We all know the basic rule about surfing Medulin: “If you don’t go, you don’t know!”
On Wednesday it looked it was almost worthless. Windblown, no walls and raining like hell. But the forecast was right, the wind turned right on time and we got ourselves a really nice sunset session. It was not the best Medulin ever, but for sure was the most beautiful one!
Just sitting in the lineup and watching orange tinted sprays was like a filmers porn, haha.
Lets get one thing straight. The word “epic” got pretty warned out these days, just like claiming seems to be the next best thing in surfing all around the world. It is a circus.
It is not epic just because you are there, nor just because it turns glassy. ”Epic” hits once or maybe twice every few years, when you score conditions that usually never happen or have possibly never had happened before. Otherwise it would not be epic. It would be random, regular, classic, whatever.
On Saturday 17.12.2011 Barbariga was epic. Period.
Three years straight it did not even break. This year it worked three times, waist high and choppy. Yesterday it was close to 2m, cleaners even more. If you got caught inside, it washed you in and at least 50m down the coast like a little puppet. The power was unimaginable for waves of Adriatic. It tubed and spit out. Nobody has seen it like that before and some guys out there, were chasing it for almost ten years. This is epic… and hopefully this is a legit time to claim, haha.
Me and Katja documented for about an hour and then I decided to do some helmetcam shots. Which we will maybe never see, because the cam got ripped, ironically, on the smallest wave of the day. Shit luck, yet everybody is invited for some late December scuba diving, haha.
It is finally getting colder and it even started to snow in the higher mountains of the Julian Alps.
Cyclones that bring the most snow to Slovenia, arrive over France, continue their way below the Alps in Italy and bring southern winds over Adriatic Sea. Which in short means waves. Once or twice per year we get lucky and the front makes a sharp turn and the winds turn southwest. Then it is time to check Barbariga.
The forecast was looking really nice and we were hoping to ride some sizable lefts, yet the weather had its own plan, I guess. We got a waist high chop, but it was fun anyway. I also did some filming for my “no deadline” Slovenian surf documentary, because like I said, it is rare to get a chance to surf Barbariga and this is also a (big) part of what surfing on “home turf” means for Slovenian soul surfers…
Every year Ujusansa organizes slovenian national championships in surfing, called the JugoMajstr a.k.a. Master of the South winds. It takes place in Medulin, Croatia, which is a little strange for “nationals” to be held in foreign country, but for Slovenian surfers it is the closest surfbreak, like it or not. The first one was in 2006 and it was basically a soul session of few guys, yet in past few years the slovenian surf community grew to a point where we have more than forty competitors applying, some also from Austria, Hungary and even Brazil. It got a little bit serious, a bit better organized and maybe even a bit more fun, while you get pretty much all your surfer friends in one place for a day or two. Medulin is a good break, yet it works mostly in winter time, thus the late season call. We call it cold winter classic, because booties and hoddies are sort of mandatory to last more than an hour in the lineup, haha. The teaser below is from last year, but anyway, you can get a pretty good picture what we are hoping for… more info about the competition here… I have been working 24/7 since I came from my surfing trip. I have been filming on Dachstein with Qparks, starting to open my own firm (LegitFilms is going legit in few months), going to various work related meetings, working on new Untouched Project webpage (expect the release in day or two), received my official Master of Sociology certificate, capturing tons of tapes from the trip and editing last summer edits for Ujusansa. Here is the last of the Ujuclips. As you will see in the montage, the last days in the camp were full on surf oriented. We got really good waves the whole term, but there was also time for some partying, hehe. All Ujuclips can be seen on Ujusansa’s vimeo site. Big swell hit Portugal today and we were all on our toes if the famous Supertubos would be riddable, because we wanted to see, film and maybe even ride one of the fastest beachbreaks in Europe. It was closing out heavily, so we headed on to Conselacao reef, which was looking pretty big from afar. Conselacao lefts were four meters plus, light offshore and no one out. Jernej Rakušček and Kostja Polc were the first one to give it a try, while the rest of us agreed it is no shame in walking away on a day like this, haha. Jernej really scored, taking five waves and even pulled into a barrel and Kostja got a bomb that knocked him of the board. Andraž Rakušček and Iztok Južnič Žonta manned up for a second session, which was also heavy as hell. Andraž got his leash ripped and got a swim of his life to the beach and Izi took a big cleaner set on the head while paddling out… they both got a taste of the waves as well and Andraž and Jernej even went for another session while the sun was setting down… We have spent a portion of our vacation in France first, next in Basque and then moved to Cantabria in Spain. We did some exploring on the coast, skateboarding, surfing, sightseeing, went to Picos de Europa and just filmed when felt necessary. Allthough you are on well deserved time off, one can not resist taking a camera out wherever he is, especially if it is all new and fresh. Few days ago we joined our friends on the Ujusansa Surfari Portugal to Peniche. We are staying in a really nice house in Baleal with a wiev directly to the Lagide reef. It just does not get better than this for the last part of the holidays and you really get creative again, while it is picturesque, warm and the waves pumping! The waves took a little time off in Cantabria, Spain, so the best way to get some surf like riding was to go check the Somo skatepark. The park is brand new, has a sick bowl with an extension, a oververted wave wall and few smaller trannies. I had a mellow session with the guys from Zaragoza, who also gave me good advice where to go in our next stop in Portugal… Next stop was Hossegor, France. Nights under the pinetrees, surrounded by squirrels and the smells of nature. The area is filled with beautiful parks like that and there is no shortage of skateparks either. Almost every sizable beach has a little bowl or few trannies, like this one at La Penon. It is nothing much, yet so fun to ride… Ujusansa surf camp has finished with the end of September and my work there is done, yet photographer Katja Pokorn and I are staying in the “area” for few more weeks on a skate/surf trip. First stop was Biarritz, France. We found this new age architectures museum, Cite de la Ocean, which has a vert ramp shaped roof. The grounds are rough as hell, but the tranny looks pretty easy thou. It is waiting… for someone with big wheels and even bigger balls, haha!
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Last surf session before the winter
JugoMajstr2011 waiting period started…
Last in series of Ujuclips
B.I.G. Sunday for Slovenian surfers!
Down to Portugal
Concrete waves of Cantabria (part 12): Somo
Concrete waves of Basque (part 5): La Penon
Concrete waves of Basque (part 4): Vertroof museum
