Month: June 2014

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Road trip south – Monday Morning

2014-SANOOM-06-30

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.5 s from the SW at 231°

Slept in a little and packed up the van. We decided to take advantage of the Monday-morning status by hitting up Old Man’s.

People down here keep saying the surf is “weird.” I haven’t figured out exactly what that means. I guess it’s a little windy? It’s still plenty surfable and I’m happy to have it.

After having waves pretty much to ourselves all weekend, it was a little adjustment to being around so many people. It all worked out. I rode some bumpy waves through the crowd and made some little ones work all the way to the beach.

Not a ton of stepping on this trip. I guess I’m still getting used to the board? Not quite confident enough to really walk. Still, this has been a blast. I saw Chris get great waves, I saw folks from the luau get great waves, and I got so many waves. Fun fun fun.

We washed off, packed the boards, and headed back north. Had a lovely dinner on the way back up and saw an amazing sunset.

YAY road trip 😀

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Road trip south – Sunday Evening

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Surf: 2.3 ft at 16.7 s from the SSW at 206°

Camp may being emptying out, but the surf is still up from this morning. We tried the next trail up (I was beat from all the scrambling on the regular trail.) It was fun. Everything was a little gloomy and sort of reminded me of Montara (biggerish waves and an almost empty lineup.) A few sets has be feeling not so comfortable, but for the most part, I was getting stuff and making something out of the closeouts.

They were setting up for some sort of firefighter’s surf competition in the morning. Seems like the waves should still be good for it.

Got back up near sunset and cook up dinner in the dark. Our van has been so cozy and wonderful, I’ll be sad to have to give it back!

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Road trip south – Sunday Morning

2014-SANOB-06-29am

Surf: 2.3 ft at 18.2 s from the SW at 220°

Wow, the surf got bigger. I wasn’t checking the buoys (other than photos I was trying to go low-tech in the van) so I was quite surprised when I scrambled down the cliff. It had gone from lovely little waist to maybe chest high waves to shoulder high and up. I looked at my big board and gulped.

The board was a breeze to paddle out. The surf thankfully stayed pretty soft so I wasn’t battling too much. The board can take a bigger wave, which is good to know. I hadn’t expected the board to do all that much more than be a noserider, but I can hold up pretty well. Granted, I haven’t tried it in a steep wave yet.

Everyone’s packing up back at camp, it looks like there will just be a couple of us tonight. There’s quite a few people from the bay area. We’ll have to do a Surf-a-pig Northern CA luau sometime.

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Road trip south – Saturday Evening

2014-SANOB-06-28pm

Surf: 1.6 ft at 15.4 s from the S at 185°

More surf! More sun! 😀 Little more wind…but still fun!

I’m loving this board. I’m surfing my arms into jelly (and hiking my legs into mush) but loving this board and this trip. Yeah, there’s some wind, but it’s so nice to be able to just get out and surf.

Went to be at sundown. I was too beat to stay up and chat. Zzz.

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Road trip south – Saturday Midday

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Surf: 1.6 ft at 15.4 s from the S at 191°

Back down the cliffs for more waves! 😀

If there’s one thing I love to do on little surf trips, it’s surf the ENTIRE time. And when I’m not surfing, eating or napping works too. Chris is on a mission to try ALL of Mike’s pigs, which aligns very well with my “Always be surfing” mission.

Mike’s boards are amazing. I was too chicken to try any of them, but very stoked to watch Chris surf them all. Wow. Maybe next year I’ll have the guts to take them out (plus the arm power to get those beastly boards up and down the cliff.)

Got to try out my Seea surf leggings today. Love them. There will be a review later.

Chris also got a lovely little video of me surfing. Wheee. Just a quick fun little one. I almost blew it. I’m pretty sure that happens almost every time the camera is on me ad about half the time when it’s not. 😉

We got back up just about the time the pig roast was kicking off. I was so beat I totally missed that that was what was happening, went back to the van and napped. Oops.

Goals for next year: ride pigs, eat pigs, be more social.

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Road trip south – Saturday Morning

Surf: 1.6 ft at 15.4 s from the SSW at 198°. Low tide

Oh man, so excited. I waxed the board up last night before dinner and probably woke up a dozen times thinking “is it time to surf yet?! :D” before finally getting up around 5. Time to surf time to surf!

We were the first people out. Not a soul up or down the beach. In fact, I think those dots in surfapig’s photo are probably us.

I shuffled out (stingrays!) and paddled over to a glassy, but little bit closed out peak. Tide was low, but man, we had every peak all to ourselves, warm water and a new board to try!

