May 2013 – Learning to Surf

May 29, 2013June 30, 2013

Grey

Photo by Darren

Surf: 3.9 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 265Â°. Outgoing tide.

Smaller than yesterday, but pretty fun!

I took my stub quad out (it’s been a while) and wound up getting quite a few waves. I’m hoping that surfing this board as a quad for a bit will help me figure out how to surf my fish better. It’s the same thickness as my fish, with an extra 8 inches of length for more catching power. I got into a couple waves that I wasn’t expecting to get. It’s amazing how much easier some of my boards seem now. This board was really hard a year ago, but I seemed to be doing okay today.

It’s nice to feel like I’m getting somewhere, but I’ve gone back and forth with my shorter boards. One sessions I’m fine, the next I’m skunked.

I had planned to let Heather borrow this board for the summer. I might have to rethink that idea. 😉

May 28, 2013May 31, 2013

Quick Session

2013-LM-05-28

Surf: 4.6 ft at 9.1 s from WNW at 293Â°

Had just enough time for a quick session before driving to San Jose.

My original plan was to go to SC first, but with the negative tide the last few days, all I saw on the cams was bare rock.

While the session started out foggy, there seemed to be waves. The fog burned off while I was suiting up. The waves looked less fun once I was paddling out, but for a 30 min session, it wasn’t too bad. A little whomping and closed out, but okay.

Smacked my shin pretty good. Now I’ve got more dings to try to find on my performance longboard. I think I’m just going to dip that board in resin and call it a day 😉

May 26, 2013May 27, 2013

Almost like summer

Surf: Chest to head high+, pretty clean. 3.3 ft at 14.8s from SW at 215Â° with a W swell at 3.3 ft at 12.9 s mixed in.

Wooohooohoo. I did not expect actual surfable conditions today. This was quite the fun surprise.

Expecting windblown, jumbled slop, I took out my narrow longboard. Where this board really works well the kind of beach waves that start out mushy, then steepen up. That’s exactly what we found.

From the cliff it was looking clean, but a little bit big on the sets. We gave it a shot.

It was a little warbly here and there, but given what the surf’s been like lately, it was perfect. There was a moment watching a set go by that I watched the first wave roll by, watched the second, then realized a little too late the third was about to break on top of me. I started laughing to hard I could barely get a breath. Ohhh surfing.

One of my best waves today started out pretty unassuming. I paddled for a nice looking one, dropped in, then saw the whole wave stack up. It was over my head for sure. Waves like this are great on this board. It’s got speed and, even though it’s a big board, it turns well on the narrow tail. I swooped through the bottom turn, super fun top turn, second bottom turn and I almost kicked out thinking the wave was going to close but decided to stick with it, swoosh another top turn, another bottom, then it really looked like it was going to close out on me so I launched off the back. Wheeeeee. Oh man that was fun. I haven’t had a wave like that in a long time. Probably since the last time I surfed summer waves here.

Evidently my wave caught the attention of folks on the cliff. Quite a few more people paddled out, including one guy who said my wave saved him from driving all the way to Santa Cruz.

Surfed for a while, then bodysurfed when the fog came in. Oh man, it was exhausting but super fun.

I’m hoping this means summer’s on it’s way. I miss surfing this spot. It can be so fun in the summer and I really want to try my fish out on it.

Went home sunburnt and stoked.

May 21, 2013May 27, 2013

Catching up to the swell

Surf: 3 ft at 16s from SSW at 205Â° Rising to high tide.

This is the swell. This is the swell that we heard about the whole time in Mexico. This is the swell that was “supposed to be here tomorrow” every day. I’ll admit, I thought about bumping the trip a few extra days to catch it (and to say Hi to the folks from theseea.com who were coming in on Sunday for a shoot), but sadly between obligations back home and flights being crazy expensive if we had stayed, it didn’t work out.

Word from Ed was that when it came in, it came in huge. Big big waves full of thousands of juvenile Portuguese Man O’wars. Not only would I not have known what to do with that much swell, my delicate skin would have been toast after just a few stings. Ouch.

