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Nice Weather

Conditions: Flat. 2-3 ft waves that were few and far between.
Gear: Soft Top rental board from NorCal Surf Shop

The weather was amazing. Sunny, clear, no wind, highs in the upper 80’s to Low 90’s. The water was still too cold to ditch the wetsuit, but it was great weather to be out in.

After a few attempts at catching tiny unbreaking waves and a little time chatting up folks in the line up, I threw in the towel and opted to work on my tan instead. That’s the great thing about surfing, if there’s no waves or scary waves you can nap on the beach, grab a beer, or just chill till the surf gets better.

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Surfing Around the World



For a bigger, more readable version.

While traveling in Europe , I found a little bit of surf culture in just about every place I went. This poster is for surf classes in County Clare Ireland, just off the Burrens. It’s an astounding landscape and I did see some people out surfing while I was there. Wow. What a trip. It’s supposed to be great up and down the western coast of Ireland. I wonder if it’s any colder than the Pacific in winter?

Looking down towards Gallway Bay

Cliffs on the North Side

I also saw a surf shop in Chamonix, France! Way up in the alps, at the foot of Mt Blanc there is a surf shop! Boards, wetsuits, the works. I saw quite a few surf fashion shops around Geneve and Wein but actual surfboards for sale in the Alps was just crazy.

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First Time Solo

Conditions: Wow, good waves for good surfers, too big for me.*
Gear: Soft Top rental board from NorCal Surf Shop

Wow, crazy day to try my first Solo surf. The weather was beautiful. Waves, however, were a little scary. Conditions were definitely above my skill set. I panicked on the first wave I caught and immediately pearled. Somehow I managed to get stuck under my board and spent some agonizing seconds wondering why on earth I’d insisted I could surf by myself after only 3 days in the waves.

I took my board, headed back to the beach and laid in the sun till some friends came. Kneeled on a wave or two after that, but mostly hung out in the whitewater boogie-board style.

*I’m gonna guess this was 4-7 ft, mostly on the higher end. Sets were far enough apart that I could still paddle out in the lulls, but once I caught a wave I really didn’t know what to do with it other than fall. Oh well, I guess it pays to practice falling too…

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Back in the water!

Conditions: Medium/small waves, pretty consistent sets with a little wind*
Gear: Soft Top rental board from NorCal Surf Shop plus some Xcel 3mm Split Toe Infiniti Booties

Time to test the skills I learned in class out on my own. Lauren and I rented some boards and wetsuits from Nor Cal. For anyone interested, Nor Cal is close to the beach. Walk in, pay $28 for a board and a suit, and you’re good to go. It’s worth buying the booties. Rocks are sharp.

It was over all a nice day. Surfing without the instructors isn’t as easy as I’d hoped. I’m still kneeling to standing instead of popping up. Paddling out is still hard, but I’m getting a lot of practice in.

Yes, my nail polish and board match. No, that was not intentional. Serendipity and surfing go hand in hand.

*Probably on the smaller side of 3-5ft and breezy.

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Learning to surf: Day Two

Conditions: Bigger, Rougher Waves*
Gear: Rental foam board

Day Two of my surf class was Sunday April 27th, 9-Noon. Also with Adventure Out.

Day Two was when all the hard paddling from Day One (and all the rock climbing from the day before day one) finally caught up to me. Ow.
Owwww.

I was exhausted, but happy. The waves were much harder to paddle out into, fewer lulls and a lot more whitewater. I only caught three waves the whole day and didn’t get past kneeling on the board, but it was still fun. Hard work, but fun.

Injury report: I took a bit of an ambitious wave and fell. Underwater I could feel my leash go taught and I knew the board was probably not someplace I wanted it to be. Sure enough when I came to the surface, WHACK I got nailed with the board right in the face. Good thing I was doing the safety head cover the instructors told us about or I’d probably have gotten a black eye.


*This day was prob more like 3-5 feet with a lot of wind and back to back sets. No real downtime and some tough waves to paddle through.

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My first surfing lesson

Learning to Surf in Pacifica

Conditions: Small Clean Waves*
Gear: Rental foam board

Day: AWESOME

My first surf class was Saturday April 26 from 9am to Noon with Adventure Out.
I can’t recommend these guys enough.

The lesson included a wetsuit; a board; plenty of time on dry land learning safety, wave reading, etiquette, and pop ups; plenty of time in the water learning to paddle, dodge waves, timing, standing and turning. The instructors were great. They spent the time hanging out with us and helping us each individually work on our timing and telling us what to do on the next wave to get better.

I stood up a few times, cheated a few other times by just getting up to my knees instead of a clean pop-up, and turned once. It was sooooo much fun.

I got pretty much hooked right then and there.

*This was before I started checking Surfline religiously for conditions. It was probably 2-4 feet, not a lot of wind and the sets were pretty chill. Lots of time to rest between sets.