Month: September 2012

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Boom.

Surf: 5.9 ft at 13.8 s from WNW at 292° SLight texture and wind.

Went hunting for some waves. The usual spot was crowded and uninspiring. The second usual spot was big and mean. Another spot was warped and weird, but the last spot on the hunt seemed okay. It seemed a little large, but workable with a few folks out.

By the time we’d suited up, everyone else had gone in and the waves had come up. I’m not quite in shape for this kind of stuff yet. My first attempt paddling out, I got tossed pretty good trying to get through a closeout. I’m not sure what happened, but I couldn’t catch my breath. I had to dive the next two waves without a good lungful of air. As the fourth wave approached, I called for a do-over and bellied in.

Huffing and puffing and coughing up water on the shore, I briefly though going back to uninspiring usual spots might be worth the wet car ride of shame. Chris seemed to be doing fine, so I put my fears aside and paddled back out.

I got one good, fast ride down the line into closeout city. BOOM. The rest of the time I spent dodging outside waves and bailing out of other waves like a big ole chicken.

Saw a guy get a really nice hollow one as I was getting out (or rather, struggling to get to the beach on the inside), but as soon as we’d packed up the gear all the other folks were gone too.

I think I need to hit the gym a little before heading back out in conditions like that again.

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Vaquero

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.0 s from NW at 296°

I hit the beach early to borrow Mike’s 8’7 Vaquero. I’ve been wanting to try a hull for a while, but hadn’t been able to get the stars to align to be at the beach on the right day when a friend had theirs for me to try.

It was pretty fun. The board paddled as easy as my 9’4 and cutback smoothly. As it was crowded (and I was worried about dinging Mike’s board) I got mostly short waves. I managed few longer ones where I could see more of the swoosh factor in action. I’d probably need to change up my stance to surf something like this regularly. I’m a little too…braced for impact. I’m digging in when I should be squiggling.

When Mike was packing up, Chris said he was on his way, so I hung out in the lot a while. A dude in the lot was teasing me for taking pics of the meh surf and offered to take a picture of me instead.

Eventually Chris showed up and I took out my 7′ to pick up inside waves as the crowd thinned. I got a few slow ones, nothing fancy. We moved to a larger area of the beach, but I was too tired to get anything decent. After 4 hours of surfing, I opted to belly one in and finally get to work.

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Raw Fall Swell

Surf: 8.9 ft at 17.4 s from the W at 280°

Folks had been hyping this swell all week. I get that people are swell starved, but man, people were frothing. I had a suspicion it would be big, but rough around the edges. Reports were bouncing from 6ft to 14ft to 8ft… I figured Chris and I would check out our usual big day spot and if it was too snarly, get donuts and hit work early.

It wasn’t epic by any stretch, but it was rideable. Things were raw and a little ragged, but I still got a few really fun ones. There was the occasional cleanup set that was a good reminder the seasons are changing.

Kinda weird thing, even tho I got some decent ones, I was getting really frustrated. Ugh. Not sure if it was the crowd or conditions making me edgy. Ahh well.

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Sunday Closeouts

Surf: 4.3 ft at 8.3 s from NW at 305°

Andrew was looking for some water time this weekend. Bolinas sounded like it was barely breaking so we tried Lindy. As usual, it was crowded and closed out. There was plenty of whitewater for him to practice on, but only a few shoulders here and there for me to grab. I got a couple closed out waves and spent the rest of the time bellying around, cheering Andrew on.

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One Wave

Surf: 3ft @ 8s from NW 311° with a little bit of south in there maybe? Incoming tide. Calm winds.

I’ve spent the last few months swooshing little waves on my longboard. It’s been fun. I like riding a board I know and there’s plenty to learn on my log.

With fall coming, I figured I’d take a break from my old standby and get a workout in taking my 7’4 out. I figured it would be rough. I haven’t taken that board out in a while. Sure enough, I struggled trying to get into waves. I blew a few takeoffs. Timing off, positioning off, paddle strength off. Uff.

Around the time when I was accepting that I was going to get skunked, I finally got a wave. It was a smooth, peaky, shoulder high wave. I got two cruisey turns before casually kicking out at the end. That one wave made the whole session for me. I didn’t get a single wave after, but I still left stoked. That’s the largest wave I’ve gotten on that board so far and one where I felt pretty comfortable.

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Clean Lefts

Surf: 4ft @ 10s from NW at 318° Calm.

Caught a few lovely later-shift waves this morning. The crowd was focused on a little stretch of fairly log-like waves, but Chris and I headed North for another peak. We found a nice bunch of clean, mellow waist high peeling waves.

Our quiet spot soon attracted attention and a small crowd formed. A group of guys camped out right infront of me on the inside. I heard one of them say: “Are you sure we should sit here? That girl is getting like, every wave and we’re totally in her way.” My first thought was “well yeah, you _are_ totally in my way” but feeling generous, I decided to wait a set out. One they got a couple, everyone shifted around nicely and folks were sharing waves peacefully with minimal drop ins and chaos.

I spent some time working on sneaking up the nose. Nice to have some smooth waves again. 🙂

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Buffet Style

Surf: 5ft @ 8s from NW at 307°

Nice little morning sampling various breaking waves along to beach. Also nice to see lots of folks I haven’t in a while, usually because they headed to Ocean Beach or I headed to Montara on the small summer days. Little bit glassy with plenty of mush on the incoming tide (plus plenty of closeouts as per usual), BUT plenty of actual waves too.

I got a few swoopy little squiggly waves and one mostly hilarious cutback. I put so much rail in I was nearly laying flat on my back. Just when I thought “I _might_ make this turn!” I blew it trying to come back around. So close!

Towards the end of the session, I was furiously trying to paddle back out for one more. Things were starting to get a little more mixed up and I Was huffing and puffing. After about 10 minutes of paddling and making no progress, I heard HEY! Brien had swam out to me to let me know he and Chris were going on. I sheepishly turned around and bellied in. Gotta get back into paddle shape before winter.

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Dropoff

Surf: 3ft @ 10s from NW at 304° Low tide, some wind.

Ducked out of work early hoping to find SOMETHING surf like. I had my 7’0 with me so barely breaking first spot check didn’t seems all that appealing. Second check seemed like it was breaking a little close to shore, but we paddled out anyway.

Upon further inspection, it was pretty much jacking up and dropping straight down into the sand.

Chris got plenty of nailbiter drops and fast rides that ended in the sand. I mostly got a freefall drop into a faceplant, followed by some unnerving tossing around in really shallow water. I’m not a fan of shallow water let alone being flung into it. Duckdived a bit. Took in some sun. Had a few minor heart attacks, then went home.

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Pickup

Surf: 4ft @ 9s from NW at 304°

The morning started out pretty soft and slow, but eventually picked up a tad. I got a handful of fun long rides, then spent the rest of the morning waiting. Things went from soft to steep and shallow as the tide changed.

Pretty spectacular scenery, a flock of seagulls, and a swarm of jellyfish.

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Midmorning

Surf: 4.3 ft @ 14.8 from S at 187° and peeling

Snuck in a little bit of surf time between my morning meeting and my afternoon meeting. It looked long and loggy at the first spot a checked and short and smooth at this spot. I watched from the cliff a while before deciding I’d rather work on my cross step than rain on the shortboard party with my log.

Plenty fun on the loggier waves. Waist high and long enough to try and work on some moves. Nice to see the later shift folks stoked and happy. 🙂