Fishlips!

You all know Mark Thomson as a controversial speed blur on a mat, but he's also a hell of a shaper and quite a free thinking one at that. He does a lot with carbon fiber which is fine by me. This here is twin tip drongo with a reverse nose, and it's only a peek at what Mark's got going on in the shed.

Mackie 6'3" S-deck Stub For Sale

Yes, yes and yes indeed. Brand new Mackie collected from the courier not an hour or so ago. 6'3" x 21.5" x 2.75" S-deck single fin with a volan deck patch, $850. Quite a lovely thing, you could carve your turkey with those rails and probably shave with the hand foiled flex fin. Outstanding, young Michael Mackie is an absolute craftsman. Happy Thanksgiving indeed. Email info @ foamandfunction.com for more info.
(Excuse the photos as it's a holiday and I've been at the Buffalo Grass Vodka.)

Submissions for Ocean beach Close Today

you have until 5pm today to send in your submission for Ocean beach, i haven't even started writing mine!!

Snowskates

A nice few minutes of pre-Holiday shenanigans via Kevin of December Snowskates and his friends at Boyd Hill. This looks fun, especially if you get one of those outfits.

Windy Hills

She Was A Girl by The Windy Hills from Andrew Kidman on Vimeo.

Incoming

'It's a little bit hull, a little bit Greenough and a little bit me'

6'3" single fin S-deck from Mick Mackie. Has a nice volan deck patch and a custom flexfin. It should be in my hands in a week or so, and it can be in your hands for a mere $850. More photos when it lands, email info at foamandfunction.com for the full skinny.

A Few More....

More Mackie stuff, it's just that there's been a wealth of images coming from that quarter and he got in touch yesterday to let me know there's a new board nearly done and soon to be on it's way up here. For a change, it's not a twin. Pictures soon, this one is going to be a beauty.

Bush Point

Unfortunately, my Canon was filled with salt water, the normal backup camera I keep in the car wasn't in the car, and all I had left was the camera on my cellphone, which just didn't do the late afternoon light much justice.  I stopped at Libbey Beach, Ebey's Landing, Camp Casey, and Keystone Spit to watch the waves rolling southward down Admiralty Inlet (I've included a couple of cell phone pictures at the bottom of this post).


Bush Point was my last stop before the light ran out and I had to head for the Clinton ferry.  The wind was howling from the north and locals were pulling up and letting their children and their dogs out to stand in the spray.  Waves were crashing into the old restaurant/inn, launching themselves up through the decking of the wharf, and blowing over the two-story structure in big sheets.


Bush Point - one month ago


The tide was scheduled to peak a bit higher than 10' MLLW around 4PM (when I arrived), but the surge added more than a foot (here's the Seattle record), so the the water was right around MHHW.  Imagine if this storm had arrived on a 2' higher tide!

AERIAL VIEW

Ebey's Landing

Camp Casey

Hastie Lake

The strong westerly winds were coming out of a big hole in the clouds over the Strait, so I actually had some late afternoon sun.  Hastie Lake is a little farther south on West Beach and is the site of a small boat ramp and a row of homes built on an old barrier beach.  This would have been amazing to watch on a really high tide!


Tonight I'll try posting some of the videos I took this afternoon, including the one from here - my camera's last valiant effort before swallowing salt water and dying in a frenzy of small electronic gasps.

AERIAL VIEW

West Beach

It's nice when storms come on weekends and state holidays - that way I don't sit in the office wishing I were on the beach.  I just go.  I headed for Whidbey via the northern route, figuring I could follow the afternoon's high tide and the shifting winds down the island.  Deception Pass was quiet, as was Ala Spit on the northeast side of the island, and I was tempted to question the wisdom of the forecasts, but I arrived at West Beach to find the wind coming out of the west - furiously.



Cliff Mass's discussion of today's windstorm


SMITH ISLAND WINDSPEED
(located just west of this beach, I was there just before the peak)


The tide wasn't terribly high.  If the water had been 1-2 feet higher, which it could easily have been, this storm would have caused a lot more damage.  As it was, the wave runup only occasionally reached the bluff toe and we weren't even close to having logs washed over the road.


Swantown, April 2006 (earlier post on Gravel Beach)


AERIAL VIEW




VIDEOS:

Ala Spit

The last time I visited Ala Spit, in early October, the park was closed and there were three excavators on the beach removing the old concrete rubble and repositioning rocks and logs (below).  Today, the crews were gone, and nature was busy editing their final project.  The neck of the spit had been eroding for a long time - for a bunch of reasons - and the junk that had been dumped on the beach to protect it wasn't helping.  It may have been making it worse (Ala Spit, 2007-2008).


The project involved pulling out all the hard parts that were keeping the spit from responding constructively to wave action and adding sand and gravel in the form of a new higher berm.  The berm is a bit higher than the natural berm would have been and the waves are already cutting a scarp into it, but that's okay.  And this winter, I suspect waves will cut through the new berm, creating a lower and slightly broader feature. That will also allow the logs to distribute themselves more evenly - right now they are packed into a narrow band on the steep upper beachface.  Some of the eroded sediment will be added to the beachface; some will get washed over and down the backside.  The salicornia (pickle weed) will object initially, but will soon remember that this is how it always used to happen before the spit was buried in big rock and concrete.

AERIAL VIEW

Here's what it looked like a month ago.

Simon & MIck by Andrew

Simon Anderson and Mick Mackie got together for a session, Mick with his new flextail boards which apparently impressed Simon. Pretty serious crew to surf with, thanks to Kidman for the photos. He's been keeping his site fresh with new photos, well worth checking out here. If you haven't scored a copy of 'Lost In The Ether' then now's the time to do it- there's not a lot left.



If you're in the vicinity of Wilmington NC this weekend, don't forget that Mick Waters' 'Little Black Wheels' will be playing at 7.15pm on Saturday at the Soapbox. If you aren't in NC you can still get a signed copy of the movie from us, $25 shipping included. Email info @ foamandfunction.com to order or ask questions.

Winter

To the north of us, it's starting to kick in seriously. Photos via Nils in France.




And to the south of us, it's over but went out with a bit of a bang dumping snow and sending a decent late season swell that lit up a few spots. These photos via Mick Mackie. Here in the middle, it's cold and raining. Always bodes well for a few solid NW's coming in...

More Video

From RT this time. He says full screen and toggle to 720 which certainly works. The wave around 3.15 is fantastic, and there's a lot of good waves here.