Surf: 4.3 ft at 12.1 s from the WSW at 253°
The surf was pretty small and lumpy this morning, but man, this board can really make the most of it. I worked on some cutbacks and hunted down quite a few small mushy ones. Hoping to take another class with Ashley some time to really learn how to use this board.
Surf: 5.6 ft at 16.0 s from the WNW 286°. Low tide.
I spent the better part of last week sick in bed so when Friday rolled around I was pretty excited to get out of the house and get into the water. Really excited. Like, sit in the dark and wait for enough light to see if the surf is even rideable excited. 😀
It looked right up my alley: small, mellow, and peeling(-ish, I mean, it’s still Pacifica.)
Yup, fun. Lots of cruising, turning, working on some moves. Lots of wishing everyone a happy new year. Lots of catching up with folks I haven’t seen in ages.
And yes, I stretched before and after, just like I’d resolved to.
Surf: 3.9 ft at 16.0 s from the WNW at 289°.
I might have gotten a little over ambitious with the new years resolutions. Yes, I want to get back into the swing of things, but taking out my fish (which I’ve barely ridden since getting hurt) in conditions I knew would be bigger (not huge, but still not the gentle softies of NYD) may have been unwise. Oh, and I’ve got a mean barking cough, too.
The first tip off probably should have been taking my board out of the bag to find the glassing around the fin cracked. Damn. I taped it up.
Second tip off probably should have been the shooting pain on a duckdive halfway out to the lineup. I turned around, I bellied in and tried to stretch it out.
I paddled back out, made it this time (with surprisingly little pain when diving), but was just not feeling it. I wasn’t trusting my board (mostly because I didn’t want to damage it further,) not trusting my body (both ability to dive or keep a good breath,) and really, I just wasn’t up for this.
I still wanted to try so I went for one. I blew the take off and got wrecked. I started coughing. Oh man. It was embarrassing and actually pretty scary. I could see the next wave in the set right there but could not stop coughing long enough to get a good breath. Fuck. I was panicking. I went under, did the best I could, came up and tried to calm down and stop coughing before the next wave.
If there’s anything I’m proud of in this disaster, it’s that I did regain my composure and I used that next wave to belly in.
It was frustrating and embarrassing, but a good reminder that: while it’s great I want to get back out there, it’s not something I can stubbornly force. I have to be gentle in the right places, and tough in the right places.
Oh and stretch more. I need to stretch more.
Surf: 3.3 ft at 12.1 s from the WNW at 288°. High tide.
So clean and beautiful and mellow this morning! What a way to ring in the new year. Soft, rolling long waves, an easy paddle, and almost no one out in the early hours. Saw some folks dancing and playing music on the beach, keeping their NYE party going as long as they could. I was pretty beat after so many lovely waves, I opted for brunch and a nap on the sand instead. Super stoked. 🙂
Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the W at 262°. Onshore.
As the year comes to an end, folks start talking about their year: surf stats, highlights, etc. It got me thinking a little bit about this past year. Uff. It was a tough one surfwise for sure. This nagging injury is now a year old and, while I have a much better range of motion, it still hurts every day.
I did a quick scan of how often I’ve surfed this year. I normally average 150-175 surf sessions, this year barely hit the upper 80’s.
It’s been hard being out of the water, being so far off from my usual morning routines, and I miss saying hi to folks, being at the beach, all the things that come along with surfing. It’s also been hard trying to find a balance. Maybe if I hadn’t been so insistent on still surfing when I first got hurt, I might not still be hurt now. But on the other hand, not being physically active also has it’s drawbacks. It’s frustrating to “take it easy” only to have nothing change. I think a few of these aches and pains are from not being mobile. I feel both lazy for not going, and guilty for going.
After wrapping work early, I thought I’d sneak out for a few more waves. The forecast looked small enough not to set off too much neck pain and man, it’s awesome to watch the sun set on NYE from the water.
The wind had sadly switched to onshore and the little waves were a lumpy mess, but ahh well, I’ve surfed worse. It was silly, sloppy wave fun and wow, so clear! What a sunset.
Happy New Year!
Surf: 11.2 ft at 17.4 s from the WNW at 293°
Yay for rain! These winter storms have been slowly chipping away at our drought. It’s great for the water table, not great for water quality. It was pretty lucky to have both my shoulder stamina and a window from the line to line up.
Pretty fun waves out there, too. Really, it was nice just to get up, get going, and catch a few waves. I had fun swooshing around, did a little shuffling up, and mostly avoided getting knocked around until the very last wave. I’d forgotten what it was like to sit in my favorite corner of the beach watching the huge mountains of water roll by out at sea. Wow.
You could see the clouds shifting out over the ocean too. The storm coming should be a pretty good one!
Surf: 6.9 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 290°. Incoming.
Day three of “whatever, shoulders, I’m gonna paddle”
Feeling more sore today. Opted for one side of the beach, hoping for a shorter paddle, but the slosh and the crowd was too much. Managed to get my leash wrapped around my hand trying to keep the board close after a closeout in the crowd. Oww. Upside was it worked, downside is I’ll have an awesomely black middle finger for a week. Rawr.
The other side was much more my speed and paddling to there from the first side didn’t put me any more into the red. Waves were lumpy but every now and then one really lined up. After a few of those, my shoulders were worn out. Got some lunch in Stinson and headed back over the mountains to a beautiful show of clouds over the ocean.
Oh! And a guy in the lot recognized Chris’s Stan Fujii. It used to be his. Pretty neat to find a used board’s former owner. 🙂
Surf: 2.6 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 277°
Paddled back out for some pre-feast exercise. Still closed out, but with a wave or two in the mix. The good news is yesterday’s paddle out didn’t make my neck any worse, sadly it still hurts. Aches and pains aside, the sun was beautiful, the water wasn’t super cold, and I watched Chris get a great long wave, dodging all the sections, traffic, and weird warbles. Good pre-stuffing stuff.
Surf: 5.3 ft at 12.9 s from the WNW at 285°. Low and incoming.
I had a bit of a setback in physical therapy progress over the weekend. Saturday I spent about 45 minutes or so drawing, went about my day, went to sleep at a normal time and, when I woke up Sunday, I couldn’t sit up to get out of bed. Arg. It’s frustrating. I was making good progress, but now I feel like I’m back near the starting line. Driving to PT on Tuesday, I passed a couple cars loaded up with boards and thought, well, I guess this is just going to hurt, wether I baby it or not.
Of course, when I was thinking “Screw it, I’ll just paddle out” I was still hoping the waves would be gentle and not teeth rattling closeouts, but ahh well. The little waves stayed open and were actually a little fun, but everything else was a rough ride straight down. I saw someone buckle their soft top! Yeesh.
But hey, sun was out, got wet, and got a donut.
Surf: 5.3 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 280°. High tide.
After the weeks’s success on a shorter board, I was both excited to get back out, but also hoping to take it a little easy. My shoulders were a bit sore and I didn’t want to push them too far. Sadly the surf did not cooperate. The tide was very high and the shorebreak was a sloshing mess. About halfway out I was feeling that sharp pain in my neck again so I turned around and bellied in.
It was disappointing, sure, but I did get some swim time in.
