So I’ve been paddling out the past four days after school because there has been some tropical depression/“baby” hurricane that’s been producing some huge waves. On Monday and Tuesday it was HUGE, like double overhead (~12ft) swells, but it was really choppy because there was an onshore wind (wind from the east). Today and yesterday, though, the waves were noticeably cleaner than they had been earlier in the week. Today it was especially nice since the wind was offshore (out of the west). The 8-10ft waves were barreling left and right beautifully, but I didn’t get any [barrels]. I did, however, get completely wrecked when a wave broke right in front of and on top of me. I actually had to bail from the board twice today, rather than duckdive under the wave, to avoid being completely consumed by the wave’s devastating whitewash.
I caught a couple nice rides down the line a short ways before the wave broke, but it has been an absolutely amazing week for surfing here - completely unprecedented for this time of year, but understandable considering the tropical storms we’ve been having.
Here are some cam pics from earlier today if anyone’s interested. Look at how many surfers are out there at the peir (in Juno Beach).
http://evsjupiter.netfirms.com/zoo001.jpg
http://www.evsmartin.com/wid001.jpg
Also, yesterday around 6pm, there was a boy who was out further than I was (past the third break, about 1/6th mile offshore) whose leash snapped off the board. His board made it back to shore, but he was stuck some 900ft offshore without anything to hold onto, in very rough surf and huge waves. I was about 40 meters from him, and, to me, it looked like he was body surfing. I rode back into shore and saw that a lot of people were watching in his direction. Some lady was saying “he needs help! his board is right here! pointing to the board”. I’m not a certified lifeguard, but I am PADI certified [and for that I had to carry someone over my shoulder for about 300ft without any floatation device], and so I paddled back out to try to help him. My friend John, who was still out in the water, had noticed that by that time he was waving for help, and had offered him his surfboard. We were escorting the boy back to shore when a lifeguard-type-guy came swimming out with a float to help the boy. It took the two of them about 20-30 mintues to get all the way back to shore, but they were in a rip current for a good part of that time. It took John and I about the same amount of time to get back into shore, but we were watching the two people swim while also trying to catch some last-minute waves from the second break back into shore.
It’s been an exciting week.
