Surfing – Texas & Mexico
SESSIONS-2009 TEXAS-GULF COAST Spring ‘09 Just a few, but it’s good to be back on the beach and in the water! pics SESSIONS-2008 TEXAS-GULF COAST August – still Jonesin’ it. Photo August – Jonesin’ the South Padre Summer. Photo May 24 – Texas State Surfing Championships Photo MEXICO PACIFIC COAST Did I ever tell you about the biggest clean-up set I’ve ever seen?! Pics  Paolo Schulte keeps this board alive and ripping. What would you do with an old thruster that has tail cancer? I’m not sure about you, but Paolo Schulte bought one for 100 pesos, scooped out the damaged tail and center skeg, sealed it and surfed it! Check out some rich moves on a cheap board, Sayulita Rippers Photo Gallery Sequence madness from a few guys of the Sayulita crew. Check Adan Hernandez doing some sick little shove-its, Dylan Southworth gets some pits and Adrian also floats in for a quick snap. Some more shots from December-January. Photo Nathan Floyd and crew show up in Mainland Mexico. Random Surf- Photo 1/14 Photo Gallery You should have been here tomorrow. That’s all I can say to all my Texas buddies that split after new year’s. Yeah, I know…not all of us are able to take vacations based on swell maps but what a difference a little west makes in a north swell. At least it wasn’t flat during anyone’s visit. After surfing head high and under for almost a month, some size finally found it’s way down here. Nothing crazy, but it did take away 30 feet of beach right in front of my camp. Should be exciting for me if another sizeable swell hits. I may have to move… -2007-South Padre Island- 12/12 Photo Gallery A cold front is bearing down on South Padre today. The current swell has gone down since yesterday and will soon be blown to shreds when the front arrives. A late afternoon session turns out to be decent and gets a little better for evening. Shawn was out testing a new board, so I did some testing of my own with the camera. 12/11 Photo Gallery First session I’ve had in quite awhile. Didn’t take too many pics, but I squeezed a few off just minutes before sunset. It was a windy session, but the outside was cranking if you picked the right one. Today was the first time I’ve ever been sprayed with buckets of chunk from a longboard. Thanks for sharing part of that killer wave Vern! And by that I mean slicing off the top third of it and sending it back over the shoulder to shower me. ha ha… 11/16 Photo Gallery Winds have already shifted back to the SE. Check out some pics from an afternoon and evening session. The Texas Clipper passed by, on it’s way to a new home at the bottom of the gulf. 11/14 Photo Gallery Finally some peeling waves! By late afternoon a small groundswell finds it’s way to the island. A cold front is on the way so winds will be blasting out of the north soon. It’ll be victory at sea in the morning but we’ll see what happens after the initial chaos. 11/13 Photo Gallery Tiny surf… 11/12 Photo Gallery Consistent waist high waves today. No real jump in swell size yet. 11/11 Photo Gallery Waves were bunk for the weekend but by late Sunday afternoon hints of a building wind swell started to show. 11/2 Photo Gallery Slowly fading swell, shifting East winds… 10/31 Photo Gallery Plenty of swell in the water, but very unfavorable winds. For three days, a decent ENE swell was coming in at 5-7 foot with long period characteristics (about 9 sec.). Each morning offered side-offshore winds, from the NNW, but by lunch-time the winds would shift to the dreaded NNE chop producing sloppiness. Any direction is better than NE! Oh well, the bump was in the Gulf and while much of it was on the horizon heading south, plenty of rideable waves were wrapping into South Padre and Boca Chica for a few days. The swell is now (11/1)on it’s way down, but if the wind would just cooperate a little, then the inside could very well fire up at waist to chest. 10/18 A little bit smaller than yesterday, but still fun and with nearly offshore winds. Photo 10/16 Winds have slacked off and turned easterly, the swell jumped up and the sunshine is flowing. Photo 10/15 Small and very strong south wind. Just a couple pics from this session. Check out some killer South Padre water-shots taken by Mark Devillier! 10/2-4 A nice swell rolls in to help kick off October. Even if the tropics haven’t given us exactly what we wanted, the cold fronts are right around the corner.
