Phileas in NYC

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Well New Yorker, Tim Darwish tried his best but the US East Coast is a fickle lover (or so I'm told).  Here's what Tim had to say:

"My first try with Phileas was the windy day, I thought it was 25mph when I got home the weather report had the gusts at 45 mph, I wouldn't have taken one on my Neu's out in that wind! I got a couple great waves and wished it was on Phileas.

My second go went better but not well. I got to the beach and it was waist high at best but I got a couple nice waves and Phileas went really nice! Got one long ride and the mat really holds and lets you drift into a high line nicely, had that same feeling on three different waves. Jeremy [Grosvenor] and I were trying to meet up but I think the lack of waves didn't warrant a 2 hour drive for either of us. 

I wish that NYC had treated Phileas better, I just emailed Justin Valdez to see if he wants to take it out in the next couple days and then I'm going to send it off to Jeremy, I'm too busy right now to get out in the next week and then I'll be traveling so my time with Phileas is coming to an end.  I did take a couple photos today of my trip to Rockaway Beach on the subway and then I ran up to my roof and got as good a photo of #50 with the Empire State Building in the background.

 I really wish I had some good waves to get Phileas into, poor mat went from perfect tropical waves and water to cold, not too dirty NYC water."

Phileas sees the sights

So something of a blowout but at least Phileas got in the water at Rockaway, even if it wasn't photogenically worthy.

We checked with Justin but he's just to busy being Justin so Phileas now goes on to Jeremy Grosvenor. Tim is going to try to get hooked up so we may see some footage of him yet!

Thanks a lot Tim!

Cheers

G

Bye bye from Jamie... On to the Big Apple

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So, as Jamie McClellan and Phileas say their goodbyes we can get the lowdown on what went down from Jamie:

Buoy Dodging - Photo: Rincon Surf Photography

Phileas arrived during an unusually flat October. One surf in two weeks is all we got. Every wave a closeout. This place can be very frustrating. 

Then a blip on the long range charts prompted a message to Graeme. Despite strict instructions, "Two weeks and pass", I let G know Phileas was going to have a little change of itinerary. 

Hurricane Gonzalo passed just north of Puerto Rico on the morning of October 14. Tatum's birthday was the next day, so we were going, hurricanes be damned. I had planned the trip months in advance. I finally told her what we were doing 24 hours before we got on the plane.

"Oh, and by the way, there's a hurricane that might hit PR while we're
trying to land..."

We landed in San Juan at noon, grabbed our rental and bolted to the NW coast. The swell filled in that afternoon and didn't let up for days as Gonzalo slowed it's forward speed and grew to an intense category 4 storm. Bermuda got a mauling.

Puerto Rico got 7 days of fantastic surf.

We got lucky.

October is early season for the Caribbean tourist mill, so crowds in PR were thin and mostly local. Light south wind meant the entire north coast pumped, spreading crowds even more. I surfed at dawn every day and again most afternoons in powerful reefbreak surf in the head high to double overhead range. Phileas handled really well for the power behind the swell. We flew in the early morning glass before the wind turned on each day. The afternoon winds caused some interesting cross chop across the long, pulsing walls in Rincon.

We stayed in a treehouse, hiked waterfalls and lived on cafe conleche, fish tacos and coco frios.

It gets harder and harder to leave every time we go.

Jamie's Artwork

And so Phileas heads onwards up the East Coast and into the Big Apple, courtesy of Tim Darwish.

To be continued...

G