“It was historic!”
If you live in what is called the Golden State, nine hundred miles of Pacific coast stretching from dirty border town San Diego to pristine Oregon, you might’ve become aware of a swell of extraordinary intensity overheating various reefs and beaches.
Spectators washed away at Mavs, Ventura, others enjoying the spectacle from the safety of bluffs, seated on picnic rugs eating deliciously cool sandwiches garnished with cucumber and lettuce or poking fingers into jars of gherkins as surfers pulled themselves into round and flawless and gleaming tubes.
Yesterday, December 29 in the US, was a delight, no trace of wind or heat, a divine day, and the veteran surf photographer Jimmy Wilson, famous for a slightly flabby chin and a contralto voice, captured San Diego’s waves looking like Hawaii’s famous Pipeline.
Jimmy writes,
I’m pretty dang happy right now. Today was by far the best session I’ve ever witnessed in San Diego. As you will see, it’s not the most organized or easy wave to read, but the potential for a session of this level has been in the making for a long time.
I want to send a huge thank you to Damien Hobgood who I’ve been shooting photos of here for nearly a decade. He used to paddle out in psycho conditions where no one thought it was possible, and it was borderline most of those days. His wave from the last El Niño in 2016 was seriously historic (Watch Surfing Magazine’s video: Just Up The Coast) and the same angle I shot that photo, is what I chose to film from today. He also helped babysit my daughter Koura this morning so I could shoot, and then helped line up our friend Kevin to continue babysitting all our kids when he paddled out.
I also want to thank Skip McCullough. La Jolla local and a core icon! You can tell he was waiting for the stars to align to show what he can do out there. Amazing performance. Someone pay this man!
What was originally supposed to be a short window of me filming this morning turned into 7:15am-3pm on the sticks, zero food or water.
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Love how he added No food or drink… for quarter of his day to increase the difficulty factor of his job.
Fun, Yes.
Pipe, not so much
To be honest I like piping off after a couple beers😄. Driving south for a meeting I saw these epic sets from the car. They could have been anomalies. I would definitely have wanted a buddy just for safety concerns if I was going to charge it. I watched that vid again and looked good compared to the Swamis post.
Thank Frank
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Ha someone with good taste in music on here
NonJohn has too many streaming channel subscriptions. Oh, and these waves in the vid are just pretty good.
Annoyingly, watching this makes one realise how good Ke11y is!
I guess his photos aren’t selling
Not sure what’s funnier, how this drongo described San Diego or comparing pipe to SD surf.
This video is like my nightmare blunt rotation come to life.
It means “a whale’s vagina”
Sad pipeline… So where’s the big rock, WnS, bird, horse, LS, blacks footage? La Conchita and Hobo Jungle’s looked better than this spot yesterday without a single surfer in sight.
seasonal passes available
Way too big for Bird and Horseshoe, totally different reefs
Epic stoke!
One more “oh my god” an I’ll lose my sh…oh wait it’s got a mute button
pick up the phone…”It’s Swami!”
I watched it on mute while taking a nap yesterday. Sometimes I would wake up a little and think oh that could be a good one. Lets see if he makes it. Nope. Back to sleep.
More like Pupukea comes to San Diego.
I think I missed all the good bits? Dude kept saying skip, so I kept skipping?
The Chris Cote of surf vids.
So who was babysitting the Brazilian dads? Oh wait, that’s right, if the swell is up, Fil is up to babysit Brazilian dads.
Just watched Jimmy Wilson’s youtube video from Thursday at Swamis. I don’t think Fil was there but there were some serious badasses out there…
just watched how to replace a landline wall jack…
Tech savvy !
it”ll be touched and go and welded…in chrome 6 and mercruary
WHOA! I’ve patched over all of those in my house. But I do miss rotary dial phones
may need a new wire cutter. a very delicate operation. the black one is for grounding. will be shocked if i pull it off!
They’re his favourite fans
The waves look huuuuge to babies
He probably rented out the PSSC for the week