Stinkeye
Miki Dora status
Reged: 01/12/02
Posts: 5180
Loc: South of town..
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OK – The story is long overdue..Sorry everyone. I know I promised it by my life has been chaos lately. Not in a bad way, but working on building my business instead of lagging..
So in the beginning of last week we knew it was coming. How big would it be? All indications were pointing towards the pretty fukking big side. Tuesday’s look at the buoys confirmed that it was on, SE Papa buoy peaked out at around 30’ @ 20 seconds. The hourly swell model showed the energy up and down from 26’ to 30’ @ 20 so it was looking pretty damn solid for Wednesday. Weather wise it was iffy. The sound all night at my house was like thunder, not much sleep went down.
We were dealing with some foggy mornings. A choice needed to be made, head north to Mavs or south to Ghost Trees, both notoriously foggy. After much debate and waking up at 3:30 am and checking the weather it was still all socked in. The choice was Mavs. Got in the rig at 4:30 in the dark, foggy morning and headed north. Light fog with some HEAVY patches on the way up. Buoys still maxing. Got to the launch ramp and adrenaline was in the air. Everyone was getting their skis ready and amping on the swell. Regardless of the weather, it was about to happen.
The ski I’ve normally been using was the tow ski today so I was using another. Brand new Honda Turbo, reliable and ready to take it on. Jumped on at the first crack of light and headed out to the break. It was me driving and Grant Washburn on the back. As soon as you get past the harbor jetty it’s choppy as a mofo. We made it to Mushroom Rock and got through the closeout zone pretty quickly as the morning high tide was swamping, so it wasn’t too bad. Once out to the channel we could see it was on. Even with the tide there were some BOMBS coming in. The fog makes the whole situation kind of sketchy; no land visible, the inside rocks hidden and macking walls coming in out of the fog. It was like a trippy dream.
We had to make the best of the shite weather so I broke out my camera and Grant had his video rig going. Some insane rides were going down. It’s almost like a cartoon out there. You’ve got some solid set waves that are 50’ faces and guys riding tow boards under 6’, just doing s turns and fading into the pit. It’s the stuff you drew on notebooks and saw in Rick Griffin sketches. The show was so freaking spectacular that I didn’t even care about how lousy the photo conditions were. The best thing about it was the only people witnessing this were us out there. Invisible from the cliffs.
There was a nasty north current running, pushing you quickly into the death zone. You had to keep an eye on where you were, but really no biggie since you can jet out of there on the ski in no time. We were out for a bit shooting, then heading for the channel. Repeat for each set. Then a nice bomb set came through and we got our shots of the first wave and were ready to move out to the channel. No worries… until the ski didn’t start. FUK! Grant and I were both kind of like “what, it’s really not starting”. We saw the tail end of the shoulder headed our way and were pretty much helpless. This nasty little side wave off the shoulder came at us and just swamped the ski. The whitewash kind of nailed us and rolled over my arm/shoulder which happened to have over $6k in camera gear in it. I though OH FUK, that’s gone. Somehow we managed to stay on the ski, BUT, that was the first wave of the set. Now we were getting worried. Some bigger ones stacking up and headed our way as the current was pushing us deeper. It was obvious we were in a bit of trouble, but as it goes out there, people were looking out for us. It’s kind of a hazy memory of that moment, but I know Frank Quirarte from mavsurfer.com was the first guy over. TBH I don’t remember who was on the other ski, but Frank and the other ski were using the nose of their skis against the side of our to push us away from the zone and towards the channel. Now you have to realize that in general, even in the channel it’s bumpy and you have massive swell rolling under you. It’s not exactly steady. That combined with two skis pushing/bumping us ended up knocking us both off the ski into the water. Meanwhile I still had my camera in my hand. I knew we were going in so I stuck my arm up as far as it could reach and remember my head going under but felt that my hand was still out. When I surfaced I handed Frank my camera and asked him to try and save what was left. At this point I was actually more concerned with my gear than my life. I knew even if we got nailed someone would get us, hopefully..
We then pulled out one rope to try and hook up to another ski. It’s not clear what happened but all of a sudden that rope was gone. Next rope was pulled out and we finally hooked our ski up to another and got pulled to the channel. Once in relative safety we could asses the situation and get our bearings. We realized it was a dead battery and tied off to another ski that kept us where we needed to be. Frank gave me my camera back and low and behold the fukking thing was fine. Kudos to Canon for their insane gaskets and weatherproofing on their top of the line gear. At this point the camera went back in the waterproof case and we tried to figure out what to do. We figured out we needed to get cables and jump the ski since trying to get towed in with the swell at this size and the tide dropping to a negative fast was not an option.
