentiate between breaks. When Johan parked the car he said to me, "Dude, I think our time for surfing has come up to be a lot shorter than I had planned." I asked approximately how much time did he think was sufficient to surf and make it back in time to pick up his son from day care. He replied, "Like 30 minutes!" Right.. I booked and before he blinked his eyes 5 times, I was suited up and ready to go. This was a first since I'm always the last one to the beach. At this time, Johan was still fully clothed so I took the opportunity to run over and check the surf out.

Two minutes later I came back and told him, "It's about head high and blown out. Looks like we have a good chance of catching something!" So we booked to the spot. It's probably pretty safe to say that no one has ever surfed this spot before, including us. It's a rocky bottom and the water was churning so badly, we couldn't really tell where it was safe to paddle out. To add to a new surf spot, both Johan and I had new boards, which neither of us had ever ridden before. So we baptized our new boards and the new surf spot with our warm presence in the sleet that was horizontal, blinding and shredding our faces with each gust. It was a struggle to paddle out even though the boards paddled very nicely. The mix of wind, chop and relentless flows of white water made the paddle more of a struggle than either Johan and I needed in our time constraining session. Finally we were out in the line up.

My first wave was nothing to call home about. It was a left and petered out after the first bottom turn. Because the wave interval is so short here, it's really hard to watch a friend get a ride. The second wave I caught, Johan went right and I went left. By the time I made it to the base of the wave, the water surged up and I dug my board's nose (what we surfers call "Pearling"). I actually got pretty worked and when I finally surfaced, I saw Johan beside me about 15 feet away. I guess he dug a rail but neither of us made it. So we struggled back out into the line up once again and said, "Ok dude, one last wave and we should get going". So that's what we did. Johan caught a descent wave and rode it almost all the way in. I was still out there and was feeling the pressure that we needed to go so I paddled in and caught a smaller wave. I rode down the line a bit and did a weak re-entry.

We ran back to the car, changed into our civies as quickly as we could (mostly due to the cold) packed up the gear and bolted.

We discussed our new boards and the performance we felt in the few crummy waves we caught. The conclusion was we were both satisfied and it was money well spent.

We made time to go to Max's (a burger joint with a large menu) and order some grub. We immediately were back on the road and I steered now and then while Johan ate and switched gears. The stress level was high for Johan at this time and we had discussed that it would be in his son's best interest if we took a shorter route home. So I called my wife and she offered to drive 50km to come and pick me up which was a regal thing for her to do. That's why I married her. Anyway, the drive back was less exciting but we had many serious discussions, which I don't often participate in. I suppose Johan’s more intellectual side inspired me even if what I contributed to the conversation made no sense.

We finally arrived in Östersund and I called my wife and we determined a location to meet. By the time we had unloaded my gear she arrived. We exchanged our bro farewells and Johan was off.

My wife and my daughter and I stopped off at McDonald's and I had some nugs with BBQ sauce. My daughter was on my lap and was totally fixated on my cup of Coke so I let her put the straw in her mouth. Would you believe it! She actually sucked some Coke up and I immediately broke the connection. I was horrified that my five and a half month old daughter had her first taste of Coke. This made her little eyes water and she was hooked and was even more fixated on getting another taste of heaven. Of course I refused but I gave her a pacifier as a cancellation prize, which seemed to do the trick.

As always, even if it is for only 30 minutes, it's worth the trip. 6 hours in the car plus an hour home for me for only 30 minutes of crappy, sloppy waves is more satisfying than staying at home doing anything. We surfers up here in the North live to surf and we have to surf to live. We may never be pros like Kelly Slater but we have big balls, dedication and determination to do that which we love. Unfortunately, big balls, dedication and determination are prerequisites to be a surfer up here. So here's to all you HARDCORE surfers! Keep praying for surf!