Late in the day Thursday after a big swell on Wednesday, the winds laid down. The green water came in all the way to the beach. The swell, although smaller, continued to show. Both sides of the Galveston fishing pier were working as the sun started to slowly drop to the horizon. After catching a few waves I got on the pier and shot some pics. The water color and the twilight coming through the pier made for some nice pics. Every day is different. The beauty God has created around us never ceases to amaze me. I hope you were able to catch some fun waves Wednesday or Thursday. As always, if you would like an original copy of any of the pics in the video let me know.
If you like big surf, Wednesday March the 30th 2022 was a fun day in Surfside and Galveston. I surfed for three hours and caught some bombs. I then got out and took some pics and video from the Surfside jetty and the 91st street pier in Galveston. If you see some pics you like let me know and I can send you the original. Enjoy!
So you ask. What does retirement look like? Well in my case there are no work deadlines to meet. No faculty meetings or practice plans. No game nights. And of course when that really nice swell arrives with offshore winds grooming it I can go. I can plan the best time to be at the best location for the best surf for my enjoyment. This was the case last Tuesday March 22, 2022. The swell was large out of the south east and the front came through early that morning. The winds were not too strong at first so I chose to arrive at the beach around 10:30 and surf from 11 to 3. This would give the wind time to groom the large disorganized swell.
When I pulled up on Beach Drive I thought that the road had been closed, as I saw a city truck with flashing lights ahead of me and no other vehicles on the road. Normally on a swell this big it would be hard to find a parking spot on Beach Drive. As I drove and observed the huge mass of white water being created by this swell I soon realized that the majority of people had chosen to enter the water by the jetty and ride the rip current out to the line up. When I reached the Jetty Park parking lot I noticed that there were not that many people there and that the lineup would be less crowded to start the day. I didn’t even check the surf. I threw on my wetsuit and waxed up my board and headed to the water. Riding the rip out to the lineup I noticed the wind was cleaning up some head high sets on the outside. One wave after another came through with some nice size and power. I think the cleanest and most workable waves were about even with the sand bar that lines up with the weather station in the channel. I positioned myself there and proceeded to have a really fun session from 11-3. After four hours my arms were drained from so many paddles back into the lineup. I rode my last wave in and grabbed my camera to shoot some still shots from the jetty. By now the winds had really picked up out of the Northwest. Many people were struggling to get into the waves due to the strong winds in their face and the lift it created under their boards. Several times the wind gusts pushed my upper body forward as I struggled to hold the camera still.
About five o’clock I decided to drive to Galveston and see if the 91st street pier was still holding the swell. I found a parking spot on the east side and noticed the current was making it difficult for those who attempted to surf on the west side. All the surfers were on the east side just inside the t-head. The bowl about midway out the pier on that side was pitching nicely. I set up on the pier to shoot some still shots on that section. I managed to get some nice shots of some surfer’s getting a small cover up both front and backside. I put some sequences in the video along with some nice cutbacks and lip bashes. As always if you know any of these surfer’s let them know that if they contact me I will send them the RAW file of their pic.
I hope you got to enjoy the cool sunny Tuesday outside doing whatever makes you happy. I am so grateful that I get to take the time to enjoy the many blessings that God has given me. 1 Corinthians 1:4 says “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus.” Take the time to hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.
God bless you and thanks for reading my blog. Enjoy the video!
The bouy reports were rising with a strong south east swell. The wave period interval times were short. The winds continued to howl overnight. The wind switch from an approaching front were hard to pin down on all my weather apps. All things considered, I decided to make a drive down the coast and film a spot I knew would be good for short boarders. I drove the two hour trip planning to arrive shortly before the offshore winds hit. When I arrived, the winds were still strong and onshore. The surf was big and disorganized. I definitely made the right decision to leave the longboard, or in this case the wrong board, at home. I spent an hour shooting some still shots for b-roll while waiting on the offshore winds to hit and clean up the big waves hitting the sandbars as they wrapped around the rock jetty. On my Windy app, I saw the wind had switched about five miles inland and would soon be on the coast. I made a quick run for some snacks before setting up to shoot some video. On my way back, I noticed what appeared to be an osprey perched on a pole waiting for the tide to bring him an unsuspecting lunch. Check out the talons on this bird.
