The G-Spot 2007

Man, Poseidon really smiled upon us Saturday morning when we held the second annual G-Spot Invitational Surf Contest. Conditions that were forecasted at 30 feet earlier in the week dropped all the way down to 10 feet at 8 seconds when we checked the bouys the night before. There was no need to go to any mystical spots, as there would be one place that would work best on a south swell with hard southerlies.

When we arrived at 8am, this is what we saw: slightly disorganized conditions, but a nice hollow left running consistently through. The wind--as hard as it blew at times--switched offshore. I immediately snapped these pics (trying to keep my camera out of the rain) of a guy wearing yellow rubber kitchen gloves who gave us some perspective on the size of the wave. Not bad! It wasn't long before the five contestants were out in the line-up. Gee was out first, then OS, then Slim, then yours truly, then Nash. But Nash forgot his leash, so I told him where to find my spare in the trunk of our car.

The "contest" lasted about 4 hours. Unfortunately, everyone was spread out and nobody could actually judge the damn thing. I saw Nash catch a few as I battled back out through the shorebreak, but that was really about it. I personally made it my mission to get tubed, which resulted in my experiencing some serious thrashings. And Jerry Lopez says the safest place to be in a wave is the barrel...

One of the biggest surprises was that we were the only five people in the water for most of the morning.

About three hours into the session, Nash, OS and I decided to paddle to an outside peak that seemed to have gotten cleaner and steeper with the dropping tide. It was a gamble, but I figured that it couldn't be much worse than the inside stuff, which started to close out a little in the shallows. When we finally made it out, we were pleasantly surprised to find shoulder to head-high waves with much more power than we'd been able to tap all morning. I caught the first one and my board (the 6'6 "Greenbean") actually felt good under my feet. The additional speed made it easier to turn. OS and Nash hooted all the way to the end of my ride, which was one of the longest I've had at that spot. OS caught one next, and paddled back out several minutes later, saying he'd just picked off the best wave of his Oregon surf career. Nash caught one next, and then went in.

After a few more waves on the outside, OS and I decided we'd had enough. OS caught one in and then I grabbed then next set wave. Believe it or not, I actually surfed it all the way to where OS was paddling in. As the wave died down, I noticed that he was holding his hand out for a high-five. I turned as far out on the shoulder as I could and reached to slap him some skin. We connected just as I fell off my board, laughing our asses off at the ridiculousness of our Slater/Machado Pipeline Masters impersonation.

When we got back to the car, we found Gee sitting inside with the heat on full blast. We asked if he'd seen the waves we'd caught, expecting to hear a review of our amazing rides. Maybe he even took pics of us with my telephoto? Nope. Gee said he didn't even see one wave. Looking back at the spot where we'd been surfing for the last hour, we noticed that it had gone completely flat.

Later that night, over beer and wine, we talked about the contest, but had no difinitive answer as to who won in the various categories... Maybe this can be the forum that finally decides it!

Categories:

1. Best Wipe-Out
2. Longest Ride
3. Biggest Wave
4. Smallest Wave
5. Best Tube Ride (yeah right)

I'd like to nominate the namesake of the contest, G-Money, as the overall winner, considering that this was his last session as an Oregon local (for a while).

Band of Horses - St. Augustine