I jumped on a ski with my friend Stan, whose ski it was and we jetted into the harbor for cables. We got them, made it back out and got the ski started. Now what to do with the ski. We thought we might as well bring it in while it was still semi medium tide. Once we got back to the harbor we realized the ski was fine if we just didn’t shut it off. It was my call to either leave it or chance it and go back out and just leave it running. With all the other skis out there and the fact we knew we could jump it again if need be I made the call to stay on it and that was that. At this point the tide was pretty low and the fog even thicker. We were both on separate skis with Stan running 50 yards ahead of me or so. The kill zone running south of Mushroom rock was getting pounded with double overhead plus closeouts on the shallow reef. You could hardly make out the whitewash from the fog. Stan being far enough ahead of me saw his opportunity and made it through the zone leaving me to fend for myself. I was stuck with a relentless set of macking closeouts to deal with. In the fog it was really hard to see what was happening. You would rush out only to see a dredger and then race back in to deeper water. Over and ovcr again. There were two other skis in the same situation as me. Waiting for the opportunity to make it out. I finally saw a little keyhole and gunned it full throttle towards one section of the wave that had yet to break. Launched a good 10 feet of air getting over that wave and never looked back.. Hairball. I’ve only been out to Mavs on a ski solo MAYBE 10 times. Usually it’s not a not a biggie, but the swell of the year and a 1.5 negative low with the fog was a different story altogether. I never saw the other two skis again. They didn’t make it out..
Once back out there I was content just to take in the show. I got a few photos from that day but it was mostly fogged in and you know what, I didn’t give a *****. I made it through the most hairball experience of my life out there, lived to tell and saw the greatest show on earth. I’m ready for next season. Bring it on…It’s nice to know what a family it is out there and how everyone looks out for one another. It’s all good out there, until it isn’t… Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.
The best thing is Grant’s video camera, which was in a housing, was running the whole incident. I haven’t spoke with him yet to hear it, but it’s going to be fun to hear the audio and what we were really saying.
The next day we were back up there. It was way smaller but still some bombs in the 35 foot face range with only two tow teams on it. Shane Desmond and Stan and Jeff Clark and his tow partner. SCORING! Perfectly sunny and a shadow of yesterday..
It was every bit as big as Ghost tree, but the water angle always makes it look smaller. With the fog on the big day, the cliff angle was pretty much done so there can't be a comparison.
A few..
Ruffo
Z Wormhoudt
Desmond - Thursday
Shane got rolled for a 100 yards under on this one, Took over 1/2 hour to find his board..
Sorry I can't share more but I need to try and make a couple $$ of what I did get.
Night!
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GEO
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 01/11/02
Posts: 6020
Loc: The Dirty Southwest
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March Madness
TuffPro
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be invincible~
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Iceman
Miki Dora status
Reged: 04/01/02
Posts: 5178
Loc: NorCenCal
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Savageness from the savage photog. 
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Si se puede!
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GEO
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 01/11/02
Posts: 6020
Loc: The Dirty Southwest
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"We figured out we needed to get cables and jump the ski since trying to get towed in with the swell at this size and the tide dropping to a negative fast was not an option."
....."We need a bigger boat"........... 
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be invincible~
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Stinkeye
Miki Dora status
Reged: 01/12/02
Posts: 5180
Loc: South of town..
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Quote:
"We figured out we needed to get cables and jump the ski since trying to get towed in with the swell at this size and the tide dropping to a negative fast was not an option."
....."We need a bigger boat"...........
Fuk, not bigger, just one that's running.. 
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bdwloco
Legend (inyourownmind)
Reged: 11/03/03
Posts: 525
Loc: huntington beach
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great story, and awesome shots stink.
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Random Guy
Duke status
Reged: 01/16/02
Posts: 23496
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that's wild, stinkeye. you're f*cking crazy!
has anyone done a book with photos and narrative of hairball episodes from mavs or other crazyass breaks from the perspective of the photographer? (i guess a lot of photos are from the photographers perspective, but the stries usually aren't)
do it. it will sell millions of copies and allow you to live the life you've always dreamed of.
question: does your life insurance agent know what you do for fun?
cowabunga
rg
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SurfZombie
Tom Curren status
Reged: 06/29/04
Posts: 14195
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Excellent post. Great story. Love it 
Aloha
Bryan
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Ando
Nep status
Reged: 03/12/03
Posts: 700
Loc: the porkroll state
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". I’ve only been out to Mavs on a ski solo MAYBE 10 times. Usually it’s not a not a biggie, but the swell of the year and a 1.5 negative low with the fog was a different story altogether. "
Not to mention your on a ski with a dead battery..
