Toe the line with tow-surfing

By John Streit

It’s 7:45 a.m. on a muggy, gusty fall morning at Sixth Street, and I’m the only person around looking at the waves with a surfboard under my arm.

On a day like this – southwest winds howling, flattening down what’s left of a northeast wind swell – going out for a satisfying surf session just isn’t going to happen.

Not unless you have some assistance. Mine would soon be taking a left out of Rudee Inlet and buzzing down to Sixth Street.

Just before 8 a.m., fellow surfers Tyler Bohn and Chris Culpen arrived on their beach cruisers; all of us anticipating a morning of high-speed fun.

Soon thereafter, two guys on Red Bull-decaled personal watercrafts (we’ll call those PWCs for now on) emerged from the inlet with surfboards riding shotgun.

They were professional surfers Raven Lundy and Lucas Rogers, and they were about to show us how to turn marginally rideable surf into a skatepark of launch ramps and rip-able faces.

Thanks to energy drink company Red Bull and the expertise of Lundy and Rogers, we were able to get schooled in the art of “tow-ats,” a form of surfing where PWCs tow riders into waves at speeds impossible for surfboards to generate.

The result is a high-flying, deep-gouging version of the sport that few surfers get to experience.

Aptly named “Red Bull Tow Attack,” Lundy and Rogers – who have been running tow-ats in Virginia Beach for years – were contracted by the drink company to further expose Beach surfers to the sport.

After several more surfers showed up, Lundy gave the crew a rundown of safety rules and what to expect.

Advice like: stay to the outside of the PWC when turning into waves, how to stall and wait to minimize wake, and – most importantly – how to communicate with the driver.

Everyone seemed hesitant to be the first to get out there, so I said, “What the heck,” and went for it, along with Bohn.

I teamed up with Lundy, and after some fumbling around, managed to pop up with the tow-rope and we were off.

It takes a very experienced eye for waves and how they behave before reaching a sandbar in order to be a tow-at driver, as well as much experience at the helm of a PWC, but I was in good hands.

As we sped down the beach, Lundy pointed to the outside, letting me know a wave was coming. By now, my legs and arms were already burning.

He circled the wave and whipped me into it at a speed I have never experience on a surfboard. The buzz of the PWC soon gave way to the chatter of wavelets hitting the bottom of my board as I approached a lip, which I hit conservatively so I could get a feel for it.

After a few failed attempts at getting some air – the combination of speed and the gusty wind made it more difficult for me than usual – I was absolutely gassed.

My second session, about 90 minutes later, went a little better, as I opted to turn on open faces as hard as I could as opposed to boosting unlikely-to-land airs.

But the pros put on an air show.

Brendan Petticrew, Granger Clark, Rogers, his brother Dylan and Lundy showed all of the newcomers what years of experience looks like – spinning 360 airs, busting huge tail-slides and gouges that had everyone hollering.

Watching those guys really put the whole experience into perspective.

While I couldn’t learn how to pull one of those 360 airs, I did learn two things: its way harder than those guys make it look, and I was going to be sore tomorrow.

John Streit, 639-4805, vb.beaconsports@yahoo.com