Seals, Sharks and Surfing

Todd and I at the beach.



What do you do on the weekend when you live in Eugene and you haven't gotten any rain all week?!


You go to the Oregon Coast!





Despite the forecast for rain, we seem to never get it. As a result, for the past two weekends, Todd Baker and I have been paddling on the Oregon Coast with friends Connor Ross, Glenn Dalgleish, Josh McKeown and my sister Christina Russell. If you drive 1 hour due West from Eugene, you hit the coast at a little town called Florence, Oregon. Florence is a small town that used to be home to a good sized logging operation, but now, it is more of a historic town with "new" and "old" Florence smashed together with awesome surfing nearby.





Todd and I dropping in (Photo by: Tamson Ross)


In Florence, we surf at the South Jetty.


Only, it is hard to catch the waves here at a time when they are breaking and the rip tide isn't too strong. (There are some gnarly horror stories of almost being swept out to sea only to eventually get close enough to the jetty to get ahold of the last rock before being swept out to sea... SCARY!)

Luckily, however, since we have been paddling at the coast so much, we have gotten a day or two's opportunity to surf the waves without a crazy riptide.





Glenn Dalgleish hangin' out (Photo by: Christina Russell)





For the past few weekends, swells have been mostly around 9.5 feet at 14 seconds. This past weekend though, they were about 13 ft at 14 seconds. It was epic! Every wave that came in was big and PERFECT!!!!! There's no feeling like the one you get dropping down the steep wave face bouncing high in the air, only to get pummeled when the wave breaks on you. It was pretty funny after awhile, actually.. it got to the point where it was fun to get trashed and see how high your boat woudl explode into the air, haha! I remember Todd and I getting pitched onto our heads on the same wave, getting worked together, tumbling down the wave face and once the wave slowed down, ended up unintentionally sternsquirting each other and flipping to our own respective sides. It was pretty funny...

Connor and Glenn had a few good beatdowns too! I remember watching them paddle out, almost making it over the wave, only the wave crashes and they get hucked 3 feet into the air like ragdolls! And then they roll up smiling and shouting! Who would have thought beat downs could be so fun!!! YEA!




Check out the photos!








Connor Ross and Todd Baker dropping in (Photo by: Tamson Ross)






Todd mid flipturn. wohoo! (Photo by: Tamson Ross)









Kim mid bounce...Yee-haw!!! (Photo by: Tamson Ross)




Syncronized blunting. Todd Baker and Kim (Photo by: Tamson Ross)






Todd massive airblunt (Photo by: Tamson Ross)





Kim airblunt..wohoo! (Photo by: Tamson Ross)





Todd (Photo by: Tamson Ross)




After surfing for 4 hours straight, the riptide began to get pretty strong, so we decided it was time to get out... hmmm. That was tricky. Let's just say between being pulled out to sea and surfing as far in as we could on the waves that broke into the jetty (these were the only ones that would take us in far enough), it was slow going.




Glenn getting out at the South Jetty (Photo by: Todd Baker)




After three awesome weekends at the coast, we'll see what this weekend brings. Hopefully we'll have some rain. The forecast says we should expect some.Wohoo!








Tamson Ross's evening run in front of the yota'... RUN RUN RUN!!! (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!


Kim Russell