barrel

Hurricane Franklin, four feet @ thirteen seconds. One and a half times overhead and clean. Fast forward to my last wave.. looks a bit smaller on the takeoff compared to the other bombs that peaked in one spot. It was a long wall, tapering nicely and seeming stable, free of peaks.

Dropped in and fired left down the line, no time for much of a bottom turn. Quickly it started to wall up around me and I tucked into a barrel position, grabbing rail. It closed over me and in no time I found myself ten to fifteen feet deep inside the tube, with a storm of mist and the earth shaking sounds of crashing all around me.

Then, it stayed like this. I’m now just living my life inside this realm of disaster. Getting no deeper, if anything, slightly closer to the mouth of the barrel. But the opening remained small and afar. And my perception of the world around me was completely gone. Like driving down the road with my eyes closed. But my eyes were open, experiencing this insane green room.

Five or ten seconds went by. I knew there were rocks nested around the pier somewhere south of me. But how close at this point, no idea.

Whether it was my fear of hitting something or someone, eager to catch my bearings with the outside world having lost track of time, or just crashing from a balance loss, well, it didn’t take much hesitation to become succumbed to the force of the wave, sending me off the board and over the falls.

When I came out seeing I had room to spare before hitting the rocks and pier, I wished I had stayed longer. But who knows how long the barrel would have continued. Next time, I will push a bit harder, maybe catch a shorter barrel, or be in a spot with less shrapnel.

Definitely the longest time in the barrel in my life, and deepest. I feel strongly now the desire other surfers long for as they track storms and forecasts.. to feel the vigor inside that explosive green dimension.

image from a similar day, further north