Osprey
As I neared the beach, I could see the spray caused by the offshore winds starting to come off the tops of the waves. It wouldn’t be long before the offshore winds would be grooming the incoming sets. I put my truck in four wheel drive and began driving down the beach to the rock jetty. When I arrived, some surfers who had been waiting for it to clean up were starting to enter the water. All of the cars and trucks had been moved up to the dune line due to the incoming tide and large surf. I pulled up between two vehicles even with what I thought would be a good angle to shoot some good video. With tripod and camera in hand, I jumped into the bed of my truck to shoot from a higher angle. On large days like this shooting, a second bar wave can be obscured by the wave and spray in front. The cab of the truck also gave me some shelter and stability with the high winds.
The game was on, and it was non stop action as I swung the lens from one surfer to another. The quality of any surf video is only as good as the surfers who are riding them. Today I was in luck as the number of good surfers in the water challenged my skills of capturing the best rides. As the afternoon continued, the winds kept getting stronger making it more of a challenge to get into the wave. As you will see, in conditions like these, riders just have to be in the right place at the right time to be rewarded with a clean face or an open barrel. If a surfer was a little out of position, he could get slammed into the shallow sandbar or go over the falls with board in tow.
I had a blast filming and meeting new people. I have been filming and posting surfing footage for almost two decades now and still get a kick out of it (on YouTube and Vimeo). My screen name on the old El Ride and gulf surfer forum was Slug, chosen because I had a Hobie Peter Pan Slug surf board at the time. I first started when I would get out of the water myself and film my son Kyle and his friends who were still surfing. I have surfed with and continue to meet a lot of good people who enjoy surfing as much as I do. I am very blessed to be on God’s great earth and enjoy all his creations, including riding waves. (Job 12:10) I hope you enjoy the video. I am posting it on my YouTube channel Legacy-outdoors and my Vimeo channel Tim Lumpkin. Let me know which one you like best as far as quality.
God bless you. Thanks for reading my blog and enjoy the video!
Last week between fronts, the weather was clear, and the air temperature climbed to the mid seventies, so we loaded up and made a short road trip to the Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary. It had been a while since we had been to the sanctuaries in High Island. The improvements the Houston Audubon Society has made were quite surprising. There are more clean marked trails, numerous perches and walkways for watching or taking pictures and clean restroom facilities. This time of year isn’t perfect for migrating species, but I was focusing on getting a few shots of some roseate spoonbills. Spoonies are abundant throughout the year up and down the Texas coast. Migratory species are more prominent March through May, especially the day after a frontal boundary crosses the Gulf Coast. The strong north winds give them a reason to pause for rest in the sanctuary until the wind subsides. Then it is off to the northern territories with a fresh set of wings. As we entered the Smith Oaks site, we heard the loud grunts of hundreds of cormorants. These are one of the most destructive birds on the Gulf Coast. They can eat many times their weight in legal game fish in a single day. Mixed in with the black divers were some white herons perched on the trees out in the pond. Way back to one side of the rookery, we found what we came to see: fifteen to twenty roseate spoonbills standing in a group of branches off to one side. Most of them were soaking up the sunshine perched on one leg with their long spoon-shaped bills resting on their backs. Some were spreading their wings arguing over whose branch it was to perch on. I managed to get a few shot of the spoonbills and then moved on down the levy.
Roseate SpoonbillsSame group / different angle
On a fallen tree, I spotted a common moorhen with its bright red beak.
Common Moorhen
I also saw some egrets and white herons
EgretWhite Herron
We did not see any alligators as this was their hibernating season. To my surprise we came across a colony of red-headed vultures. There were a bunch of them on the newly created overhead walkways.
Red Headed Vulture
The half moon was bright in the afternoon blue sky.
Half Moon
A brimstone butterfly crossed our path attracted by the red shrimp plant.
Brimstone Butterfly
On the way back down Highway 87 toward the ferry, we crossed the newly filled in Rollover Pass. What a shame. A cut life line for the fishery in East Bay. Obviously a political land grab! Back at the ferry, I took a pic of a ship owned by Kirby as it moved toward the channel entrance.
All in all, it was a fun trip with my lovely bride on a beautiful February afternoon.
