April 2013 – Learning to Surf

April 26, 2013May 27, 2013

Sandbar

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the SSW at 211Â° Windy

After yesterday’s fun waves, today’s windy small stuff was a bit of a let down. Oh well. We got a few fun tiny warbly ones off this very shallow sandbar.

So shallow, I took a close out wrong, board hit the bottom, board hit me, and I wound up with a real nice bruise on my thigh. Ouch.

This beach will always be a strange one for me. Super shallow sand bars. Crazy deep channels. Shifting, bending, backwashing. It’s a tough one to figure out some days.

April 25, 2013May 27, 2013

All to myself

Surf: 3.3 ft at 13.8 s from the SSW at 198Â°. South Winds.

I knew the surf would be on the small side and I figured it would be a good day to get in some log time. What I forgot to do was switch out my 6ft leash for my 9ft leash. Opps.

Rather than try to navigate the crowd while leashless, I went up to the north end where I had a solid hour of solo time, just me and some really fun little waves. Well, me, fun little waves, and a whale right in the lineup!

I got some real nice long ones.

Eventually folks figured out that I was having a ridiculously fun time and joined me. Sure, it wasn’t as fun to have to share, but it did mean I got to surf with Heather for a while, that was fun.

All around lovely morning.

April 24, 2013May 27, 2013

The wind came up

Surf: 3.6 ft at 14.8 s from the SW at 214Â°

The session started out glassy. It also looked small from the cliff, which it wasn’t (it never is! never!) I struggled on my fish and drifted around with the current. Eventually the wind came up. Once things were junky, I managed to get waves. I’m guessing that’s some sort of Linda Mar skill. I can get waves when it’s junky and not when it’s clean.

Ran into Mark, Goose, and Jonas on the beach for the first time in the entire time I’ve been surfing. Little Jonas is too dang cute.

April 23, 2013May 27, 2013

Collide

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 323Â°

This session started out fun. I got a wave, so that’s pretty nice. It was a left and I was relieved (after much paddling on my little fish both to get out and to get the wave) and I wasn’t going to be skunked.

After that it was all sunshine and me being exactly in the wrong spot. I got almost right under Daniel as he was taking off. Sigh. Kook+ move. Then Chris, Eduardo, and Brien somehow got all kinds of tangled up. I had to dive a wave so I couldn’t see what happened, but when the spray settled Eduardo had a big old cut on his head.

We helped him in where Chris patched him up with a comically large band aid that had probably been in his wagon since the 80’s. Eduardo is thankfully okay. No stitches needed.

April 22, 2013May 27, 2013

Bigger, softer waves

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 310Â°

Today’s surf was bigger and softer than it’s been. Crowded too. With the softness I was really fighting to get into waves. I managed to get a few but they all felt slow.

I had a duck dive that went wrong and I kicked my fin. My whole foot is blue. Having so many fins so close to me means I’m constantly kicking them. Owwww.

After struggling a while on the bigger wave, I snuggled up to a small left and picked up a few more fun ones.

It’s always the little waves I catch easy, not the big ones. It’s silly, but I’ll take it.

April 19, 2013May 27, 2013

Few short ones

Surf: 5.3 ft at 8.3 s from WNW at 302Â°

Short period and ranging wildly from small mush waves to bigger push waves, but fun enough for a few short rides. I was really working hard on my fish. I managed to get into a few fun ones. Most of them started off great, then the wave faded under my feet. Aww.

Well, fun enough. I’ll take every surfable day I can get.

Brien got a shot of me doing some of my post-surf chores. I usually soak everything quickly, then dry it all on my car at work. Sadly, we’re losing our parking spaces at the office in May so it looks like I’ll be driving home to drop off gear first. It does mean cleaner gear, but it also means I have to add an extra 45 minutes to my morning routine to fit in bus time back to the office. Still happy I get to surf before work. I’ll take two 45 minute busses before I give that up.

April 16, 2013April 17, 2013

South by Northwest

Surf: 7.9 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 305Â°

With the wind howling locally and swell in Santa Cruz being inconsistent at best, finding in a window of “not awful” to paddle out in has been tricky.

While the sunrise was lovely, I was really struggling. The new leash works much better (no tangled up feet) but I couldn’t get in to a wave to save my life. I finally got one and very slowly rode it in. Uff.

Oh, thanks to the orange board, I’m quite visible on the cams:

April 10, 2013April 13, 2013

Terrible

Surf: 5.3 ft at 14.8 s from the NW at 321Â°. Winds: ARG.

Wow. The wind has been blowing like crazy, but even with rock bottom expectations, I didn’t think the surf could be this bad. What a frustrating afternoon. Not only did I not get any waves, but I put the first ding in my new board. Sigh.

Waves were big, disorganized, lumpy, closed out, and just plain bad.

April 6, 2013April 13, 2013

Kelpfish

Surf: 9.2 ft at 19.0 s from WNW at 282Â° Low Tide. Side/offshore winds.

WHEEEEEE. 😀

After surfing the fish every day this week, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for real waves or exhausted.

From the cliff I could see big barreling waves at 38th. Not quite ready for 6-8ft mayhem, I paddled out further east looking for a nice, sensible 4-6ft mayhem.

Now, every time I do something like that, I paddle out, I’m feeling good then that 8ft set I was trying to avoid comes and finds me. Aaaaa. The first few waves I paddled like a maniac (maniac on a tiny tiny board) to get over. The third was going to break to far out so I stopped, waited, and decided to test out the duck dive ability on this board. AAaaand under. Whew. Just being able to do that gave me a huge confidence boost.

When it came to catching waves, I was struggling a bit. There was so much kelp. It was thick, it was everywhere, and with the limited glide it took a lot for me to get going. I drifted further and further from the crowd, looking for a less kelp covered spot where I could go for everything without dropping in on anyone.

A few attempts in, I finally got a wave. I got a nice long face where I could practice this whole turning stuff. It was so much fun. Bottom turn, top turn, bottom turn, cutback, drop, top turn all the way over to the next break. Yeah! I was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of this.

I got a few more as the day went on. Mostly bigger ones that closed out. All and all, worth the extra paddling. Got to watch Beamer and Darren get some nice ones too.

April 5, 2013April 13, 2013

Party Wave Friday

Surf: 4.3 ft at 19.0 s from the S at 170Â° High and falling tide.

Bigger than yesterday, but still plenty small. I got a few fun party waves with friends and a few all to myself. This board catches little waves like a dream. It’s still plenty of work, but the fact I can even get a little thigh high wave on a board this small makes me happy.

I spent most of the morning making wiggly turns all over the place. I had one awesome wipeout where I went end over end, came up holding the board, tried to get back on, went end over end again. Ahh well, laughed it off.

Last wave I squiggled all the way into the beach. Quite exactly into the beach. The last little bit of the wave I was in dry sand trying not to ding my board.

What a week!