Surfing is a Trip

You can see a clip here from Amazons on 8/28/05 [.wmv; 700k].

Amazons 

Amazons 

Amazons 

Smallest Boat Award 

Amazons 

Amazons 

Amazons 

Amazons 

Amazons 

Amazons

Also called The Pass by Panama City locals, Amazons is the current king-of-the-hill wave in the Florida Panhandle. Picken's Point in Pensacola used to be its equal, but the Picken's sandbar needs some serious reforming to bring it back to its past status. Amazons breaks in the ship channel, along the inside of the east jetty on the Shell Island side of St. Andrews Pass. It's a 300-yard, left-hand monster of a wall. The outside peak can break as large as 8 feet and can hold a steady line into a pitching, fast, hollow inside. Your legs are tired when you kick out. It's truly a world-class wave. Now, the bad news: it has as 60 or more guys in the water on most days. Often, a large portion of the lineup is paddling out to an approaching channel monster as five guys are paddling into it. If you're lucky enough to get the wave, you have to weave in and out of 15 surfers to keep up.

Because of its location, accessing the lineup at Amazons is an ordeal. Enter St. Andrews State Recreation Area and launch a boat at the boat ramp in the park. You can either anchor in the pass at Amazons or carefully dodge the inside waves and leave your boat in the protected pool at Shell Island at the north end of the jetty. Padding across is very dangerous because the rocks are treacherous; plus, huge ships and fast-moving Navy hovercraft regularly come through the ship channel -- they cannot stop and will run you over. You also risk a hefty fine from the Coast Guard if they catch you. During the summer, a boat shuttle runs hourly to Shell Island from the Park; however, it runs only on flat or small days and costs $5 round trip.

Best tide: light incoming, slack or light outgoing
Best swell direction: E, SE
Best size: head-high to 8 feet
Best wind: SE is straight offshore
Perfecto-meter: 7 (1=Lake Erie; 10=Jeffreys Bay)
Bottom: sand with jetty, point break
Ability level: better than average to expert
Bring your: boat, lunch, shortboard
Best season fall, winter
Access: Entrance to the park is $2 minimum per vehicle, $1 per each passenger. Take a boat and launch at St. Andrews boat ramp.
Crowd factor: high
Local vibe: average to heavy
Bicep burn: 8 (1=knee-high Waikiki; 10=triple-overhead Ocean Beach)
Poo patrol: 1 (1=clean; 10=turds in the lineup)
Hazards: $75 ticket from Coast Guard for paddling across the pass, getting run over by a Navy hovercraft or 300-foot oil tanker, eating it while jumping off the rocks, breaking your leash on big days and never seeing your board again or breaking an anchor line and never seeing your boat again.

Cross your fingers guys. We may have some waves by this weekend!

Reach Out! - Christian Fletcher: "Billie-jo: When you are pissed off what do you do to chill out?
Christian: Shoot speed and smoke PCP, but not anymore though."

Click here to see Chapter 5. I may add on some pictures to this chapter but basically, except for the closing credits, "That's all folks." Let me know if I left out something you want included.

Click here to see Chapter 4 of this sure-to-be-award-winning movie.

Costa Rica Adventures
The 1,650.00 per person tour or Nicaragua on The Giuseppina... our next trip?

Links to a couple of videos of fellow surfer Jack Johnson from SNL and from Leno.