Druids - the legend of an ancient yet new spot

(Johan) In the aftermath of our bum quest on saturday, the crew was really itching to get into the water. None the less me, since I was the one that clucked Rat in to doing the 2 hour drive.. Anyway, last night I checked the sites and was confident there´d be swell. About as confident that I had been on saturday... I sent smses to Rat and Jay, I knew Jay was up for a surf trip, but Rat had to work. Sure enough I got the reply from Jay, he was on!

This morning I went by Rat to pick up my board and wetsuit since I had left it in his car saturday. He looked kind of bummed that he couldn´t come, but he made that up by giving my car an over haul.. (Thanks buddy!)

At about 20 to 10 I was gassed up and on my way to pick up Jay in his pink mansion. He was stoked as hell, and we packed up the boards and headed for the ocean. We first pulled up at NVS, which was surfable, but kinda messy and hip high. The sandbank is really messed up this year, hope it´ll clean up when the next big fall swell comes in

Since the swell was a Northern one, I had big hopes that a couple of unridden spots that I scoped out on the sea charts would go off. So we headed out to check out the potential tube-o-rama spot with the working name of 'Fingers'. That place was going off like hell.. A sucky tube breaking on a flat rock reef, that just sucked almost dry and threw spit like hell.. The place was GNARLY! Still, it looked like it would need a swell twice as big to reach its full potential.

Next to fingers we found another sweet flat rock break that we´ll name later. For now we´ll just call it 'lefties', since it had a steep and long left breaking over it.

After we had checked out fingers and lefties we took one last detour, and there it was... The place that the legend talks about.. Druids... After we meditated for a while, the place just started going off, with nice over head sets rumbling in on us. The paddle out was kinda sketchy, since it was really shallow, with shitloads of sharp rocks buried 5 cm beneath the surface. We had a great 2.5 hour session, with lots and lots of nice waves. The waves were way more consistant than NVS, and with a hell of a lot more push! All in all a great trip!

After we surfed we hauled ass back home after a quick stop at MAX for some burgers. Thanks Jay for a great trip, I had a blast! (Since we were to busy surfing theres no surf photos.. We gotta start bringing a photographer..)

Peace

Surfari - the island quest..

*UPDATED* Jay, Ratman and Frexi and I (Johan) went on a quest for a new J-bay..
Saturday at around 11 the phone rang. It was Ratman. He talked to my missus for a while, and assured her that there´d be no going to Sundsvall today. I was pretty damn anxious to get some surf, so I managed to talk him into going anyway.. (Not to hard once you start clucking at a guy that´s been surfing his entire life..) I hung up the phone thinking Jay and I had to go without Rat. 50 seconds later the phone rang, it was Rat saying: I´ll be at your place in ten minutes.

Well, we packed up the boards and headed for Jays place. He was as stoked as any man on vacation, and loaded up his board and got us some coffee.

We had talked to Frexi, who had gone out earlier with 2 of his mates. There was gonna be waves, we just weren´t so sure they´d actually hit any of our breaks. When we got to GVN we saw Frexi standing on a rock in the middle of the break. Didn´t look to promising at all...

Frexi and his buddies had been there for a couple of hours and hadn´t gotten more than a handful of waves.

Since the swell was SE I really thought that it ought to hit an Island outside GVN, so I convinced everyone to go.

We all hopped in our cars and headed out for the promised island. I had a good feeling about the place, and as far as the sea charts go, it looked promising. I was really hoping to find a new untouched J-bay, but there was no such luck.

We drove the cars as far as we could, sneaking past a boom gate and going offroad for a while, put on our wetties and started walking.

We walked and ran and walked and ran and walked some more and found...

Nothing..........

There were a couple of spots that may have had a bit of potential in a bigger swell but nothing we thought would be worth the walk every time!! Bummer! It was worth the look though 'cause we have been wondering about that island for a whole year now..

Finally I couldn´t take walking around with the board and wettie, so I jumped in and paddled around for a while.

It all ended up with us finding nothing surfable, it kinda sucked to get a bum trip when you know there was swell out there, but at least it beats sitting at home. Any day of the week...

Peace

Some more photos from la France!

Couldn´t help posting a few more photos from france.. I just love the place, and so does my family. After getting a few tips from Jay on how to instruct the wifey how to take good pictures of me surfing, I´m routing for next year to be kick ass!

Cornelia, me and Jacob

Sofie making brekkie in the anglet apartment

Best board ever..

This is where Sofies patience ran out and she went from photographer to mom again.. Me going out

Jake getting suited up for a day in the surf

A real nice visit in our Biarritz apartment

Crowded?

Me and Sofie on a night out

The view from our bathroom...

I really love this place

Dragon MX Jam and gathering of the brotherhood!

Me, Rat and Jay and parts of our familys hooked up and went to the Dragon (http://www.dragonalliance.com/) party/moto cross competition in Fanbyn today. It was good fun and great company as always. Here´s a few pictures from the event. It also looks like there´s gonna be swell our way on saturday night.. Sweet! Peace

Point Break in Gävle..

Couldn´t help myself, had to post this story..



















http://www.gd.se/Article.jsp?article=108756

(You have to give the guy credit for spending the robbery money in the best possible way...)

Lake surfing!

(Johan) Just got back from a 1.5 hour session of genuine lake surfing! The waves were headhigh, and the rides were close to a 100 meters! I shit you not! Me and Erik Kindberg went out and had a blast!

The wind was HOWLING onshore, but it was so much fun!

Peace

Midnight runners score midnight sun gold!

