January 2013 – Learning to Surf

January 31, 2013February 2, 2013

Fishy fishy fish

Surf: 2.6 ft at 15.4 s from the W at 262Â°

Beamer let me borrow a 5’10 quad fish he’d learned on. I’ve had it in a corner waiting for me to stop battling with my 6’10 for a few sessions to take it out.

Ocean Beach was looking mellow enough today to give it a shot.

After paddling and paddling and paddling I finally made it out. While to board is a breeze to duck dive, it’s a workout to paddle.

I’ve been working on challenging my scaredy-catness, but being on a new board might have been too much to tackle all at once. I almost got in to one wave, but just missed it. Others I was way too outside for. Others I completely panicked trying to duck under because I was too far inside. Sigh.

I did manage to finally get an inside wave in.

The board seems fun. I’m looking forward to trying it out on some easier waves to better get the hang of it. Hopefully one day it’ll be zipping along at Ocean Beach nice and happy.

January 25, 2013February 2, 2013

Not skunked!

Surf: 7.6 ft at 14.8 s from WNW at 294Â°. Rising mid tide.

Yessss. Finally getting waves on my 6’10 again.

It’s such a relief after struggling and struggling. The waves I got weren’t amazing, but they were waves and there were plenty of them. I’m trying to work on committing to waves, giving a few extra paddles, and popping up quick. I still missed a few waves, but it’s nice just to get moving around again. I really want to get the hang of this board.

January 22, 2013January 23, 2013

Nearly Skunked

Surf: 4.9 ft at 16.0 s from WNW at 295Â°. High tide.

Hmm.

I was hoping there was enough energy in the water to get my favorite little spot working despite the tide. There wasn’t. Instead it was a mix of long lulls, broken up by HUGE closeouts and small peeling waves. I’d decided to give my little board another shot, but was getting nowhere.

I get into such a headgame when it’s closing out. I’m fine on the big board (which is way more of a battering ram in those conditions,) but on the little board I’m stuck. I just don’t commit and as a result, I don’t get into waves. I paddled around, trying to keep warm, before heading south.

Facing total skunkage, I swapped boards with Andrew. He had a rad 8’4 hot gen hully thing. Super smooth. I finally got something. First time riding leashless and of course I blew it and lost the board on a closeout set. Sigh. No harm done except to my pride. Fun to watch Andrew cruising around on my 6’10.

I gotta figure out whatever’s not working right between me and that board. I’m at that point where I have to decide if I keep frustrating myself trying to get past the holdup, or go back to my 9’4 for the winter so I feel like I actually know how to surf. Hmm.

January 20, 2013January 21, 2013

Sheltered

Surf: 7.9 ft at 20.0 s from WNW at 288Â°

With all the local spots all time epic huge and dazzling, I headed north for some less-than-epic waist high Bo waves.

Fun drive up putting the car through it’s paces, but averageish to slightly above averageish surf. When I first got there, it was punchy but small. I got in some nice long rides, swooping back between right and left trying to dodge the sections. It was fun. I was satisfied with my more-cutback-like cutbacks.

Got to see a stingray and the sun set behind the Farallones. That’s good enough for me.

January 17, 2013January 20, 2013

Thursday Sunset

Surf: 2.3 ft at 13.3 s from the W at 270Â°

Yesterday’s sunshine and fresh air was pretty great, so I decided to sneak out again for a few more waves.

It’s been ages since I’ve taken my 9’4 out at Ocean Beach. I usually take my tri-fin longboard, but it’s still dinged, so single fin it was. A few waves were hilariously kooky. We’d camped out on a mushier smaller peak so there was plenty of room to goof off. I got one really fun wave along the seam of the rip. Broke right, left, right, left again. Worked on getting up the nose a bit for some great faceplants.

Great sunset, dolphins, all that good stuff.

January 16, 2013January 20, 2013

Montara Late Shift

Surf: 3.0 ft at 14.8 s from NW at 307Â°

After Monday’s ice cold morning, a late shift warm and sunny surf in small waves sounded absolutely perfect.

The surf has been small and clean so we headed to Montara. It was a short, but nice little sesh. Clean, peeling, knee to chest high waves. Lots of fun on the longboard.

I’ve finally been getting some good waves again. I’m not sure if it’s the longboard or that I’m working harder on committing to waves or that I’m finally starting to get my thyroid stuff back in check so I have more energy.

I got one really nice wave that I thought for sure I was too far inside to get. I went for it and it paid off. Fun, fast and the wave of the day for this short little session. Yeeew. I still chickened out on that last little section in the shallows, but overall, it seems like progress.

Saw a sea lion napping in the sun on the beach. Everyone’s loving the sunshine after so much cold.

January 14, 2013January 20, 2013

So. Cold. Brr. Cold. BRR.

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 317Â°

Wow that’s cold. Cold cold cold. I was fine in the water, but as soon as I was out…sheesh. My hands were screaming trying to hold my longboard in the offshore winds. I had to sit in Chris’s car to warm up long enough to get my key off the pesky short key loop. Oh man.

Surf was fine. Clean, long steep waves. I was struggling a bit, especially since the tide was rather low, but still managed to get a fun wave or two out of the morning. It was really starting to look nice was I was thawing out. The later session folks likely scored. 🙂

January 9, 2013January 20, 2013

New Car

Surf: 7.6 ft at 11.4 s from W at 281Â°

Well, it finally happened. After 15 years and 135,000 miles, my Civic blew a head gasket.

I’d spent the weekend agonizing over wether or not to fix it. It was really hard to let the car go, especially since it was still running. The car had never had a problem before, so it very was unexpected when it started running rough in November.

After a lot of thinking, I decided to trade it in. It was hard, but I picked up a more surf-friendly Honda Fit to replace it. Believe it or not, this 13 and a half ft long car fits a whole 9’4 longboard inside, no problem.

Today was it’s first day at the beach.

Getting my 6’10 in as easy. It’ll take some work to figure out my new routine, especially now that I have a digital key instead of an old school metal key.

The surf was…not so great. I really struggled out there and got straight up skunked. Uff. That hasn’t happened in a while. Ahh well.

At least I had a sturdy new heater to keep my toes warm driving home. 🙂

January 7, 2013January 21, 2013

Seasick Monday

Surf: 7.9 ft at 12.9 s from NW at 313Â°

Car is still in the shop. Looks like there might be something serious wrong with it. :\

Had some high hopes for another surprisingly fun session, but the surf turned out to be lousy. Oh man. It was seasick. Doubled up, tripled up, warbling all over the place. Got a few rides, including one that took some footwork to dodge the ever sectioning bits. Still, not so good.

One amazing thing, it was beautifully sunny at the beach. There was an amazing sunrise in Half Moon Bay during our Jetty check. But in the city, the fog was so thick I couldn’t see past the edge of the freeway. I couldn’t see the Bay Bridge until we were right under it. Then, just a few dozen feet before the pier, it cleared up again. Dramatic fog.

January 4, 2013January 21, 2013

Surprising Friday Longboard Carpool

Surf: 11.2 ft at 12.1 s from WNW at 286Â°

My car’s back in the shop. Bummer.

Chris was kind enough to give me a ride to the surf. It looked crummy from the lot, but we gave it a shot. It actually turned out to be pretty fun. Sure there were the usual closeouts and crumbles, but there were some nice long rides too.

It helped that I’d taken the 9’4 out. It was really nice to get waves again after putting myself though so many low count/high frustration sessions on my shorter boards.

At one point someone said, Dude! You’re killing it! Blushing like crazy.