First off, this board paddles like a dream. Wow. Even at 9’5 doesn’t feel as big as my 9’4. It’s smooth. It’s not so bulky when trying to punch through white water. It’s really nice! Didn’t try any fancy moved on it just yet, still getting a feel for it but I’m super stoked.

AND I got to wear my neoprene jacket and shorts. Yay for warm water!

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Road trip south – Thursday and Friday

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Road trip! Road trip! 😀 😀 😀
Yay!

We headed south for the Surfapig Luau. It’s camping, it’s a pile of pigs for you to borrow and surf, and it’s a pig roast, too.

Rented a van from Ours was a big astro van named Big T. Had a bed, a little kitchen, a shade structure, chairs, the works. Totally cozy and not too big to drive.

First stop on our trip, meeting up with the lovely Ashley Lloyd to pick up a new log she’d been working on for me.

😀 I love it. Wow do I ever love this board. Yeah, okay, I got a little carried away with ideas for the glassing and it didn’t turn out exactly as I’d imagined, but it’s beautiful and wow wow wow. I can’t wait to get it into the water. The rails, the belly, the tail kick, it all looks FUN. So excited!

After that, rolled down central CA. Dinner and a lovely walk in Paso Robles (plus ice gelato!) Sunset over the hills. Wonderful drive.

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Just past Gavitoa we hit crazy winds, 40+ mph winds just roaring over the mountains. There was a tractor trailer overturned on 101 and it was getting dark. We decided to pull off. Refugio campground was full but El Capitan had one spot open. A camper in a tent couldn’t take the howling winds and gave up. It was pretty lucky for us and extra lucky we’d through to get a van. The wind blew the curtains to the van around a bit, but otherwise were were safe and sound and relatively unbothered by the howling windstorm.

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Woke up to a beautiful view and an amazing beach. What a great spot to wind up camping at. Wow! Look at those cliffs!

We waffled a bit on if we should surf somewhere along the way, or blast on down the coast. Hungry bellies made the decision and we got breakfast in Malibu. Surf didn’t look too exciting and we were itching to get groceries, set up camp, and surf surf surf so we kept rolling. Maybe next time, Malibu.

Got down to the bluffs and set up camp. My new board wasn’t waxed yet and needed the fin put on. Plus I was all around being weird about taking a bright shiny new board out at a break I didn’t know and hadn’t even seen yet. I grabbed my hull and a wetsuit and scrambled down the cliff.

About 3 strenuous tugs into pulling up my wetsuit I thought, wow, this is a terrible idea. I’m sweating buckets just trying to get this on. I brought an old holey one hoping it would be cooler, but it’s one of the ones impossible to get on. Once I got it on and jumped in the water… the water was 70°! Whelp, don’t need to wear the wetsuit tomorrow!

The hull was fun! The waves had a little wind on them, but they’re warm, pretty forgiving, and fun fun fun. Chris got some great ones on Mike’s flowthrough blackstoke pig. Yeehew.

YAY road trip!

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Surf: 1.6 ft at 15.4 s from the SSW at 195°

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Solstice workout

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Surf: Windy. 2.3 ft at 10.5 s from the NW at 325°. Incoming tide.

I’m not sure that was “surfing” but it was a nice summertime drive. Winds were howling up at Bo. I got in the water just to get a little workout in. The handful of not terribly great waves I got were a total surprise. Paddle workout against the current to keep the arms in shape till the wind chills out.

Grabbed dinner at Sol Food and watched the sunset in the city.

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Outgoing

2014-LM-06-05

Surf: 4.9 ft at 10.8 s from the NW at 326°. Light SW winds. Outgoing tide.

Little bit smaller today with a little bit of a peak. Most waves had a fun drop, a space for a turn or two then a rough shallow inside closeout section. Managed to get to the beach around 6:30 and into the office before 9:30. Slowly starting to get back into routine.

Swish swish surf surf.

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Getting out there

2014-LM-06-04

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.0 s from the WNW at 290°. Outgoing tide. Light wind.

Finally! I’ve been slacking on the whole “get up, get out of bed, go surf, go to work” plan lately. Part of that is being injured, part of that is not wanting to get out of bed, and part of that is spring surf being junky.

There were hints at summer glass this morning. Like the ocean is almost ready to be it’s mellow, grey summer self. Still plenty of closeouts and chop, but overall not bad. Worked on a few steps. Stoked just to be getting up and moving early. 🙂