Southern Waters Blog

Here we go again.  Those of us on the Gulf Coast are once again anxiously waiting on the arrival of yet another tropical system…this time it looks like a full fledged hurricane.  As of this morning hurricane Gustav appears to be headed up what we call up this way the “Hurricane Highway”.  Forcast this morning puts landfall somewhere between central Texas and Panama City Beach, Fl. 

Those of us along the coast of Alabama expect as usual for the thing to run right under the Perdido Bay Bridge, maybe taking out the remnants of the Florabama Lounge.  Of course this would convieniently give them a fresh reason not to rebuild the bar and keep operating (4 years now) as a drunk circus under the various tents that make up the “lounge”.

  Fishheads and other “boat trash” in marinas along the coast are already re-stocking their liquor cabinets,and beer coolers as well as arranging “dates” to take along in anticipation of Gustav’s arrival.  Once your boat is tied down up some obscure creek, you’ve got to have something to do in between watching the weather channel and adjusting your lines as the water rises. 

It would be great if by some outside chance Gustav ambled over toward some un-populated stretch of Mexico, maybe around Tampico.  Actually, I don’t wish it on anyone…….God save them if it does…  

It would make for some killer surf for us instead of a blow out Labor Day weekend.  Speaking of which.  It looks like our Labor Day business will be down the tubes, so…we’ve decided to start our Labor Day sale today.  For you lucky few who actually read this, get by one of our shops and take advantage of super cheap prices on cool stuff.  Or…. you could, wait and take your chances on us recieving a direct hit by Gustav and join the looters for some “really discounted merchandise”.

Shop now while you can so we can pay for this stuff!!!! 

Well, we missed out on any wave action associated with Tropical Storm Fay, and it looks like we’ll be getting the remnants of her an a lot of rain.  It seems that Fay is about to make an abrupt left hand turn and barrel across the Florida Panhandle dumping more rain on top of what we’ve been getting for the last couple of weeks.  Surf prospects look pretty doubtful for the upper Gulf coast, but for those who want to venture off, St Augustine should have some decent surf once the rain and wind move off.

Tropical storm Fay slammed into Everglades City in the wee hours this morning making a long night for the few residents there.  One of the last true fishing villages in Florida it is barely above sea level.  The short time that Fay was over the Gulf saved them from serious storm surge….which all but wiped out this little town in the early 1900’s.  What’s that spell for us?  No storm waves…..  A quick check of the offshore bouy 100 miles off of Panama City Beach showed only 2 foot seas, and none on the way.

Tropical storm Fay which today is bearing down on one of my favorite places on earth, Key West (well it used to be).. it should bring decent surf to the beaches from Panama City, Fl to Orange Beach, Al.  Look for surf to start building tomorrow morning (Teusday) and continue from there.  If Fay follows the path that the guys at the National Hurricane Center predict, we should get the swell but not to much of the wind associated with this storm. 

Time will tell…the longer it stays over the Gulf the better the swell.  Check it out and stay tuned for more reports.  We haven’t had decent surf in over two weeks and waaaaay to much rain.  Stop by one of our store locations and take advantage of great summer stuff on sale, like Patagonia’s Wavefarer board short.  Or better yet check out our exclusive line of Fletcher Chouinard Surfboards (Patagonia) in our Panama City Beach location….they are fine!!!!!

