Almost July

Once again the ocean has gone from decent (waves) this chilly spring, to mostly flat these past few weeks. As is oft the norm, once the weather goes from chilly to warm towards the end of June, the waves go flat, or mostly flat, for weeks. There have been only a handful of semi-decent surf days this past month, and most of those were less than chest high. Ahh the east coast, such a fickle bitch…

The water’s still durn chilly too. Most of us are still wearing 4/3mm steamers, but no boots thank God. That puts the water temp at about 58° methinks. Usually 57° or less and you’d want boots. Upwelling, currents, etc. seem to be the cause. Too bad there aren’t more waves as a payoff from all that upwelling! I got on the shortboard, well, my performance fish, for about an hour just a little over a week or so ago. Got one turn in, sort of. Otherwise, It’s been just marginal longboarding.

However, being able to ditch the boots, gloves, and hood does have a sort of profound psychological effect. Makes it much easier to justify jumping in those brisk early mornings in less than stellar conditions. Also, it’s easier to get my longtime mates to head out for a session if it’s not so frickken cold. But still, I am def waiting for better waves to come. I really don’t get too pumped for a surf unless the waves are at least chest high. Longboarding is nice and all, but I really miss the feel of flying down the line, setting up a deep bottom turn, driving up the face and schmaaakkking it! Whap-bapp!!

So we wait… And wait… And wait some more… At the same time, during these early summer doldrums, the art biz has been picking up, lots! I’ve had no days off for weeks! Install after install, house after house, gallery after gallery. Plus this is prime time season for the movie biz too. So it’s been quite busy here at the Southampton Playhouse. Obsession has been drawing good crowds for a few weeks now, and Disclosure Day too. It’s hard to beat a Spielberg summer blockbuster. Plus, we just had the chance to show Donnie Darko on the big screen last week! Not bad.

In the interim, with what little downtime I’ve had, I’ve been meditating a little bit, trying to catch up on my Dharma studies here and there, making art, and tuning up my FCS 2 fins for the coming surf season. Last week I was surfing my Ci G-Skate, but I had forgotten my twinnies and trailer, so I just threw in my Ci AM medium sized tri fins and had a go at it. Wow! Those regular tri fins worked so much better! So, I decided to poke around and see about tweaking my fins for that board. In the old days I used to use TC Redlines for side fins on my rocket fish designs, coupled with a trailer or smaller center fin. TC Redlines had the same base width of most twinnie setups, but the 4.5” height of a regular tri fin. So they had all the hold, but none of the drag. Fucking fantastic. I still have a set, but I wanted to try something newer that I wouldn’t have to use the FCS 2 retrofit tab kit with. Eventually I happened upon the Tokoros. Those have been my fave, go to step up fins for ages, decades in fact, I used to get them in blue fiberglass from True Ames. They now have them in FCS 2 in medium or large sizes. So I ordered a large set and I’m going to try them as side fins for the G-Skate, with an AM Medium or PC-3 sized center in chest high plus surf, or a 4.25” or trailer fin in chest high and under conditions. Can’t wait to try them out…

Every morning I am up early looking at the maps, studying and wondering when some good waves will finally come and grace our shores. So far, as is typical for June/July, it’s been mostly flat or barely thigh high, with lots of onshore wind-slop and not much action. Such is the norm for early summer. Not quite warm, yet sometimes too hot midday, and yet again still with the durn chilly water where you need a freaking 4/3mm to stay comfortable. Not the worst thing, but damn the waves are small to nonexistent of late. Blech and yuck.

The remainder of this week these last days of June ‘26 look to be marginal at best. Mostly it’s just gonna be day after day of shin to thigh high onshore wind-slop. Hopefully something will shift and we’ll start to get some decent summer swells, but don’t hold your breath. Good news is that in a very short time we’ll be in 3/2mm steamers, and then 2mm short-sleeve fulls before you know it. At least then, with the thinner, lighter suits, longboarding and/or small wave shortboarding will much more fun without the sting of cold to hold you back.

Pray for surf!