The Viking Surf Team (right to left)
Sergio, Darlan, Rolando, Savannah, Mauricio

Charging Sunset Beach

Nervous? Was I nervous about paddling out at the famous Sunset Beach on a double overhead day?

I watched the movie Big Wednesday with my dad and the big right that wiped out the leading man (surfer) Matt in the movie was Sunset on a BIG day. I've kept that image and footage reeling through my little mind for the weeks leading up to the trip to Hawaii and as we approached the beach and walked toward the paddleout, Mauricio's advice did not help me with my butterflies while Rolando's "I don't like" made me even more nervous.

"Savannah, I want you to ride your largest gun today at Sunset. It will be difficult to paddle into these waves and the drops will be big and late. Sunset's waves won't pound you as hard as the shallow water breaks, but they don't let you go and tumble you along for as long as you can hold your breath. I've seen you surf and you'll be fine," assured a smiling Mauricio, while Rolando kept chanting... "I don't like..." with a rich spanish accent that sounded like a latin version of Tarzan. Occasionally Rolando would variant this with... "I no like..." which sounded even more threatening as his brow scowled in concern.

"Okay! Let's paddle out!" ordered Maricio, "Keep an eye on Savannah, please." So... Paddle out we did... indeed.

Mauricio, Darlan and myself watching Sunset Beach break as we prepare for the long paddle out to the main break. They call the further right break where you take off deeper at Sunset "Boneyards". Gulp... I'll stay away from there so I don't contribute to it's reputation.

Surfing Sunset Beach

I know I'm a little girl and my mind gets the best of me, but the paddleout was long and relatively easy. Sunset Beach has a well defined channel and is a point type break, the most threatening thing going out was the shorepound and I'm well prepared for that part as I've surfed places with plenty of large shorepounds.

The paddleout seemed remarkably quiet and except for the reassurances from Mauricio, I don't recall much except that you could see the bottom while waiting for sets and it seemed somewhat deeper than Rocky Point, which had dry rocks and reef sticking out in numerous places.

My local Florida surfing buddies can relate when I say that Sunset's break was like surfing Monster Hole on a big day as the surf was not as big and gruesome as it could have been on a big North Shore day. The wave definitely had more punch to it than any east coast wave!

There was a Hawaiian lady that was friendly, but she kept cutting me off and I often would pull back as she constantly dropped in on me. I wanted to say something to her, but refrained as I've been told by many teammates... "respect the Hawaiian locals and you'll be fine." She wasn't a good surfer, but she had no fear of dropping in on big waves and made no bones about scuffing me constantly. I would try and paddle away from her to no avail, she just followed me around Sunset's break and took off on many of the good waves that I got. During my stay in Hawaii, wave etiquette was nerve racking for me as I was told to respect, but received very little in return. I did manage to get a few waves at Sunset before the days end and never returned to the break except for one day in an adjacent break called Camyland. [continue...]

That's me below giving the local girl stinkeye while she dropped in on yet another one of my waves. Come on! I just want to hit the lip and you're in my way!

Florida East Coast Surfing Photographs

East Coast and Central Florida Surfing Photographs (mostly) of Sebastian Inlet, RC's, Cocoa Beach Pier, 2nd light, New Smyrna, South Florida's Reef Road, Jupiter some of Central America and various other areas.

We hope you enjoy watching Savannah and her surfing friends grow up together and encourage parents and competitors to send us photographs with your stories to include on the site.

Here are some surfing pictures to look at now:

Hawaii Surfing 2007
Hawaii North Shore
Hawaii Part 2
Hawaii Part 3
Hawaii Part 4
Hawaii Part 5
Hawaii Part 6