If you have never been to the High Island Bird Sanctuaries, I would highly recommend a trip during the peak months of March, April or May. There is no telling what kind of colorful migratory bird you may see. There is a small fee which you can find out more about on their website. https://houstonaudubon.org/sanctuaries/high-island/smith-oaks.html
On our way back through Galveston we treated ourselves to a meal at a restaurant where we had never eaten but had been wanting to try for a while. http://www.gypsyjoynt.com
It has a new location where the old CiCi’s pizza used to be. It was quite good with a very creative menu and some outstanding desserts!
Our goal for the day was to just get away together. We wanted to leave behind the social media, e-mails, spam calls on our cell phones, internet and twenty-four hour news cycles full of covid sanctions and politics on radio and television. We got some vitamin D and fresh air and witnessed some beautiful nature created by our awesome God. No distractions. Just a quiet place as we were pretty much the only ones at the sanctuary that day. We saw three other people there throughout the afternoon. God wants us to spend time in a quiet space thanking him for his beauty, grace and mercy. You may not be able to make a trip like this daily, but you can set aside a quiet time anywhere and anytime and use it to decompress. This is what Jesus did in Matthew 14:23.
I hope you enjoyed the pics and the information from a fun day trip.
In the story of life, there is one thing you can always count on. Things change. Knowing this, I was anxious to return to the scene of my last video. This time the conditions were much better for a true test of this small creek. A warming west wind and lower water levels made the afternoon look promising. Armed with a square bill crank bait and soft plastic Zoom centipede, I proceeded to start dissecting the small, deep hole in this creek. It didn’t take long before a small bass abruptly stopped my minus 1 crank bait as it bumped the rocky bottom. Another cast: another ambush by a similar size ditch pickle.
After two quick eats things slowed down. I changed my approach and walked up stream and cast down stream. Pulling the crank bait along a steep edge attracted a larger fish that struck right before my last crank. Here again was an example of how a small change could make a difference.
I decided to probe the deepest section of this small hole with the trusty watermelon seed Zoom centipede. The slow, wobbly fall of this soft plastic in cold water is hard for a bass to resist. It wasn’t long before I felt the tick of a pick up off of the bottom floor. Reeling in the slack, I felt the pressure of a fish swimming away with the bait. With a quick hook set, I could see the flash of a larger fish fighting in the cold clear water.
It was getting late, and I made one last cast to the deepest section of the creek. Before I even had a chance to reel in the slack, a fish picked up the worm and was swimming toward me. A few more cranks and a sharp hook set met the heaviest tug of the evening.
So as happens in life, the conditions changed for the better. All I had to do was be patient and try again when the opportunity presented itself.
It’s funny how our spiritual lives can be the same way. We often get impatient when God doesn’t answer our prayers on our time schedule. Sometimes we fail to realize that his lack of response can also be the response which he knows is best for us. Often times we have to get out of our own way. I encourage you to watch a video since I did not shoot any footage this time. You can find it on YouTube. It is an awesome song called “Loving My Jesus” by Casting Crowns. Something that caught my attention in the video was the guitar strap of the bass player. On his strap he has written, “Let God Work”. What a great message for all of us. Be the vessel and get out of the way and let him work through us.
Loving My Jesus by Casting Crowns
God bless you and stay safe! Thanks for reading my blog!
Here is a short video of some city fishing in a local creek near my house. Sometimes you can find bass in the most unlikely places! You just have to look for them! Go explore God’s great earth! God bless you and enjoy the video.
The scenario is played out up and down the Texas coast every fall. It’s the reason Texas surfers get so excited when the fall and winter fronts start to roll through. Strong onshore flow builds disorganized wind swell. Then mild to strong offshore winds associated with a passing front clean up the waves and give it the ridable form we all desire. These are some of the thought processes the surfers go through with the passing of each front. How long and how strong will the onshore winds blow? What are the wave heights at the bouys? Where are the best sand bars? How fast will the front pass through the coast? How strong will the winds be? What direction is the swell coming from? How strong will the current be? What time will the wind switch? Where will the best conditions be for a long board or a short board? Where will the smallest crowd be, and how can I get there?
These are all questions Texas surfers ask themselves before they decide on when and where to go. Regardless of what one decides, one must remember that Mother Nature is in charge, and she always has a mind of her own. The ultimate goal is to score some fun waves with friends and to elevate the stoke meter for another session.
