Summer’s Day Solstice Surf

1st hot heat wave day and 1st day of the summer. Muggy air. Thick, heavy, slightly hard to breathe (sort of). In bed, Carla next to me just inadvertently woke me up after slumping back into the king size Serta post her usual morning trip to the bathroom. I look at the clock with it’s fluoro green lit LED numerals — 5:15 am…

Waves…?

I check the iPad (it boots up faster than my laptop). The Buoy is reading 3 FT of ESE groundswell at 10.1 seconds. Light SW winds 5-7 KTS all night. High tide at 9:45. ‘Hmm, might Spot No. 0245 be breaking this morning?’ I think to myself, probably yes… So, out of bed, shorts, t-shirt, waterproof watch, wallet, keys, board check, wetsuit, iPhone, all set. Out of the house before the wife and kid are up at 5:30 am for a trip to Secret Spot No. 0245, which is just under an hour away.

1st stop, 7-11, 5:45 am, Columbian Coffee water and a Power Bar, but I’m not hungry… Pay, get back into the surfmobile, and start driving listening to Jack White’s new Album Blunderbuss and slurping hot, sweet, and creamy morning coffee. The towns roll by, the heat index slowly rises, cars and houses and main streets pass by as does the lush summer Hamptons greenery and hedges and trees and so on. Some trade paraders are on the road with me, (I am oftentimes one of them) but it is still early, and so I am beating the traffic.

I stop in X-Hampton real quick, en route to 0245, but, the waves suck. Poor bastards, (the surfers there) they don’t know it’s good somewhere else…
Back on the road, the sun is still yawning outstretched, morning summer’s sky. Anyway, finally, at just before 7, I am there! Run down to the spot, check it, and low and behold, a perfect chest high point wave set comes peeling in sheepishly across the reef, and, it’s glassy… EUREKA!!

Park, suit up, sunscreen, earplugs, grab the 5.8 Bonzer tri retro eggy thing, and walk down barefoot in the dusty dirt down to the cobblestone NY reef/point break for a surf.

No one around… Perfect 2-4 foot waves are peeling in every 3 to 5 to 15 minutes or so with some rare head high sets on said 15 minute mark. There are birds, a boat out to sea a little ways outside the cove, but no one else around. Sparkling blue/emerald NY E swell water, clean, beautiful, and fairly warm in a 3/2 fullsuit. Down to the paddle out spot, jump in, and my surf knot ribs are on the fiberglass deck as I paddle out. Water swishing betwixt my fingers, paddling, duckdiving through the mellow whitewash on my way out to meet with the sea. Crystal liquid salty brine flows over my face and neck and closed eyes and down my back and through my now long hair as I duckdive again and again through the surf. Calming…

1st wave: A solid chest high section bowls up right upon take off and wham, dropping right in, easy, sliding and dropping into the face feeling the back end foil of my Bonzer’s 6” fin sliding into the wave. Now, bottom turn, setup, long smooth off the top arcing frontside into a cutback. Snap back, and whap!! Right back into the pocket, and then speeding along the trimline all the way to the inside section by the rocks. Kick out, paddle back out, and wait for another one…

And so it went for almost three hours straight. 1st heat wave, 1st day of summer, solstice 2012. Riding waves in front of the ancient sandy/earthen cliffs, alone, no one out, just the birds and some occasional splashing fish for company, and the sun. All the New Yorkers and yokel locals and up island kooks and Jersey Boys were somewhere else. No one around save maybe the ghost of dead Indians watching from the shoreline, hopefully; approvingly…

Hot sun, cool water, briny salt crust on the forehead and the smell of Zinka sunscreen for my nose, the pink stuff. Comfortably thick oily colouring war paint and strong flowery summertime scent. Petroleum heaven floating on perfect little ocean coke bottle green glass waves. Summertime…

Words and Art by Lutha Leahy-Miller © 2012