The Wrestle Might Be Over

Central Cal brings some lumps

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We’ve been everywhere, man. Over the last few days we’ve spanned a few hundred miles either side of Santa Cruz, grinding it out trying to make the most of what we’ve got. It sounds like a joke, but driving all over the countryside looking for waves is actually working for these lads, and the rest of our funbus passengers.

The life of a pro junior surfer is a funny one. The guys spend so much time together on tour that they become family. Amongst their peers they know who’s sick, who’s surfing well, who’s parents are going through trouble, who’s hooked up with who on the other half of the draw, and boy do they love to talk about it all. They definitely don’t take it for granted, hell, everyone knows the junior years are the most carefree of your surfing career, but it’s still funny as an outsider to hear every story start with a tropical location, before returning to regular boozy shenanigans. Boards are free and get ditched as soon as they perform badly, clothes are left behind all over the place, and things like car doors get left unlocked on a regular basis. Life is totally in the present, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun when cute girls just seem to wander over and smile, or you get stuck in a foreign country with no wetsuits, and can just wander into your sponsor’s store and take a couple off the racks. If you wanna crew to do a roadtrip with, you’d struggle to find a funnier group.

Surfing a perfect little beachbreak north of Santa Cruz with Skindog turned into a day at American D-Bah a few hours ago. In these parts it seems the sponsored guys are more sales reps with stickers than team riders, something that had our crew a little rattled. We rolled in early and were amongst the first in the water, then watched a procession of local older pros swagger down the beach and paddle out. Around here the guys are all into charging massive Mavericks in winter and doing big airs the rest of the year, so things like competition, and points, and style seem irrelevant. This is in stark contrast to our band of rippers who thrive on shredding fun surf year round, and things got a little eggy in the water. But as Skinny said to us, “take it as a compliment, my bros were just blown away by their surfing. They’re the big fish in this little pond, so to see some world beaters roll in and start blowing up might have got the boys a little defensive.” 

Still, twas a handy session in perfect conditions, and it looks like the forecast is going to favour us over the next few days. We’ve got the will, we’ve got the wheels, now’s the time to make it all happen.

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