March 24th surf reports
Rifle’s is a hard wave to get. The wind is good, but the swell is not the right angle and it passes by. Or it’s bombing 8 foot Hawaiian, but the winds are gale force onshore, like when Andy and Kelly were here last season. (That would have been the session of the decade if the winds would have been right!) So I didn’t have high hopes when we saw the swell on the forecasts. I’m thinking wrong angle, not big enough, bad winds…. But it’s got to happen sometime, and this was the time! Our swell came in at the right angle and it was bigger than we had hoped with waves going 4 feet overhead or so. The wind gods were on our side and it went offshore about midday, just as the swell was getting more consistent and maxing in size, and there was not a charter boat in sight. It was just us sharing waves and hooting each other in. We even broke out the jet ski and took turns pulling in early and deep. Everyone got sick barrels and we surfed until dark.
Someone asked me if it would be breaking the next day, and I had to say I didn’t think so. The winds were forecast to be onshore and for the swell to drop. But the forecasters were wrong! It was only a little smaller than the day before, and the winds were offshore just about the entire day! One boat showed up, but the guys on it could hardly get to their feet so it was still all good.
Could it happen three days in a row? I’m thinking the swell forecast looks like the angle will not be right so I’m a skeptic. Wrong again! The swell builds though out the day and the winds go offshore and we are getting barreled again! The crowd factor is still a non issue and we surf into the night again.
Can it happen four days in a row? No way, right? Wrong! The swell is smaller, but it’s still overhead and offshore and everybody is getting shacked again! There is still hardly anybody else in the area and we surf our brains out! We are almost happy when the swell drops the next day so our body’s can rest. Four days in a row surfing Rifles! That is a good run. That’s more tube time than most surfers will get in their whole life. We took probably 3,000 pictures and probably 2,500 are barrel shots! I’ll pass on a few.
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