This rite of fall passage occurred twice this week. First on a Monday, with the front passing across the coast around noon with light offshore winds for about an hour followed by some stronger winds that went more northeast in the afternoon. Saturday the scenario was different. The front came through early in the morning with strong northerly winds gusting to 40 mph all day. In this situation, the less volume the board has makes it a bit easier to paddle into a wave. Once the board is up on the wave, the wind has less of a chance to get under the board to slow it down. The wind also hollows out the wave which gives the surfer a chance to get a coverup and make it out. This is a maneuver surfers love and travel the world to achieve.
I shot some video of the last frontal passage on Saturday “Somewhere In Texas” as the surfers fought the strong offshore winds. At times the 40 mph winds almost blew me over. As you will see in the video, the gusty winds made the more radical maneuvers a little difficult to complete. Just paddling into the waves was a challenge as is evident by the number of surfers who went over the falls. When first editing the footage, I was hesitant to put in wipe outs and incomplete maneuvers. I decided I wanted to give the viewer an idea of just how difficult these conditions can be, so I included a lot of raw footage. This made the video longer than most of my videos, but I feel it made it more realistic and entertaining.
I hope you enjoy the video. Feel free to leave a comment and subscribe.
Until we meet on the next swell, God bless you and have a Merry Christmas!
The jets were screaming over our neighborhood during the pre-show tailgate preview on Friday. It was as if they were telling us to be sure and come see them for the real show on Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t realize it was that time of year. The weekend of the Wings Over Houston Air Show. I always look forward to the impressive power and maneuverability of the fighter planes and the historic preservation of the vintage aircraft.
Bomber
This year the precision of the Canadian Snowbird planes was impressive to watch. The speed of the Russian Mig jet was as always a spectacle.
Snowbirds
Russian Mig
The C17 is a Massive beast.
C17
I did not get tickets to the show so I set up at a nearby park and shot pics and video as the planes flew overhead.
The USAF Thunderbirds were the finale. Their precision high speed maneuvers stole the show as usual. I must say I really enjoyed the entire show and will be purchasing a ticket next year! I am amazed by the engineering feats accomplished that allow the U.S. to dominate any airspace. Even today with the F-35 you can see the continuing technological innovation.
If you have not seen this show before treat yourself next year. If you missed this year’s show, you can make yourself some popcorn and watch the video I put together on your smart tv. It lasts about 18 minutes and shows most of the planes that were in the show.
I hope you enjoy it! God bless you and thanks for reading my blog!
Two days after a front with north winds and flat surf was a recipe we had been looking for. Launching at daylight, we made our way around the jetties in search of trout and reds. The water was calm, and the waves were breaking softly on the first sandbar. Our mission was to find birds and bait, or both.
The birds were sitting on the shoreline, so we put our attention on the bait flipping near them. Shrimp and mullet were the secret sauce this day. It seemed the out going eddies attracted the most activity as we worked our way down the beach. The lack of other boats on this weekday morning made us feel as though we were fishing a secluded coastline. I love the miles of uninhabited shoreline. The smell of the salty surf air filled our souls with the anticipation of an explosion on our topwater offerings. It wasn’t long before we made contact with a keeper trout which was spooked into submission. We kept grinding with the top waters, but the action slowed enough to make us present our breakfast platter a little deeper. A cork and an artificial shrimp seemed to be the ticket. Thrown right up on the beach and popping them into submission became our weapons of choice. Reds, drum and sharks seemed to dominate the shallow waters of the first gut. One spinner shark went airborne with a triple twist before breaking my thirty pound leader. The Russian judge gave it a ten and I had to agree!
We worked our way back toward our beginning point later that afternoon, and the surf went extremely calm in the afternoon as you will see in the video. As we got closer to the jetties, some movement on the beach caught my eye. I got my camera out and took a look through my zoom lens and was surprised to see two white tail deer feeding on the grass at the base of the dunes. They didn’t seem to mind us as they meandered down the grass line. The birds were starting to fly, and they seemed more interested in our topwater lures than the real bait. We managed to inadvertently hook a couple of overly eager gulls. We loaded up our gear as the sun started to drift slowly toward the horizon and made our way back to civilization. It was a beautiful sunset and an awesome day on the water. We had plenty of scenic opportunities to place in the log book of our memories. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
The varied beautiful beach scenes on this trip made me appreciate God’s great outdoors and all it has to offer. We even kept some fish for a fish fry for two families. I hope you can get outside and enjoy the cooler weather and catch some fish soon.
Legacy Outdoors 