Just yesterday the waves at New Symerna Beach near the inlet were projected to be chest high.  This was a summertime opportunity to score super fun, playful, inconsequential waves.  We began our drive early in the morning on Wednesday, heading east.  We avoided rush hour traffic through Tampa by taking 75 to I4 from the University.  The trip was quick.  Patchy clouds on the way to the coast made me nervous that the skies would be overcast at the beach.  We arrived at the beach around 9:30 in the morning.  We turned on the street to get onto the beach only to see bright skies and glass on the horizon.  The man at the gate couldn’t have been friendlier.  We arrived right around the high tide and the surf was looking fuuun.  The waves were breaking through the entire beach chest high and bigger.  The great thing about the surf at most beach-breaks is, as waves break at different spots on different sets it becomes less dominated by a pecking order, making it more likely for less experienced surfers to score really great waves.  We knew that the earlier we got on it the better.  We arrived and went straight out to one of the heavier sections of the beach.  One major drawback to surfing New Symerna is, there are a lot of surfers who surf the wave that know it really well.  This is bad because it makes it harder to catch waves for less experienced surfers.  There are however plenty of other awesome waves up and down the coast that are less crowded, perfect for less experienced surfers.  I saw well known surfers, Gorkin, at least one of the Schweizer brothers, and a Geiselman brother.   I wanted to get out into the water and shoot some water shots, but I knew it was super good and wanted to get some waves.  I was also intimidated by the size of the surf combined with my experience in the water without a surfboard for floatation.  Many of the surfers at NSB really kill it, but just as many are able to take off at really critical points in the wave but don’t exactly kill it.  Still, I scored some fun waves and passed up on a few good ones.  When the peak section was really doing its thing, that area of the beach was mayhem.  Don’t even think about getting a good wave if you don’t shred or if you haven’t surfed there a bounch.  You may get a couple really good ones in 4-6 hours.  As the tide went out, the dominant surfers who really surfed amazing began to leave.  This was an awesome time to catch great waves.  While the waves were not quite as good in the afternoon as they were in the morning, there were still chest high waves.  It seemed also, as the tide went out the waves just south of the main peak began to get more critical.    Bronzed and burnt we decided to end the day at the beach around 5 pm.  It is firing on the coast again today.  With the few hours of light left we stopped by the Team Pain manufactured surf park before the 2.5 hours of driving we had ahead.  The park was really nice.  It is surrounded by palm trees and Florida foliage, making it seem as though we were in a tropical location.  While there I got a few pictures of Geiselman’s cousin.  I also saw one of the guys who was ripping in the lineup, toasty.  The park is filled with very skateable cement.  The pool is radical.  All in all the day was a success.