Ever since I’ve been here at Pine Grove, I’ve watched a particular wave off in the distance on the outer reef. I’ve decided to remove the name of the wave because frankly it should remain a mystery to most. During big swells you can tell the waves are massive from shore and can see waves crashing on the rock outcropping, so obviously I’ve been dying to go check it out.
Fortunately and unfortunately it is not easily accessible. The wave is about a mile offshore from pretty much any point. I’ve considered paddling out to check it by myself but without knowing the lay of the land (water) and the intricacies of the reef, channels, currents, etc. I’ve decided the adventure to stupidity ratio was leaning too much in the stupid direction. So up until recently I’ve been resigned to watching from shore. My various other surfing neighbors have been out there and we always talk about getting a boat to go out when conditions are good, but things never have lined up. That is until a few weeks ago.
So in comes Eddie. If you’ve read any other posts, it’s not that Eddie; however, it is his grandson. Eddie’s also a surfer and we’ve discussed surfing that wave on more than one occasion. Usually the discussion revolves around how the hell do we get out there?
Luckily Eddie’s visit was also coinciding with a pretty significant swell. I was working the first day or two he he was here but finally on Saturday we were able to get out for a surf. Additionally, it was the biggest day of the swell.
We started off going to the inner reef and catching a few waves. The swell angle wasn’t lining up great for the spot but we got a few and had some fun. We went in ahead of lunch and decided we’d all go out to Ocean Lab just down the road for some food.
As fortune would have it, as soon as we walked up the stairs to Ocean Lab we could see wave after wave just perfectly peeling down the outer reef. My jaw and Eddie’s both hit the floor and we knew we had to get out there and see it in person. Although we often get nice waves, we don’t often get nice offshore winds throughout the day. If we hadn’t gone to Ocean Lab for lunch I don’t think we would’ve realized quite how good it was. We wrapped up lunch quickly, mostly because Eddie Sr. wanted to get back for a pilón delivery for his collection (we’ll save that for another time) and returned to Pine Grove.
Once back, we began discussing our options. I knew from conversations with my neighbor, Tito, that there was an “abandoned” kayak in the storage area of one of the buildings and that he would probably lend me his. We went down to investigate. The initial plan was to each take a kayak, with me borrowing Tito’s; however—again fortuitously—another neighbor happened to be around and mentioned that Carlos had a two-person Hobie kayak outside his storage locker. It was perfect! Thanks Carlos!
So Eddie and I pivoted to this new vessel and wrangled it up the stairs and outside. This was the beginning of our 4 hour workout. I went back up to my apartment and grabbed my trusty 7′-0″ Ashton mid-length, threw some fins in it, lathered on some sunscreen, and then met Eddie back outside. After a bit of scouting, we decided on a spot to launch our adventure and picked an area of the reef that looked deep enough to get across but without much wave action. At this time it was pretty much dead low tide and it would’ve been embarrassing getting rolled on dry reef within the first few hundred feet from shore. We timed it well and made it to deep water past the reef without incident.
The next leg was about 30 minutes of paddling to the outer reef. It was mostly uneventful but we had the wind at our backs and adrenaline in our systems as we began approaching the break. At first we weren’t entirely sure if we’d be able to make it out. It seemed like waves were breaking all the way across the reef; however, we took our time and managed to find a channel which was a lot smaller than anticipated. After some careful maneuvering we managed to get to where the boats were anchored and got to take in the spectacle.
Unfortunately, my GoPro wasn’t charged and didn’t seem to be working at all and we had to rely on Eddie’s phone for video, so apologies for the quality. Here’s some of the videos from when we first got out there… they really don’t do it justice.
While we were spectating we had a chat with one of the surfers coming back to his boat. He seemed to know the spot pretty well and told us where to sit and gave us a nice little breakdown. He even offered to come scoop us up if we got in trouble. We both thanked him but at that point we were still pretty set on just watching.
Maybe about 20 minutes passed and the lineup started clearing out some since it was getting towards the end of the day. At this point we had to decide whether we wanted to take a go at it or just call it and begin paddling back. Eddie gave me a bit of an encouraging nudge to give it a shot and I decided he was right, I wanted to be able to say I’ve surfed it.
With that, I was in the water and paddling over into the lineup. There was a lot of water moving around and I realized it wasn’t quite as easy to figure out as it seemed. Initially I was sitting too far out but after a few went under me I moved inside and prayed that I didn’t get caught by a huge set. A few of the other guys caught some and finally it looked like I was in the spot; I turned, put my head down and scratched into a massive lump of water. I made the drop, was gliding down the face and started a nice drawn out bottom turn and that’s when I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye…
I had just committed a major faux pas: I went on a wave when another surfer on my inside also was going and he had priority. Realizing my mistake, I said a curse or two and promptly pulled up and off the back of the wave. I was then almost immediately and properly punished for my error by having to take two fairly sizeable waves on my head. My leash held and thankfully I didn’t get much more than a good rinse and I was back on my board paddling towards the channel.
As I was making my way back I saw that I was inadvertently in the perfect spot to catch another; so once again I turned, put my head down, and got into a second massive wave. Thankfully, this one I took solo. It was one of the largest and most perfect waves I’ve ever ridden. As I was getting to the end of it, I saw the other surfer I had dropped in on filming me with his GoPro… I took this as a good sign that he wasn’t too pissed. I promptly apologized to him and he took it all in stride. At least with waves this size there’s a lot of space to maneuver so I didn’t really mess up his ride. I probably should’ve exchanged more information with Matt from Barceloneta and could’ve had the video of my wave but I was too excited and we just chatted for a bit, stoked on catching some great waves.
I paddled back over to the kayak since I had my taste and checked to see if Eddie wanted a run at it. He ultimately decided watching was enough for the day so we packed it in and began our laborious paddle back to shore.
Navigating the channel back was much more nerve racking. Neither of us particularly wanted to get caught by a 10′ wall of whitewater and they kept getting awfully close to us on both sides; however, I think with a bit of luck and hard, well-timed paddling we made it to the inside.
I’m not sure whether it was the wind or lack of adrenaline or just being tired but it took us about an hour to get back. We made it back past the inside section of the reef and pulled the kayak up to shore. We were triumphant! And tired. The kayak seemed about 50 lbs. heavier than when we first took it out.
Regardless, we were both stoked on the day and happy we finally got to see this wave in person. We parted and each got some dinner and then Jenn and I spent the rest of the evening down at his grandad’s all sharing wine and stories. All and all a great day! Can’t wait to get back out there… next time with an electric motor!
Los Dulanys 