Surf: More knee to waist high waves. Occasional chest high. Pretty clean.
Yep, more little waves. Another nice morning out. Definitely takes patience and a lot of foam to get waves in the summer. I have both.
Nice little morning
Surf: Knee/Waist high with a few chest high waves.
One thing I love about summer is these small wave mornings is most folks sleep in allowing me to camp out on a tiny little peak and pick off tiny little waves to my heart’s content.
I’ve taken the side bites off my 9’4 to try riding it as a single fin. It’s actually pretty fun and (I think) helping me pull a tighter bottom turn on my lefts. Those lefts are getting better and better all the time. Yay.
Not too shabby for my 100th time surfing. (At least 100 according to wordpress, I’m too busy goofing off in the water to count) 🙂
Rough Morning
Surf: Shifty poorly formed closeouts. Waist to Shoulder high waves. Choppy, sloppy.
My first day back in the water after two weeks in dry dock. Unexpected trip home and the week of work to recover from it.
Chris and I cruised the coast trying to find something worthwhile to surf. The jetty wasn’t breaking, the usual spots were looking less that lovely. After about 40 min of checking we swing back to Linda Mar.
Managed to get a few quick rides in between closeouts but the big story of the day was a great surfing first aid rally by the 8 or so of us out in the water.
A real big set came through that I was barely able to scratch over. I could barely hear the sound over the booming closeouts, but I manage to make out a faint “help”. Another surfer had been hit by his board in the head and was bleeding considerably. I yelled to Chris who was able to help him get in to shore. I bellied in and ran for my first aid kit.
David, another surfer out, is an ER doc and was able to patch the guy up. We got him cleaned up, calmed down, and off to the hospital for 9 stitches and to rest off a mild concussion.
It was a bit of a spook, but I was really impressed how quickly folks were able to come to the rescue. I’m still on the hunt for a proper surf rescue class somewhere, but knowing that most of the folks I surf with have first aid kits to spare is a little comforting.
Small Summer
Surf:This morning’s dawn patrol: Glassy, peaky, weak lines with soft/gutless corners to the beach..
I pulled up to the lot two spot two surfers giving up trying to catch tiny little peeling waves.
I love tiny little peeling waves so I took over their watch and paddled out.
I spent the first two waves bobbing around by myself laughing at how small and slow and wobbly the rides were. After Chris paddled out we moved to a peak with a little more oomph. Rides were still slow and wobbly, but actually a lot of fun. I’m working on my lefts and with the sand bars pretty much machining them out, it seems like it will be a good summer for it.
Glassy Morning
Surf: 3-4ft with 5ft standouts. Glassy, mostly walled-up lines with a few workable corners through the inside.
Nice warm little morning at Linda Mar. The sun managed to work it’s way through the thick fog and the waves were holding up pretty nicely.
Chris and I managed to find ourselves with our own little peak to work. Plenty of fun lefts and rights. It was really nice to have the 9’4 back in the water. The superglide was really helpful. I’m hoping for another day like today sometime soon so I can take the side fins out and try the board as a single fin.
Lightning, Thunder, and Rainbows
Surf: 2-4ft. Inconsistent and soft on the low tide, picked up as the tide came back.
Fun, but storming morning in Pacifica. Driving rain, thunder and lightning, slightly jumbled waves. Surprisingly, the waves weren’t that bad. Caught quite a few before my hands were so frozen my thumbs were opposed to being opposable.
Great rainbow arcing in to the ocean made this a pretty great day to start a Thursday.
Still haven’t worked out all of my thyroid stuff. Got the new meds, have definitely been feeling better, but was WIPED out around 3 or so after this session. Wow. Still not back to 100%, but trying hard!
Slosh Patrol
Surf: Mixed up, 2-4ft waves with 5-6ft occasional standouts. Very sloppy, inconsistent and hard to catch.