The nice thing about a swell like this swell is that not only did it hit Tahiti, Hawaii and Mexico, but it snuggled right up to Santa Cruz.

Although I was feeling some serious work guilt about coming back from vacation and turning right around for the water, I plowed through my first day back chores on Monday and hit the surf early Tuesday.

Normally I’d want my longboard for this. I’m still skittish about the point when it’s on the bigger side (I either want to be able to duck dive or be able to scratch to safety with paddle power.) My log’s in the shop getting a ding fixed so I decided to try out my new an improved hull skills.

I get some confused looks whenever I paddle over to the longboard peak with my little 6’10. Thankfully I’d just gotten out to the peak when a beautiful wave came straight towards me. Remembered my Mexico lessons and paddled longer, stood up faster and swish…I was off.

It was a pretty good wave. 😀
I was really stoked.

After that it was a lot of floating around, answering questions about my hull, being in everyone’s way, getting a few more waves, and doing some horribly kooky things.

I know I’m gonna be a kook for a long time, but I still am so embarrassed when it shows. I was trying to get out past an incoming wave, didn’t make it, went flying backwards and right over the top of Tim. He’s thankfully great at duck diving so he only got a knee to the back. I was slightly horrified. Glad no one got hurt.

He got some great waves. I saw Darren and Noah get a few beauts too.

Also saw a small pod of dolphins slip right by me. Always a cool thing to see.

Overall, I’m glad I chased that swell down. It was a great end to a fun little surf trip.

May 17, 2013May 27, 2013

Last surf out

Surf: Soft, slow, but fun. Waist high with the occasional shoulder high set.

I packed up the fish, threw my clothes in the board bag and joined the guys for pancakes. Everything wound up taking less time than I’d planned so I figured I could sneak in one last surf.

Paddling back out I saw a puffer fish darting around and what I think was a skate cruising between sandy-colored spots. One of the guys out every day joked “shouldn’t you be on a plane?” I said one or two more, then he could have his wave back.

I got a few, but was having trouble making the section on these smaller waves. I was down to my last half hour before I had to go wrap the Vaquero up for the flight when a set finally came.

I got a nice wave. I swished around that section, no problem. I cruised down the then very end, then, in a rare act of competence, managed to lay down on my board and belly in to the beach with a little flair at the end to avoid the rocks. Not a bad way to wrap a lovely little trip.

May 17, 2013May 27, 2013

Friday Morning

Surf: Thigh to chest high, long waits between sets. Clean and fun.

Last morning! I woke up early to check the surf. It was pretty much the same as it’d been all week. Good enough for me.

I wanted to get in one more surf on the fish before packing it up, but with conditions as soft as they were, I figured the Vaquero would have a better shot.

I got a few fun ones off the bat. Gotta love these clean waves.

Chatted for a bit with a gal from Palo Alto who seems to spend most of the year surfing in Mexico. We talked about the bay area and boards. People usually have a lot of questions about my little hull. I mentioned Sunset Shaper’s class. Hopefully they’ll wind up with another customer out of it. 🙂

Cruised around till breakfast.

May 16, 2013May 27, 2013

Thursday Mid Day

Surf: Clean, mellow, and lovely. Just like yesterday.

Took it easy this morning and slept in. All these late night surf sessions are catching up with me.

Ed swung on by with the camera again. I managed to get a few good rides, but I’m not sure we got any closer to getting Beamer a good shot on his board.

Once the photo shoot was over, Ed walked out to the beach with my fish and we swapped to give him a chance to try out my hull. I love letting folks try out my boards. I like hearing other perspectives on what I’m riding. Every board fits every person differently. Because I’m pretty inexperienced, it’s hard to tell when a board is quirky or when I’m surfing it wrong. (Usually I’m surfing it wrong)

Ed got some nice cruising hull rides.

I’m definitely surfing mine wrong.

I got a quick fish ride before swapping. It’s still a little soft for the fish and the difference between a concave bottom and a hull bottom is huge.

