SPI360

Words and Photo Gallery by Chuck Turkington

How’s it go?  Silver lining to every dark cloud?  What about dark clouds for five or six days?  And rain dumping for 18 out of every 24 hours?  And flash floods at least once a day, because the ground is already soaked from a tropical storm last week.  Is there a silver lining, if you can’t see the sun for a week?

The glass is this big!

Well, most people would have been satisfied to just be able to walk outside without a storm and needing an umbrella.  Everyone enjoyed the lower temperatures, since the sun had a break from cooking dirt for a few days.  But a small group at the coast was seeing the brightest part of the silver lining.  The surfers were stoked!

Ray Benavides on a speedy, glassy right at south padre island.

Even in the drizzle, the best part of all the monsoon weather was the wind…lack of it, to be exact.  Combined with a solid east groundswell, the surf at South Padre Island was finally able to stand up and glass off.  And it did it for three days straight!  A very rare event in a place where the wind is almost always cranking onshore.

Not the usual choppy scene, part of the lineup waits for the next set.

At the start of the stormy weather, there were plenty of moments with strong winds from the NE.  Pretty much blowing it out for the day, but that was after a solid morning session of glass.  Then the same thing the next day.  Good surf and glassy morning until after lunch, then NE wind and back to East by the end of the day.  With rain dumping all the time, with or without the wind.  Backyards were flooding and the frogs were grinding all night.

Shawn Cooksey making every wave a hit, during glassy evening south padre surf.

After five days of no sun, it finally broke out with golden beams during a mildly offshore afternoon session.  The surf had been so consistent that aside from choosing a time with less than a downpour, you could actually check the flags and wait for the SW wind between rain showers, before heading to the jetties for a surf session.

Part of the fall 2010 swimsuit fashion, the levis two piece is a popular site at the beach.

Rodrigo SUP'ing by the jetties at South Padre Island.

It's small, but it still wants to eat you! Run, rabbit run...

Words and Photos by Chuck Turkington

We are nearing the end of the season for tropical storms, and after watching the East Coast score back to back swell, I started to think of the gulf as a barren womb.  All of us were denied at the beginning of the season, but the Atlantic seems to have turned into a whore that births hurricanes twice a week.  All of them hooking a right turn and staying offshore and not making landfall.  The perfect storm for surfers..no one gets hurt and everyone scores swell.

But the tropics have been sleepy for the small sandspit in south Texas.  Well, until last week that is…

Chris Yergans, of Vero Beach Florida, came to padre island to relax but found waves instead.

After Tropical Storm Hermine came in, things started to change.  Mostly the rain, as the surf was short lived and returned to flatness before the skies cleared.  Then Hurricane Karl squeezed into the lower gulf and managed to send a two foot groundswell, but even better it threw off a chunk of energy that started to spin right offshore from South Padre Island.  It brought a shitload more rain, to an already soaked area but it also brought a quickly building east swell that hit the head-high mark.

Joe Garza floating into the frame.

I saw a fresh face in the lineup, and the guy was blowing up over the dumpy sandbar surf.  When I found out he is from the East Coast, I laughed at the irony.  For more than two weeks I’ve been calling the Atlantic all kinds of names.  She spits out spinners like they are afternoon showers and the 2nd coasters have scored enough already!  Then when an East Coaster comes to town on a fishing trip, we score killer swell!

Chris punches into orbit over the sandbar.

Chris Yergans, of Vero Beach Florida said he was surprised and was not expecting the surf, on his first trip to South Padre Island.  He’s a fishing guide in Florida and has lots of clients from this area.  He decided to come here on a fishing vacation and check it out.  Next thing he knew he was boosting over punchy sections in chest to head-high surf.

I barked about how much of a whore the Atlantic has been, and his comment was, “yeah, but it’s been windy.”  Oh, uh-huh…bummer that so much surf can come with some wind.  argh…

Speaking of wind, it’s been miracle mornings around here lately.  Offshore winds until lunch time, then blasting East winds for the afternoon.  The fetch is growing and now the gulf is fat with East groundswell.  After three mornings of offshores, and rain every four hours or so, I’m starting to wonder if I should get picky about when I surf.

A woman carries hotdogs and snacks, in between rain showers.

words and photos by Chuck Turkington

Nothing to write home about, but it’s a blog so might as well!

