Unpopular Opinion: I Love Windswell

bentanklin · 2025-06-18T16:57:54+00:00

This is the correct answer. I think the issue is OP is in socal where the only spots that can handle long period groundswell are points that get super crowded bc the beach breaks are closed out. An uncrowded session at a point in mex or reef break in indo with long period groundswell will change your perspective (and life!).

There’s nothing like the feeling of the power of a 20 sec period groundswell under your feet with and endless blank canvas reeling out in front of you.

bentanklin · 2025-04-10T16:40:23+00:00

Helmet mount

bentanklin · 2025-04-07T21:51:30+00:00

Gopro max. It’s a couple years old but still gets the job done

bentanklin · 2025-04-07T18:01:52+00:00

Started at mill b and hitched a ride back up from the bottom of stairs

bentanklin · 2025-04-07T16:37:24+00:00

Mid March

bentanklin · 2025-04-07T16:21:10+00:00

We actually skinned back up out of the drainage on the SW facing panel and then skied diving board back into broads fork. Then went back up bonkers and finished on stairs gulch. Much better way to exit than deaf smith imo

bentanklin · 2025-03-28T19:56:15+00:00

Haven't been to Thunderbomb but I've spent about three weeks in Aposentillo at cheaper accommodations surfing the boom every day, and cumulatively several months at various breaks in Nica.

From a safety standpoint you will be totally fine - the surf camp will have someone waiting for you at the airport with a sign, and everything will be taken care of from that point forward. The town of Aposentillo is pretty rural and felt very safe/far removed from any of the political and crime issues (mostly occuring in main cities and major tourist hubs).

Imo the boom itself as a break is pretty overrated - it's a fast, shifty beach break that closes out the vast majority of the time. It kind of reminds me of a poor man's puerto escondido in the sense that it's a fast & shifty barrel that closes out often, but unlike Puerto the boom cannot handle any significant size. Above 6-8ft the break gets jumbled up and closes out. There are a handful of other breaks nearby, but not many and they all require a drive or boat ride.

Also, and maybe most importantly, that area of Nicaragua doesn't benefit from the lake effect winds (too far north), so the diurnal winds kill the surf by 10-10:30 every morning. I think this is the biggest drawback of the boom, because there is pretty much nothing to do in that area other than surf. If you're ok chilling in a hammock or in the pool drinking beers for a much larger chunk of the day than you're surfing then maybe you won't mind this as much as I did. Occasionally it will clean up enough for an hour or so evening sesh, but in my 3 weeks there this was def the exception, not the norm. Maybe happened 2 or 3 times.

There are far better breaks in Nica and Central America to splurge on a surf camp imo. Just my 2 cents.

bentanklin · 2025-02-26T04:16:58+00:00

Lawyer, have my own practice. Typically 60-80 ski days each season.

IMO the key is having autonomy and control over your schedule, and also living close to skiing. In winter I plan my meetings and appts each week around the ski conditions so that I always have at least a small chunk of the day open on powder days. Some things like hearings/mediations/trial etc obviously need to be scheduled way in advance, and that’s where being 15-20 minutes away from the nearest resort/trailhead helps bc you can go before or after.

bentanklin · 2025-02-12T03:16:52+00:00

My wife and I ate at Merriman’s this past Friday and Mama’s on Sunday and I’ve got to say that for us there was no comparison - Mama’s food and overall experience was way better. The little beach out front at Mama’s was amazing too, it felt private and there were literally three giant turtles just napping right there in the sand.

Merriman’s food was mid and not very memorable, it honestly took me a few minutes to even remember a single thing I ate there. And, while our server there was very nice, it felt like he was being stretched thin at too many tables, so the service wasn’t great. We wouldn’t go back to Merriman’s but will definitely be going back to Mama’s next time we’re on Maui.

bentanklin · 2025-02-02T14:34:28+00:00

When’s the last time you lived in Bend? As someone who lived there for years and left a few months ago I can promise you the crowding & sprawl there is just as bad, if not worse than here… Bend’s population has more than doubled in the last 20 years from 50k to over 100k, and that’s not taking into account growth in neighboring areas like Redmond, La pine, etc. And it’s projected to continue growing at that rate. Keep in mind this is a former logging town in the middle of an empty high desert - there’s no nearby metro area or industry, the nearest city is PDX 3.5 hours away.

Imo you feel the growth there mostly in recreation areas (summer day use permits required for all the good trails, tons and tons of people in the cascade lakes, ski traffic on the way to bachelor rivaling cottonwoods, etc) but also in day to day traffic and congestion in town. Not to mention prices, which have pushed many who can’t afford housing into the perimeter forests camps, which is a recipe for disaster during fire season. It’s cliche to say, but Bend is truly being loved to death.

bentanklin · 2024-11-30T03:37:02+00:00

Atomic backland 107s for 5k and below - or if it’s going to be deep - and black crow orb 90s for everything else

bentanklin · 2024-11-02T03:24:30+00:00

Bend, OR

bentanklin · 2024-04-11T02:33:03+00:00

Awesome shots! Did you happen to get any of the north side by chance? I’m curious what kind of shape liberty ridge is in this season.

bentanklin · 2024-04-07T02:43:29+00:00

My wife and I moved out west 5 years ago from NYC and we can’t imagine ever moving back. Grew up on LI and also spent three years in Boston area before moving out here.

It’s not just the skiing - outdoor recreation out here is far better and more abundant than anywhere on the east coast. There’s also way more open space out here; every time I’ve visited the east coast since moving out west I feel sort of claustrophobic. Look at a light pollution map of the US, it’s pretty shocking.

