G-Land had plenty of swell running again today, some solid 6-8ft sets (10-15ft faces) but just one MAJOR problem: There was no tradewind! Through the morning there was a fair amount of rain too, coupled with swirling winds that were breezy from the N, NW, S, NE, it was pretty gnarly out there. Killing fields! Guys out through the morning were getting mostly axed, and there wasn't alot of reward for the risk and effort. Seen some big 8ft bombs go straight to Launching Pad and peel through Speedies, but just not nice looking at all.
23 people left camp and 3 people came in, so we have under 30 guests right now. After dealing with all the transfers, I decided to not go out in the dodgy conditions. It would have been epic if it were offshore, because the whole reef had solid sets thundering down it.
After a 2 hour nap, then lunch, I checked the waves again around 3pm. It was dead low tide, nobody out, glassy with a bit of wobble, and the odd reasonable looking wave. So I went out with my Taranaki bro Chris Luke, and we took on some solid Money Trees. It was mostly 6ft on the sets, Lukey broke his leash after a few waves, so I was out with just a couple others. I got one nice barrel, and nearly made a great long tube until the finishing section dropped a huge chandelier on me and I lost my balance only to get pitched over with the lip, and thrashed, followed by a sizable set top to bottom in front of me, nailing me down the reef. Still, no broken equipment or such. There was a 30 min period just around 5pm that was really nice despite no offshore. The glassy conditions made that session have its moments!
A few crew were surfing 20/20's today as well, which was solid 3ft in the morning (head high) but then just 2ft on afternoon low tide. The morning would have been a lot better, if there had have been an offshore.
-JARRED