Unreal.. Great story
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diroberts
Miki Dora status
Reged: 04/14/03
Posts: 3963
Loc: ProHoVille
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Stop naming names! 
Stinkeye: your photos - along with Slavin's - inspire me to keep learning more so that I too one day can take excellent shots. Keep up the work.
[edit: by the way, your story is the main piece on the front page of surfermag.com.]
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live to love. love to live.
Edited by diroberts (03/17/05 07:09 AM)
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DanSurfSouthBay
Kelly Slater status
Reged: 01/18/03
Posts: 7743
Loc: from down there, live up here
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sweet stinkeye!
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A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.-- Thoreau
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liplocked
Kelly Slater status
Reged: 02/13/03
Posts: 8026
Loc: Kamanawna Surfit
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Stinkeye..that was SOOOO worth the wait!!!
You are one seriously twisted dude, and I love it-hehe
Thanks for sharing your awesome adventure with us, and
throwin a few killer pics our way.
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Luv the one yur with.
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blakestah
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 09/10/02
Posts: 6139
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You coulda taken the ski around Blackhand instead of through the reef on the negative low and 30 ft sets...it's a be-atch to paddle around, but on a ski it wouldn't be much.
Thanks for the story and photos.
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Hadels
Tom Curren status
Reged: 05/28/02
Posts: 10001
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wow. awesome story. glad your ok. I know i would have definitely called it a day after getting the ski in the first time. crazy!
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surfinmofo
Gerry Lopez status
Reged: 10/11/04
Posts: 1277
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Great story and pics! Thank you! Insaine sh*t out there.
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The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
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Joker
Billy Hamilton status
Reged: 01/21/03
Posts: 2118
Loc: La Jolla East, Calipornia
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Awesome Stinky! Way to go...great story. Post of the Month.
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"You two donkey-dikks couldn't get laid in a morgue" ~ Chet
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Malarcus
Duke status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 16239
Loc: Roadstreet Ln.
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Me likey. Very intense. Maybe you'll post the audio from Grant Washburn's video?
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"I consider going right a different sport." -BaliIdiot
Surfy, Surfy!
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Salty
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 2493
Loc: Flaviera
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Excellent read Stinkeye! The visuals are insane.
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cazart
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 12/16/02
Posts: 2806
Loc: Parkside, son! What!?
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One thing I've got to know: Why did the battery die? Is it a function of the battery, or is there a short on the ski? Either way, you should send a copy of that story to the manufacturer. (Send one to Canon, too.) Stranding you out there like that...that sht ain't right.
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Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra.
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Stinkeye
Miki Dora status
Reged: 01/12/02
Posts: 5180
Loc: South of town..
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Quote:
[edit: by the way, your story is the main piece on the front page of surfermag.com.]
Does this mean I get a "quit surfing now ask me how" t-shirt 
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Stinkeye
Miki Dora status
Reged: 01/12/02
Posts: 5180
Loc: South of town..
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Quote:
You coulda taken the ski around Blackhand instead of through the reef on the negative low and 30 ft sets...it's a be-atch to paddle around, but on a ski it wouldn't be much.
I thought of that for a second Blakestah, but the fog was REALLY thick at that point. Mushroom rock was barely visible from right up close. Taking a ski that had already died over past Blackhand in pea soup fog where no one could see me seemed like a bad idea at the time. Being able to see M. rock gave me some sense of bearings and the worst that probably would have happened is I wouldn't have made it out and went back to the harbor with my tail between my legs..
Cazart - The person whose ski it was has two. This one sat for quite a few months without riding it. It started strong in the morning, but you keep turning the ski on and off when you're out there. The LCD panel stays on and without the motor running it sucked what was left of the battery power up..
I am definitely writing to Canon with the story. The camera and lens should be dead. They play up the weatherproofing and gaskets on their 1 series cameras and L lenses for being able to take a splash or some rain, but this was a DRENCHING!
Edited by Stinkeye (03/17/05 08:56 AM)
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clownfish
Legend (inyourownmind)
Reged: 11/30/04
Posts: 495
Loc: Ormond-By-The-Sea, FL
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Wow man, glad you're alright. Great story and pics.
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Bababooie
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centrlcoastgrom
Rabbitt Bartholomew status
Reged: 03/20/03
Posts: 8828
Loc: onshores, rocks and sharks.
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awsome story,
the lip on this thing looks so ***** heavy it makes me feel scared from my computer.
