surfresearch.com.au  mctavish : rincon, 1968

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Bob McTavish : California, 1968.

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McTavish, Bob:  (Rincon) [untitled]
Surf International
Volume 1 Number 7, June 1968, pages 10 and 11.

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Well, rah-rah, Rincon is a happening right now.
It took a long time to get here but now we're together, I'm ripping shit out of it.
Many, many days of cold glass, head high plus.
Today we sat just me and George out at double overhead, swells lifting out of silver water into grey mist/smog, swaying the stray kelp, buckling a little from an obscure side wash somewhere, hovering, then throwing fingers and hands of curl out'n'down.
That wave turning white dropping off right into a zip curl for 100 feet through a bowl.
A tube full of pushing white power, washing machines churning, sucking sand and small boulders up off the bottom over the falls.
Fear joy.

Rincon has power.
The real power of a bold ground swell.
2,000 miles strong, three and four days old, whacking full energy into man-coast.
Straight.
No wind.
Not many out - certainly ... have any wave you want.

Up to shoulder and head high, you hunt for the power, but it's a short search.
Gets up beyond eight and there's power laughing down on you from everywhere.
Press toe dents in my glass job, and glass dents in my toes, that power cannot be killed.
In fact it's hard to equal it in the most brutal slicing arc.
(But the harder you try the more it loves you.)
Rincon asks ... push yourself into the dimension-blowing realm of the sea's strongest vibrations.

Last night the Vietnam express screamed north under cover of darkness ... pop. ... 2.30 a.m. and Rincon weaving through my dream.
Long curl replaced by the lonely resigned wail of the roar-express, then the thunder of it vibrates the room ... baroom ... Drop back into soft blackness ... then along comes the scattery carnival, skipping, weaving, laughing Rincon dream.

Derek's hi ..."Rincon's overhead pure glass high tide" O.K. ... back still aches from that rail in it yesterday ... Is it cold out?
Freezing.
Jumper, Coat.
It's 8.30.

So hard to put on a wet wetsuit.
Leave the warm Kombi ... tides so bloody high... right up to the houses, yards. ..small driftwood and weed. ..misty again Yes Derek's right, pure glass ... Start the day well with an Indicator Monday. Paddle out at creek mouth ... easy ... Hell: water's cold ...

Set jumps out of the glass ... solid eight ... take 2 ... no, 3 ... more wall ... good position ... solid paddle ... it's moving fast .. the bottom's pulling in ... no! it's a ... solid ate it.
Whompff ... ugh-er ... hit sand ... gasp ... Board's right near.
Swim.
Slap it.
Grabit ... claw it ... Hang on.
Eeer.

Hm.
Start the day well.
Take it easy kid ... Wake up ...  Whew T.V. antenna line up ... mist ... drifts south to north ... Another set ... take number 2 ... comfortable to inside for sure ... Wait ... 3's even bigger, some wall ... Bump from first wave coming big ... watch it.
... A gulp ... drop pressing into a turn hard.
Gup into the top ... spin off a cutback ... running down into that groove there ... out ...off another 'ey ... across the wall into a ridiculous tube forming out there wide in that kelp.
Pull it up into there, that's right, now get your teeth and HANG ON, we're going through the centre of
that tube now and the next section is forming already, and you've gotta get more speed and quickly there's a bump there too.
Snip over it and now feel the rail sink in and it's coming on again ... we're up high coming down through the flat bottomed centre of it and out front for an arc round the bottom up into the slot for a cruise through and wow ... it just happened ... and wow ... I am sitting up in the top of a tube, running down thru ... Wow ... H'm ...good start to this ride ...

Slip into a roundhouse back onto the white water and oogh ... I really put some thrust into my throat. ... Huh....
Inside later on after a book (sic, look?) at the overhead and a Foster Freez pre-digested and an edgar, the Rincon, Del Mar was performing tide 1/2 to 2/3 gone, and going fast, crowd was 10 all cold but friendly, water very clear, wind, nil, five to six feet all the time with 7 and 8 very real set.
Take off second grey house, current bad,

Page 11

current tube going well .... out up into the top under that guy's wake and cut off as it dribbles over the back as I feel it.
Now tear off that turn and up into the air and he's airborne....

