Close Encounters of MikeG Monmouth Co. Shortboarder Rutherford, New Jersey               Homepage:  Mike G.'s No Frills Home Page

September finally rolled around and we exchanged some contact info. After spending 7 days on Kauai my wife and I flew to Oahu and settled into our room at the Turtle Bay Hilton, that evening I spoke with Bud and we set up a meeting place for the last day of my honeymmon. The swell built the three days I was there and we met at Lanikeas on the Thursday of my departure. The set waves were pushing my limits (6' Haw'n) and I started off slow and a bit nervous. Bud and Neal ripped and got me into the groove after a while. It was a bit crowded, but the waves wasn't connect all the way through leaving people spread out among the peaks. Neal introduced me to Ben Aipa and I was so giddy to be surfing the North Shore I put my foot in my mouth when I mentioned that Neal and Bud should set up a service to host mainlanders surfing the North Shore - man that was stupid! It was a good sesh and I was happy to have met the North Shore crew. 

November 2002 - 27 hours in San Diego - Bill Andrews.  A couple of months ago I posted that I would be in the Southern California area for one day.   The next day I got a response from the
infamous Bill Andrews (BA) inviting me to surf with him.  I replied and we were set, BA was even going to provide me with a board.  Fast forward to Sunday, Nov 17.  I spent 5 days in Phoenix for a conference, trying to keep myself in shape and eating right.  BA said he was taking me to Blacks, and the NOAA wavewatch III models were predicting a 4 meter, 20 second swell arriving Friday morning, so I wanted to be sure this wind swell riding east coaster would at least look good while floundering in the impact zone of one of the most notorious breaks south of Point Conception.... The guy in the truck let out an indistinguishable grumble, and then replied, I don't usually do this, Joanne or Keener are the NG ambassadors. We quickly got out, pulled on our suits and BA gave me what looked to be an oversized kneeboard.  The stick was a wide twin fin with a big fat nose and a deep swallowtail.  I gulped, wondering if I'd be able to ride the beast, but by the time I could speak Bill was already
paddling out to the lineup.  I later found out the board belonged to the OBSurfer. Thanks George... Remembering that BA had given me Tom Tweed's phone #, I figured I'd return the board to him, since it was George's after all.  Tom met me outside with some of Mom's chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies. Tom informed me that the nuts were actually brought over from Hawaii by Sponge, which was pretty cool. Tom was in a bit of a hurry, but we had a few minutes to dish out some AS gossip.  I left the board with him and made my way back to the desert. See my complete post at Google Groups (this is a very abbreviated snip and paste version).

July 2003 - Cape Cod.  I met Doc.  As most people have already gathered, he's a pretty interesting fella with some good stories. Thanks for the beer Doc, next time I swing by I'll make sure there's a
bump in the water.

July 2003 - NJ Entertains "a" (andy).  Andy showed up ready to go with 2 surfboards.  We introduced ourselves and made for the water, the conditions called for longboards, so Andy borrowed my buddy's odd shaped log.  We paddled out easily and parked among the pack.  The current quickly took us to the end of the surf zone and Andy was treated to another NJ tradition, the whislte and wave of 16 year old acne faced lifeguards telling you to move out of the swim zone... Nice to meet you Andy, and remember: In NJ the ocean is on your left when you are heading south.  See my complete post at Google Groups.

April 2004 - Escaping Sin City - La Jolla, CA.  Today, the conditions continued to improve and BA scored a world record righthander that went on from La Jolla through to Baja, then that bastard called me collect and I had to pick him up. Of course Turby and I didn't witness the takeoff, but you can ALWAYS believe BA's stories. Turby and I joined BA at fishpoker reef for some nice lefts. After a fun dawn patrol we said goodbye to BA and I tried to poke some fish while Turby scored some nice rights at his local spot. I speared a HUGE sardine  ;-)  and then decided to lose the diving gear and join Turby in his bodysurfing sesh, oops I meant to say gathering or maybe it should be assembly. Anyway, I got a couple of fun waves, but I soon went in. Man, surfing au natural sure takes a lot of energy. Turby and I headed back to his place for some brews and some excellent homemade curry. Thanks for the crash pad Turby your hospitality was brilliant. Also big thanks to BA for finding me a great board to ride for the weekend. Sun burnt and Satiated in Sin City, Mike G.

October 2004 - Holiday Points at OB, SF. 
10/31/04 Halloween. With little notice I showed up at OB on Halloween.  I picked up a rental from the Aqua surf shop and went to meet Skipper and LP at the beach. A good sized swell with a little warble on the face was hitting the sandbars way out. A smattering of surfers were out trying to paddle into the large waves, but the conditions only let a few make the drop.  Skipper showed up first and seemed pleased with the conditions.  I think I let him down when I showed him the board I rented. The only thing Aqua had was a 5'6" twin fin fish. Graciously Skipper offered to take me a bit further north where the
waves would be smaller and I would be able to paddle out on a such a short board. LP met us near the northern end of OB and we all paddled out. The waves were breaking overhead on the drops, and most would hold up for a nice ride before closing out on the inner sandbar. The fish I was riding was a little wacky, I would drop in late and then it felt like I was riding a skateboard down an icy hill. Skipper was good enough to let me try out his board(I think it was 6'6") with the rotating single fin he is developing.
It was a nice change from the fish, this board caught the waves easily and carved solid turns beneath me.  I took one wave and got caught inside for a while as I tried to paddle through the infamous OB wash machine. When I finally made it back out I could see Skipper was a little concerned, thinking he just traded in his custom OB stick for a rental 5'6" fish. We  switched back and all was well. Shortly thereafter the three of us met in the parking lot and I thanked them for meeting up with me.

11/1/04 Dia de la Muerta. The swell held on and I paddled out just before dawn at OB. I was the only
one out for a good half hour. The peaky waves rose and fell beneath me near the rocky cove. The wind was lightly off shore and I took in a beautiful sunrise.  In between some decent overhead drops and short rides, a small head popped out of the water 10 feet away. I stared at what I figured was a seal, and for a few seconds it stared back, then it submerged. Skipper had mentioned the day before that seals will sometime bump OB surfers, so I braced for impact, but nothing happened. Finally it was time to go to work, so I dropped off the rental and headed southeast.

11/5/04 Guy Fawkes Day. Skipper called me the night before to see if I could meet him this morning. As luck would have it the work I was doing got rained out, so I was back in San Francisco early. We met at OB and Skipper brought one of his boards for me to ride. Now we could paddle out at a spot with larger surf. The surf was decent sized, maybe a couple of feet overhead, and the paddle out wasn't
easy. My 3mil fullsuit was adequate, but with all those duck dives a hood would have kept my noggin from being squeezed and decreasing my paddling energy. By the time I reached the outside I was in need of a rest, but the OB current was unrelenting. The larger set waves would start to feather way
outside and it took some resolve to stay in a position to catch them. Skipper caught a nice left while I was inside, but I was unable to catch him with my water cam.

You have to give OB surfers alot of credit. It feels like you're sitting in a pack of marathon runners when you're out there. OB surfers have to paddle out through a tough inside and then hunt down large shifty peaks. Skipper said I caught OB pretty good as a traveling surfer and I want to thank him and LP for showing some genuine AS Aloha.

Scored in NJ - December 2005. Surfed with Dennis of the San Francisco Bay Area.

John Webster Hands Off The Precious Longboard to MikeG - August 16, 2006. See my report on the The Precioussss AS Longboard page.

Other Encounters:

Point totals: 25