Tag: dawn patrol

Surf: 10.8 ft at 19.0 s from the W at 277°. Low tide. NW Winds.

The swell that was teasing us yesterday is here, but with a lot of NW wind off the coast. They’ll still run the big contest, but they’ll have to do it with some lumpy waves. I made a few funky rides into full on waves, but after 6 days of surf, I was beat. I hung out on the beach for a while and heard everybody’s stories about that one time, that one year, way back when you could just ride your bike to the cliff at Maverick’s and watch those legends do their thing. Back before it was a circus. Good luck out there, competitors.

 

Surf: 5.3 ft at 12.1 s from the WNW at 284°. Incoming tide.

The surf this morning wasn’t sure if it was ready for the new swell coming in. Things were on the small side, but closed out, with occasional bigger waves. I was having trouble finding something at yesterday’s spot, and since I was coughing up a storm, I found a spot where no one was sitting and tried to make the most of it.

Amazingly, I turned some junky waves into rides. Other folks started trying themselves, but there really wasn’t much to work with. One of those mornings, I guess. I’m happy enough, but it’s certainly no yesterday!

Surf: 4.3 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 264°. Incoming tide. Light winds.

Oh man, this morning was a lot of fun. Rolling up I though “uff, the tide is too low, it’s all going to be closed out.” So glad to be wrong. After a few waves on a slightly chaotic peak, I moved over to a very peaky little peak that was a blast. Tons of good vibes, everyone was cheering everyone on and there were plenty of lefts and rights to go around, if you could link it through to the inside.

J-bird got a high five from Ben while they were partying a wave. A guy on the inside tried to high five me, but sadly I was too far from him. Still, plenty of YEEEEEWS! and people getting great rides. Stoked.

Surf: 7.9 ft at 13.8 s from the WNW at 282°. Incoming. Offshore.

The size came back up fast. No more peaky spots, instead it was lots of closeouts and lots of hoping to make something work. There were plenty of shore rides, a few “kinda strung it together to make a long ride,” and one big whomp that got me good. Whew. Beautiful sunrise and plenty of wildlife this morning.

Surf: 3.6 ft at 12.9 s from the W at 268°. Incoming tide. Offshore.

The size and frequency really came down from yesterday, but so did the crowd. The weather was still nice and, despite some long waits for waves, there was a great peaky little spot that was a lot of fun.

Surf: 5.6 ft at 12.9 s from the W at 281°. High tide and outgoing. Winds from the ENE.

What a beautiful warn, sunny day. And with bite sized waves to boot. I’m coming off cold number 3 since Jan 1st so I was excited to get back in the water. Crowd and all.

The first hour I really struggled. All the waves I went for were backing off at the last second, and I didn’t feel like paddling deep into the pack to look for inside scraps.

Moving over a peak did wonders for my morning wave success. I got like two fun speedy, way on the nose rights that left me pretty stoked. Sure, it was crowded and some people had their aggro superbowl supergrowls on, but I got to see lots of friends and catch a few in the sun.

Looking forward to getting back to the weekday sessions with their relative peace and quiet.

Surf: 9.8 ft at 16.0 s from the WNW at 285°. Low Tide. Winds ENE.

With the size coming back up, I’d hoped for my faviorite low tide corner to be working. I keep having that hope and I keep paddling out to chunky, weird waves. I tried several spots and all of them were that ledgy type of closeout onto almost dry sand. Yuck. I got a few exploding closeouts before catching a small wave in.

 

 

 

Surf: 4.9 ft at 10.8 s from the WNW at 287°. Incoming tide. Offshore.

Today was the first time in a while we’ve had a mellow, small surf day. It was nice to be able to hit up my favorite peaks on the north side and even better not to get completely wrecked doing it.

I kicked the session off with a really great wave. Chris said “all you” and man was I stoked he gave me that wave. I got way way up on the nose. I got a big oll swoosh in. So nice to be back on my longboard.

Even with all the extra foam, I was still exhausted. These long stretches without surf have me so out of shape. I had plenty of fun and my arms were noodles in no time. More surf, less colds and morning meetings, please.

 

Surf: 6.9 ft at 16.0 s from the WNW at 287°

It was a little smaller this morning, but still plenty fun. I tried another spot instead of my favorite spot. More people but I still got plenty of rides. It took a while to get into rhythm. My first wave I popped up, slipped, landed nearly face first on the board, popped up again and finished the ride out. Whew. 

Seems like I may need to buy some more cold water wax. I’ve been surfing with cool wax because my body heat is melting the cold. Unfortunately cool wax in cold weather is slippery as all get out. Looks like I can either fall on my face, or just deal with a few mushy patches wher the wax got warm.

Beautiful sunrise this morning with dramatic clouds. My last wave a guy dropped in on me. He was sure tearing it up and I would have let the wave go once he hopped on, but I really wanted one in. Thankfully we were both good sports about it and had a could laugh when we were back on land.