All Good Things...
/So, Phileas's second stint in Orange County is coming to an end and what a stint it's been! James Sowell (AKA "Mattitude") has been the perfect host, dragging our girl into all sorts! Here's what he had to say after their most recent adventures in the company of Matt Pierce and Chad Sickney of HCW Camera Water Housings.
That's quite a cast of riders! We've already seen some shots of Matt in cranking Huntington Beach and it looks like things kicked on from there. Here's what Mattitude had to say:
phileas scored again tonight. took her down to mat reef for high tide in the evening. surf was on the large side with some of the sets closing out the bay. the in between sets were good and the waves were almost non stop.
Matt [Pierce] and i traded off between phileas and filming duties with only a small window of time where the tide got high enough but the sun was going down. we got just over an hour with phileas in some great conditions as the wind died and all the conditions meshed.
The boys sneaked out a quick edit of the session on YouTube, so here it is:
I think they need to get a room at 1:33! Anyway, Jamo goes on:
Phileas has been scoring after matt P and i got mat reef.i knew the swell was still solid on Tuesday morning and Chad Stickney had just arrived back in town late Monday night. we made plans the next day to do a hike swim to a very heavy and secluded reef we had both been wanting to check on a bigger swell of this direction. the reef is along way from any help and was extremely heavy, dangerous with exposed rocks inside.the still very large swells exploding on the reef in focused peaks could really drag you with extreme power. even worse the foam collects and heads straight for the exposed reef inside.
id say the sets were 10-12 face i got a few smaller waves then we saw some of the largest sets come in from an outside rock with a foamer. this would give a bit more of a run before the peak stood up and horseshoed across the reef. i made the first wave pretty easy and was feeling confident. then the next 4 waves that i tried to take, shut me down and left me right in the center of the peak with the thing detonating; i tried to duck under the whole deal with out getting dragged to far in towards the rocks. Then it was a mad dash to the side to try to get clear of the rocks before the next 1-2 waves beat you all the way in .
footage was extremely difficult but hopefully this gives some idea of the wave. my first good wave: made this one.
second wave: did not make this one or the next three.
this day was really heavy and as i first paddled out and got a first hand view of what i was getting into i was not even sure it was rideable. stickeny said the same thing as we paddled out but it ended up being just doable.
i was putting alot of faith in phileas in a break i have never seen break this heavy at this size and direction. any missteps could have ended in disaster and i have to say i am very confident in this mats ability to hang in and make waves.
Chad Stickney and i hit the river later that same day. got footage, great river (phileas earned a new nickname " fillet us " cause of the way it was slicing up the river waves super fast) .
i really wanted to hit wedge the next morning . the plan being Chad was going to ride Phileas with head cam and i was going to do camera duties from the water .
unfortunately wedge was not optimal so we relocated down to river jetty and got great session i dont have that footage to make a screen grab but we will get all the footage to G so he can do a proper write up for the blog soon. In the afternoon after lunch we headed back down to the river and showed up in time for it. another great river and excellent footage .
at one point the river wave was pretty far from the bank and quite large so i took a running leap of faith and managed to connect onto the wave
directly after this i got swept out to sea in the river and had to swim back onto shore from about 300 yards out with no fins and phew needed a lil break after that [[eek]]
Chad Stickney
as the river ended the sand bar was looking a bit slabby so we decided to get a few barrel shots of phileas. I was happy to get a few gems the footage is over the top and i kind of dont want to blow it all up before the official video for the blog but heres a quick taste
Looks so much fun!
Phileas has picked up a wee graze at some point over her adventured but nothing major. Matt Pierce is on ding duty and has it in hand so Phileas will head on in good shape.
The footage from this leg has been great!
G