Month: February 2012

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Improved with tide

Surf: Waist-Chest High, mixed up waves.

It’s getting to be that time of year again. The winds are blowing all the wrong waves and the surf looks just plain sad in the morning. This morning was crumbling, closed out with long lulls, and heaps of whitewater, but hey I was there and plenty of other friendly folks were out.

With a little more tide, things shaped up from desperado to rideable.

I’ll admit, plenty of groveler waves and waiting in the wash for a reform that never came, but there were a few actual waves in that mess. I got a handful of long swooping ones that I’d put in the fun column. I love being able to steal something fun out of the mess. I got a few powerful top turns in that I was pretty stoked about. It’s hard to swing that much board around.

Also managed to launch myself off the back of a few waves as they closed out on the inside. Who doesn’t like flying through the air?

Somehow I also did this:

Wheeeeeeee!

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Crowded, sloppy

Surf: Kinda Terrible.

Almost a straight up desperado surf. For some crazy reason there was quite the crowd to catch closed out waves.

Plenty fun to watch Chris squeeze a few rides out of closeouts. A couple shortboarders were hooting up a storm every time he made a wave work. I got a few, enough to make it worth getting wet for, but not quality enough to keep pretending spring isn’t sneaking in.

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Clear Morning

Surf: Waist High, Mushy, light winds, sun and clear skies.

Beautiful clear skies (hellooooo Farallones!) but lemons galore in the water. I had a few waves that were more lemon meringue than lemon pledge, but there was a lot of lemon pledge. Warble, crumble, closeout, mush. Nice view of Mt Diablo driving over Sharp Park this morning. What a view.

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Bolinas with Acb’s new Board

Surf: Knee-Chest high, a little bit of texture.

Yay! Andrew’s got a surfboard!

A few weeks ago I found a 9’4 on craigslist almost identical to mine. With a little repairwork, we got it ready for the water.

It’s been pretty big locally so we hit Bolinas and spent the day on the inside catching whitewater to help Acb get used to the board.

Conditions were lovely in the middle of the day, then winds came up quite strong from the south. Andrew got plenty of good starting rides in and I goofed around. Not bad.

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Eastside Tour

Surf: 5-8ft with 10ft standouts. 10ft @15s WNW 300° Little warbly and slowing with the incoming tide.

Wow.

I keep saying that, but wow. Not as clean as it has been, but solid on size.

I got probably one of the biggest waves of my life today (I keep saying that too.) I have no idea how large these waves have been during our recent SC sessions (8ft? 9ft?) but they’ve been large and beautiful to ride.

This wave I did everything right. I had a huge bottom turn to a tight top turn. I cut back exactly when I needed to, and I held on every last bit of the wave. I stalled, I snuck around sections, I blew through whitewater, and kept up on the racy inside sections. I kicked out after a nice long swooping ride with dry hair and a HUGE smile. 😀

Of course, not everything can be easy. I also got trounced. I had two savage beatdowns that actually scared me pretty good. I did everything wrong. I was too far inside and took wall after wall of whitewater. I panicked a little on the long hold downs. The second set I was thrashed by, I scrambled to the surface when my lungs were burning and foolishly sucked in a breath that was half foam, half air. I paddled like mad to get out of the way of the rest of the set before coughing up sea sludge. Uff.

After that stomping, we headed from the point down to the hook and snuck in a few more. On the way I got one wave with a big fun drop. Once there, I got a fun zippy one through sharks, kicked out, then realized I was caught in the current. Oh man. Ohhh man. I was exhausted from all the waves at the point, so getting out of this eddy and back to shore was hard. I made it in by digging my heels in and pushing my way against the current the last few feet. OOOOffff.

I did a little bit of sketching during my afternoon meeting to keep awake. Fun day, hard day.

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7’4 practice

Surf: Small, clean, and a little peaky. WNW 6.9 ft @ 12.9 sec

The winter swells have been swinging wildly from huge to teeny. The buoys were looking medium-ish so I pulled out the 7’4 for more practice.

Rolling up to the beach…it was nearly flat. Crap. I put my doubts aside and paddled out.

While today would have been pretty fun on a log, it was still fun on the 7’4. I got a handfull of waves and several successful dives. Yay! No wobbling!

I still need plenty of work, but I’m satisfied.

I’m actually a little surprised this narrow 7’4 is working better for me that the 7’0 stub. While narrow, it’s really full out to the rails and a little thicker than my 7′. The extra rocker is probably helping in Linda Mar closeouts. Either way, having fun figuring it out!