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Slab Stories

This past Friday night, at Midnight, I got a call from friend and filmer Andre Oziol (from Ridestar Films) who was trekking it from San Diego to the Central California in the middle of the night to film a mysterious central coast slab. Supposedly it was going to be pumping, so on a whim of spontaneity, I joined the ride and we arrived in SLO County near 5 AM.

Meeting us up there were Hawaiian charger Keali’i Mamala and East Coast Slab Hunter Will Skudin. Figuring that they would be on it at sunrise, we patiently waited for them and at no surprise, they were on “Hawaiian Time.” We didn’t get in the water until 9 AM.

Will and Keali'i, getting psyched for the day.

Even though we were running a little late, the winds haven’t picked up yet and the tide was still good, so we still had some time. But we ran into more issues. Harbor Police graciously turned us around instead of giving us a ticket for of a lack of proper papers.

Will, looking bummed.

What now? Still in our wetties, we drove in search for another launch point. Some locals pointed us in the right direction and we ended up at a beach without a ski-trailer to get the jet-ski’s down the beach. Luckily for us, some other locals towing at the spot showed up at the parking lot at the same time. Out of sheer amazement, we all worked together and got all all skis down the beach and out in the water, in less than half an hour.

It was great to see everyone helping each other out.

I stayed behind, though, and filmed from the land. I would’ve been stoked to test my luck out there and try and get a slab, but at the end of the day, I was happy to shoot from land to get that different angle for Andre. I probably would of been quite humbled out there too…

Keali'i, getting a sick one a long way from home.

Will, doing his thing... backside.

After a few hours of trading off waves, everyone headed in—and again, it was amazing to see the two crews making over a dozen guys working together getting the skis back on the trailers in the parking lot.

Now that we were done slab hunting, we headed back down and scored some more reasonably sized waves in Santa Barbara at sunset. What a way to end the day!

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