The founders of Liquid Force Wakeboards, Jimmy Redmon and Tony Finn, are both avid surfers who live in sunny Southern California. Jimmy grew up in Houston and went out to Redfish Island back in the 70’s once to catch the odd tanker wave that would peel along it’s eastern shoreline. Decades later, Jimmy returned to his old stomping grounds, Galveston Bay, to sample the tanker waves once again, this time guided by Capt. Fulbright. Jimmy’s past two visits were epic. Every spot broke. Tanker traffic was at an all time high. The weather was perfect and the winds were calm. He could do no wrong. I wanted to kidnap him and take him to Vegas with me. The lucky bastard!
Well, this was his third tanker surfing visit and he brought along Liquid Force co-founder Tony Finn. Conditions looked good…. we have Jimmy, the lucky leprechaun with us, and off we go!
To say that tanker surfing is fickle is the understatement of the century. The variables are numerous and are the main reasons that the odds are stacked against you…tanker traffic, tides, wind…just to name a few. The first tanker…too small. The second tanker…massive with heaps of draft, but forced to slow down due to the lack of speed of the first tanker. Tanker #3–a tanker we were very familiar with—a return customer—having a reputation for it’s inability to make a wave!! It lived up to it’s reputation. Now the wind is picking up. Are we having fun yet boys?
Now the real fun begins. We wait. We wait some more. We decide to do a little wake surfing. Three hours later, we are still drifting in the brutal, summer sun…sitting and talking story. The natives are restless. Capt. Fulbright starts worrying about a mutiny. Tony Finn had never been tanker surfing before and he seems to be waiting for Ashton Kutcher to scuba up from the depths below and tell ’em he’s been Punked! And then…
Here comes lady luck. She’s big, a container ship, outbound to no telling where. Capt. Fulbright knows where there is one shoal that usually delivers the goods on outbound vessels and hits the throttle. The tide has been going out all day and this particular shoal lurks just 18 inches below the surface at low tide…a good time to have the right boat. The boys scored! All’s well. Two more vessels came that afternoon, netting more miles of surf. Patience and perserverance paid off. In the end, the third time turned out to be the charm after all for Jimmy. For both of these guys, ” it’s all about the buzz of standing sideways”… and, as luck would have it, they did a lot of that. See y’all again next year for a little more “tanker love”. Don’t forget your lucky charms!
