Asking for feedback to the Weekly Feature brought some cool email from G. He has written the DogMan several times, usually eager to decode the pretend break names. This time G responded with the story of his biggest wave. Cooooool story, here it is:

"About this time last year I went camping down to JB's. I surfed for 2 solid days of about head high to slightly bigger. I was getting pretty confident at the reef break T's and averaged 3 sessions a day. Well, on the third day I woke up and the surf had really jumped. All along the beach front camping area it was huge and closing out.

"Well, I did the mile hike down to the reef and all the surfers who had been out the previous days were hanging on the beach just watching the sets roll in. I watched for a few minutes and started suiting up, still feeling pretty confident from the earlier sessions. Well, the biggest board I had was a 7' Haut and paddled out on it. Once in the water I realized how deceiving it looked from the beach. I did manage to get out pretty easy but when I got to the safety zone a set came through and there was a guy dropping on a big gun. I looked straight down the line at him and was blown away, it looked like a mini mav's photo. The lip curling behind him and him looking up. I guesstimate around 20' faces maybe more. I hadn't even seen him or his friend who was still out from the beach. ÊI paddled to the general area of his friend and soon realized that all the training I got on the place before was thrown out the window.

"I was definiteley undergunned. I tried repeatedly to get into a wave but was being sucked up the face way too fast and was gonna be pitched and beaten. The other guy out finally pulled a wave on his gun and I never saw either guy again. So I'm out there alone, undergunned and I know there are people on the beach and my pride was not going to back down ( besides how do you paddle in with steady 20' faces and shore pound without getting killed)

"Finally after 15-20 minutes that seemed like hours, a wave came and set-up perfect for me, slightly on the shoulder and I paddled as hard as I could, totally committed and made a screamin' drop that I can still feel today. I worked the face, kept an eye on my surroundings and probably had the biggest, most bizarre 200 yard ride of my life. The previous days I had been going left which is more natural there but this ride I went right. There were many many jagged rocks to dodge, but I did it! I couldn't hit the beach without catching at least one wave. - gbo"

Way to go G! This wave soundz bigger than the one in the DogMan story. Anyone else out there have a story about their biggest wave? Click on the DogMan links thruout this column and send it to me via email. I'll put it up for everyone to see.

CU Out There,

DogMan