I got a little bit of the good stuff last week.

The S.V. Aja

About a month back I was fortunate to be able to get onboard a 35 foot sailboat (Aja) bound for the waters NW of Tofino. We spent 10 days sailing, surfing, fishing, exploring and enjoying the amazing coastline of the area. Thanks to Rich Elstrom for making it happen. It was definitely the highlight of my summer.

The Aja

We met up with friends on the Ola Suerte

Surf caddy

Captain Rich is a viking

Tahsis

Coho for dinner

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Queens Cove reflection 

Bright nights

Spinnaker sailing

Shore leave at Nootka Island 

Skuna Bay surf check

Nootka locals were around but never showed themselves 

Nothing like paddling right from the boat

Estevan Point

Beauty eh?

Dawn

Good Morning!

South swell!

First Mate

Happy crew

Peru

I just got back from a trip I've wanted to do for a long time. I finally got down to Peru to surf Chicama's amazingly long waves. It only got good for a few days while we were there, but oh my.... what a wave! Longest waves of my life. So much fun! Glad I got to tick this one off the list.

Patagonian Adventure

This video from Kepa Acero via VSTR.com has been catching some attention on the webs lately. I can see why. It's pretty much the reason we go on missions like this one. Treasure! Nice work Kepa.

11

Kelly Slater clinches his 11th World Title at the Rip Curl event in San Francisco. Has any athlete ever dominated a sport like this?

Surftember

Today was the last day of summer. Seems like it barely got going and then it was done. I managed to get back to the Island at the beginning of the month for a few days of camping on the beach. The weather was perfect. Pretty much sunny and warm the entire time. Oh - and waves too. Thank you Surftember.

Ready for the hike to the beach.

Beach camp.

Mid morning beach walk.

The locals were around, but we never met.

Oh ya - waves too!

Beautiful and empty.

Five days later.

P.A. postscript

After the Goat Trip I hung out in P.A. for a couple days. Here's a couple shots from a beautiful evening in the Strait.

Orca Surf

I know, I know. It's almost Christmas, I should be posting about snow and all my plans for the season. But I'm not. I didn't get over to Vancouver Island this fall for my surf pilgrimage so I've been fairly obsessed with waves lately. Last month these pics of orcas surfing in NZ got uploaded to the interwebs.

Photos by Michael Cunningham. More pics here.

They reminded me that I had some video from an NZ trip of an orca doing the same. Well not quite the same. This recent session had much better waves. I had been meaning to dig out that old miniDV tape and digitize it for a while. So here it is.

Hope you're all getting some waves (frozen or otherwise) wherever you are.

Perfect Beer Commercial

Mexican waves & beers. I think Taylor Steele just made the perfect beer commercial.

This one's for Tom.

Canadian Surf Film Fest

Happening out in Halifax.

Poster by Tyler Warren.

Bali Strickland

Some eye candy from Aussie Bali Srickland.

Dark Side of the Lens

This is just brilliant.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

Landlocked

If I don't get to the coast soon I could end up like this:

Castles In The Sky

Taylor Steele's latest film "Castles In The Sky" shows in Vancouver at the end of June. Looks like a good one.

Finally...

I finally got back into the ocean after no surf for way too long. Pemberton is definitely not close to the surf so it has been tough to get any time in the water this summer. Especially with three weddings in August. I just spent the weekend down at the beach with the Washington crew. I got to see some good friends I haven't seen in a while and surf a wave down there I've never paddled out to before. I've checked this spot multiple times over the years but it was never really working. If you've spent any time surfing around Washington you'll recognize the place. This is about as friendly as it gets out there. While we were out there the fog rolled in and made it pretty near impossible to line up with anything. A little spooky, but at this size it was mellow. A little bigger and it would have been less than mellow. I've heard many stories about this wave punishing people. The view from above was surreal. You could barely see the shore directly below the lookout through the fog. The surf-able wave was hidden from view. A sea of fog hiding the sea.

Ryan Beppu

Cool image from Hawaii. Check out his website here for more.

Not secret, but lesser known.

Here's Tom Ritchie timing his paddle out down in Costa Rica a few summers back. We'd seen this solid swell forecast and decided to check out a relatively unknown area down there. We got what we were looking for. Check the guy on the shoulder for size reference.

G-Land

I'm a little late to the party, but here's my contribution to the digital pile. I'm not sure how this thing will evolve. I'm starting out short and sweet. A picture from my travels with a tiny explanation (or not).

This one's from a couple summers back when I finished a 2 month trip to Bali with a quick one over to Java to finally see this incredible wave on the edge of a jungle. This Aussie charger broke his board a few waves later. Low tide & HEAVY!