After a long North Pacific winter the west coast winds of the U.S. finally turned back on in early May. My friend Whit Poor and I packed up the Toyota and blasted 900 miles south down to Jalama Beach in Cali. We then started to work our way back up the west coast. All I brought was a TF 78, one board for 900 miles of coastline. We were hoping to get scared in some mast+ conditions and charge it anyway. It didn’t happen.

Instead we got a bunch of head to occasionally logo high days at some of California’s premier, and not so well known wavesailing spots. We hit lit side-shore 3.7 with head to logo high at Jalama. We scored clean peeling side-off 4.7 with head high at Arroyo Laguna. Arroyo Laguna was without question the best we saw in 900 miles. We stepped down to shoulder high sloppy onshore junk 4.7 at Scott’s and Waddell. We finished the trip with straight onshore lit 5.3 at the mouth of Tomales Bay (breeding ground for the Warden). Its fair to say we got the good, the bad, and the ugly.

No matter where we went, or what we looked at when we got there, it was nice to know that the board I was pulling out of my Toyota was built by Pete Ross. Its great that that his TF 78 sails like a 6’10′ surfboard, really. Its why I sail it. It goes rail to rail like a fantasy, top to bottom like a pure surfboard. But on this trip, all over the west coast, what I loved most about this board, was that it was built right. It was built so I could charge, progress, and crash, hard, without thinking about my fragile production board.

At a certain point, all of our waveriding hits that plateau. That plateau where you might not want to break the gear, or yourself. If you’d like to shatter that plateau, trust yourself to make the move and trust your board to make it if you don’t, you should be riding an OES. Even if you might not be looking to push it that far, it sure is nice to know that the board you are on, really can take it.

Its like a Formula One car. You might not push it to 195 MPH, you might not be comfortable with braking and accelerating at the same, but the car sure can do it…

Here are a few pics from the trip. Of course I didn’t show the vicious beatings the board and I took, but rest assured, we both got punished, frequently. Here are some of the better hits!