Finders, Keepers and Gilligan's Island

As promised, here are some of the pics of the latest discovered SECRET spots.

The Legend Unsatisfied

We decided this weekend in early January that we’d take the chance of freezing on order to catch some waves. The prognosis showed that there was a big swell heading in our direction and with it, a small snowstorm. We decided to take our chances and get there early to avoid having to deal with the traffic that occurs when it snows.

We arrived at the break around 9 am. It was really scattered and blown out. Grant wasn’t satisfied and knew it would build throughout the day. He suggested we check out some other spots that we thought might have great possibilities given a big enough swell. So we head out to explore.

We drove quite a long way. On the way we encountered some really icy roads. At one time, Grant said calmly, “Oh no boys, we’re gonna crash.” I thought he was joking until I looked up and saw he had the steering wheel turned but the car continued straight. Luckily there was a very small patch of asphalt and the tires got some grip and the car turned just in time. As we neared the breaks in question, we looked down a small, protected bay and saw white water. I snapped a couple of shots with my camera and we continued on.

Gilligan's Island

We arrived at a good spot to park the car, got out and began to walk to the spots. We walked for about a mile and a half and reached the first break. It wasn’t breaking the way we had hoped but we noticed that the island adjacent to the break had some waves. I said, “We should call that place Gilligan’s Island!” (It was mostly because growing up I watched this T.V. series and I loved it. It was the whole feeling of isolation that made me feel this place should get this name). The guys agreed that the name would do for now. The series of pictures is the wave coming in on the point of the island.

Finders

We also noticed that the spot we thought might be breaking wasn't but there was a break just around the corner from it. This spot wasn’t breaking that great but it was surf-able. Johan suggested we check out the inside of the bay where we saw the whitewash on the way there, so we walked to check it out.
















KEEPERS

There was a bit of “boonie crashing” since there were no roads, nor trails leading us there. We came over a big rock and the vista we saw made us drool. We hurried down closer to the water and watched in utter silence and amazement. Here was a break that was officially going off! The waves were enormous and powerful. I set up my camera and took a few hundred pictures hoping they would show the size and shape. Grant almost was willing to put on his wetsuit and hop in but I reminded him that maybe we should wait and check the bottom out this summer. The reason for my concern was that these waves were nothing to play around with being at least 6-8 foot (US/AU wave height measurements) or 4-6 meters (Swedish).

You could see in some spots the boils left by underlying boulders, which to me raises an eyebrow.

Do you see the face in this wave?

The snow began to blow in horizontally and sharp as glass, so we packed up and headed back to the car. Grant said, “I think we should call that place Keepers and the other spot Finders.” Both Johan and I agreed that would do for now. Any time we give names to breaks, we usually just come up with something to differentiate that break from the others. It’s not until we surf these spots that we know if the name best fits it. (Kind of like getting a new dog you give it a name by its character or personality.) We got back to the car and thought about what we just saw as we headed back to the break we are familiar with. -Jay

This is the link to the surf session:
http://200kmfromtheocean.blogspot.com/2008/01/last-surf-of-season.html