Island surfers have been spoiled the last few weekends as decent-sized surf has been pulsing up and down Galveston beaches.
Last weekend was a great one for surfers all up and down the Texas coast.
It seems that some days you got it and other days you don’t. At least that’s true for me when it comes to catching waves and surfing well.
Surfing has always offered a time of reflection for me.
By all accounts, last year’s inaugural La Izquierda Surf and Music Festival was a raging success.
One of the wonderful advantages of living in a digital age is that we are always connected to one another and the places we treasure.
Like a lot of fans of pro surfing, I wrapped up last weekend glued to my computer watching finals day of the first event of the World Surf League championship season.
It’s still early, but this spring has been pretty much a bust surf-wise so far for us here on the upper Texas coast.
This year’s tour is full of drama and intrigue, with the returns of 11-time world champion Kelly Slater for his final year of competition and two-time world champion John John Florence, who was absent from the tour for much of last season with a knee injury.
Far be it for me to determine whether someone is a “real” surfer or skateboarder. Such labeling stinks of elitism and shouldn’t have a place in the water or at the skate park.
If you’re a fan of surfing in colder water, you’re in luck.
Before the internet and the ability to stream any surfing movie at any time on demand, there were local gatherings to view the latest surf films.
Nothing has come as close to the surfing feeling as my latest purchase. The Onewheel, built by California-based company Future Motion, truly is the most innovative and creatively fun machine I’ve ridden.
With age comes the realization that some of the things I used to take for granted require a little more attention to get right.
Whether it’s good genes, excellent physical health, exceptional wave-riding skills or a combination of all three, it seems Galveston’s Kris Hopkins keeps surfing better with age.
While we might still have a few more cold snaps along the upper Texas coast this month, warmer days are just around the corner.
We look for currents, pay attention to the tides and are giddy with anticipation when all the elements blend and a solid swell is groomed clean by offshore winds. But most surfers in Texas don’t think much about what’s lurking beneath them.
For some, catching waves is akin to a religious experience, each ride wiping away the troubles of the world and providing a chance to recharge our batteries. For others, surfing is a pure athletic pursuit, a way to test themselves against the elements and compete against others while doing so.
The big news in Texas surfing this week happened more than 200 miles from the nearest beach.
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