Practice Space: Bill turns the lights on: photos from August 23rd

Below are some frames I froze at Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey--about an hour south of New York City. Was a bit too big for my skills early on, but later in the day when the sets got smaller (in the head high+ range) it was just right. All in all, it was a great surf weekend starting on Friday with a choppy, wash machine afternoon session in NY; three hours pre-work on Saturday; killer Jersey on Sunday; and a perfect shoulder high dawn patrol on Monday to wrap it all up.

Oh, and Andy Irons sat to my left by about 25 feet in the lineup at Manasquan. Unlike the hurricane hype, I didn't see that coming. He was surfing with New Jersey local pro Sam Hammer, also part of the Billabong crew.

(Click on the pictures to view full size.) Enjoy.

And then he said, "let there be waves."

Empty. Hollow. Beautiful. The water was a gorgeous deep blue, and the whitewash aqua. If you've ever been to Trestles, that's what it looked like.

Backhander lining up nicely. Dude's got some smooth carving form.

A few things going on here: Bomb set outside; camera guy making his way to the scene; a pair of dudes in the channel attempting to paddle out and to the other side of the jetty where the waves were breaking (they didn't make it and rode the current back in); and a volunteer fireman taking pictures and talk about how stupid the aforementioned are.

One of the heavier waves of the morning.

How sweet does that open face look? About 2ft. overhead.

A bit of delay on the snapshot, but this guy just blew the roof off; he killed this wave from the inlet for a good 200 yards down the beach. Wouldn't mind having his skills.