The kid's airborne .... He did it ... clap, clap, clap. ...Yes folks before your very eyes America.
... And it was a full eight foot folks.
Well done.

On and it feels so good.
That guy smiled and we laugh as we paddle out.
It's a perfect day at Rincon.

Soon those arcs are every turn, and every cutback's a round house and every hairy first section is ridiculous and perfect and cold and I'm feeling just fine riding your land ....

Pulling George's G's on every arc ... two at least but put your nose down on it like Nat and feels a lot better ... water hissing by 2 inches from your nose and eye for two whole seconds ... may flatten my rail, get good Ted-foil too.
Blowing my mind ....That paddly would be bad if it wasn't for the floorshow.

Guys just ripping hell out of it.
Derek's new 8' 5" Hawaii Summer trip.
Shawn Chaffey Forero ... loop ...Yes.
That bitchin guy who we surfed with at Velyzland ... good crowd ... Bitchin guy Mickie was, he loves surfin'.
Love da guy.

A go behind a hard cutback, I'm sorry I didn't mean to psyche you ... I look again the guy is gone.
Oh well I guess he went down laughing.
This California water's cold, I'd hate to feel it grab me.
I take a drop feel a tube ... and it's sucking sand and rocks allover the place and it's turning brown and I'm gonna try to shoot it through from the inside and as I pull up into it I'm suddenly 10 feet
tubed in it and it's dark in here ... ulp ... OVER WHOOMPFF ... sand ... sound ... drag over aGAIN ... NNER ... CLUNK ... ROCK ... tumble and falls.
0 well. ...

Every wall is perfect.
Every top is level.
Waves dark green ... white water ... white ... white ... white ... but it's so cold I go in.
I'II be back for more ... and the tide returning.

Sleep till the Mexican market for breakfast.

Rincon .... It's a low tide break.
Except for today.
Sun-temperatures up to 65 degrees.
That's very good.
Water cold 'cause the drift is from the north with this swell.
...H'm ... 6-8 feet glassy, 2 guys out.
Wednesday, fourth day of overhead plus ... 3 weeks straight of something, plenty of it in Rincon.
But not like this.
... Everyday is the best it's been.

Take off is around the point today.
H'm.
O.K. Get it on.
... Easy paddles, no bump on takeoff.
Peak sets right around, wall sets wide and out.
First section endless it seems as I bump through hovering piece after piece after pocket and wailing, just wailing, wall.
Unbelievable....
A chatter of west wind, a touch more mist as the temperature drops 3 degrees.
Number one point is seductive, I'm a sucker, so we make love for a while.
Hottest longest rides picking off 40-80 foot long dropping sections with 2 inches of accuracy to spare.
Racing the curl back down to the bottom before arcing out under and around the WHOOOMPFF ...
then on up into ... WOW ... now its another one and cutback anna turn anna nother long section, and I push it in HARD ... an it's cumm'in, on, an on, and Vaah Room ... round the bottom an up into the curl for a sit down look back at trail and the curl looping over noisy and slapping down in a chasm of liquid dynamite.
And then to the Highway.
Yes.
Ten years of it on that one Dora, Greenough, Yater, Larson, Morey, Livlin (sic, Matt Kivlin?), Edwards, National, Burleigh, Sydney Beach Break Wave.

Later on today Rincon was the biggest for 3 years, solid 12 on low tide, everyone psyching, laughing, only 10 out, fifteen just tried but couldn't.

A great pity as those brown sand pullers distort your mind, senses balance, time, location and your
SECURITY, MAN ... BLOW IT NOW ... WHOOOMPPPFFF ... carry. ..carry ... over again ... rock ... yuppleeze ... gasp ... air ... 0 well.
The Combie was lifting, take off was bump, and airborne, usually.

Inside wall about a mile (at least) long, and you just sorta run up 'n' down it till it closes out.
Seems too big for the low tide ... or maybe Overhead.
...Sorry, as the swell dropped to 6- 7 feet, so it was back to perfect.
Rincon again.
0 well. ...

Rincon's been like that for the past month.

Page 8 Nat Young

Surf International Volume 1 Number 7 June 1968.

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