V.V.V. Session started by V.V.V., on Thursday, 31 March 2016 14:11

I got a hot tip from Lauren last night at the Fish movie at Bird's that she and Isaac Wood be doing a dawn patrol session at Pipes and would be filming for Xcel wetsuits, so I stayed up late to do some modifications to the fin setup from my Morey-Pope McTavish Tracker so that I could use it in the Gordon and Smith Midget Farrelly Stringerless that Sam From Taco Surf loaned me. It's a modern Fins Unlimited box that I shaved down and modified to fit in the rectangular '60s W.A.V.E.set box that both of those boards have.

Sam's board is really pristine, but the box has some warbling on the interior side walls. This required about an hour with a Dremel tool making a bunch of strategically located notches along the length of the FU box to clear the bumps in the Ws box. So I didn't get to sleep until after midnight, with my alarm set for 5:30... no problem! At least now I could use my modern Josh Farberow flex fin instead of the chunky black plastic railroad spike of a fin that came with the M-P when I got it from Bird, yew!

We looked at Cardiff first, but the tide was really drained out, creating some weak conditions and short closeout rides. So we did our best Swingers impression, piling into separate cars and quickly booking north a mile or so. I've done plenty of Swamis and Cardiff the past few years, but I hadn't surfed Pipes in at least five or six years, so I was stoked to get back to a long lost love.

Pipes is much less tide sensitive, and there were plenty of waist to chest high peelers to be had. We jammed down the stairs to find only a couple of guys out. Meanwhile Sam and Jared stayed up top on the bluff to do some filming. Kellen showed up while we were suiting up and followed us out into the lineup, followed by Jared on a spare board Kellen had brought.

Isaac nabbed a few right off the bat and Lauren was just paddling out from a nice little left as I paddled out after a quick stretch. I didn't have to wait long as a reeling little inside left swung right my way on the paddle out. Spin, drop, turn and go hard left, and wow - this fin works sooooo much better than the other one! I even got a little time on the nose with the tail sliding out behind me like a dog down the sidewalk, yew! What a difference going to a fin with some snap to it!

I nabbed a few rights next, some of which walled up ahead of me, requiring a quick exit strategy to avoid any chance of damaging Sam's precious stringerless beauty. I then took off behind Lauren on a really nice left and quickly caught up to her. So then she starts monkeying around on the shoulder and cutting back toward me, wanting me to criss cross with her, and I'm all like "No thanks, it's not my board!"

We got lots of waves in about an hour and a half and then the crowd filled in. Time to blow this joint! See you later Pipes, it's been too long!