Month: October 2009

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Sunny Small Wave Day at Ocean Beach

OB_10_31_09

SURF: 2-3 ft.+ knee to chest high and fair conditions.
This morning’s dawn patrol: Small, semi-clean lines in the waist-chest high range the occasional workable section.

Inconsistent, low energy waves this afternoon. I managed to pick off one nice ride from all the mush. Big score today was in sunshine. When we got to the beach the sun was out, skies were clear, just BEAUTIFUL all along the coast. I’m bummed I didn’t have my waterproof camera. I only snagged a shot of the hillside from my car. No photos of sunlit fog and surfer silhouettes, no shots of deep blue waves, no sand dunes. Next time!

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Chasing Small Peaks

LindaMar_10_30_09

SURF: 2-3 ft knee to waist high and fair – conditions.

PM REGIONAL OVERVIEW: Mostly clean, fun zone little waves are on offer this afternoon as our NW swell mix drops further. Better breaks have knee-waist high+ surf, with a few sets to chest high for standouts.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Peaky lines coming through with glassy, but soft corners.

Followed my sunset surf with a morning session to catch a few more small waves. Pulled on a still wet wetsuit and jumped on in. Waves were nice, a little mushy at the start but picked up. I did my fare share of paddling up and down the beach looking for waves to catch. It’s been ages since I was this sore after surfing.

I got two nice clean lefts in and a handful of sloppier waves. I’m trying to practice my lefts. I used to have no trouble going either direction, I guess I’ve been ignoring left for a few months or something. I got one wave and started on a bottom turn that was too aggressive for such a slow wave. I swamped the board and flailed off into the water. I want to get back out there asap, keep working on it.

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One more Sunset Sesh before Daylight Savings

scsunset10_29_09

SURF: 1-3ft. Inconsistent, but clean.

Headed back down to Santa Cruz with Luke and Cynthia to get in one last sunset session before the time changes. Waves were pretty inconsistent, but the sunset was beautiful and the moonlight on the waves made the couple of waves I did catch something special. 🙂

Stealing these pics from Cynthia.
Check out her site for some video of our sesh and lots of other great NorCal wave reports.

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Sunset Surf at Santa Cruz

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Sunset in Santa Cruz

pleasurePoint_goingOff by chrisrfox
I forgot to snap a pic so I snagged one on flickr from photographer chrisrfox

SURF: 4-5 ft. shoulder to head high with occasional 6 ft. and good conditions.

PM REGIONAL OVERVIEW: Mostly-clean, good surf prevails this afternoon as WNW and SW swells ease. Average breaks have knee-waist-chest high+ surf, while top exposures are running in the overhead+ range on the better sets.

Luke talked me in to a sunset session down in Santa Cruz. The weather was warm, waves were looking pretty clean.

I’ve only been down to SC a few times. The hook is pretty different from what I’m used to: kelp forest, reef bottom, more territorial locals, so I was a little skittish getting out. I got in two nice rides. The kelp forest keeps the waves clean and the reef bottom allows a smooth break and a long ride. I was surprised how fast the rides were, the waves definitely had more energy than I’d expected. I’m used to beach breaks where the wave is either fast and breaks fast or slow and breaks slow. Fast and breaks slow was a pleasant surprise.

Best part of the evening was watching the sun go down over the water. Lots of purple and gold waves. The moon was reflecting in the waves and the weather was just fine. Nice night out.

Also check out this pic by shredderbetty for some sunset action.
Pleasure Point-Low Tide by Shredder Betty

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Taking out the Shortboard

thursday

SURF: 3-4 ft. + waist to shoulder high with occasional 6 ft. and poor-fair conditions.

Apartment hunting had put me in a pretty rotten mood and after failing to catch a wave on Tuesday I opted for an early morning with the new shortboard. I was trying to practice duck diving and paddling to get the hang of the board rather than trying for any waves. One puzzled guy asked me why I only paddled out to the white water, flailed around, and then boogie boarded it back. I told him what I was doing and he laughed and paddled on.

I still can’t get a clean duck dive in. I had wave after wave to the face trying to get the board under.
It should look more like this:

And less like a wave smacking you in the face.

