Author: osv

Last weekend we took our beloved m/v Milo out for a quick trip to the Gulf of Alaska. The swell forecast was looking pretty good. But mostly, after working at home for almost a week following three weeks of non-stop wave hunting were feeling pretty desperate for some waves and a bit of boat time.

We made the run out of Kachemak Bay and checked our favorite nearby haunts, the swell was looking strong with a bit more south than we usually find and winds were light. Leaving our night’s anchorage on the first morning we spotted an incredibly nice looking left pop up and peel for a hundred yards over a reef. We’d seen this wave try to break before, but never with this much promise. We watched this wave for about ten minutes to make sure weren’t hallucinating but the answer was never really made clear. It never broke again like the first time. Most likely the tide was changing so fast and the currents shifting that we had just witnessed the last good set of that tide cycle. oh well, plenty of other spots to check.

We launched the Humbug (our 14ft RIB launch) and myself with two eager friends went out scouring the coast for a surfable wave. Our search was rewarded when about 45 minutes later we found a nice punchy left pushing through some rocks. At first it didn’t look like the rocks could be avoided, but after some optimistic patience was revealed that the sets actually broke a little out of the rocks. Radio the Milo and 30 minutes later Mike was paddling into some nice head high lefts at our new discovery.

The photo doesn’t really do this wave justice. Once I saw that it was indeed a legitimate wave I dropped the camera and started getting ready to get a much closer look, feel, and taste . . . We surfed this wave for about 3 hours before wandering on to check a few other spots and explore some new territories.  Eventually the wind picked up and the intermittent rain showers turned to snow (yes snow in May!).

This was our second trip with the m/v Milo out to the Gulf of Alaska from Homer. Swell was forecasted to be something between seven and fifteen feet. The first day was windy, the swell was strong but it took us a few hours to discover a break that was sheltered from the wind coming in off the Gulf.

The first wave was a punchy head high left that did its best to lure us into the jagged rocks. Some of us fall for that pretty easy and spent our share of time floundering around in the rocks hoping we would get out with a one piece surfboard. The wave, yet to be named, provided some fun rides for about an hour before the incoming tide took away its juice. We paddled around the area for a while chasing the occasional beauty without much success. Plenty of waves breaking, but the wind was just not working with us. We found a nice spot to drop the Milo’s Anchor for the night and waited patiently for daylight to return. The stars came out and the wind settled down through the night.

At the first sign of light we were back on the hunt, prowling the coastline, binoculars scanning the horizon trying to decide what our best option was. The swell was varying between five and eight feet outside most of the breaks we checked. The decision was made to start out conservatively at a place we had surfed twice before and named Bullwinkles. It’s a pretty mellow break that offers both lefts and rights with an easy paddle out and the occasional barrel.

A few miles up the coast we saw what we had been dreaming about the night before. Mike pulled the Milo up and I headed in for a close look on the SUP. Wow. Game on. A flat rock ledge was catching the full force of the south swell about 200 yards offshore. The swell easily doubled in height as it lurched over the rock. I paddled into one 12ft wave just to make sure it was everything it promised. . . knees shaking with adrenaline I paddled back to the Milo. We spent the next few hours learning how to surf this wave. The hard way. Mike led the experiments with wipeouts under the lip, getting sucked backwards through the falls, and underwater transportation under the froth. The results were favorable – while it might hold you down for a while, it’s no killer.

The biggest waves that came through (after the camera was put away) were about twenty feet on the face. The speed of the SUP helped me score some incredible rides. It was possible to paddle in on the right side of the peak and shoot right through the section that jacked up on the shoal.

Oh yeah, we named the new break ‘Pop-ups’.