Month: March 2011

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Warbly, but fun

Surf: Waist – Chest high with some standout cleanup sets.

Misty morning with low winds, pink hues, and some fun waves. I had some plenty fun waves and a ridiculous wipe out that left me cut up and a little sprained. The waves were going from mushy to jacked up to mushy and I managed to paddle for a manageable wave while it was mushy only to have it pitch me into a free fall. Looks like I punched the tail of my board trying to get it under control as I was coming down. Caught the find with my pinky and jammed the rest of my fingers. Ouch.

Didn’t stop me from getting a few more really fun rides in, but it took FOREVER to get out of my wetsuit. I couldn’t really grab a hold of anything without being able to use my left hand so it was a good 15 min of awkward hopping. >_< Made it out tho!

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Santa Cruz!

Surf: Soft, mellow. Knee high. 8.9 ft at 17.4 s from the WNW at 300°

Finally! Been bugging Chris for ages to do an SC dawn patrol. Winds were light and the waves were mellow. Nothing epic but plenty of little fun waves. Sea otter chilled with us for a bit. Grabbed pastries after before making the trip back up to the city.

My old wetsuit is back from being repaired. Sadly RipCurl wanted $125 to repair everything so I just had them do the worn out knees. Looks like it will be a summer suit from now on. Poor suit, it was fun while it lasted but since it was deteriorating after less than a year I can’t imagine it will have too many summers left.

Hoping to get more SC time in now that the sun is coming up a little earlier. 🙂

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Squall Line

Surf: Windy! 20-25knots. Waist-Chest High. 6.6 ft at 11.4 s from the WNW at 283°

Hoo hoo howdy. It’s plenty windy out there, plenty hard to catch, but plenty fun once you’ve got it. Cleaner than Wednesday, but a little more vengeful. Fair for the shoulders that held up, Poor+ if you count for vengefulness/closeouts. Ouch+ on the Hawaiian kickout I pulled on a wave about to close out on me on the inside.

I got a really fun wave that was evidently pissed I was able to break through the wind and catch it. Dropped me and my big board right into a churning unruly inside. After trying to fight that much foam back out, decided to call it a day early and fight the wind back to the lot instead.

Walking from the far north end to the lot was a battle. The wind was just howling. I had to stop and sit down at least once.

Packed up just in time to get out before the squall hit. Well, mostly. I’m pretty soaked. Stoked!

Weather got so rowdy there was a waterspout at ocean beach:

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Dirty, Funky

Surf: Waist-Shoulder High mess. Strong Current.

I saw a pair of surfers standing on the beach for a while when I was suiting up. A softie and friend who I am guessing were hoping to ride whitewater. The north current on the inside shot them out of view very quickly. For anyone looking to just catch foam on a day like today today, take caution when currents are pushing hard. It’s a very short trip from messy unruly foam to OH GOD WHY sized whitewater.

Plenty sloppy on the outside, too. Got some fun rides out of it and a lot of sloshy sloshing. G stole way more waves from the jaws of slop than I did, but I’m happy enough with what I got.

While I was getting ready to leave, a guy drove up and cheered for having even gone out. Yay for friendly parking lot folks.

Debated rinsing my mouth out with some of the office scotch this morning to ward off any dirty water. There was a meeting going on in front of the booze and I didn’t want to disrupt them with my 9:30 shot o scotch. Maybe tomorrow.

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Tsunami

Surf: No surfing due to tsunami warning.

Terrible tragedy in Japan last night. Major earthquakes, devastating tsunami, volcanic eruptions, and nuclear power plants on the brink.

The Tsunami was scheduled to hit our shores around the time I’d normally be out surfing. We got donuts and headed to higher ground. There is no bravery in paddling out in those conditions. A tsunami is not surfable.

Where we were, we didn’t see much change (we were facing deeper waters.) Over at our usual surf spot, there was plenty of draining.

Not sure where the photo came from (I got it from stokereport) so I unfortunately can’t credit it at the moment.

Click here to donate to the Red Cross Relief Efforts

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One long left

Surf: Fair–/poor++

Started out looking pretty closed out and unpleasant. Took a little surfari around the beach trying a number of peaks. The waves that held up were surprisingly good. I got some long long lefts. Ranged from mellow knee high to solid shoulder high. Course the shoulder high ones were the ones looking to close out right on ya, but I managed to get a nice unintentional bodysurf out of one of them.

Sun came out as I was leaving, sadly pumps also turned on as I was leaving. Ew.

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Fun Sized

Surf: Clean, waist high, mellow waves.

Made it back from Indy in time for some more fun little waves. More energy in the water than Monday, but still on the mellow side.

Skipped the rashguard under my suit today. Still toasty in the 4-3-4.

Aaron made it out this am. I saw him throw a thumbs up to Chris while coming down the line. Yay for friendly surf. It was totally a “we’re gonna get signed” kinda day. Lots of goofing off that worked out to almost look like we meant it to happen.

Not sure if it was all the very uncomfortable cross country flying or what, but wound up straining my lower back pretty good. Not sure how, no wipe outs, no crazy falls…I think it’s about time to start paying attention to the rest of my muscles, not just the ones that paddle.

Ahh well, it was beautiful and sunny and fun at least.