Outer Reef 1st by Zack dayton
“It was January 16th and I had survived the 11 hour flight wedged in between the
obese couple wearing overly aggressive Hawaiian shirts. The fresh Hawaiian air
was welcoming and it was a good sight to see Bripo at the airport pick up zone.
We loaded up his truck and headed straight to the north shore. With a huge swell
lingering we went to sleep early and mostly laid restless with excitement. 7
hours later we found ourselves at the NYsea house where will and cliff Skudin
were decked out in impact vest clutching huge 10′ guns. One look at us and will
tell us “The outer reefs are going off, grab one of my boards and don’t be bitch.” With
no hesitation and mostly out of stupidity we suited up and each grabbed a gun.
Down on the beach, it was as though me and Bripo were back at pipe for our first
time, skipping class, and claiming 2 foot beach park barrels. But with a little
more experience on our hands then a couple of years ago, we weighed our options
and decided that there was no turning back we were on the beach and had to go
out. 25 minutes of paddling we were out the back dodging waves scared shitless.
With the help of some calming small talk with the likes of Bripo, Balaram, the
Skudin brothers, and keali’i I actually thought I had a chance of surviving this
session. But out of nowhere there it was, the whole Pacific Ocean coming
straight at us! It was all survival from there, paddling as fast as I could
straight to sea, I ditched my board and dived under the first wave. Keep calm
was all i thought as I got dragged and rag dolled. After two more waves of
similar consequence I was back on my board and paddling back out. I had survived
the worst and needed to get a wave. 2 hours and a mean sun burn later, I finally
mustered up the balls to catch something. In actuality Will yelled for me to
stay in position and called me in to my first wave at phantoms. It was a cool
experience and showed me how much more there is to learn. It gave me a great
appreciation for all the guys who charge as hard as they do.” Zack dayton
photo by http://www.laserwolfphoto.com/ Follow them on Instagram @laserwolf_photo and @Bakezd