I’m hoping not only to get some time in on the fish in steeper conditions when I get back, but also to have someone else try it out and see how my first shape worked out. I have a feeling it’s a really fun board, I just need to learn to surf it. 😉

May 15, 2013May 27, 2013

Wednesday Evening

Surf: Glassy, waist to chest high

This morning’s surf looked a little crowded and by midday I was wrangling requests for work, so evening’s was the only shot.

After seeing myself on camera yesterday, I’ve realized a few things.

1- My stance is pretty comical. I need to square off my hips.
2- I could stand up a little taller, that might put more swing in my swoosh.
3- Better wave position. I managed to stay pretty well in the pocket last night on the longboard, but with the hull it’s a little more critical.

I set out with that in mind. The first few waves I was focusing more on squaring my hips than setting my rail, but once I got the hang of it, I got in some pretty good hull swishes and swoops. I made a few sections I didn’t expect to make.

I can do a lot more than I think I can, maybe not with style yet, but there’s plenty I can do if I keep trying.

May 14, 2013May 27, 2013

Tuesday Sunset

Surf: Glassy, waist to chest high with a few larger sets. Fun fun fun. Super glowy.

After being filmed all day, Beamer was hoping to try his hand at shooting. I was pretty tired from the first few sessions, so I grabbed a longboard.

After spending so much time between my hull and my fish, it felt great to be on a longboard again. I’m way more confident on a longboard and was able to set up closer to the peak, take off later, and hold a better line (or at least that’s how it seemed in my head.)

Beamer said the best way to get a shot is to try and run him over. First wave I took off, lined up and shot down the line. Weeeehooo. Fun fun. He got a few good videos before the sun went down too far to see.

After that we surfed for a while in the fading light. The whole point was lit up with little glowing jellies. We’d seen a few in other sunset surfs, but just a few, kinda like fireflies. These were everywhere. Every eddy and wave around the boards was full of little glowing spots.

I went to take off on a wave and absolutely everything was glowing. I almost didn’t make the drop, it was so distracting.

I also tried to go for a noseride in the dark. That didn’t work. I got clobbered by a section. Whoops.

I heard Beamer get one in (at this point I couldn’t see anything) and decided to get one in myself. I realized I had no idea how close I was to shore. I bellied a bit, listening for the waves on the rocks on the beach. Thankfully the tide was high and I cruised in no problem. Whew.

May 14, 2013May 27, 2013

Tuesday Midday

Surf: Waist high and a little windblown.

Ed showed up with his camera gear to get some shots of Beamer. I headed back out with my fish and rashguard and bikini combo. a few duckdives in, I was not feeling very confident in my bikini bottoms. Walking back to the house to change into my supersuit, I couldn’t help but think about boards.

The one problem with bringing two boards is you still can only surf one board at a time.

I knew if I switched to the hull, I’d get more waves given the conditions…but I really wanted some shots of my on the fish. From a vanity perspective: OMG I made this board, I want shots of me ripping on it! From a reality perspective: I want to see how horrible I surf my fish so I can fix it.

Sure enough, Ed got shot after shot after shot of me missing waves. I’m so close, then at the last minute I’m just not getting it. I need more paddle and more weight on the front. It’s plenty mushy out here so I need extra “more paddle” and extra “more weight.” While I might not get the fish figured out this trip, I’ll keep all of this in mind for when I get home.

The other thing I saw from the footage was something that I can’t quite explain. Either it’s an optical illusion from the shot angle or it was actually happening, but it sure looked like I was surfing sideways. With my hull that’s supposed to happen, but I’m pretty sure with a concave bottom there’s no crazy slide allowed. That whole ride I felt stuck in the wave. I think I need more weight over my front foot and better rail engagement.

All around I think it was a frustrating session for everyone. Beamer didn’t get the shots he was hoping for and I didn’t get waves. But hey, water’s warm. Missing waves hurts a heck of a lot more when it’s cold.

As it’s been every day, the surf picked up again in the evening.