Surf: 2.6 ft at 13.8 s from 210° (SSW) Light winds.
Small and glassy all to yourself is a upside of the summer slowdown. That and not wearing booties.
Had some fun trading my 7’4 for Chris’s battleship 10’6. I’m pretty sure at one point that big longboard was riding two separate waves, one for the nose and one for the tail. I tried to cheat some fives but the waves were just too little. Slow motion faceplant! Chris got plenty of waves on my little wobbly board too.
A seal, some moody, atmospheric fog…fun enuff little session. 😀
Surf: 3.6 ft at 13.8 s from the SW (218°) Winds 6 kn from the S (170°)
With the swell still set to “mellow,” Chris and I headed back to Montara for a morning surf. It was pretty much just us at this peak. Lots of soft waves, moody skies, and a little bit of glassiness.
I figured I’d be worn out from yesterday, but I managed to do just fine on my 7’4. My cutbacks still need work (they’re a bit more of a longboard lean than a cut) and I need to work on not making such serious faces. > : | You wouldn’t think I’m having any fun at all.
Surf: 3.9 ft at 14.8 s from 218° SSW. Waist high with occasional shoulder high sets. Light Winds
I’ve been house sitting in the Sunset. It’s been lovely. Unfortunately I haven’t felt confident enough on my 7’4 to paddle out alone at the beach, so I swung down to Montara to meet up with some folks. It’s always nice to have someone to laugh with you when you’re kooking things up.
Sunny, warm, and plenty mellow at Montara. I had an exciting paddle out blowing a few duckdive attempts. The waves were pretty soft. I did my share of furious paddling to get into them and actually got a few. Not a lot in the way of turning, but I’m feeling much more stable on this board than I used to feel.
Towards the end of the session, my arms were beat and I just wanted one wave in. I missed wave after wave before finally getting into a right. I got hung up at the lip! I was not going to let this wave go. If I didn’t get it, I was most certainly going to have to paddle in. I heard J-Bird yell “C’MON!!!! YOU CAN GET IT” I threw my weight forward and made the drop. It was a big wide swoop of a drop. I heard J-Bird howling from the shore. YESS!!! I made the bottom turn, got in a little cruise, then swamped my cutback. Still, I’d made it back to shore. Whew.
While walking back to the car, I passed a little girl and her brother on the stairs. She saw me with my blue surfboard and said: “SEE! I told you girls can surf!”
Between the drop and the little girl’s comments, I was beaming. 😀
Super stoked.
I saw one of the funniest wave-steals by a SUP in the very brief history of me surfing.
The guy went out of his way to row right infront of Chris as he was paddling into the wave. Not like “oh he’s further inside and thinking about it if Chris doesn’t get it”, like the guy frantically rowed over and went for the wave about a foot infront of Chris’s board. There was some emergency breaking happening on Chris’s part to avoid him. Everyone around said “what the heck was that?!” and laughed. All except for the SUP who triumphantly surfed away, clutching his mushy chest high wave proudly. Such precious waves out there today! Can’t let even a single closeout slip by!
Meanwhile, other SUP-goers caught waves peacefully, evidently unaware of how epic each wave truly was.
I got up early for a morning surf with Chris. At low tide things were a little closed out on top of being very slow. While throwing ourselves into little dumping waves, it looked like the other side might actually be breaking. We took the 1/2 mile long paddle thataways and caught a few more. I think one or two actually counted.
After 3 hours or so, we met up with Andrew who I’m helping learn how to surf. I spent another 3 hours in the whitewater with him catching fun little rides. When I got too tired to surf, I bodysurfed a while and watched Andrew get a few more waves. It also gave me a chance to test out my new earplugs. My doc says I have the very start of surfer’s ear and if I start wearing earplugs now, it shouldn’t get any worse. The plugs are awkward. I can hear everything fine except myself. My breathing is so loud it sounds like I’m out of breath before I even am. BUT, they seem to stay in place and they seem to be keeping water out.
After all that water time, I was BEAT. Beat and hungry and sunburned. Just another successful California day.