Friday night Mitch Cobb and the #94 Southern Waters Outfitters super late model stock car returned to Pensacola Five Flags Speedway.  Friday night brought clear skies and fast cars with our boy Mitch winning the pole position for friday nights feature race.  Mitch continues to do well at this track and his crew has had his car dialed in all summer long.  After the start Mitch led the first few laps and then settled in behind the leader, Grant Enfinger for much of the race.  Some where around midway in the 100 lap race Mitch regained the lead and held it until a spin out and wreck of some other cars.  On the yellow flag Mitch, along with Grant Enfinger whom had been trading the lead with Mitch took this opportunity to pit and put on fresh tires.  About half of the field did not pit which put Mitch and Enfinger back to about 11th at the restart.  Eddie Mercer in car 72 pitted well and came out first after the pit stop.  Mitch and Enfinger tore through the pack and regained their place in the top three with Mercer.  The three, Enfinger in first, Mercer in second and Mitch in third, flew into turn one…and all were spinning out of control due to some banging around with each other.  This allowed Bubba Pollard to take the win with only five laps to go after hovering around tenth the whole race.  Controversy errupted immediately after the three leaders were towed back to pit row.  Mercer blamed Mitch for pushing him under his rear bumper and forcing him into Enfinger.  Words were exchanged between the crews,  but video shot of the wreck clearly shows Mercer running into the rear of Enfinger who was leading with Mercer clearly getting sideways before Mitch touched his car.  Opinion in the SWO car pit was that Mercer who was in the top three at the end of the race was only there bacause of an exceptional pit stop.  The race clearly belonged to Enfinger and Mitch, with Mercer trying to hold on to his position.  Talk in the stands rumbled about the same… overheard by more than a few was that if not for the wreck, Enfinger and Mitch would have had a five lap shootout for first place.  But that’s racing!  Mitch’s comeback race Saturday night in Mobile was unfortunately cancelled due to rain.  Mitch is back to Dawsonville GA. this week to repair his wrecked car and then off to his freshman year in college.

Very rarely do you get to go to a place that the spirit there brings you to a place where you don’t want to come home.  Nicaragua was that place for me,  last week I took a group to build a church and village center in San Benito Nicaragua and was welcomed with a hospitality I have never experienced anywhere else.  Our days were filled with distributing food, building walls and carrying water to mix concrete.  With my tendency to be in hurry and want to get things done immediately I was in complete culture shock. Although we did not get to work as fast and efficient as we do here in the states, there is something therapeutic with slow and ancient.  Most times in our rush to be efficient we miss the most important part of being in community. Laughing, living, loving and learning happens when we slow down and do something good for others.  After finishing our project it was time to find some recreation so we drove to Granada Nicaragua to zip-line through the rain forest with the crew from Mombo Acho Tours.  Flying through the rain forest with the chance of seeing monkeys, bats, iguanas and other animals is a adventure I will never forget.  The adrenaline you get from zipping 100 feet in the air above the tree tops is amazing.

After all the excitement it was time for some relaxation so we went and toured the Cafe Las Flores coffee plantation where we had the best coffee I have ever tasted.  There were people with us that do not drink coffee that brought some of this delectable brew home. (this is one thing you can experience with out the travel, you can get it off of there website: http://cafelasflores.com)

I would highly recommend that you take the time to go to Central America and experience the spirit and hospitality of the great country of Nicaragua.

http://www.mombotour.com/canopytour.html

http://cafelasflores.com

Mitch Cobb and the Southern Waters Outfitters stock car returns to Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola this friday night, June 27th. Mitch, his new car and team have been turning heads all across the southeast. This marks the recent high school graduates rookie year in Super Pro Late Model racing, and he has been getting rave reviews from race veterans at nearly every venue. Mitch has placed in the top ten at most events and placed 4th and 3rd at his last visit to Pensacola and Mobile International Speedway. If your a stock car racing fan (it’s kinda a given in the south) and you live along the Gulf Coast put on your favorite Southern Waters Outfitters tee shirt, grab your buddies and check out this fast (literally) rising, soon to be famous stock car racing phenom! Racing in Pensacola is friday night practice starts at 5:00pm and racing around 7:00pm. Racing in Mobile is Saturday night, and practice starts at 5:00pm and racing around 7:00pm.

You might have noticed a couple things around here.  One our site has been down a while and two it has changed to an entirely new look.  We loved our animated site that the guys in Australia built for us, but during the move from a server down under to a server in the the U.S of A. it developed a few glitches that were almost impossible to fix, so…. in order to have a fast loading secure site we quickly revamped it to a whole new look.  We hope you like it.  Take a look and you’ll notice that it’s easier to navigate and shop and what you don’t see is that it is much more secure, and we all know how important that is. 

Take a look around…and by all means lets us know what you think!  We’ll be adding lots of new stuff and brands that you’ve never seen on our site.  We’ll keep on doing our best to “Carry the Good Stuff”.  Write us e-mail, let us know your opinion and receive a great discount code for your next purchase.  Cheers!!