Tag: boards

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Bing

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Surf: 5.9 ft at 12.9 s from the WNW at 292°. Outgoing tide. South Wind.

I had the chance to take out Chris’s 9’6 Bing Gold Standard.

The south winds were blowing and there were a few waves out there so it was worth paddling out into light rain showers.

I’ve ridden that Bing before, but I think this is the first time since I got my Ashley. It’s only an inch longer, but the thing is heavier than my Ashley and the rails are pretty different. I paired it in with an 11′ fin with very little rake. The first wave I caught I though “oh man, this beast isn’t going to turn for anything!” Thankfully after a few more waves, it started to feel a little more natural.

It still sort of felt like the first draw wall all the board, then once I was through the top turn, I could steer again. I got going pretty fast with all that weight and walked way up the board. Navigating the crowd was a challenge, but overall pretty fun. Lots of steely grey landscape to stare at waiting for waves. 🙂

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Fujii

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Surf: 3.3 ft at 13.8 s from the WSW at 239°. South winds. Outgoing tide.

Back out there. Did some bodysurfing and swimming, but also tested this board out.

It’s shaped by Stan Fujii out of Ventura. Turns out, my friend David worked for Stan back in the day at the Ventura Surf Shop. This board is HEAVY. Wow. Tapered t-band stringer. Tail block. Beast and a half to turn, but super stable once it’s going. I walked waaaaay up before I ran out of ocean.

The weight is not the best thing for my shoulders. Happy to let it’s owner handle it from here on out.

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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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Bing!

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Harbor seal bodysurfer

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Repairing the breakwall

Surf: 4.3 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 297°

Ben mentioned needing to part with his lovely Bing Gold Standard in order to make room for a new board on the way. After a week of agonizing (is 9’6 too big? Do I want this board? Should Chris buy this board instead of me?), I reluctantly passed and Chris snatched it up.

Of course I had to try it out. I did the sensible thing and waited till after he got some swooping big waves, some step-filled long waves, and a few closeouts before asking to ride it.

It’s fuuun. Stable, I got some walking around. Swooshy, I got some swooshing in.

I did totally manage to wreck myself falling on the fin. Got a nice bruise on my ribs and thigh, but still, fun morning. 😀

I want a fancy longboard now!

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Vaquero Sunday

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Surf: 3.3 ft at 9.1 s from the WNW at 291°

Got an email from a former coworker asking about transitioning to a shorter board, specifically hull. While I love my Vaquero, it’s not really right for someone looking to move to a shorter board in order to surf a shortboard. I know, it doesn’t sound like it makes any sense, but what my friend wanted was a board he could duck dive, turn, and all around shred on. Hulls are really made for smooth cruising. I feel like I did learn a lot from my hull, but it’s very different from what I’ve learned from my fish.

Even though I;d pretty much talked him out of a hull, we met up give him a chance to try it out anyway. Plus, I hadn’t taken the Vaquero out in a while so it was nice to get a few waves on it again.

Saw Chris for a brief moment. Just enough to yell HIIII while zipping past.

I had plenty of fun cruising on little waves before trading for Scott’s pintail Owl. The Owl was pretty fun, but the waves were starting to close out and I wasn’t getting as much face time in to practice cross stepping. Still plenty fun.

Managed to totally put out my shoulder again. I don’t know what it is about that board, but oww. If I haven’t been on it in a while, I’m laid up the rest of the afternoon.

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Demo day

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Surf: 2.0 ft at 6.7 s from the W at 276°.

Hit up a demo at Aqua today. The waves were pretty much non-existant, but hey, always fun to try new boards. Sunny, warm, but crowded, and closed out little waves. Lovely bbq after.

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Sunday Finday

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Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 310°

I swapped out the A-flex fin that came with my Vaquero for a gl-flex fin I borrowed from Beamer. The waves are a little sloppy to really test it, but man, it’s different. I can’t tell exactly how it’s different, but it feels like the board snaps around. Maybe it’s more out of control, I can’t really tell both cause I don’t really know what I’m doing and because of waves.

The whole session turned out to be pretty fun. Some long rides. Brien’s brother got a few and it’s only his second time surfing ever, that’s always fun to see. All and all, decent sunday.

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Yay, Fish!

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Surf: 4.6 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 269°. Calm – light WSW winds. Dropping to negative tide.

Wooohooohooo ooo.

The forecast sounded pretty mediocre and the cams weren’t helping. After last week, I figured I’d find something rideable. After yesterday, I figured it would be closeouts. I took my fish thinking at bare minimum I wouldn’t get quite so clobbered and I might get a couple half second closeout rides.

Thankfully, the surf turned out to be pretty fun.

I got a few short rides, a few longer okay rides, a few rides where I faceplanted trying to cut back (I’m still figuring out this whole “more than one fin” thing), and then one ride that counts as my most competent wave so far on the fish at Linda Mar.

I got a GREAT wave in Santa Cruz, but conditions were so good that day, it was the wave and the board doing all the work. I’d be happy to have a million more waves like that, sure, but today’s wave made me feel like I was starting to learn a few things.

The key things being that I got my weight right (I keep being too far forward, too far back), used the rail nicely (you know, to go forward instead of standing there), used my fins well for my turns (I could use a little more work here but still excited to be doing turns at all), and got nice smooth glide though the sections.

All and all, pretty satisfied.

<3 Fish!

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Ding Repiar

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Did a little ding repair today.

My Vaquero survived the trip to Mexico. It survived a cobblestone point break. It survived boats and cars and falling coconuts. It unfortunately wasn’t able to stand up to me whacking it against the wall at the house like an idiot. Maaaaaan.

If I hadn’t just picked up a board from an Alex, I would have had him to the repair.

I also needed to do several repairs on my other longboard, so I figured I’d give it a go. I practiced first on the longboard, sanding, patching, sanding, patching.

When it came time to do the Vaquero, I took plenty of time. I cut off the lose chips of fiberglass with a razor. I sanded and sanded with tape to keep from going overboard. I filled, I cured, I sanded, I filled again, I sanded. It was hours of work, but I’m pretty happy with the result.

Just knowing I can do a repair that doesn’t look like a glop bomb is a big step forward. It’s not perfect, but I’m still proud.

Now to watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t leak. :S

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Saturday Evening

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Surf: A little more windblown, but about the same.

Pretty much more YAY. Fun cruisey evening rides on the hull. <3 After surf, we settled down for dinner and a movie. Only two minutes in to Gangs of New York, this guy decided to join us. IMG_7264

This guy is one of only two scorpions I’ve seen in all my trips down here. Unlike the tiny yellow (very poisonous) one we saw the first trip, this big guy did not run away. Beamer poked him with a shoe. He raised his tail and held his ground. We tried to shoo him away, but he was not having it. Sadly, the confrontation ended with the scorpion being squashed and the humans uneasily tiptoeing around the house for the rest of the night.