Beach Day at Nahant

[markstephens]

As the latest winter storm passed through our area this weekend it

brought some terrific surf. A few of us headed up to Nahant for a

Sunday afternoon session after the biggest swells had passed on to

the north of us. While the Boston Buoy had been reading 16+ feet at

6AM, it had dropped to about 8 feet by noon when we gathered next to

Little Nahant. The waves hitting the beach were mostly in the 3-5

foot range with a long period (13 secs!) and nice and clean. A few

larger sets rolling in farther up Long Beach were probably 6 feet or

more at the peaks.

John Leonard and I were in nearly-matching Necky Rips - only our 2nd

or third time each out playing in the surf in these boats. Ed

Bagdonas brought his dedicated surf machine (Mega Mustang?) and his

WW boat, a Pyranha S:6. We paddled out on the right side of the beach

in the lee of Little Nahant and then worked left toward the bigger

waves. Ed was quite happy taking short rides on smaller, non-breaking

waves and then getting off before getting caught in the foam pile.

The displacement-hulled Rips, however, needed the steeper breaking

faces to catch rides. John worked a number of smaller waves for

probably three rides for every one I caught, as I was further left

trying to catch the bigger waves for longer rides. The price I paid

for those rides was then needing to work back out off the beach after

each long, tumbling, bouncing trip in.

Trying to get back out through the long lines of breaking waves

further down was a real bear. It was big enough that it was virtually

impossible to work out through there. I tried it just once, got

nearly out, then had a monster close out right on top of me. I was

nearly stripped of my paddle and sent wildly tumbling back toward the

beach. After that, following each ride in on a big wave, some with

the tops blowing off in a cold 35-degree spray in my face, I would

paddle back over to the protected corner on the right side to get

back out.

Ed and his Mega made everything look so easy, but then he's a veteran

and so his skills combined with primo equipment added up to some

sweet surfing. But the waves were so nice, that even the newbies were

lookin' good. I caught enough sweet spots to actually have time to

carve a few turns on the wave before they closed out. This was a

breakthough for me, as opposed to my usual going straight ahead or

just sliding off the wave face diagonally. Definitely gave me a

feeling of more control on the wave than I have felt before. I'm also

using a shorter paddle now (I cut down an old heavy touring clunker

to 190cm) which gave me better acceleration for catching more waves.

I was thrilled to actually outrun one that I thought was going to

roll under me. I poured it on at the lip and was able to break down

over the lip and drop right into the power pocket for a joyous whoop-

it-up ride.

John's manic guffawing echoed up and down the beach as he clearly was

having a damn good time. But all good things must end, and I knew I

was tiring when I capsized three times in about ten minutes, and the

rolls were getting sloppier and harder. When we all finally realized

we were getting pretty tired, he just lingered on the beach for a

bit, staring out at the surf with big grins on our faces. The sun was

out, the surf was great, the stoke was on.

Can't wait for the next session!

Mark Stephens,

(filling in for ace reporter Sing, who is on assignment at the Santa

Cruz Surf Festival.)