Tag: dawn patrol

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Desayuno con los desesperados!

Surf: Large and closed out for most of the beach. Waist-Shoulder, soft in the lefties.

Even with the later and later sunrise, it’s pretty easy to see a half beach long closeout. I made a lot of skeptical faces in the parking lot. Stomp stomp stomp in the dark. Paddling out, still skeptical. Sitting in the lineup, skeptical. Few waves later, little less skeptical. I’m trying to get the hang of this whole paddling out when it looks rough and wild in order to find the spot that’s working. Not perfect, but fun after chasing a few sections down.

I got a new gear bag to replace my slowly disintegrating reused plastic pillow cover. It’s a Dakine wetsuit bag. So far it fits my wetsuit, booties, rashguard and swimsuit. It fits in my backpack, it seems sturdy enough, and the lining turns inside out to dry.

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Mellow Waveshare

Surf: Waist High and mellow. Some larger waves holding up, some closing out.

One nice thing about staying sheltered is the morning crew. Friendly folks happy so share waves and hoot for each other. I got called in to a few waves to share them with other folks. Plenty fun.

On one wave I spotted a slumped over something towards the shore. When I kicked out, I paddled over to see it was a big doe eyed harbor seal looking for snacks in the rocks. Paddled back out, not thinking anything of it. About when I got settled in the lineup, another surfer said “I see you have a friend today!” Just a few feet away from my board was that same doe eye harbor seal give me the “whatchoodoing” face. He followed me the whole way out and hung around for a while while we surfed. Crazy little dudes.

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Mountains in the Fog

Surf: Inconsistent but better than expected. Large north, waist high south.

I’d spent a lot of the summer half worrying about fall. I like small waves. I like longboarding all year round. Fall means big waves. At some point last year (probably while being thrown around like a rag doll in a washing machine), I’d convinced myself I needed to learn to shortboard to be able to surf in the fall and winter.

The problem was, I didn’t really like it. There’s a lot I need to learn on a longboard and I just like it more. Committing to longboard life gave me this sinking feeling that I was going to be sitting out on a lot of surf days.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one who wants to keep pulling out a big ole board when the late year swells come in.

I was looking pretty skeptically at the buoy readings as Chris was trying to convince me that it would be “fine.” Showing up to a completely fogged in beach wasn’t making me feel any better either. But after suiting up, the fog cleared at bit and there were some fun little waves off in a sheltered corner of the beach.

It was a bit unnerving seeing the huge waves pushing through the fog up north, but reassuring to have a nice wave to ride out of the line of fire. Working on some winter confidence.

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Lemony

Surf: 1-3ft and choppy.

After a thorough survey of San Mateo County wind and surf conditions, we picked off a few waves at the familiar standby. Certainly not great out there, but workable on a longboard. The water is clear and green again. I could see the various colors of sands and small rocks. Not terrible out there, but only somewhat doing something.

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So tired.

Surf: umm…2-3ft? Soft?

Unnnng. I’ve been working a lot of late nights this week and I was beyond tired for the early am session. Squinting the whole way down to the beach I spotted some okay waves but with quite a few people on them. Everyone was looking for the “south swell” that was supposed be here.

I didn’t get much in the way of waves. My arms were spent, my head felt like concrete. I was really really tired.

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Ocean Beach Summer

Surf: Small, slightly bumpy soft waves. 2-3ft with some 4-5ft standouts.

I like surfing ocean beach when it’s small. In the summer it can get nice and mellow and I can paddle out with my longboard like it’s any other day. I’d mostly neglected the usual OB breaks over this summer. I guess I’d gotten into the habit of picking off lefts at Linda Mar and wasn’t really thinking much about surfing our local avenues.

Today Linda Mar was flat so Chris and I headed back up the coast, checking out the usual alphabet streets.

I got a real nice wave right after paddle out, then a few warbly drops on other jumbled waves. OB is always a surprise. The wildlife is a lot less timid and some pretty large waves can come charing through a spot that had previously be sleepily breaking at knee to waist high. Trying to scrap over one larger wave my board got yanked my the wave. I had a few seconds of bobbing around before realizing my board was surfing the wave without me. I had a nice long ride being drug along behind my board that was happily enjoying a nice wave all on it’s own. The 9’4 really gets moving fast, even towing me splashing behind it.

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Case of the Mondays

Surf: Sloppy, Disorganized 4ft. Rideable, sort of.

I’d hoped to sneak in a nice little morning surf before heading out to the desert for Labor Day. Out of “nice little morning surf” I got “morning.”

I was unruly out there. I got finned, I got dumped, but I did get a decent sized wave.

After that wave I said ehh, time for work.

Got to work and around noonish the surf sites and the twitters were all a buzz about a 100ft long monster shark sighted eating a sea lion about 100 yards out from the spot we were surfing.

Unruly beach day indeed.

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AM Doublesun

Surf: Waist high, mellow, clean waves. Warm sun.

I couldn’t really sleep. It happens. When Chris checked in to ask about a dawn patrol I was up watching a documentary on netflix trying to fall back to sleep.

Man, was I happy I dragged myself out of bed. Warm sun, blue sky, friendly folks. Saw Chris get a few really nice ones as I was paddling out. After picking off a few half decent waves, I spent some time sitting on the beach. I rarely get to just sit on the beach. It’s usually cold and foggy and I’m rushing off to work.

I sat for a little while and watched the waves. I spotted a nice left that everyone kept trying to take right. After watching a few sets, I paddled out for it. Timing was key. I had to wait for a nice one that wouldn’t have someone trying to take it right. With patience and a careful set up, I was rewarded with a nice long fun left.

Most waves I ride, I enjoy, then they fade into blueish greenish greyish moving memories that soon fade. Waves are ephemeral and meant to be enjoyed in the moment so it’s natural to let them go. Waves like my morning’s left are the ones I get to remember. I had a long line, lots of deep blue wave face. I had speed, I had turns, I linked up to the inside section. Everything went smoothly right in to the beach.

I was so happy. Got a few compliments on the beach even. What a morning!

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Flat and Dark

Surf: Ankle to Knee high and dark

We sort of got a jump on the sun this morning. Spent a little bit sitting in the parking lot in the dark watching hints of whitewater barely breaking and listening to NPR.

Sunrise didn’t find conditions to be much better than in the dark. 4 of us tried to will one little sort of peak into working with mixed success. At least I got some water time in and got to work early.

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Funky morning

Surf: Knee high and junky.

Not every surf session can be awesome. This one was pretty meh. Tide was too low, waves were closed out. All and all a disorganized mess. However it was a very successful “get up WAY earlier than normal to paddle out at 6am” attempt. I got up way earlier and paddled out for sure. Heard rumors of some wildlife activity in the water. All I spotted were a few dolphins playing, but always grateful to the SRC for their updates.