The Porto

The misadventures of a weekend kook

New Jersey wakes up with another big surf swell

Yup, this was New Jersey this past sunday. I'm not sure exactly where in New Jersey this was taken, but it was pretty epic no matter where you were at the jersey shore. 

Also, this swell seems to have taken it's toll on some surfers. http://instagram.com/p/jEuuUoFKC6/ Literally a back breaking swell.

Live to surf or surf to live

Recently I got to read this great article on The inertia.com  called the five medical applications of surfing . It was pretty intresting to see how surfing can be applied and help people with varying medical conditions. To quote:

"Engaging in a challenging ocean sport like surfing encourages overall health, happiness and a sense of personal accomplishment. However, surfing also provides physical exercise while giving patients the benefits of hydrotherapy. Because of surfing’s combination of advantages, many children and adults now don’t simply live to surf: they surf to live."

I can honestly say evertime I've left after a session I've always come out in a better mood and feeling relaxed. It's pretty rare that I don't sleep well after a good surfing session. Anything that can help people live life without pills or medication is worth trying.

Mexican waves, longboards and beautiful women

I know this is supposed to be an ad for woman's surf apparel for Seea, but man, I want to go and surf with them. Plus, look at their swank gear. I know what I'm getting my girlfriend for christmas.

Mexico Calling - Seea 2014 Collection from The Seea on Vimeo.

Black friday surfing

To shop on black friday and join the brawl-mart shoppers, or go surf? Go surf...

After missing the nor'easter and thanksgiving day swells. I got the chance to try out the leftovers. Not only was I greeted with nice chest to waist high waves. But, it was also a warmish day for our early winter (46 degrees) with light to non existant offshore winds.

I think a lot of people decided to try the morning, thinking they would catch leftovers from the day before, but instead it was pretty crowded with smaller waves due to a slightly stronger wind. I think we got to the beach at the perfect time, right about 1:30 in the afternoon when the high tide was slowly rolling in. My friends and I, were the only ones on the beach and we got to hog up all the glassy waves. It was a fun time. Sure it wasn't barreling massive 12 footers, but I can't handle beasts like that. I would have liked it just a foot bigger, but this was pretty sweet in my eyes.

Come around next year, I hope to be doing the same thing. No shopping for me on black friday, just some sweet surfing.

Thanksgiving Eve nor’easter at the Jersey shore

The east coast was predicted to have a Thanksgiving Eve nor’easter. And boy did we get one.

Check out this amazing photo from Bill McKim of Shuan McGrath dropping down the face of a 12+ foot wave in Belmar.

Shuan McGrath sliding down a 12 foot plus wave, in Belmar NJ. Photo by Bill McKim.

On Thanksgiving day we still had some strong swell with head high breaks. The bad part is was 20 degrees with a strong off shore wind (25mph). If you could bear it, you would have caught some amazing waves. You just needed to be at the right spot, otherwise it was the ususal jersey close out sale.

Surfline has a great feature of the east coast's Thanksgiving swell. It's a good read with great photography and a few videos.

UPDATE: Seems thesurfersview.com has put up a ton of photos and videos. It's pretty epic.