So, I decided to go watch the nelscott reef content in Lincoln City for like an hour or earlier… oh man. Driving down the little canyon I saw peter Mel and his crew getting ready to ski out to the reef. It was exciting to see some known faces – kind of validates this region as a good surfing destination.
The sets were in the 35 – 40 feet range. Surfers were tiny on the waves. From the cliff, it seemed as if the waves were 10 feet out there, but once a jetski would be pulling in someone into a wave and once this someone would pump, fade and go down the face, there was some serious 5 to 6 times overhead walls to be seen. And the surfers were just doing tricks we’d do on small waves. Tearing them like they were our 4 feet sunny pacific city surf. Crazy.
I think another fun part for me was to watch their amazing wave dodging skills as they battled the 15 foot insiders to ski out to the reef. It always looks small and easy from up high, but once someone is standing in front of a wave or flying off the top, size out there just takes on a whole new perspective. A scary one quite frankly. I saw some chilling wipeouts. Don’t even try figuring whether the surfer is making it back up to the surface: you just couldn’t tell.
The crowd on top of the cliff was fairly thin – which created this very relaxed, comfortable vibe up there. There were three watch spots, I checked all them out and ended up on the tallest one near the commentators - which were drinking wine straight out of the bottle as they were narrating the event. A few people from the Pacific City crew were standing along watching the huge surf. And of course, a whole bunch of oooohhs and aaahs were accompanying each set. Really fun stuff.
Now, I am back in pacific city, watching Gerry Lopez trying to surf the waves here, but they aren’t really doing their magic. Tomorrow and Saturday will be better.
Cheers
Max
