An Adventure Company
I finally figured out how to make the WordPress iPhone App work with this site. Something to do with PHP5. Long story. The upside is Mike and I can now post on the go. The downside is the iPhone camera is weak.
Speaking of website development and surfing, check out this surfing video from my state of Georgia.
Davis and I headed down from Atlanta to Mexico Beach for some fishing, kayaking, and surfing. The anti-theft “feature” on my Pathfinder had issues and diabled the starter. It’s not an adventure trip until someone calls a tow truck.
It took me a little while to get my pictures together from the Hurricane Ike trip. Below is a gallery of pictures I shot at a not-so-frequently surfed spot in the Panhandle of Florida (location withheld). The pictures are from Saturday, 9/13. The surf on Friday was big. Saturday was fun at select spots. On Sunday there were some nice longboard waves on the outside sandbars. As is the case with most hurricane swells, you can usually find fun surf in your comfort zone at some point during the swell.
The Destin, Florida area had a lot of great surf from Hurricane Gustav. The swell hit late in the day on August, 31, 2008, peaked the next day at double overhead, and was solid overhead for the next morning. Below are pictures from the surf sessions. We have decided to not mention the names of the places to keep the locals happy and to not ruin the adventure for everyone. [Photo Credits: Steve Combs, Bob Cross; Surfer: John Cross]
[DISCLAIMER: No clients were on this trip so we did things a little differently. No one got hurt during this adventure trip, and overall everyone had a good time. Those are the important things.]
On Sunday, August 31, 2008 a group of seven of us (3 guys; 4 ladies) tried to surf an island (name withheld)in Florida for some Hurricane Gustav waves.
The main surf break in the area when the surf gets this big had over 100 surfers there, so we thought a nearby pass break. The warning sign posted at the boat landing across from the island gave lots of different warnings regarding alligators, sharks, currents, and ended with “No Rescue Possible.” (pic) No joke.
We only had one boat, so part of our group paid another boat to drop them off at the surf break in the pass at Crooked Island about 4 miles away. The plan was for the rest of the group to follow behind in our boat. The motor would not start on our boat, and we didn’t have any way to contact the first group. I called my brother who happened to be in Mexico Beach for the weekend. He agreed to pick up the first group in his boat via the Gulf of Mexico route and take them back to his marina through the pass at Mexico Beach. The first group later drove back to the boat landing to make another attempt at reaching the island.
Being without a boat, we decided to paddle straight across to the island and hike to the surf. Part of the group went right, instead of left, around a swamp and were not able to make it to the surf. They had to backtrack to the car. The three of us that went left (including me) made it across the island and surfed until it got dark. The surf was head high and building fast but it was getting dark. We walked back the beach route and one person hitched a ride to the car and returned for the group.
One of the cars broke down on the dirt road leading back to the group at the beach. Somehow we were able to get a tow truck on a holiday weekend to come help us in the middle of the woods.
Crazy times.
Mike Sturdivant made the trip over to St. Augustine and caught it good. Here are few links: St. Augustine and Somewhere in North Carolina?
Steve Combs–Early morning in Destin; Photo Credit: Jill Combs
Mike Sturdivant ESA Contest at Okaloosa Island Pier.
John Cross–ESA Contest at Okaloosa Island Pier.
We had a fun Memorial Day holiday:
1. Waves all weekend.
2. Humpback whale spotted 1 mile off the beach. The article and photos are here.
3. A 6am wakeup call for me on Sunday to help save a guy that had gotten caught in a rip while taking a morning swim. His friend was screaming on the beach for help and woke up everyone in the whole area. Everyone was just standing around half-asleep and with no equipment on the beach to help. I ran down there with my board but the guy saved himself before I got there. The paramedics took it from there.
4. Mike, Jill, and I caught some waves in the outrigger kayak.
5. Mike and John surfed against each other in the final of an ESA surf contest at the Okaloosa Island Pier. (Mike took 1st place; John took 2nd place.)
-Steve Combs
Mike Sturdivant, Paul Cross, and I had a nice dawn patrol session today. I left Mexico Beach at 5am and joined Mike at Inlet Beach, Florida just east of Rosemary Beach. After about an hour, I took off late on a wave and landed hard on the rail of my board. The board was dinged badly, and my foot was bleeding so I called it a day. I was able to take some good photos of Mike and Paul. -Steve Combs
Paul on a nice long left.
Mike off the top.
Captain Bubba Bird took a group fishing on the Lump off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana.
From guest John Cross:
Basically we fished two days in a row on February 24-25, 2008 with two additional days of travel. It takes 6 hours to get to Grand Isle from my house. We stayed in an unattractive but clean hotel called the Sandollar Motel. It was more like a two-bedroom dorm room complete with bunk beds, kitchen and living area. Check out the slideshow:
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