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| Evan's Reef |
| For the last several days, we had been having winds in excess of 50 knots. On tuesday evening, the buoys were reporting seas of 30' at 11 seconds. On Wednesday, the winds switched around to variable and I decided to check some reefs on the north side of the peninsula. I found a reef break with faces in the 12-15' range. I checked a few more spots, but as soon the tide changed, and the sets stopped coming. After waiting 45 minutes, I decided to check somewhere else. |
| I drove to some reefs I have been watching near Hafnir. As I pulled up, I stared in disbelief at the size of the waves coming in. A reef I had checked last week had sets coming in easily 15-20' on the face. Who knows, maybe bigger. |
| As I was watching, a man came by on his horse, and rode down to check the surf. Eventually he met up with his friend, and together they rode off. I walked down to get a closer look, and get some pictures of the surf. As I walked back, the two had returned from their ride. They had seen my surfboard in my car, and were waiting by it to talk to me. |
| They were very friendly, and we talked for several minutes. They told me about a sandy beach down the road. It turns out that they live on the farm fronting these reefs near Hafnir. I asked them if they had ever seen anyone surf the reefs out here. "No, nobody surfs out here. It's too dangerous with the rocks, yeah? The waves, sometimes they are very big." I waved goodbye to them and drove home. |
| Today the winds had switched offshore, and I decided it might be a good idea to check those reefs again. As I drove past Merkines, south of Hanfnir, I saw a perfect wave peel in the distance. |
| Hastily I pulled over and made the walk down to get a closer look at the reef. What I saw was the same reef I had seen a month ago when the ground was covered with snow, but breaking in a perfect 6 foot right. The tide had just hit high at 11 feet, going to a low of 1.5 feet, so I knew I had to hit it quick. After a fast change and a walk over the rocks, i was standing on the reef. I negotiated my way through the inside reef, and found myself quickly in the lineup with dry hair. Only a minute or two later, the first set came through. I used it to figure out the lineup and picked a couple of landmarks to postition myself. Moments later, another set came through. |
| The glassy head high wave found the reef, and stood up. I took a couple of easy strokes and popped up. In front of me, the wave lined up nicely, and I took my time settling into a gentle bottom turn, coming up to the top for a sweeping off the top. As the wave reformed, I made one more quick little turn, and then pulled out the back of the wave. As the session went on, the waves got steadily bigger and more hollow as the tide dropped. Eventually, there were boils popping up all over and it started getting a little chilly. |
| I grabbed a final overhead set. A nice bottom turn, and the wave began to hollow out in front of me. I pulled up high on the face, and as it began throw, I angled down, beating the wave to the bottom. Another strong off the top, and I straightened out to prone in. |
| As I walked back to my car, I looked back at the waves continuing to break with machine like precision. Since the locals who live overlooking the break have never seen anyone surf this reef, in keeping with the tradition of the first surfer to surf a spot gets to name it, I christened this break Evan's Reef, in honor of my new infant son. Aloha, Mike |