The OC Video is here!!!

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Ladies and gents I am SO proud to present the video from the OC leg of the tour.

Thanks so much to Sean Mattitude, Chad Stickney, Sean Starky and Matt Pierce for getting in on this.

On she goes... Santa Barbara next.

G

PS. Be sure to take a look at Chad's site. The place to go if you need a custom camera housing:  http://hcwhousings.com

All Good Things...

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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

HB Mat Meet

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David Song, Bruce Cowan (23 Breaths), Matt Pierce and James Sowell hooked up at Huntington Beach in some solid looking surf.

David snapped a couple of shots of Matt Pierce who said:

Challenging conditions for the HB mat meet! Had fun flying Phileas and Cali King [Matt's G-Mat]. Wedge session soon! It was a tough day with the waves sweet spot out running us constantly. just getting left behind a lot but got a couple sweet little barrels...

Pretty solid stuff! The paddle out looks a laugh a minute! 

Far more manageable was James' session back at Wiggums earlier in the week. Here are a couple of screen grabs from video shot by Scott Reeder..

I do believe this Cali leg is going rather well. 

G

Word from Mattitude

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James "Mattitude" Sowell has taken over the reins and has got into some waves with Phileas. As you will remember, he got in on the un-photographed session at Wiggums with Scott Reeder and Ken McKnight.

James didn't really feel the love on his first go out. Obviously he rode well, being one of the world's very best mat riders, but he described Phileas as feeling a bit full.  Second session sounds like they developed an understanding:

phileas and i had a good lets get acquainted session today .

took her out to north side hb  pier down at taco bell reef.
surf was a good combo swell with alot of windswell from the  north. breaking a good  2+ feet overhead in big  mushy tapered peaks that were connecting to the shorebreak.

it was  kind of big no channels  and my first thought were phileas i hope you like ducking !
i adjusted the air much lower then when i rode it at wiggums. ended up well  under 180 more like 200-210.  i could grab a big corner of the  mat while it was 180 and it still was not tight.my first wave was a big outside right  i pivoted a turn off the top and highlined it. the  mat took off like greased lightning.
as i came across the face i hit a  pretty big  chop while up on the rail. I braced myself for a big chop hop but to my surprise phileas sucked it up and absorbed the  chop  enough so i did not get thrown.
I had it at 180 at wiggums and  that was  way to much air all the negative feelings i had at wiggums disappeared at the lower inflation .
was able to make some connections that surprised me doing some dolphin kicks as i  was connecting to the shorebreak.

phileas was able to climb some  foam on a wave that was  sectioning on me  down the line  turned sharper then i have felt before on a mat .

it was not  as rail to rail feeling as  my last impression of it  with more  air it  just turned  fast and sharp. and best of all i  made a shorebreak tube with  so much authority. was not even expecting to make it  but had such a strong speed thrust as i entered  it  came busting out after about a 2 second tube totaly blew me away.
I am so stoked to have had a chance to ride her I Really connected to the magic today with the g-mat.

there might be a ride or  two on the 17th street cam today but i have not checked
i drifted through the cam  area between 9 and 10-45 am

stickneys gunna go crazy when he rides this  thing.

should be a beast on the  river waves

No pics then, and I have no idea how to check said cam!!! Jamo has had another sneaky go out since which looks like a great session:

James says:

phileas took a  boat ride today.   got a few nuggets   much more to come 

Judging by Matt Pierce's Facebook activity it looks like a matmeet could be on the cards.

Great stuff!

G