mavericks

Saturday, February 18th was a very special day in the Northern California surfing world. The buoys were reading 15-18, the sun was out, and the water was oily glassy all day long. Making things even more dreamy, the majority of the big name surfers were over in Hawaii, waiting for the Eddie Aikau contest to happen. This left Mavs wide open for the mere mortals to have at it. (With the exception of Greg Long, who I am convinced is not from this planet after seeing him charge that day.)

Check out Josh Ryan, who bagged 5 nice waves.

It's a really sad set of news to come out from the Peter Davi's toxicology report. It indicated that he had a significant amount of methamphetamine in his system when he died at Ghost trees last December.

As a big wave surfer, I was deeply saddened to find out that Davi had died. I am even more deeply saddened by the fact that he was high when it happened. Not judging the man here, but holy cow...the most difficult thing about surfing big Nor Cal waves is calming down your heart so that you can maintain composure in life threatening conditions. I can't even imagine what it must feel like to be hopped up on Meth, paddling your for your life to either a) scratch over a set, or b) commit to drop into a wave.

Surfing big waves always requires preparation. I never feel fully prepared. I always want more strength, more endurance, a slightly longer board, and more balls. But hopping out on Meth is not what would ever occur to me.