It was a cold spring morning in April. The swell forecast from the night before predicted 5-7 foot waves and offshore winds, the ingredients for perfect surf in New Jersey. My brother and I pulled up to the beach and immediately saw the corduroy sets lining the horizon. That nervous, excited feeling started to fill my stomach got out of the car to take a closer look. As we stepped onto the sand we realized that the forecast was spot on. The waves looked epic.
We quickly slipped on our thick wetsuits, which were still damp from our session the day before. As I was paddling out I just kept staring through the massive barrels of the breaking waves. A few minutes later I took my first wave of the day. Dropped in, 2 pumps, closeout. Although the wave ended shortly I could feel the power under my board and the potential of the waves for the next few hours. After about four hours we got out of the water because our arm muscles were giving out. My brother took a look back at the lineup and insisted that we go back out and take one more wave because the waves were just so good. So I followed him back in.
The second we got back into the lineup I saw the most perfect wave coming right towards me. I looked at my brother, Abe, and he was too deep. He shouted, “Go! Man! GOOO!” I took two hard paddles and the greatest wave of my life began. I quickly popped up to my feet and looked down the line to assess what the wave was doing. This Thing was massive and super pitchy; just about to barrel perfectly. I had a little too much speed so I rode to the bottom of the wave, did a bottom turn and pulled right up under the lip of the wave. The feelings of the next few seconds are pretty much indescribable. I was inside the wave, in the barrel. The sun was shinning through and there was golden aura of light and water spherically surrounding me. Everything else in the world seemed to fade away and not matter. I felt this crazy high and it was so addicting. Ok, back to consciousness I have to make it out of here. I saw the diagonal lip breaking in front of me and the opening at the end of the wave. I gained a little more speed and came flying out of the barrel back in to the real world. I was just stoked out of my mind and I will never forget that feeling and that wave as long as I live.