Jay(Nanuq),Johan(alias kojak,puppet etc) and I (RATMAN),went for an all night session last night/morning tues/wed 17th-18th july. Remember it's light ALL NIGHT up here in summer.

We even managed to get Frexi to come. We rang him at 12pm from the surf, told him it was offshore with 4ft sets and called him a chicken and started clucking at him like chickens on the speaker phone and OF COURSE he turned up... All we have to do is do the 'chicken clucking thing' to each other and it's like Michael J Fox in 'Back to the Future'! Whenever any of us call each other a chicken we just have to do whatever it is they dare us to do because we just HATE being called chickens hahahaha.

So Frexi paddled out to the line up to join us at 01.30 in the morning! It was literally pumping when we got there... 2-3 ft and completely glassy, 18deg in the water and 16 degs out... I would be so bold to say that it was the best surf I have had this year.. It was really clean with 4ft sets with both rights and lefts peeling.. I even got a little headduck tube on one, which is rare up here.... It got bigger, as we had expected from the prognosis we had been checking throughout the day...

Unfortunately the prognosis was wrong in one aspect..It had said that the swell would hold for a while.. but it didn't!! After about 1½-2hrs the swell just, all of a sudden, stopped.. The waves just stopped coming in..we waited,as you do, but to no avail..the ocean had gone flat... really sad because it was sooo good before hand and getting better..anyway.. will try to get some pictures off Jay and put them in.. Peace from Da Rat.

Report from France!

(Johan) Just got back from 18 days of pure heaven! I just love Pays Basque and the rest of France. I´ll make this report short and with only a few photos, mostly because I´m beginning to stoke up for the possibility of a night mission back home here in Sweden tonight!

Anyway, Sofie, the kids and I arrived in Anglet Saturday June 30th. And, as you might have read in an older post, the swell was ON!! I paddled out for an evening surf, and it was gangbusters! Thereafter followed days of morning surf for 2-3 hours, afternoon surf just as long and finally the compulsory night session (mostly performed slightly drunk on wine..) for about an hour. Sofie (the missus) doesn´t really have the patience,(nor do I have a camera good enough), to stand on the beach waiting to take pictures, so the gallery of actual on board surf photos are scarse.

This, however, is my favourite. Me pulling in to an evening beach break tube. (yes I made it..) The rest of the trip was a haze of happiness, and I really got to get aqauinted with my ...Lost fish.

We got in the car to drive back home on Saturday 14th, and we´d been driving for about one and a half hours, when it finally struck me that I might not get surf for a long time again, so, in an act of panic, I asked (yes Ratman, I ASKED) the missus if she thought it´d be ok if we took a detour to Lacanau, so I could get in the water one last time. She said yes (thanks honey) and this is the view that met me in Lacanau.. Beautiful tubes in the sunset! I paddled out and got a handful of fantastic waves, and finally felt at peace with the fact that I was going back home.

I´ve got shitloads more stories, but they´ll be told in the line up, or in the car on the way to surf. Peace bros!

(oh yeah, on our way home we decided to go through downtown paris (thank god for the navigator..) and this is one of the sites we checked out)

Glassy Monday...

Me (frexi) and Dan went out for another surf yesterday, at first it was a on shore breeze but the wind cut off and we got superclean head high sets. The old man (rat) had to take care of the kids so he couldnt come but dropdeadfred and per(?) showed up again. I got washed and my board hit my head hhahaha got a nice little bump on my forehead today but it was worth it haha.

Nice huh?!

Peace, Freddie

Got it good

Just came back from a solid surf with double overhead sets 4-6ft and really chunky power..a bit wishy washy but not too bad really..17 degs in the water and about 18 out..Dropdeadfred, his mate Per, Jesper, Frexi and his friend Dan were there as well..It was a great surf and well worth the 2 hour drive. Johan said that up till today it has been really good in France with most days being offshore and full on barrels..Today it was onshore and head high down there..Will get more info from him later as well..Peace dudes.RAT

Frexi and RATabout to duck under a middle sized one! Quite a few bigger ones came in but we didn't get any photos

Jesper!

Rat

Frexi dropping in on Rat

First France report from Johan

Hey guys and gals! This is my first report from anglet, france, on my cellphone. The surf this morning was head high, glassy and fantastic! To top that off, theres a solid swell coming in for the next couple of days, starting this afternoon.. Hopefully there'll be some double OH's, so I can really try out my new 6'6. Rat, Jay, Frexi, Rob and you others, miss you guys out there, we would have dominated the place!Tried a new fin setup on the 5'10, STOKED! Well, gotta go surf now, hope you guys get some today at you know where..
Peace/Johan aka Tank aka Puppet aka Kojak

Sunday 8th July 4m and thumpin'.

Johans kickin' butt in France and we're gunna kick a 4m swell in the arse...check this prognosis for sunday 8th July 2007.

Aaahhh.looks good don't it..frexi was out today with jay and dropdeadfread and got some good ones..Jay said he got the inside section really nice.He was lobbing in floaters over the sections and frexi said it was big and chundering with steep and powerful take-offs and spent most of the afternoon duckdiving sets between catching waves. Tomorrow it's gunna be good..probably really chundery but it'll be big..Frexi and I are gunna hit it..will try to get some picks to ya's ..Peace from the RAT

3m swell predicted

While johan is kicking shit in France a 3 meters swell is predicted to hit our coast on friday/saturday. The prognosis also shows heavy rain but who cares??? Its gonna be two days of great surf!!

/Freddie