Disaster at Steamer Lane - Wisetrips Travel Blog

Alex had been making excellent surfing progress on his 6' Firewire Spitfire board. He surfed on it in various conditions at "The Hook" and Pleasure Point in Capitola. However, on Saturday, October 13th, feeling confident about his abilities, he decided to try surfing at the famous "Steamer Lane" surfing spot in Santa Cruz (near the Lighthouse).

Alex encountered 6-8 foot waves at Steamer Lane, and during one of his attempts, he was not quick enough to duck dive under the incoming wave. His Firewire Spitfire board was split in half by the impact.

He was extremely depressed about the surfing incident. However, since I had a larger Firewire Spitfire 6'6" available, he could ride it until a replacement for this board could be found.

In a few weeks, I found a Firewire Hashtag surfboard on Craigslist with the following specifications:

5'8 x 19 x 2 3/8 , 25.8L

I was able to negotiate about $400 for the lightly used board. When he first tried it, Alex found it challenging to get planing, but it may be that he is not used to a board with such low volume. His previous Firewire Spitfire had a volume of 35 liters. This was 10 liters less!

Alex will try it out a few more times. If it's too advanced for him, I will sell it and purchase a board with more volume (closer to 35 liters).

Here is a Nikon P900 video of Alex surfing at the Hook in Santa Cruz using Firewire Spitfire 6' and then my Firewire Spitfire 6'6".