A little ocean surfing
Watching the weather report, we saw that it was going to huff and puff and blow the USA down... so what did we do? Well, like good little piggies, we got into our Drago Van and drove south to the USA so we too could live it.

Namely... big surf was called for in Roade Island, and my good friends Brett and Colleen Demello invited us down to go play in the surf with them. So we drove south, stopping whenever possible to get my fix (tripple shot Late), and finally arrived to surf some awesome waves (well, awesome until the offshore wind killed the surf, but for a morning it was awesome).

Christine and Andreanne have never surfed in the ocean... they are part of a breed that have learned, and only surfed on river waves, so it was amusing to watch them have the same (but totally inverted) issues that ocean surfers have when trying to surf the river.

It was cold, and it rained. Never mind blowing your house down, how about washing it away.... but we can;t complain, we got some awesome waves!
The Admiral lining up for a wave....
The Admiral (Brett) on a wave going for it big time!
Yup, Brett has definately seen this done on TV before....
Trying my best to outrun longboarders.... I was on a 5'8" river board, trying to catch the same waves that guys on 9' boards are paddling onto. And I outpaddled some of them too so... ha! Got waves they missed and made sections they were missing. And they say size matters!
Team Gath in the line-up? Surfers would ask why I'm wearing a helmet "You listening to music?"

NO. Just too stupid to hit my head again!
Christine trying to get that timing right for the pop in the ocean. First time ever in the ocean and she swims out into 6ft surf. Pretty impressive.
Gulp... here comes a big one.... Christine goes under.
And then the surf got really small....... I'm glad my board is lightning fast!
It gets air too. Even on really small surf.

Its just me that sucks ;-)
Andreanne trying to figure out that ocean timing for getting up. It really was quite funny to watch a profecient surfer struggle in a new environment.
My GF Christine looking happy after a good session, and me above having a good session!
So.... what's with the shorts?

In my opinion, in those black wet suits, we look like we're all wearing Gimp suits... and I'm not the Gimp from Pulp Fiction.

So, I'm wearing board shorts over the wet suit because I'd rather have NO CLASS than be mistaken for the WRONG CLASS ;-)
Now, as you can see, the weekend we spent at Matunuck was a lot different from Christines first trip down there this summer - warm water, warm air... and no waves. What can't we have both???

Oh, and a few people have asked me; so, just WHO is Christine? Well, I found her on a runway, and that's not an airport runway either. I know... she doesn't deserve me!