Tag: california

Posted on

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!

2014-SANOB-06-28w

Posted on

Road trip south – Thursday and Friday

2014-SANOP-06-24a

2014-SANOP-06-24b

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.

2014-SANOP-06-26

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.

2014-SANOE-06-27a

2014-SANOE-06-27b

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!

2014-SANO-06-27c

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

Posted on

Solstice workout

2014-BO-06-21

2014-OBKC-06-21

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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. 🙂

Posted on

Desperado Bo

2014-BO-05-31a

2014-BO-05-31b

2014-BO-05-31c

Surf: 4.6 ft at 7.7 s from the NW at 304°. High tide. Light to med NW winds.

Unexpected Saturday detour north. I packed a bag full of beach-hangout supplies fully expecting little to no surf. To my surprise, there was a small desperado wave just nice enough to merit checking it out.

I had my hull with me (I can’t fit my log in the Westie) so it took a few waves for me to remember how to surf it. OnceI got up and running, I founds some actual wave type things! Yessss. What a workout hunting down little scraps on a little scrappy board.

There was an RC surfer out, too. I’ve never seen one in real life, but it look like it’s owner was having a blast.

Left 75° and sunny Bo to head back to the insanely foggy city. Wow. We drove over Mt Tam, then back down to Hawk Hill and it was almost zero visibility. We had white fog, blue fog, orange fog (that was confusing), rain, and wind on the way back. Fun fun.

Posted on

Santa Cruz

2014-SCHK-05-20a

2014-SCHK-05-20b

Surf: 5.9 ft at 10.0 s from the WNW at 285°. Low tide.

Still sore. The waves were a little bigger than I’d thought, so I stayed out of the pack. It was still a good spot. About half the sets had a wave or two that swung wide and I got some real fun ones. Not as much walking. The waves were really zippy and I went more for swoosh than for heading up to the nose.

The tide was so low. I got hooked up in the kelp a few times. Sploosh!

Afterward, hung around and poked at the tidepools. Lots of little hermit crabs.

2014-05-23 22.49.04-1

Posted on

Warm Ocean Beach

2014-OBP-05-14

Surf: 3.6 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 261°.

Went back out again. This time paddling was easier, but turning still hurt. The waves were bigger, but thankfully still pretty gentle. I was treating my neck as gingerly as possible. I did get some fun ones. The first bottom turn was hard as I could look right, but I got some fun drops.

Already 70° by 7am. Gonna be a hot one today.

Posted on

Small Ocean Beach

2014-OBP-05-13

Surf: 3.3 ft at 6.7 s from the WNW at 296°.

Still a bit busted but I figured small surf might be okay. I got a few waves. Keeping up with the current was pretty tough. It hurts pretty good to look up when I paddle so I went with the current, not so bad.

My neck was hurting like crazy after. Ow ow. I want to keep active. I feel like it’ll just get worse laying in bed. It’s a very thin line between being active to help, and making it worse. Hopefully this didn’t make it worse!

Posted on

Swim

2014-LM-05-07

Surf: 6.6 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 307°. Windy.

We had some folks visiting from England this week. They really wanted to surf, but the wind was not cooperating. I put my neck out last weekend and was hoping a light swim and a little bit of bodysurfing might do me good.

It was a little bit of a help. Getting the wetsuit on and off hurt like crazy, but swimming itself wasn’t bad. Not sure how much surfing I’ll be able to do in the short term. Hoping to get in a swim or two.