I’m sure the last swell is all still fresh in your mind if you’re a Jersey surfer. I hope you do, because it was our only significant swell for last month. Although it was probably memorable to you for good waves, it was memorable to me due to my loss financially. I finally had a decent quiver building, but a period of laziness has left me resorting to “old yellow.” It’s one of the few boards that has lasted the past couple of years. If you’ve seen it, you probably remember it. Anyone who plays the quiver game knows what it is like to have to resort back to the basics.

It all started that Tuesday a month ago when the swell finally picked up. I remember the day, because I was in school. It just seems like you can always recall dates when you relate them to what class you were missing. I was missing a Business Ethics class (reallllll interesting). Back to the surfing…. I was surfing off of 2nd street jetty. I was the only one on that side of the jetty, because it was almost all death close outs. The sandbar was real close to be firing right there. But, there was an end section that kept closing every wave out. The double ups were providing some fun close out barrels though. The sun started to go down, and I finally started to make it out of a couple good barrels. Then, I came up from one and realized that my board had buckled around the nose. Everyone who has buckled a board can remember that feeling of coming up only to realize the board is finally buckled. Well it finally happened to me (probably way later than it should have). I was kinda asking for it.

I was too far out in the lineup to try and paddle in, so I figured I would just go ahead and catch one in and just go straight. After waiting 10 minutes, I saw one that looked like it was going to bowl up perfectly. So, I went for it, and I pulled in. Thinking I could make it was a poor choice, because it closed out. When I came up, the board was broken completely in half. With the surf still pumping, I ran back to grab my back up. I decided I should try and surf the less closing out 1st street side of the jetty. The decision wasn’t any better. With only 10 minutes of light left, I broke my second board. All it took was a drop in and a go over the falls. I came up, and the other half of the board was already on its way in to the sand.

This all happened in the first half of the swell. The next morning was when it was supposed to be pumping. Due to my laziness of not ordering boards periodically throughout the winter, I was going to surf the rest of the swell on old yellow. Somehow, old yellow made another swell. (knocking on wood). Let this post be a reminder to consistently have back ups, because you never know when that shocker of a session is going to come. For me, it only took one- 2 hour session.

The Aftermath