Month: September 2010

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Mellow Waveshare

Surf: Waist High and mellow. Some larger waves holding up, some closing out.

One nice thing about staying sheltered is the morning crew. Friendly folks happy so share waves and hoot for each other. I got called in to a few waves to share them with other folks. Plenty fun.

On one wave I spotted a slumped over something towards the shore. When I kicked out, I paddled over to see it was a big doe eyed harbor seal looking for snacks in the rocks. Paddled back out, not thinking anything of it. About when I got settled in the lineup, another surfer said “I see you have a friend today!” Just a few feet away from my board was that same doe eye harbor seal give me the “whatchoodoing” face. He followed me the whole way out and hung around for a while while we surfed. Crazy little dudes.

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Pink!

Surf: Waist high with some Shoulder High standouts. Crowded.

Ready for some more sheltered shot surfing, I picked up an afternoon surf. Unfortunately the rest of the beach was closed out and ALL the afternoon traffic was bunched up in this one spot. Quite a few exciting (chaotic) takeoffs, but some decent rides.

Watched a little gal of about 9 years old get some great rides in after a push from dad. She’ll be tearing it up in no time!

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Mountains in the Fog

Surf: Inconsistent but better than expected. Large north, waist high south.

I’d spent a lot of the summer half worrying about fall. I like small waves. I like longboarding all year round. Fall means big waves. At some point last year (probably while being thrown around like a rag doll in a washing machine), I’d convinced myself I needed to learn to shortboard to be able to surf in the fall and winter.

The problem was, I didn’t really like it. There’s a lot I need to learn on a longboard and I just like it more. Committing to longboard life gave me this sinking feeling that I was going to be sitting out on a lot of surf days.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one who wants to keep pulling out a big ole board when the late year swells come in.

I was looking pretty skeptically at the buoy readings as Chris was trying to convince me that it would be “fine.” Showing up to a completely fogged in beach wasn’t making me feel any better either. But after suiting up, the fog cleared at bit and there were some fun little waves off in a sheltered corner of the beach.

It was a bit unnerving seeing the huge waves pushing through the fog up north, but reassuring to have a nice wave to ride out of the line of fire. Working on some winter confidence.

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Lemony

Surf: 1-3ft and choppy.

After a thorough survey of San Mateo County wind and surf conditions, we picked off a few waves at the familiar standby. Certainly not great out there, but workable on a longboard. The water is clear and green again. I could see the various colors of sands and small rocks. Not terrible out there, but only somewhat doing something.

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South Swell, SC BBQ

Surf: 3-5ft, 6+ standouts. Somewhat sectiony in the morning but mostly clean. Glassier on the falling tide.

I had a birthday bbq to his in SC and decided to catch a few waves before dropping by. It’s fairly safe to say there was swell in the water. I stood on the cliff for a long time watching pretty good sized waves roll through. Nothing crazy, but after a whole summer and then some of rocking the knee-waist high wavelets, a solid 5ft wave looks pretty intimidating, especially on a longboard.

Pierce and I paddled out in a calmer spot between the hook and sharks. We waited, watched, and got creamed a few times before shifting even further east to a smaller peak. Since there’s been a bit of a wave drought, we watched folks for a while, taking care to pick up scraps so we wouldn’t drop in on anyone. A few hot tempers in the lineup and some squabbles between old timers kept us on our toes.

After a while, Aaron, Shawn and Tracy paddled out. After a few more larger sets, the crowd focused on Sharks and the Hook leaving this nice little wave for the 5 of us and a friendly SUP.

Aaron got some really great waves. I was pretty happy with a few of mine. After 4 hours my arms were jello. I decided to pick up one more wave at Sharks before paddling in. Man did I get a wave. Nicely shaped, pretty clean, and smooth enough I could drag my hand in the water along side me the whole ride. I had a nice cutback, straightened out for the wash, then paddled in for the day very stoked. I’ve never thought to drag my hand in a wave as I’m zipping on by so I’m not sure exactly how it happened. It’s a dorky thing to be stoked about, but I had a fun day.

After wrapping we met up with our friends for burgers, beer pong, and a pretty fun afternoon. The exhaustion when I got home was just epic. I couldn’t even sleep I was so tired and my arms were too spent to drink water. Whew, what a week!

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So tired.

Surf: umm…2-3ft? Soft?

Unnnng. I’ve been working a lot of late nights this week and I was beyond tired for the early am session. Squinting the whole way down to the beach I spotted some okay waves but with quite a few people on them. Everyone was looking for the “south swell” that was supposed be here.

I didn’t get much in the way of waves. My arms were spent, my head felt like concrete. I was really really tired.

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Fog!

Surf: Foggy 2-3ft waves. Very soft and inconsistent. Somewhat clean.

Back to Linda Mar…I think. The fog was so thick we could have been anywhere. The tide was high, things were a bit swamped and small, but we managed to make it work. Chris scored some ridiculously long rides. Wow.

After he left, I floated around with Daniel waiting for the waves to turn back on. They eventually did, with almost no visibility to see them coming. I got some nice long rides standing on my logo, trying to cheat a 5 out of the sleepy waves.

Red tide. Yiiick.

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Beach to ourselves

Surf: 2ft with a few larger 4ftish waves. Mellow, Clean.

In keeping with the theme of surfing big breaks on small days, Chris and I went back to Montara. It was mellow, clean, and best of all, uncrowded. I think at the most there were 5 people out and a few skim boarders. I was expecting it to be steeper like the last time out so I was struggling to get into the soft waves on my 9′.

Chris and I swapped boards. He got a few good waves on the 9′ which is about a foot and a half shorter, an inch thinner, and probably an inch narrower than his. It looked like a toy but he managed to make it work. I, on the other hand, still kooked things up on the 10’6. Some days are just like that. I also manage to put my whole hand inside a jellyfish while paddling out. Sigh.

After packing up, I sat on the cliff and watched the evening shift catch a few waves. There were dolphins goofing off outside the lineup and I got a kick of watching other surfers laugh and smile catching small waves. Not a bad day, even with the kookiness.

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Ocean Beach Summer

Surf: Small, slightly bumpy soft waves. 2-3ft with some 4-5ft standouts.

I like surfing ocean beach when it’s small. In the summer it can get nice and mellow and I can paddle out with my longboard like it’s any other day. I’d mostly neglected the usual OB breaks over this summer. I guess I’d gotten into the habit of picking off lefts at Linda Mar and wasn’t really thinking much about surfing our local avenues.

Today Linda Mar was flat so Chris and I headed back up the coast, checking out the usual alphabet streets.

I got a real nice wave right after paddle out, then a few warbly drops on other jumbled waves. OB is always a surprise. The wildlife is a lot less timid and some pretty large waves can come charing through a spot that had previously be sleepily breaking at knee to waist high. Trying to scrap over one larger wave my board got yanked my the wave. I had a few seconds of bobbing around before realizing my board was surfing the wave without me. I had a nice long ride being drug along behind my board that was happily enjoying a nice wave all on it’s own. The 9’4 really gets moving fast, even towing me splashing behind it.

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Montara

Surf: Waist High+ dumpy, mushy waves. Warm and Sunny.

It’s good to be back. 5 days on dry hot earth is too much and the pile of work waiting for me when I got back wasn’t helping.

Surfed a short bit. Got a few waves in. Saw a dolphin take a wave on in inside.
Chris got lots of stellar long lefts in. Nice work.

Great sunset over the water. ++

Here’s on parting image from the desert experience. Gotta love the west coast where even camping involves funny costumes and hats.