Neah Bay – Labor Day 2008

Perfect.

Myself, Ki and PK bailed late thurs.  We caught a 7:20 ferry and b-lined it to Neah looking to meet up with Petersen, Hardstab and his NYC bro.  We showed up to a soggy camp ground and a soggier Hardstab.  Dude had been there for 2 days powering through some of the Northwest’s finest weather.  Good work.

Woke up the next morn ate some grub, and got right to it.  Weather was still a bit dismal but the stoke level was high.  The swell was on so we figured there’d be some clean waves somewhere.  We checked three spots before finally settling on one.  The tide was sketchy low when we got there but filled in pretty quick.  Waves were on.  Solid waist high, clean, rippable and super warm.  Had that spot on lock with just myself, Ki, PK, and Petersen.  No Team WTF this time.

Got back to sog camp later that afternoon, beat from surf.  Hardstab had already bailed but left the tarp–which luckily we didn’t end up needing. The sun came out right about when Otter showed up late afternoon.  The Clearwater Creek Casino had once again fallen to the luckiest hippy alive and rewarded him with a few Franklins.  In true Otter form, he turned that money right into a huge pile of fireworks.

Right about when the sun went down we pretty much took Hobuck Beach back to the 4th of July.  A small crowd of kids showed up stoking on the show.  Luckily they stood back because fireworks, booze and small children don’t mix.

The next morning (Sat), we hit the same spot plus JR, Emmanator and LD.  This time the sun was out, waves were bigger , clean, peeling, and we still had the place on lock!  We all got a ton of good rides after surfing 4 hours straight.  We only left out of sheer exhaustion–waves were still on.  Ima just go ahead and claim that no one in WA state had a better session than we did that day.

I crashed out early that night.  At one point i woke up to the sound of someone puking their life away pretty close to my tent.  Eventually the yaking stopped, i crashed back out.   Shortly after i woke again to same person stumbling around maybe a foot away from my tent.  The next morning i got out the tent to assess the damage and there was an impressive puke pile (complete with a hungry horde of banana slugs) 2 feet from my tent.  Rad.

That morning (Sun) we checked a few spots and made the call to take a little stroll through the woods.  Swell had changed a bit but we figured there’d still be some size in select spots.  Made the 45 min investment and sure as shit–waves were huge.  Wind was on the 6ft/8sec swell. So on top of a tight interval there were waves coming from every direction–it made for a gnarly paddle out. Once in the lineup, the waves were solid over head.  Made a bunch of decent drops, got closed on a few, drank a little ocean but it was super fun.  Nothing like getting slapped around a bit by the ocean to keep ya in check.

Sic weekend.  Stoked to share waves with my friends.

Check out more of Ki’s photos here.