Month: August 2013

Posted on

Whiteout closeouts

2013-OBK-08-30

Surf: 3.3 ft at 14.8 s from the S at 185° and 2.6 ft at 11.4 s from the WNW at 286°

I have a feeling this season will be a lot of “you should have been here yesterday.” Thursday I was too beat and busy to get out and of course, it was glassy. Small but from the cams and the first hand accounts, it was SMOOTH. Couple of folks said it was so glassy you could see the wake off the tankers rolling up the beach.

Today was not that day. Today was mixed up, closed out, and next to zero visibility. I was really struggling on my fish. It was too soft to get in, too closed out to get a solid ride. Ugh. I paddled around in circles getting frustrated before going in for breakfast. Pretty fun belly ride in at least. (shrug)

Posted on

Sea lions

2013-OBK_08-27

Surf: 1.0 ft at 13.8 s from the SW at 226°. Outgoing. 3-6kn winds.

That was so much more fun than I’d expected. It was still small and kind of terrible, but the winds were lighter than the forecast and the little waves were a bit cleaner and more frequent than I thought I’d find given the forecast.

I took my 9′ which managed to hang on to plenty of lumpy shoulders. The biggest thing it was doing well was being maneuverable paddling back out. I forget how thin that board is. It’s nice to be able to slice it through waves on the paddle out.

There was the typical small wave drop-in contests and laugh riots from the usual crew as well as plenty of excitement from the sea life. Dolphins, porpoises, AND sea lions jumping left and right. A big bull surfaced near us with a salmon in it’s jaws. He thrashed around a while, ripping big chunks out of the fish. Pretty cool to watch, if you don’t mind the unease of having a 700lb creature thrashing within arms length. Another big guy decided he wanted to surf for a while, so the drop in contest had to be put on hold.

All and all, not a bad morning.

Screen Shot 2013-08-27 at 10.43.19 AM

Posted on

Windslop

2013-MT-08-23

Surf: 2.0 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 275°.

We looked everywhere this morning. Most breaks were completely flat and what wasn’t flat was pretty junky. We managed to surf a little bit of shorebreak that wasn’t too horrible. I got a wave or two that might have been a real wave. The rest was wash and warble and mush.

Saw a pod of dolphins cruise by with their little ones in tow.

Posted on

Crowded

2013-LM-08-22

Surf: 3.3 ft at 9.1 s from the W at 278°

The swell was a little smaller today, but the crowd was just the same. Yikes. I managed to sneak in a few long rides and plenty of drop-and-closeout, but man. It’s so many people and so many soft tops. Not a pretty sight. I’m looking forward to the cold weather. Nothing like a frosty morning to win a little elbow room. 🙂

Posted on

Rushed

2013-LM-08-21

Surf: 3.6 ft at 10.8 s from the NW at 316°. Light winds.

I tried to pull off a “surf before going to an all day professional conference” move this morning. I’m not sure it worked. Chris picked me up on the way to the beach, but all and all it was a really narrow window of about an hour to catch some waves.

Waves were decent sized and holding up nicely, but holy crap was it crowded. I’d sort of hoped the new parking permits would discourage a few of the more casual surfers, but no. The lineup was swamped. Lots of people not looking where they were going on top of it.

I got half a wave heading in to check on Chris who’d broken another leash string, but other than that I didn’t really get anywhere. It was super frustrating. :\

Oh well. At least the workshops for my conference weren’t half bad.

Posted on

Birthday surf

2013-MT-08-16

Surf: 3.3 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 305°. High tide. No wind.

That’s the Montara I remember. Glassy, shoulder high, and fun. Yeah there’s the big closeouts, but woooohhhhoooo that was fun. What a great birthday surf. 😀

I took out my steep wave longboard. I’m sick and I figured the bigger board would help keep me floating when out of breath and coughing up a storm. Thankfully I avoided getting clobbered and instead got some plenty fun drops and a few long ones.

There was sun, fog, dolphins, sea lions, jellies and most importantly, waves. All around fun fun birthday surf. 😀

Posted on

Junky

2013-MT-08-14

Surf: 0.7 ft at 10.0 s from the WSW at 304° but very mixed, lots of wind.

After yesterday’s fun surf, today’s junky waves were a little bit of a let down.

Another challenge was a dude who wasn’t exactly looking before he’d paddle for a wave, take off right on top of me or other people, then blow the wave and shoot his board and yet even more people. Uff. I was tempted to say something. When it’s this junky, there’s no peak and it’s easy to not see where others are sitting on your inside. It’s really important to be aware because no one wants to be that jerk that injures someone on a lousy 2 ft day. I couldn’t quite find the right words so I tried to exercise some patience and paddle to another peak. The problem was, the dude followed. I appreciate all the slack people have cut my ridiculously kooky self over the years, but there’s a fine line between cutting slack and letting someone continue to do something dangerous. I’ve certainly had other people call me out when I was doing something dangerous. Yeah it’s embarrassing, but better than someone getting hurt.

Oh well.

Moving to yet another peak, I was able to get a few waves and forget about the other group.

I had some amazing faceplants on my fish. Ha. I kept slipping my front foot and plowing right into the wave. Got a few longer ones, but MAN it’s hard to connect all the little bits when it’s this junky. Made it around some sections, that’s a plus.

I miss clean waves!

Posted on

Kinda decent!

2013-MT-08-13

Surf: 3.0 ft at 6.7 s from the NW at 306°.

I had pretty low expectations for the morning. It sounded windy, it sounded like crazy short period, but all around it wound up okay-ish. I took out my 7’0, but could have done okay on my fish. Got around some sections, got some nice long ones. Bogged a few turns, but not bad.

One of the guys asked if I’d seen the dolphins go by. I said no. He said really, they went RIGHT past you in the wave. Bummed that I missed a wave full of dolphins, I went back to paddling around. A few waves later, sure enough, that wave was full of dolphins. Rad!

Posted on

Cross stepping success! :D

2013-BO-08-11

Surf: 3.0 ft at 10.8 s from the NW at 310°. Incoming tide. Sideshore wind.

I’ve neglected Bo this year. The forecast has been so small or the winds so high that I haven’t felt like making the haul.

A couple of the girls wanted to give it a shot and needed a drive, so I agreed, despite the feeling that it might be flat.

Thankfully, there was a bit of a wave at the patch that was perfect for my longboard practice (peeling, nice little wall, super low consequence but not total mush.) Plus sunshine, so much sunshine. Wow.

The big highlight of the day was actually completing a full cross step up the board (4 whole steps!) without falling on my face. The waves were a little short so I didn’t get to walk back to center before I ran out of water, but it’s a huge improvement. I’ve never been able to get the second step in without losing my balance.

I’m super stoked!

Posted on

Saturday

2013-LM-08-10

Surf: 3.0 ft at 11.4 s from the W at 269°

Got roped in to some weekend surf. Larger than expected (the photo doesn’t do it justice), but pretty fun for closeouts. I took the longboard and tried to work on my lessons. It’s so hard to try and work on a move when the waves are just slamming shut.

Saw a few friends I haven’t seen in a while, that was pretty cool. Watched a couple gals cross stepping all over the place (which of course made me feel like I should be able to get at least ONE step in, right?)

There was a lot of seaweed and flotsam in the surf. While grabbing a post-surf snack, I went to take down my hair and a huge clump of seaweed fell out of my hair and went SPLAT on the floor of Starbucks. I thought the woman next to me was going to have a heart attack. Whoops.