El Porto Fridays has a great description on their site:

  1. Prepare: Approach the wave with some speed. I’m not saying you want to go for a full sprint, but being idle when the wave approaches won’t help your cause either. Whatever rhythm and momentum you have, keep it up.
  2. Nose down: As the wave approaches, push the nose down into the water like you are submarine and the captain just called out, “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” Timing this correctly will take some practice. Dive too early and you may pop up right in the curl; too late and you may get blasted by the wave. Just experiment a bit and you’ll figure it out.
  3. Tail down: As the wave starts to pass over you, take your foot and push down on the tail of the board. If timed right, the curl of the wave will pass over you and you’ll roll under and get shot out the back. Some surfers like to use their knee instead of their foot to push the tail down. The choice is up to you, but I recommend using the foot for two reasons. First, using your foot will allow you to push to the tail farther down and achieve a better arc. Second, the knee is a much more focused pressure point and can cause more damage to the tail of your board in the form of a significant pressure ding or full de-lamination over time.
  4. Exit: Finally, straighten out, sail to the surface of the water and paddle on.

I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually, but I’m expecting to take a lot of waves to the face trying!

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Sneaking in Some Tuesday Waves

tuesday

SURF: 2-4 Ft. A little disorganized, building in size as the swell starts to come in.

My project team was in meetings all morning so I was able to sneak in a few extra hours of surfing before heading in to the office. It was surprisingly crowded for a non-dawn patrol Tuesday. Between the crowds and the building size I didn’t get any rides in. It was nice to get out before the bigger and messier swell hits for the rest of the week.

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Small Days at Kelly’s Cove

kellys

SURF: 2-3 ft knee to waist high and fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Clean, scattered lines getting up around waist high. It’s fairly small-scale, but definitely rideable this morning.

Waves this weekend were looking pretty small up and down the coast. I met up with Cryptomail to spend a little time on my Stewart at Ocean Beach.

Waves were indeed small. I got in a handful of really nice long mellow rides. I saw a dolphin and some sea lions. I pearled quite a bit and was having trouble going left but it was nice to be out on my board again and great to surf at a new spot (especially when it’s small and manageable.)

There was a group out at Kelly’s having a reunion. They had a best/worst surfboard competition, a bbq, and a memorial to surfers who have passed on. We checked out the boards. Very cool to see such a tight knit surfing family enjoying the day together.

Oh, I picked up a shortboard recently. It’s on perma-loan from a friend. I have no idea if I can even ride it.

rocket

It’s a little thick so I’m hoping I can duckdive it. I’m also tempted to pick up a great sounding little fish but I’m worried I’m collecting boards without any idea how or what I want to ride. A fish sounds like a fun small wave alternative to a longboard. Part of me wants to challenge myself with a board that can take bigger waves but I’m also afraid of taking on bigger waves. It would be more practical to have a shortboard that can work well in steeper or larger waves that my longboard can’t, but it would be fun to have a fish and goof off in the little waves!

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Getting the Board Back Out

lindy

SURF: 2-3 ft.+ knee to chest high and fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Glassy, mostly closed out lines on offer this morning. Again, it’s looking like the best corners are making it through the inside.

Made it out for another early morning. I’d figured a nice small day would be a good day to take my newly repaired board back out. It was sunny, waves were decent, but I wussed out.

I got out of the water with dry hair after an hour or so of paddling around trying to pick off little softies.

Tomorrow is also looking small and clean. If I can keep up the getting up early business I’ll try and be a little bolder and actually get a few waves in before work.

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Shortboard Dawn Patrol at Ocean Beach

oceanbeach

Surf: 3-5 ft. waist to head high and poor-fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Slightly jumbled, crossed-up peaks on offer this morning. Looking a bit more disorganized than yesterday, with a few rideable corners still making it through at times.

I have never surfed on a shortboard and I have never surfed at Ocean Beach. Shortboards are harder to paddle, harder to catch waves with, but when you’ve got them you can tear up waves. You can also duck dive with a shortboard (swim under an oncoming wave with the board instead of paddling over). Duck diving comes in very handy at a place like Ocean Beach where the waves are bigger, more powerful, and take a lot more paddling to get through.

I’m on a smaller, harder to paddle board facing bigger, more powerful waves. Fantastic idea right there in the works!

Cryptomail gave me some pointers on duck diving and waited patiently as I failed at it over and over. I didn’t manage to paddle out past the breaking waves. I did catch one wave boogie board style, but spent most of the morning under water or falling off the board. I need a lot of practice before I stop looking like a flailing wet mess and look more like a surfer. Ha.