Early morning waves were looking pretty messy. Paddled out, sloshed around, and got some exercise. Looong paddle out on the longboard. Plenty of pushback. Great sunrise through the fog though. 🙂
Cold Bolinas Morning
Surf: 2-5ft, inconsistent, windy, hard to catch.
Gear: 9’0
With the upwelling in full swing, my hands and face burned to touch the water. Oh man was it cold. Upwelling is a yearly event caused by the NW high winds. Warmer surface waters are blown into shore and are forced down by the bathymetry causing colder deep water to rise to the top to replace it. One day the water will seem a little colder than usual, the next it’s painfully cold and it stays downright icy until the winds stop. I absolutely made the right decision buying a new wetsuit when I did. I need every ounce of warmth.
For Monday’s session I’d worn my fuzzy hat and mittens to the rendezvous point. Today I’d almost wished I’d worn them in the water. After a few hours my pinkies had given up on me and refused to join the rest of my fingers in cupping my hand to paddle. The wind just added insult to injury. I have no idea how Chris goes without booties. That’s soul beyond soul right there. Brrrrrr.
Buoys and reports had suggested bigger waves, so I took the 9. As soft as these waves wound up being, the 9’4 would have been better. It’s got the float to take on anything and the weight helps with the drop on mushier waves. The 9 did hold a nice line on my last wave in. It’s fast enough to keep out ahead of the wave and as a result I managed to connect the outside wave with two inner breaks and make it all the way to shore. Yay.
Once on land there was a lovely numb footed shuffle back to the car. My hands stayed frozen for a good hour. Brrrrrr.
Dawn Patrol in Bolinas
Surf: 2-4ft, fairly clean. A little bit inconsistent.
Gear: 9ft Stewart
My friend Chris is working on a project up in Marin and with my new flexible work schedule, picking up a dawn patrol was high on the list of great ideas. As it was also the two year mark of me learning to surf, I figured I’d give the early session a go. We met up at 6am, drove over the mountains, then surfed 7ish to 9.
The sun cut through the fog right as we got to the beach. The morning was just beautiful. Waves were small rolling mellow ones and the crowd was friendly. Folks were hooting and hollering, cheering on other surfers when they got a good ride.
I really got to work my new 9ft. I could take off in a steeper spot and got the hang of shuffling it around more fluidly. Man, I got some great long rides in. This board is good staying just in the pocket and picking up speed when needed. The board offers a lot of room to chase on the right wave.
Heading back was the hardest part. I could have stayed out all day if I didn’t have an 11am meeting. Heading up the 1 we met a parade of classic cars coming the other direction. Must have been over two dozen beautiful roadsters cruising the coast, living the dream.
Jumbled, rocky morning
SURF: Waist to Shoulder high. VERY Disorganized. Choppy, sloppy, and an all around mess.
Gear: 10’6.
Having finally recovered from the weekend and convinced by my friend’s stoke from the day before, I hit Linda Mar for a morning session. The clean organized waves he’d caught the day before were messy, nearly uncatchable and wildly unpredictable.
He managed to snag a few decent looking rides, a leash snap, and a long swim in to shore. I got one clean face for a few seconds and another that I swamped a rail on.
The leash snap got me thinking about protocol in a leash breaking situation. I did a quick check in with Chris who signaled he was okay, then scrambled over an incoming set. I felt like I should paddle in and stay with him till he made it to shore, but the waves suddenly picked up and I was doing my best to stay out of trouble. After some time underwater rolling about, I managed to spot him again, happily reunited with his board.
Had he not been confident he’d been able to swim in, I suppose we could have ridden out the set holding on to the monster 10’6 I was on just outside the impact zone. If I’d been closer to the beach than him, I wouldn’t have hesitated to chase down his board and hope both boards and myself would make it through the big set of waves. Thankfully another surfer on the inside was able to snag the board, get out of the way of incoming waves and hold on till Chris was able to get it from him. Whew.