Surf: Small, clean.
LM was looking pretty sloppy so we went on a SMC break tour. Not a lot was happening out there. I was sporting some awesomely fluffy slept on hair and went for the paddle out anyway despite tiny tiny waves. Was actually pretty fun in a small wave laughing at yourself kind of way. Saw Chris steal quite a few long rides from those hungry looking knee high closeouts. He got the wave of the day for sure.
Surf: Crumbly, small and slow. 8.9 ft at 10.8 s from the NW at 322°
Today’s my Dad’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Dad!
The sun was out and beautiful, but the NW wind was blowing so we headed south. The plan was to check and if the surf was bad, go for donuts.
The Jetty was a bit more protected even if it was running on the smaller side. I hadn’t showered so getting wet was better than not as far as going into the office all funky. Lots of sparkly gold little rides. Not much oomf, but as the only people out we could goof off and paddle for every knee high little wave.
The bright sun made for some exciting times crossing the highway. Sure it’s only 2 lanes, but a little scary when you know one lane is coming at you blind.
Photos by Luke
Surf: Inconsistent, crumbly. 7.5 ft @ 11.4 sec from the W 278º
Spent most of the weekend being a shut in, working on a bunch of projects. Managed to be pulled away for a few hours by the nice weather. Surf wasn’t as nice, but hey, can’t argue with sunshine and warm weather.
It’s great being able to change in the parking lot without keeping my coat, hat and mittens on. It’s nice to come back to a warm car.
Aaron and I picked of lots of smalls steep closeouts. Couple decent rides, mostly drop and wash followed by some bbq demolishing time while working/half watching the superbowl.
Surf: Inconsistent, but somewhat peeling. 6.6 ft @ 8.3 sec from NW 317º
Over drinks the night before, there were promises made of Sunday morning surf meet up. I said no no no, I couldn’t possibly. I’m tired, I’m not feeling well, excuse goes here. Well, I went anyway. The instigator of the plan didn’t show, but plenty of other folks did.
Standing in the lot I grumbled about how sloppy, small and uninspiring things looked. In the water things were much better. I got plenty of small smooth little rides. Not too shabby after all.
Afterwards we demolished some serious lunch. Good day spent with friends.
Surf: Knee high on a good wave. Closed out. Beautiful weather.
Yay! A whole weekend without work!
I kicked around going to Bolinas, but waited a little too long and the declining swell made it not worth the haul. After checking Linda Mar (jumbled up, crowded, closed out mess) I met Tom down at the Jetty. It was small. So very, very small. Barely breaking, small.
Not a bad day to sit around in the water though. I managed to squeeze a few fun little rides. Lots of crouching and holding the rail, hoping to bust through a closeout. All the floating around worked up an appetite for Underdogs. Mmmmm tacos.
Surf: Waist high. Still a bit mixed up.
Headed south to escape the jumbled up, junky stuff blowing around in the usual places. Cleaner, knee to waist high waves. Still plenty of texture and plenty of jumble. Not awful, but lots of closed out, doublestacked waves with a sideways wave in the middle. I got one real nice one, then a lot of short closed out rides. Hardly anyone out and another lovely sunrise.
Surf: Yick.
BIG swell came in on Tuesday. Large swells, windy, mixed up. Linda Mar was plenty closed out so we went south hoping for something better. Not better. Chris made it out for a wave or two, I sloshed around for a while before being set down on the beach by a somewhat kindly wave. I went and got a bear claw instead.
Fancy faux Polaroid edition:
Surf: 4-6ft, some larger sets. Little bit choppy, but surprisingly clean for the size and the howling winds elsewhere.
Left work early to sneak in a little sunset surfing. The sunset was beautiful. Big gold waves moody clouds. The surf was big. I tend to get skittish around 4ft on the longboard. It’s a lot of board to have in the water. Even with the 9′ (which is meant to be ridden on a bigger, steeper wave), I was making whimpering noises paddling out.
The waves were fairly clean so the paddle out wasn’t hard. I was doing my best to avoid going for a wave, but did finally stop being a complete wuss long enough to catch two nice waves, probably the biggest I’ve caught. definitely the biggest I’ve caught and held a clean line all the way down. That 9′ can really fly.
I had a pretty exciting wipeout too. Over the falls, me and to board held down by the wash, bouncing along the sandy bottom. Oooof. I laughed it off because it must have looked spectacular. I also gave my friends on shore another good laugh watching me get caught inside on a BIG set just after sunset. I must have spent 10 minutes scratching over waves, diving under them, being a tiny dot in a big blue grey wall, before I caught one that had already broken and bellied in to shore. Whew.
Surf: 2-3ft, Inconsistent, Mushy but smooth.
Gear: 9’0 Stewart LSP?
After wrapping work early, I decided to go for my first double session and catch a few waves at the jetty. Conditions were a little weak, but at that point, so was I. I haven’t done double sessions before (especially after getting up at 5am), so I was sloppy out there. I got maybe one okayish wave. There was a pretty embarassing moment when another woman in the linup (who was TEARING it up on a longboard) asked if my board was mine or I was just borrowing it.
Ouch.
She was legitimately interested in my board and suggested that perhaps it’s an LSP and not a hydro hull. After looking up the specs on the LSP, I’d say she’s right. The upside is that I’m learning a new board and it’s one that should be able to handle steeper, larger waves next winter. It’s what Stewart calls their “9’0 shortboard”. Hopefully it will help me learn to be more agressive and take on steeper waves. I’m also hopeful those skills will translate to my shortboards once I get better at riding them.
The lineup was pretty great to watch. Between the woman cutting screaming lines down the face and Jeff Clark turning a mushy peak into magic, there was a lot of great surfing going on.
Hopefully I’ll be able to up my second session game in the future.
SURF: 2-3ft, little bit of jumble but fun, peeling, and beautiful sunshine.
Gear: 9’0 Stewart Hydro Hull
My 9’4 has been in and out of the repairshop lately. Poor board has been getting dinged at crowded breaks and, since it’s practically a new board, I have it repaired professionally.
With the week or so turnaround time this leaves me high and dry if the swell is too small for my other boards. After seeing the forecasts for small clean swell, I hit craigslist looking for a backup board. Wouldn’t you know, there’s another board similar to mine for sale. I checked out for a long lunch, looked to board over and bought it.
I was looking for an 8’6, but I couldn’t really pass this one up. Sure the finbox had been ripped out and repaired, sure it had a lot of not so nicely repaired dings, but it was in decent shape and cheap. Cheap enough that I can learn to do repairs on it. Cheap enough that I can lend it to friends when I take them out surfing.
I spent saturday sanding down all the lumpy repairs and blobby resin. I touched up the fin box repairs and waxed it up.
Sunday I got it in the water. At 2 7/8th thick it’s a half inch thinner and about a half inch narrower than my 9’4. The tail is pulled in and very narrow. It’s lighter and feels like there’s not as much concave to the bottom. All of which leads to a slightly different ride. It turns fast and seems to be able to get into the wave at a slightly steeper point. I need to test it out more to really see how it’s different.
I managed to get two really great waves out of it. Both nice long rights. I could chase sections pretty well, but didn’t get any of the clean stable shuffling my 9’4 is so good at. Aaron and I stayed out for about 4 hours. He got one awesome long left and a few good rights.
The weather was so amazing people were hanging out all over the place, even the parking lot. A few kids were sitting around with a pickup overflowing with boards and a lazy boy. I’m sure somewhere just out of sight of passing officers was an ice cold bucket of beer.
California is whatever you make of it.
