Rez Dogs & Razor Fins

Rough weekend. Picked up Karissa's 9' Stewart from The Stoke Mender on Friday and headed west. Weather report looked ominous. Rolled into the 'Buck around 11pm, pitched our tent and passed out. Our friend Tim had driven out to join us and we found him sleeping in the bed of his truck the following morning. Coffee from the Cedar Shack before our first session. Rain clouds looming in the distance. By noon the sky was dark gray and the rain was coming down steadily. Swells were pushing in from the NW, with little to no wind. Ugly weather, beautiful surf.


Two, maybe three hours into our morning session, I paddle into the same wave as Karissa. I'm going right, she's going left. Or so it seemed. Having grown accustom to riding rather long single fins, the first thing I do, naturally, is to turn the board hard, aim it down the line and make my way to the nose. Having swung my stick from right to left, I found myself aimed directly toward Karissa and her newly repaired Stewart. She had paddled left, popped and turned right. A collision ensued, the result of which can be seen above.

Our stoke and our new surfboard had been damaged. Karissa paddled in and put her board away. Tim and I finished our session and came in for lunch. It looked bad and I, as I often do, overreacted.

Tim and I paddled out again an hour later. The tide was all the way in and the conditions were terrible. Short intervals, on-shore winds, choppy and cloud covered. We caught a few waves and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Back in for a beer.

From there we took off to investigate a little known surf spot on the far end of town. I'm not going to give it away, but lets just say you might need knee-high boots to safely surf this location.

Back at the 'Buck, Karissa had found herself a new friend, a rez dog who our neighbors appropriately named 'Hobuck.' We built a fire, cooked hot dogs, roasted bananas and took to our tent. Tide was all the way out Sunday morning so we decided to head south and visit our friends Darren and Leah who own West End Surf & Skate in Forks, WA. We stopped by First Beach at La Push, which looked cold and closed out, and decided it was time to head back hoping to beat some of the traffic we were expecting thanks to the Lavender Festival.

On our way back we, again, dropped off Karissa's Stewart with our friend Jeff, who told us this was "an easy fix" and that the board "should be ready before the weekend." Our stoke had been mended.

I think I'll leave a little extra room in the lineup from now on.