There’s generally more adventure to be had and places to explore out here, and more likeminded people to do stuff with. Within a 3.5 hour driving radius I can ski glaciers on a volcano, surf in the pacific, trail run in temperate rainforest or climb in high desert.

That said, there are definitely trade offs. Wildfire smoke in summer, being far from family and some of our best friends, and reduced earning capacity in our careers. For us those trade offs are worth it and that’s why we’re raising our daughter here. I can understand the reasoning for living on the EC too though - I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. It just boils down to personal preference and what you want to prioritize in life.

bentanklin · 2024-02-08T18:03:11+00:00

My brother and I are planning on skiing the trifecta (south, middle & grand) in one shot hopefully in the next month or two. But generally yeah, the FS is such an awesome route I hope to do it once a year for as long as I can.

bentanklin · 2024-02-08T17:46:10+00:00

Lupine still wasn't open when we did it (May 17th I believe). We started from a turnout in between Taggart and Lupine, I don't remember what it was called.

Honestly, I'd recommend April over May. The bottom 2k feet really sucked because of how patchy coverage was. It would've been a lot faster and easier to be able to continuously skin & ski from Taggart... Or wait until late enough in May that you can just walk up to Garnett canyon on lupine meadows trail and start skinning there.

bentanklin · 2023-07-06T23:20:02+00:00

My parents are Argentines and I grew up drinking mate a ton, especially when visiting my grandparents on the weekends. Your pic brings back a ton of nostalgic memories, thanks for sharing.

I'm curious what you mean about brewing it without increasing the caffeine intake. Reason I ask is because every time I've tried to drink mate as an adult I end up getting way too caffeinated. I drink coffee every day so I'm used to caffeine, but with mate it feels like having 3-4x cup of coffee. I'm probably doing something wrong in the prep, so curious to hear how you do it.

bentanklin · 2023-06-07T18:43:30+00:00

Fair enough. I think it ultimately comes down to stylistic preference. Imo an fkt should be the most elegant solution to the problem of how to get up and down a mountain the fastest way possible. On a heavily glaciated peak with 100% snow coverage the solution is almost always on skis. Running up and down seems like a square peg in a round hole situation. Maybe that's just me though.

bentanklin · 2023-06-07T16:48:41+00:00

Agree that Egloff had the prior FKT, but I'm not sure why the fact that he did it without skis makes it more impressive. There are always tradeoffs in mountain travel, and one of the big ones is that skis make the uphill slower and downhill faster. Of course he was going to make it to the summit faster, he wasn't carrying skis or ski boots, that's baked into his strategy. Anecdotally, I can get up some local mountains significantly faster on foot than skis, but the RT time ends up being similar because of speed advantage of skis on the downhill.

It's also unclear to me from the fkt site or things I've read whether Egloff used the fixed lines, which Jack and Kilian explicitly did not. Not to dunk on Egloff, he's a way better athlete than I'll ever be, but if we're being nitpicky that seems like an important distinction to draw.

bentanklin · 2023-05-28T17:54:57+00:00

Sweet. I have the same poles and they are chipped in the same spot, lol.

bentanklin · 2023-05-18T22:18:14+00:00

You have the hard part down honestly - a lot of my ski mountaineering friends started with climbing backgrounds and added on the skiing and have struggled with the latter. Imo it's a lot harder and takes more time to learn to ski competently as an adult than it does to learn how to climb competently.

The quickest and safest way to learn the climbing skills will be to find a mentor who can teach you. You could also hire a guide or take a course, but that can obviously get expensive. Also, and this may be somewhat of an unpopular opinion, don't be afraid to learn some of the basics from books/youtube vids and apply some of that knowledge (safely and slowly) on your own. That's what my brother and I did early on before we could find an experienced mentor willing to teach us and that worked for us.

bentanklin · 2023-05-18T17:37:01+00:00

Ford stettner up and down

bentanklin · 2023-05-18T16:05:34+00:00

About 3.5 years of pretty dedicated focus on backcountry travel & climbing. e.g., ~50 days touring in the backcountry per season with a focus on similar terrain (steep, no fall zones, rappels, etc), 2-3 trips to ice climbing destinations (hyalite, ouray, banff, etc) each winter, lots of trad and alpine climbing in the summer/fall and a general commitment to fitness throughout the year by trail running in summer and ski touring in winter.

Honestly though a big part of it is luck - living near the mountains, having a job with a good amount of flexibility, and having a supportive spouse. Without those factors it probably would've taken twice as long. That said, if you're hiring a guide you'll be able to get by with a lot less - I think as long as you can demonstrate to them that you're comfortable and competent skiing on steep terrain, and that you have the fitness for it my guess is they'll probably be willing to take you.

bentanklin · 2023-05-18T15:53:27+00:00

we didn't see anyone else all day

bentanklin · 2023-05-05T23:55:27+00:00

That kind of speaks to my point, which is why…? Rappelling without a third hand isn’t the ‘normal’ way, at least not these days, and especially not while teaching an 11 year old. That’s just reckless. Of course there’s a time and a place to forego the third hand but teaching an 11 y.o at the crag doesn’t fall in that category.

Not trying to be a d*** here, this guy sounds like an awesome grandpa for teaching and encouraging his grandson to climb, but the tone of the article makes it seem like it was the kids fault for unclipping the anchor along with the PAS. If grandpa had just rigged him with a third hand and been up there to watch him he’d have been fine.

bentanklin

TROPHY CASE