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headache
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cazart
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 12/16/02
Posts: 2806
Loc: Parkside, son! What!?
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Quote:
Cazart - The person whose ski it was has two. This one sat for quite a few months without riding it. It started strong in the morning, but you keep turning the ski on and off when you're out there. The LCD panel stays on and without the motor running it sucked what was left of the battery power up..
Then send the story to both Honda and the battery maker. You don't have to be all "fck you guys!" just say - "um, maybe you could work on this?" For instance - there are probably ways to engineer that LCD screen to use less power. I bet they'd actually do something about it.
Stranding you out there just ain't acceptable.
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Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra.
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neinfore
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 02/24/05
Posts: 6604
Loc: under a volcanic rock
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very very nice steve... quality shots and words.
re-posted these shots with a link to your page on another board i visit... hope it's not a problem, figured a bit of free advertising is always good.
peace, and keep up the good work!
9'4''
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smslavin
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 01/27/03
Posts: 6146
Loc: The Mountain
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crazy story stink. glad you came out of it in one piece.
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{blog}
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centrlcoastgrom
Rabbitt Bartholomew status
Reged: 03/20/03
Posts: 8828
Loc: onshores, rocks and sharks.
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If you look at some of the pictures on mavsurfer from that day it doesn't look very foggy at all, were those just shot later in the day?
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headache
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Stinkeye
Miki Dora status
Reged: 01/12/02
Posts: 5180
Loc: South of town..
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Quote:
If you look at some of the pictures on mavsurfer from that day it doesn't look very foggy at all, were those just shot later in the day?
ccg, the fog was in and out. It would clear up for 5 minutes than be total pea soup a second later.. I know that it cleared later in the day and a few tow teams went back out..
Most of it was like this:
I didn't end up shooting much because even though the camera seemed to be working I wanted to let it dry out before using it..
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Mr Doof
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/23/02
Posts: 10355
Loc: San Francisco, CA
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The words of a dedicated professional, or a complete nutter. 
"At this point I was actually more concerned with my gear than my life. "
I enjoy surf reports, moreso one with pictures and proper editing. Thanks for sharing.
On a side note, it is interesting to read all the different experiences on 3/9/05 and compare them to my own....gives an added dimension to it all.
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ocean7847
Miki Dora status
Reged: 06/23/04
Posts: 4030
Loc: BACK IN THE WATER
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Thanks for the story.
You have OBSOLUTELY got to post the video/audio on here. I want to hear how you guys handled it, which I'm CERTAIN is way more calmly than I would've
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Hail Xenu!
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Q_Surf
Tom Curren status
Reged: 05/05/03
Posts: 14405
Loc: world's largest oregon
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CAJONES! 
i can think of one gasket that definitely would have leaked if that was me out there.
that story's farking crazy Steve-o. many thanks for taking the time to spell it out like that for us.
beers & stuff on me if you can make to the devil makes 3 show at the cat tonight. just look for the guy with red eyes and a permagrin...
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Stock the erbb
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rally monkey
Grom
Reged: 04/04/03
Posts: 142
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This thread KICKS ASS
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anything can happen
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mountainbored
Nep status
Reged: 04/18/03
Posts: 729
Loc: Eastside of the Snowy Mtns
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Back to the top
and then a big cutback....awesome.
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Higher than you
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otf
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/11/02
Posts: 11136
Loc: clownburg the OC
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FIVE "5" stars brudda! Thanks.
Will call later.
otf Out!
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Getting old is not for wimps ~ O.T.
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Fuller
Rabbitt Bartholomew status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 9836
Loc: Mechanized hum of another worl...
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Death defying tales from Stinkeye...Righteous!
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"I am sorry but I think it is beyond repair so the test may be over."
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Lost0rz
Nep status
Reged: 07/02/03
Posts: 555
Loc: ??
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sweet! wish i was there. im gonna get out there some day.
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Fenster_Burnham
Legend (inyourownmind)
Reged: 11/15/04
Posts: 303
Loc: US of A!!!
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Hi
I really enjoyed you perspective.
I have family out there, and have been surfing for three summers. How long should one surf before trying Mavericks?
Your pAL
Fenster Burnham
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Team Fenster
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El Scorcho
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 11/25/02
Posts: 2177
Loc: LA CAUSA
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Excellent thread!! Great story Stinkeye! You da man!
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"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - A.E.
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surfwordz
Miki Dora status
Reged: 08/27/02
Posts: 4865
Loc: F-53
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 word
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http://surfwordz.dnswh.com/
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