The swell built up over the previous few days.  It was only a small 1-2 foot bump, but it had some longer period sets that made it worthwhile to paddle out.  I took the center fin off my one board, to try and change it up as much as I could.  The instant twin fin was a good call, because the waves were so small and gutless.  It was a warm up session and I pretty much grabbed whatever I could, because that’s the life around here.

After the winds shifted to the NE, the waves took a hit.

A nice hit for a small choppy wave at Padre Island.

The best part of this swell was the morning of the 3rd, before the winds shifted at mid-day.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics to show this part because sometimes surfing is the top priority.

Later on, a ship named Atlantik Miracle came in from offshore, and pushed it’s way to the port of Brownsville.  Oh the irony of it all.  At a time when the East Coast is scoring half a dozen tropical storm swells, and we are starved for tropical waves.  The surf from this tanker was almost as big as what was on the beach.  Where’s our storm?

Powering through the ship channel, the Atlantik Miracle makes an ironic appearance.

A good choice, the longboarders always catch the small surf.

The wave is the star in this shot! Someone learning to surf, always seems to score a decent wave.

Bend those knees! Eh...why bother, it's small so might as well stand tall.

All in all, it was great to get wet and get some exercise.  Waves were fun, especially at just the right time, and I got a chance to see a lot of friends.  The parking lot and the lineup is always the place for a reunion.  Sometimes it can be a few months before people see each other, but eventually we all wind up surfing together at the jetties.  Our official board meetings!  Hopefully we can gather again in a few days.  Pray for surf!!

May is here, and so is the surf!!  Photos by Chuck.

Nathan Johnson of Corpus Christi blasts a lip in spring time South Padre Island surf.

words and photos by Chuck Turkington

Clean little barrels by the rocks, South Padre Island.

Sunday morning scores again.  I’m checking the internet now and it looks like Corpus could have scored epic.  Even reports of offshores up to Galveston are floating around.

If you have any photos you’d like to share, upload them here!  Let’s put a solid picture together of what spots were scoring today!  Only upload photos taken on Sunday, April 25th. The name of this album is “Upload Your Photos of Texas Surf 4/25/10“  There’s been waves for a couple days, but today looks like a standout session!

I missed the best surf, and I could tell when I got to the beach.  There was a crowd by the rocks, but the pavilion was dumping so much better.  Only a couple guys on it.  But since I was arriving at almost 11 am, I knew the story was more like “you missed it!”  Everybody must have already come in.

I jumped out of the truck and scored a killer one hour solo-session in front of the pavilion.  If my punishment for being late was 5 mph offshore winds, blue water and a super clean chest high spot dumping over a lined up sandbar, then can I please have some more?

words and Photo Album by Chuck
After an eight-day week of SE swell, the winds finally turned to clean up the mess on Sunday morning. A cool front worked it’s way down to the South Padre area in the morning and early risers scored the best conditions under a light NW breeze.  The size was on it’s way down fast, but those last two hours of glassy conditions are pretty much what many surfers around here wait for.

Justin Jalufka finds cover during the offshore winds on Sunday morning.

The outside sand bar was still working in the morning, where all the action had been in the previous days, but as the size went down on Sunday it became less consistent and headed for a shutdown.  There was a handful of surfers out there, but most of the line up was nabbing waist-chest high thumpers on the inside.  Jalufka scored a killer little barrel around mid-morning.   Check out the entire sequence of Justin’s cover up as an animated .gif file.  Click Here.

J.B. pulling a slicey top turn on this blue south padre wave.

Mark Scott draws his line on this inside wave while another crashes over the outside sand bar.

Words and Photos by Chuck Turkington
Well, it’s been awhile since I surfed, so that’s pretty much what I did, instead of taking photos. I took Brent’s advice and paddled out along the rocks, and rode the rip current to the outside. Without a board, that fast track out to sea would be deadly. But for a 5-7 foot swell breaking on the outside, the rip at the jetties is the quickest way to the line up.

I don’t think I caught the swell at it’s peak, and it was dropping fast, but I saw some fun waves and managed to grab a couple.I did manage to take a few photos in the early evening. Not many people were still surfing, but I saw Carlos and Tim catch a couple. They’ve got good style, so I was stoked to see them through the lens.

Tim Scott...