Month: December 2009

SURF: Inconsistent sets ranging from Thigh high to Head High. Warm sun, clean.

What a great way to round out the year. This pretty unassuming day turned out to be so much fun.

We hit the beach at high tide and the waves were a little mushy. I was just happy to be in the water. As the tide pulled out, things ramped up and got fun.

I caught a bunch of waves. Great longboard waves. I had solid rides down the face and even pulled off a few things I haven’t been able to do before without falling on my face.

The first was almost a noseride. I caught the wave a little early and ran up the nose, making the drop with both feet all the way up on my Stewart logo. As I was making the bottom turn I though “oh wow, I’ve never been able to hold on to a wave this far up the board!” and I held it for a LONG time. I made it down the face and almost in to shore balancing up on the front. I was so stoked.

On another wave I was gliding down the face nice and slow and smooth. I though “okay, lets see if I can’t cross step a little or at least shuffle to keep trim.” I’ve tried this before at Cowells on a long wave and typically I’ve gone face first into the water. This time I shuffled up, shuffled back, cross stepped up, shuffled back, all while keeping the wave. Soooo happy.

Also, there’s a guy out at Linda Mar that I have a bit of an embarrassing surf history with. I’ve dropped in on him before and I’m fairly certain I pegged him with my board after I got stomped by an overhead set on another day. I saw him in the water and though “man, I’m gonna kook this up…” but I got the wave and on my paddle back he complimented me on my ride and we had a friendly conversation. He snagged a real nice ride on the next wave. It’s always nice when you can make it up to the one person you’ve been embarrassing yourself infront of for weeks.

On the additionally ego boosting front, I got a compliment on my hustle from Doug (who will be showing his surf movies at Riptide Jan 13th. I am excited to see them and put in my bid for the Wet Wednesday surfboard raffle). I’m glad my relentlessly optimistic sprint for waves is getting some positive notice. I kinda assumed I looked like a crazy person sprinting after waves. Def boosted the confidence.

To top things off, I piled on a big post surf meal with friends after. Very fun day indeed.

SURF: 3-5ft, choppy, sloppy and cold.

I went out for a little paddle practice on the 7′. I’d stripped the wax off my longboard on friday assuming my job would start Monday. It’s probably for the best, Linda Mar was a mess. I could have made it into the line up with my longboard but the steep chopped up waves would have been hard to ride with that much board.

Instead I got sloshed around and eventually denied. My arms are really sore and tired from some labwork I had done at the docs (which also kept me from making it to day 7. Figured best not to put pincushion arms into the ocean). My duckdive skills are still non-existent. I paddled, got dumped, paddled, dumped, paddled, then boogies back to shore only to repeat the process.

It’s been really chilly lately (below 40 in the am) so half of getting out was just to prove to myself I’m not afraid of the cold.

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

This morning’s dawn patrol: Peaky, clean, soft lines, with some occasional workable little corners on tap.

After 5 days on the water I was pretty relieved to get a small wave report at Linda Mar. Just after paddling out I caught wave after wave. All nice, small, clean, pretty glassy.

Unfortunately, I’m really worn out. I caught every wave I went for except one, but each time my bottom turn was sloppy or I wasn’t angled enough in and I failed to get the board to trim and ride the face. I looked sloppy out there and I was getting more and more frustrated.

A guy tried to give me advice about angling in and I was absolutely crushed. I don’t know why, but I was really bummed that I was looking that bad in the water that the guy assumed I was just clueless instead of exhausted. He was trying to be nice so I smiled and said thanks, but man it hurt to realize I was doing about the same on waves as I was a year ago. I just hope my other sessions in this marathon haven’t been that embarrassing. I’m not sure I have the energy left for day 7.

Oh well, at least I got to surf and talk to some friendly folks.

SURF: 3-4 ft. + waist to shoulder high with occasional 5 ft and fair to good conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly walled-up, glassy lines continue this morning, with some occasional lined-up, makeable corners through the inside.

A +7 high tide and freak big weekday crowd made Linda Mar a bit of a challenge today. Even after trying to get accustomed to crowds all weekend in SC, this was tough. It felt like every wave I was in position for had someone on the inside I wouldn’t have been able to avoid.

My arms are mush, the waves were mush, and there were a fair amount of growly people out in the water. I managed to get a few okay rides in, one good one, and two embarrassing screw ups. Wow. My arms are so worn out that I made a few pretty lousy mistakes today. My leash also got tangled up in my feet on the pop up and it was all slow, ungraceful falling after that.

The job I was supposed to start this week has been pushed back, possibly till next week. I’m not sure how to take this news. I now have three extra days to surf! But I’m also worn out from my recent surf marathon (surfed 5 straight days, or 7 out of the last 8). It’s nearly impossible to keep me out of the water because I’m “sore” or “tired”. I have a feeling I’ll be back out there tomorrow, burning out what’s left of my poor arms. Ha.

Additional Ha for the day: There’s me in the top right! Neat!