April 2015 – Learning to Surf

April 22, 2015May 2, 2015

Ouch

2015-SCHK-04-22

Surf: 12.1 ft at 11.4 s from the NW at 307Â°. Low tide.

Work’s been busy so I haven’t been able to make many SC trips. I think today was the first time I had made it down since October. Conditions were pretty mellow and the tide was very low. Second wave in, I went to kick out and instead flipped the board and landed right on my fin. Ouch. I landed pretty hard, the whole leg cramped up from the shock. I paddled back out hoping to stretch it out and get a few more waves. Unfortunately bothw aves I tried hurt too much on the pop up to make it worth catching more. Too bad. I watched some other folks catch waves before heading back north with an ice pack and a bruise.

April 17, 2015April 18, 2015

Late NW Swell

2015-LM-04-17

Surf: 8.2 ft at 17.4 s from the WNW at 288Â°, incoming.

With sprint in full effect, it was pretty interesting to see a big front of swell moving across the forecasting charts. Would it be a mangled, wind swirled mess? Would it be waves? Only one way to know. Headed down to the beach for a look.

Crowded, little bit closed out, plenty foggy and cold, but not so bad! Most of the bigger ones were closing out, but I found a few middle sized waves that passed everybody by. I was working on taking one step, stepping back, turning back into the pocket, repeat. It’s a pretty good little exercise.

Upside of the crowd was seeing lots of friendly folks I haven’t chatted with in a while. If you’re going to be elbow to elbow, might as well do it with a smile. 🙂

April 10, 2015April 18, 2015

Leftish

2015-LM-04-10

Surf: 2.3 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 282Â°

The swell decreased in size and increased in jumble. Most other spots were either flat or looked worse than the usual spot. Hoping for a repeat of yesterday, we paddled out looking for a left that might work. There was a little, mostly closed out spot to try. It was decently fun. Hard to beat that sunshine and beautiful morning air.

April 9, 2015April 18, 2015

Rightish

2015-LM-04-09a

2015-LM-04-09b

Surf: 3.6 ft at 9.1 s from the WNW at 287Â°

I had some exceptionally low expectations for this morning. The wind has been up, that cams haven’t looked great, but if I want to get back into my weekly routine, sometimes I have to go out and surf some complete crap.

Watching from the beach, there was one little right that looked like it could work. By the time I’d suited up, it looked like it was working. A whole beach of slop and here’s this right, peeling away (lumpily, sure, but it was working.)

I had a plenty fun time in catching that right. I worked on a few steps.Chatted with some folks. It was a way better morning than expected.

April 3, 2015April 4, 2015

Pleasantly Surprised

2015-LM-04-03

Surf: 6.2 ft at 10.8 s from the WNW at 294Â°. Incoming.

It was a rough week and I didn’t feel like surfing. When I got “want to go surf?” wake up alarm, I checked the buoys (22mph winds, ugh) and I check the tide (low, ugh) and nearly bailed. I’ve been in this situation before where I feel too down to surf, go anyway and it cheers me up. So I got my gear together and headed out.

Usually if it’s calm at shore and howling winds out at sea, the surf is junk. Even light offshores don’t usually counteract the open water winds. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t half bad.

Had a nice little morning working on my cross step and making the most our of what was on tap. I’m getting more and more comfortable sticking the rail into waves that look like they’re about to close out, just to see if I can sneak in a step or two. So far so good!