Surf: Waist-Chest High.
Patient logging this am in the patient logging spots with some cruising long rides. Practiced some cross stepping to the tune of Faceplant Sonata. Hope the late morning shift had fun.
Cross Stepping
You go hike, I’ll stay here and surf
Surf: Crumbly Waist-Chest high. Windy. Crowded.
My friend Katie is visiting me! Yay!
Katie doesn’t swim or surf, so she and Lindsay went out on a hike on the hill above Linda Mar and I surfed.
It’s a little selfish but Aaron wanted to try out his 7′ and Blam wanted some water time, so hey, why not have a big group beach party.
Got a few decent wavelike things. Got some hefty mexican food after. Good enough day 😀
Bumpy
Surf: Bumpy. Waist-Shoulder high.
Little windy, little bumpy, plenty crumbly with the typical amount of closeouts and wash. Waist range with a few chest high waves. Rideable, but more suited for the desperado temperament. I had fun, saw other people have fun, but you may very well not have had fun.
Clean
Surf: Knee-Waist high. Clean.
A few waist high sets to keep things lively. Clean with some closeouts. Nothing epic and def on the mellow sleepy side, but not too shabby for a fair summer day. Very crowded when I paddled out, but got a little better.
Surf Class
Surf: Clean Knee-Waist high.
I spent the morning playing surf instructor attempting to teach someone’s teenage daughter to surf. After hiking 14 miles the day before, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to move let alone instruct but I wound up in good enough shape to swim for an hour while pushing her into waves. Not bad.
I’m not the best instructor tho. Oh the poor student. I mostly pushed her into waves and yelled PADDLE!!! She caught a few waves, but didn’t get to her feet. Hopefully she didn’t have a terrible time.
After that I took the stubby out to try to catch a few waves. Did fine getting the waves, but the tricky part today was finding a decent spot where I could pick off a few scraps the longboarders let pass. On such a mellow day, almost everyone had something so I snuck into a group of beginner SUPs. A dangerous strategy, but I did get quite a few waves and they were all friendly folk.
Alamere Falls
Lindsay and I hiked to Alamere Falls for her birthday. The scramble down to the bottom of the falls is a bit tricky so we took the scenic way (7 extra miles, 2 on sand) and were treated to quite the view.
At 14 miles this was probably the longest hike I’ve ever done (I haven’t done many serious hikes) and wow was it pretty. Alamere is one of two waterfalls into the ocean on the California coast and the only one you can hike to the base of.
Love the coast.
Skunked
Surf: Chest-Shoulder, funky and dumping.
Ahh, there was the skunking I’d expected. Oww.
This little board doesn’t have the heft to punch through waves paddling out, but I haven’t gotten the hang of ducking it (it’s pretty big.) So I took wave after wave on the head. At one point I was pretty sure a seabird was laughing at me as I got hucked over and over. Sigh.
Wound up spending a lot of this morning on the bottom of the sea contemplating life and how I was going to get the sand out of my ears later. (“Never” might be the answer to the ears question.) SUPER funky, jumbled, but with some rideable shoulders that jacked into booming closeouts. C
hris got some cruising big ones. I mostly got wash. Wind not as blustery as other spots I checked, but waves not any cleaner. Sigh.
Paces
Surf: Funky Chest-Shoulder High.
I paddled out expecting to get skunked on my stubby. I actually got a few, if ungraceful waves. I feel like I’m getting in to them too late so I keep dropping then kicking right out when I could probably stand to hang in there a little longer.
Got some fun fun wipeouts too. Oww. Went for a pretty good one, got in, then tried to sneak out before it came down on my head. Skidded my turn, went flying and skipped like a freaking stone for a good 4 impacts before finally going under. Uffle.
It’s going to take a little bit to get competent on this board, but so far two days of okay starts!
Birthday Bo!
Surf: Small, clean, knee-thigh high waves.
Plenty small and foggy this morning. Thigh high set waves that slowly got a little glassier and held up a little better. Certainly not epic, but all I was looking to do was help my little bro catch some waves so I was pretty happy.
For a while the lineup consisted of G noseriding every little peeler that came along, my bro stoked as he caught some fun mellow waves, and me trying out a 7’0 stubby surfboard I got last week. Not bad.
Afterwards Wes and I hung out on the beach a little, saw a (dead) little leopard shark, and then drove north to wander around Pt Reyes a while. It was a beautiful day. Can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday than with family at the beach.
High Expectations
Surf: Knee-Waist Hight, junkier.
I kinda had my hopes up after yesterday. I mean, yesterday had some size, some peak shaped things…it wasn’t too much of a stretch to hope for that for today. Having that hope meant I was a little bummed by the less than hoped for conditions. Oh well.
I got one proper wave that made my morning and I got to spend the session with a rainbow overhead.