Welcome to 2025! We tried to kick the year off right with a surf trip first week of January. On paper it looked great. Offshore for a week straight and loads of swell. Portuguese tubes await. Day 1 was absolutely pumping. We surfed, shoulder to shoulder with people from all over the globe that had the exact same idea as us for 6 hours then we put our head in the sand in shame without having much luck. It was impossible to tell where the deepest entry point was and every set someone would go – seemingly 30 ft too deep – but who am i to judge and shut em down? Getting our bearings straight lots of surf to come.
At dinner Hunter proposed the question – “How would Mick Fanning have gone out in that crowd today?” I thought about it for a second “He would have dominated”
Day 2 the beach break isn’t working so we drove around… looking bad. There’s a reef an hour away that should get fun when the tide fills in. We’ll get there early to avoid the crowd. As we’re checking it people gather on the bluff around us getting excited about the session to come. Wetsuits are getting turned inside out boards are getting waxed… Suddenly there’s 20 people on the peak even though its still a little low tide.
Hunter proposes the question again – “What would Mick Fanning do? Would he sit around and let those groms get their fill?” I thought about it for a second “He’d go out and dominate”
So i suited up, fired up to dominate these groms.
The sets are kinda soft off the reef and the insiders gurgle on this little boil. I can’t tell what the best way to dominate these kids is – soft outside ones? or inside boilers… Well they’re doing laps around me. Not that guy again. Jesus. This is fucked. I’m getting dominated. Goddamn it. Getting kinda frantic. A little one just slips inside the outside section. It’s all mine. Kid on the shoulder is challenging me. He thinks i’m bluffing. I’m all in on this 2 footer. He pulls back. Suddenly I’m airborn. Not making this. I collide with rock. Foot wedged awkardly under my butt. I go to paddle back out but my boards demoed. Nose and tail smashed to bits.
Climbing up the rocks i realize my butts shredded up and hanging out of my suit. Foot feels pretty jacked. Goddamn it. There’s a big crowd watching. So embarrassing. Cam Richards walks up “Dunno why you guys paddled out it looks so bad.”
Yup. Trust your intuition. Don’t listen to Hunter.
Although it’s worked before. He gave us a pep talk that worked at the end of ‘Glad you Scored.’ You just never know.
Smashed my face on the reef in Indonesia this summer – also on a 2 ft wave. Takeaway – don’t surf 2 ft waves?
I limped up the stairs taking selfies and telling people it’s not too bad but it was starting to swell. Got some ice. Hoped it would just be a bruise that i could surf through but wasn’t looking good. Gabe Morvil was flying out… I just put him on Former and flew him out to surf with us. Not a good start.
After getting scammed by European telehealth dr. and walking in a bunch of clinics with no luck of getting an X Ray i flew home to assess my foot… broken bone. Almost healed now.
Hunters take – Jake and Gabe got the job done and enjoyed some quality time in Europe. Some tubes, some turns and some serious, serious burns. Jake Kelley now has some third degree burns from surfing Supertubos. You’ll see what we mean when the film comes out.
The new Former store/CH11 Headquarters at 83 S Palm Street Ventura Ca 93001 is up and running! We’re open 11am-5pm Tuesday through Sunday so come on by if you’re local or just driving through. Ditty and Sarah hold it down most of the time and on occasion you might run into Clarity and the world’s best shop dog, Cadet.
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The Rincon classic was last weekend. It’s pretty crazy seeing such a crowded wave with only 4 people out, it’s gives you a perspective to what California point breaks might have been like in the past. We drank some Luke warm CI Lagers on the beach with friends and family, the Saturday of the contest was pumping, Sunday was small but still a great time and Eithan/Micky/Dimitri and Jabe all ended up in the final. Check out this vid we released on Dimitri below. He’s been surfing so good lately, you can’t not notice.
Dimitri-1 / Jabe-2 / Micky-3 / Eithan-4
Within the Ch11 crew: Matt has been a true family man. He’s been taking care of two little sprouts and his wife… arms full and busy with lobster work. Mickys been snowboarding in Mammoth with friends watching sporting events at home/ Topa Tops Brewing Company. Eithan is Eithan, after his Skinny Meat Head release, he’s been traveling. He was in Hawaii filming for Snapt 5, then we went to Portugal to try and surf the cave, then back home for a bit. Unfortunately the waves have been sucking at home so there’s not much productive stuff happening in these waters. Next for Aton is Japan, he’s going to test the pool out with Harry before the comp goes on again in May. Danes busted. Healing as fast as possible, he even went to Mexico to get a needle jabbed in his foot… it’s called stem cell research. Only world famous professional athletes can get that procedure done. Jakes been trying his best to surf around home but our morale keeps getting crushed.
We’re trying to revamp CH11 this year. Make a game plan for more commercial work and quality surf videos, aside from some Daily Export videos, we are reorganizing things. New store, new year, clean slate…
Don’t forget: Jake and his dumb lil Prius below
