Happy New Year
Say Adios to 2008, A Year That Offered Some Bright Spots, But Ends With A Whimper
Retroflecting on the 2008 Rincon Surf Season, there were times of epic greatness, times like "Big Sunday" when Carpinteria local Blake Howard put on a historic big-wave riding performance, the likes of which have been seen very few times over the years since surfers began riding the waves of Rincon Point. The morning of Sunday February 24th began as small windblown slop under rainy skies, but through the morning hours the swell that had been forecasted to hit for over a week began to turn on "Island Style" -- jumping from 2-3 feet to 12-15 feet in a matter of a few hours. The situation became ominous as novice surfers inside The Cove suddenly found themselves overwhelmed by seemingly endless sets of double-overhead surf. Word soon got out, and then the local big-wave chargers began to show up with their guns -- soon discovering that triple-overhead-plus bombs were breaking way outside on the "Third-Reef Bombora", and only a small handfull were able to make it out past the inside shorepound and position themselves to actually catch a wave and take off. Onlookers and photographers gawked at what was arguably the largest surf we've seen at Rincon in a couple of generations. One old-timer who claimed to have surfed Rincon during the epic Winter of '69 said that this was bigger. Then, as quickly as the surf came up it began to fade, and by sunset, the size began to wane.
Aside from some decent surf in January, and then a few random days through the rest of Winter and then some windswell in Spring, surfers were left hungry - holding out great optimism for the upcoming Fall and Winter. And now that we are at December 31st, the Winter season is virtually 1/2 over, and we have yet to have had even a day of what you might call "Regulation Rincon". Not to dwell on the negatives, but December 2008 has been brutal on the psyches of all local surfers. We can only take solace in the fact that nothing stays the same, and that with the new year comes the renewed promise of the better days that lie ahead...
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