OT - TOW-IN Surfing in FLORIDA???

[jeffro]

Looks like a really fun and rare day there!

Glad someone was on it.

[themasochist]

mostly here in New SMyrna we do "Tow-ats" where the wave is too small to paddle into but when you have a ski whip you into it you have enough speed to pull off a few manuvers, we dont wear footstraps usually unless its big, I didn't tow in that day of the vid, I stuck to the scraps left over on the beach.

[splatnikGanglion]

nothing like Twats out there stinking up the lineup with those god damned polluting skis. It's one thing to tow into a friggin' huge wave that's otherwise inaccessible...

People talk of banning shit, how about those god damned things?

Those were some unreal waves, and the fat lip on that first one was insane! The south beach picture looked unreal, what an awesome shot!

[themasochist]

You aren't from here so shut up tex, why dont you go ride some of those super tanker grovelers out there in good ol GW country. Dont ever come to my home beach or suffer the rath of DA NSB boyz.

[splatnikGanglion]

I'm shaking in my boots.

BTW, austin is NOT bush country fucknuts and last time I checked florida was a red state too. Say Hi to Jeb for me, don't you guys have some invalids to save or something?

Tow in surfing has it's place but when that shit ends up in normal breaks it sucks for everyone. Grow some balls and paddle in unless the conditions really warrant it...

[Green Head]

masochist did anyone paddle surf that day out there? if the current was

too strong to paddle, the ski is the right call

think about that splatnick

if splatnick or any paddle surfer took some two stroke smoke in the face

that day then jetskis should not have been out there. it seems to me that

wasnt the case though. please correct me if im wrong.

[splatnikGanglion]

That's what I was thinking Green Head. If you can paddle in do it. If the currents are running really strong or for some other reason you can't paddle in (besides you being lazy) then tow in seems alright.

[harwoodtraining]

Nobody wanted to paddle on this day...why would they...when you could tow and catch 50 waves a piece.
If you were even lucky enough to catch one wave paddling you would of been done for the day after you got rescued by someone with a boat or ski.
There were some meaty barrels coming through that inlet and the boys wanted them and they got'em.

Oh! I forgot. One guy did tried to paddle after he sat on the beach all afternoon trying to get a tow, couldn't get one and decided to paddle his 8' gun out to only get rescued. The guy that rescued him gave him a tow and he rode one wave only and was done for the day.

It wasn't paddleable or CJ Hobgood would of been...Believe it!
It wasn't so big that you couldn't paddle, it was just a combination of things, the way waves was munching on the waist deep sandbar, the north current ripping south from the swell and howling sideshore winds, the currents ripping in and out the inlet, and on and on. Oh! And the sharks doing backmobes in the lineup, they might not be big but they're in numbers.

If you were there, you wouldn't be talking shit.

The photo of the wave in Miami that was posted was not from that swell. It was from one of last seasons hurricane swells...Francis I believe.

Scott

[Steve in Florida]

Yeah, that's a heavy place. I've surfed there, and I've surfed Reef Road, on the other side of the inlet.

I've surfed Reef Road at double-overhead plus, and Pumphouse (where they were towing at head high.

Trust me, those guys couldn't have been bothering anyone paddling.

Nobody belongs out there paddling around at Pumphouse on a day like that. Pumphouse is outside the north side of a jetty, and this day was a hard north swell and north winds. That translates to super current.

If you COULD have paddled out (which you couldn't... I wasn't there, but on these types of swells, the wave period is too consistent and the sandbars are too shallow to make it out) you SHOULDN'T have. There's no way you could hold your position in the lineup. And if you caught a wave you'd be headed to the rocks in that swell. The only way in would have been to paddle across the inlet to the south side in that swell. But then you're stuck. You just got off one island, with no way back to it.

We have some unreal surfers in Florida. But nobody belonged out in that stuff except the guys who were doing it... the Hobgoods, who are the best in the world in these conditions. Both twins made the quarterfinals at 'Chopes last week, the most evil wave on the world tour. And both are sitting in the top six in the world in surfing.

They can handle it. I can't. And they can have it!

Damien Hobgood made the finals versus Kelly Slater at 'Chopes, but the wave broke on him so hard, it dislocated his shoulder during the final.

Man, that's some heavy stuff.

http://www.billabongpro.com/tahiti05/mens/default.asp

I have nothing against them towing that swell at Pumphouse. With the hairball conditions all around (the rocks, the currents, the boat traffic, the shallow sandbar) I'm still surprised they pulled it off so easily. The kickout / pickup looked way easier than I expected it could ever be out there. If I didn't know better (and I do), it looks doable. On a big drifty Nor'easter, they can have that place.

Big Steve

P.S. About tow-at's in Florida, it's not a problem. Where I live, they're doing them either at breaks way out at inlets (where nobody ever paddles) or down the beach away from the main breaks. I haven't seen it as a problem.

For a frame of reference, it's Reef Road in the foreground, and Pumphouse in the background...

[splatnikGanglion]

Like I said it has its place.

Nice shot steve!