Gallery Surf has been flowing in since the beginning of May and just about everyone was gettting multiple sessions any day they chose to hit the beach. Memorial Expression Session -Some of April’s Swell Photo Gallery -Check out Photos from Australia by Calvin Best. Calvin grew up in SPI during the 70 – 90s and is now living in Australia (going on 12 years). Check out his pics! -March 31-April 1 Photo Gallery -March 27-29 Photo Gallery Picture Gallery spi360 surfing The last half of March has been a considerable difference from the first part. And thankfully so! The waves are still rolling in and there will be plenty more photos of upcoming sessions..  Paul tosses some buckets with style. -Mid March Already halfway through March and the surf has been a bummer. A young windswell finally shows up after an unseasonable flat spell and some surfers are starting to shed their wetsuits. The waves were mixed up the first day, but they cleaned up nicely in less than 24 hours. surfing texas gulf coast surf photography Micah Steph, cranking it hard off the top -February 24 A warming trend is already upon us. A few sunny days, lots of south wind. and a Saturday with clogged line-ups at the park reveal slight frustrations and lots of shredding. Spring is here! south padre surf Paul throws a gaf on this small insider. -February 20-21 Jonesing is the word! Big enough to paddle out, but too small to write about. Carlos hitting hard and fast. -February 12 More swell pumping across the Gulf from a long fetched east wind. It seems that this El Nino Winter has produced a combination of windier than normal cold fronts that blast from the north, and also some lazier fronts that develop over the upper gulf and pass toward Florida without actually hitting south Texas. After the front moves through the Gulf, the winds begin clocking around to the SE. It takes about two days and that’s just enough time to send some chilled deep water with long period characteristics straight into the south Texas coast. -February 6  Arthur Bourban, from Hossegor France, stretching the limits of Gulf Coast surf! Three days of swell and three French rippers mingle with the locals, deep in the south of Texas! Read more and check the pics! Small, but kind. The cove pulsed with life… padre island surfing Chuck Allan, helping to burn off the fog -January 14 Is that a foghorn in your wetsuit? After watching the Coast Guard on Saturday miss the offshore jetties and come way too close to the surfers on the outside, it might be a good idea to pack a whistle or something. The fog has been very dense lately and it only disappears for brief moments as south winds move rapidly along the coast. This is the typical pattern for coastal-south Texas and it will continue until March. Surf pics this time of year, at this beach are gonna look crappy. But at least it captures the moment, yeah? Speaking of moments, there were a few of them this weekend. During high tide on Saturday, about 3pm, the outside managed to produce clean headhigh waves. It turned on real strong for a couple hours out there but fizzled out before anyone could bag more than a dozen rides. It definitely didn’t last long enough for me to paddle in and get behind the camera. So, since I missed that one, I went ahead and stayed behind the lens on Sunday all day. Even throughout the spanking good session that happened late afternoon and evening. After waiting for three days throughout a mixed up swell, the inside finally got hollow. Joe snagged a killer barrel and an unidentified rider scored another. Everyone was blowing up! The action was great, but the weather was dreary. Smiley Cranking up the R.P.M.’s -January 4 The New Year is up and running with several days of rideable waves. In between the frequent cold fronts, the waves on the southern coast have been predominantly a chilled east-swell. Local winds have been soft, unless it’s in the middle of the front of course. The relaxed winds allow the onset of fog and drizzle, creating a classic winter setting on the Texas Gulf Coast. But if you don’t like that weather, just wait a moment because a change is bound to happen. The lineup has been sparse lately, as a few local surfers have gone into Mexico for some Pacific Winter bombs. As well, the shorter days keep many inlanders from making that late afternoon run to the beach. Spring will change all that in a short time, but for now it’s time for some chilly winter days on the beach with a few friends. -2007- Ray Benavides carves on a glassy nugget. -December 20-21 So far December weather has kicked up some decent waves. The latest round of cold-front induced swell weighed in light, at waist to chest high, but local winds were favorable. Glassy sessions and an afternoon of light offshores made up for only three hours of sunshine in two days. Picture Gallery1220 screaming offshores served for lunch. November 28-30 The last few days of November end with some fun waist-chest high waves. At noon on the last day of the month, a cold front blew us into December with gale force winds. The temperature dropped almost twenty degrees in two hours, which could put a serious dent in local water temp. With waters measuring 72 degrees before the front, unless December holds a fair share of sunny days, it looks like it’s time to cover with some rubber. Picture Gallery1128F Surf Shots South Padre Island September 23-24, 2006 South Padre Island Rod parks it in a dredging curl during a September session. Picture Gallery Joe Garza, boosting during a punchy October session. Picture Gallery1004F Surfing Texas Gulf Coast Larry Trevino snags one of the nicest waves of the day, Sat. 10/7. Picture Gallery1007F Surf Shots September 18th 2006 south padre island Paul swacks some inside vert. September 180923F After one of the flattest summers in recent history, and nearly a complete let down of seasonal tropical activity, things are looking better as Fall starts with back to back cool fronts. So far the south wind suck-up from each front has produced two surfable weekends in a row. While the later one (Sept. 23rd) produced a larger swell, the ENE wind blasted shortly after dawn and blew away any hopes of a grooming wind, unlike the first cool front the weekend prior (Sept. 18th). That one only produced a waist high swell, but gentle NW winds wandered in on a monday and made for an awesome lunch at the beach with overcast skies. Even at waist and occasional chest high, the dredgers dumped over a knee deep sandbar and managed to snap two boards in a few hours. Both boards were ridden by Mark Scott, who said he’s never snapped a board until now. Ouch! . |
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