We all have our favorite spots to surf; local, down the coast, or across an ocean.  There's even a portion of this community dedicated to describing your favorite home break (see it here: http://surfers.surfboards.com/mybreak).  Without a doubt there are still a many a hidden gem to be discovered around the world.  But as the world and community of surfing grow the days of Endless Summer surf exporation to remote destinations where no one has ever heard of a surfboard, let alone seen some one ride one on the perfect waves they witness daily, draw near.  This, of course, is not something any surfer dreams about or puts on their wish list.  Never-the-less it is a reality which, although you may choose to disagree, is fast becomig true.

So what are we left with if we either cannot afford to explore the globe for the remain surf gems or just can't get away to do it?  This question has plagued my mind for the past few years.  Fortunately I've been lucky enough to put myself in a position where I can take a small surf trip once a year to semi-remote destinations in cultures other than our own.  However, while I can live vicariously through reading surf magazines, watching surf videos, hearing of other's wonders of surf exporation and annually having my own, I'm still left wanting to journy the world to see and experience all these things for myself.  What is a work-ethically responsible surfer to do?

It dawned on me last month.  While perfection at our home break is not always a consistant virtue (and if yours is then... well... I'm gald for you...), it sometimes does show its beautiful smiling face and grace the locales with reasons to get fired, dumped by a significant other, or get parking tickets (anyone who's caught a head high barreling day at a local break with only 5 people out will tell you any of these scenarios was worth it.. well, at least the froth from first sight made them believe it was...).  And as many experienced surfers beging to do, they chronicle conditions at their local breaks to better forecast when they will be getting fired, dumped, or towed.  Getting to know your local break is an equation of time, conditions, and experience.  In recent years many surfers and surf forecasters, under the thought leadership of Shaun Collins (sp?), have become amatuer weather forecasters to better understand how those conditions create and affect the surf in their regions.  As is most often, a small set of variable conditions create the perfect surf.  And we keep our eyes on the horizon for indications of that perfect day.  (I'm going to tell a story to exemplify my point.  If you'd like to skip it, scroll down to the conclusion)

STORY TIME: But in reading perfection at one of my favorite summer breaks, i discovered a mysto peak which, I believe, has gone heavily unoticed by other locals.  Now i'm not going to give you the name or location of this break... At the risk of being a cliche (and as you read you'll know why I want to protect this peak) i don't want others to know about it just yet... I've done my homework and its paid off... if you want to catch it, do yours and i'll see you out there.

Here's the specs of the break:  Slab right point with anywhere from a 25 yrd ride to a 50 yrd ride.  The beach faces West by Southwest and is about a 1/4 mile long.  A typical good swell & direction at this point is anywhere from 2 ft to 6 ft (closes out after that) from 325 degrees to 210 degrees (pretty wide window really).  Typically there are anywhere from 5 to 15 people sitting on this point trading waves.  Its a very welcoming wave, doesn't through too hard, holds nice shape, can get hollow with size, and people aren't hooting and howling at everyone.  Pretty ideal really.  However on crowded days its almost too much to sit on a small peak with 15 other dudes competeing for waves.

Thats when I noticed a peak down towards the center of the beach.  I've known about a little sandbar there which occassionally has a left shoulder on it.  And when it gets really crowed on the right point, sometimes I'll go down there to get some solitude.  Well, about 2 months ago I was in this exact scenario with a good friend and we paddled down to catch a few sand bar waves.  Now, this beach has a condition, which many surfers are familiar with, where a backlash from the wave breaking too close to shore creates a riccochet affect sending a wave back out to sea (we call them speed bumps... at times you drop in and hit a speed bump which sends you flying from your board unexpectedly).  These "speed bumps" occur most often as the tide is in its higher half (more water to transfer the energy of the riccochet back to sea).  We happened to paddle down about an hour and a half before low tide expecting to be surfing speed bumps.  To our amazement something wonderful happened.

After catching a left or two for about 20 yards each, this little sandbar began to light up!  We discovered that this little sandbar, which no one ever is riding, actually doubles the amplitude of the incoming swell!  How sweet is that?  at that time we had a nice little 2 ft swell coming in (which is why we were bored of fighting for waves at the right point with 15 other people) which jumped up to 4 ft.  We started catching lefts which we easly the same shape, if not better, than those found at the right point for almost 40 yards.  Not only did the size double, but so did the length of ride.  Now thats fun time in my book!  For the next 2 hrs we surfed that little sandbar until we could surf no more.  At one point a few other surfer paddled down and caught a few waves with us.  No hostilities, no harsh looks... there were more waves than we could catch and we were happy to share them.   Yet for some reason, after they caught a few they paddled in and left?  My friend and I stared at each other in amazement of how they could leave, but did not question their decision... more for us!

As the session came to an end, the tide had risen significantly and the "speed bump" effect began to return.  So, seening that we had just caught a mysto session and the quality of wave shape was dropping we decided it was ok to head in and continue or day.  My buddy Brian called his, then girlfriend now fiancee (congrats Brian and Ali), as he has seriously overdue to meet her for lunch.  With a quick apology he explained what we had jsut experienced and back himself by saying I thought about puttin John (thats me in case you didn't know) on the phone so you can hear his stoke and know why i'm late.  She, of course, understood...

No more than 2 weeks later I was planning tidal times, swell directions, and calling in sick to work to hit this peak i'd discovered.  One day I paddled out when there was still some ok size, about 3-4 ft, but it was alittle wind blown compared to the glassy faces I'd had with Brian a few weeks before.  Surfing the same peak at the same tidal time, with a similar swell I caught my wave of the year.  And such this year has been pretty poor in my neck of the woods, this is saying alot... I dropped in on a head high wave and saw the section go infront of me.  I quickly pushed a solid bottom turn around the section and noticed a nice triangular shoulder form.  without a conscious thought I put on my stall breaks and saw the lip of the wave throw over my head.  Effortlessly, I looked out the barrel, noticing a body border paddling out looking straight at me before I gave a single pump, shot out of the barrel and rode over the back of the wave.  As I made it to the lineup the body border gave me some props by saying, "that was the wave of the day without a doubt!"

This past weekend I found myself at the same break on a smaller swell.  Having begun to dial in the shape, timing, and exact location of the peak I found myself in a similar situation.  This time the swell was smaller and I had to put my kness to my chest as i croutched to made it into the tube.  Yet still there it was... smaller, but exactly the same.

CONCLUSION:
Have you forgotten why I'm telling you all this yet after such a long story? (probably note if you read my note and scrolled down to get to the point)  The point is simple.  While we pawn to find perfection somewhere besides home when home is less than perfect we forget to explore whats in our back yard.  We construct a picture and profile for what conditions create the perfect wave at our home break.  And not to say that this wrong or we shouldn't be doing this.  How else are you really going to get your stomping ground dialed?  But the message I mean to convery is that sometimes the adventure can be to explore what you think you already know everything about.  Given the right conditions and circumstances, who knows, maybe you'll find a sercet spot right at home which you too can call your own and squirrel away until some one, just like you ahs done their homework!