Surf: 3.3 ft at 11.4 s from the W at 268°
Had a lot of hope after the weekend surf…but no. Another frustrating session. Uff.
Surf was real wedgey today, closed out too. I dunno, it just wasn’t working for me. I got a wave, but mostly paddled around feeling in the way. Really fun watching Eduardo and all the body boarders getting some nice rides. Holy crap. That looked fun!
Surf: 3.3 ft at 9.1 s from the W at 262°
More fog and more car-pooling this morning. Things were looking pretty sloppy when we pulled up, but got a hair cleaner as the morning went on. The waves were still a little chunky. Closeouts mixed with longer rides mixed with steep drops into mushout. Other than being in the wrong spot half the time (not sure which closeout to go for) it was a nice enough morning.
Surf: 3.3 ft at 14.8 s from the S at 185° and 2.6 ft at 11.4 s from the WNW at 286°
I have a feeling this season will be a lot of “you should have been here yesterday.” Thursday I was too beat and busy to get out and of course, it was glassy. Small but from the cams and the first hand accounts, it was SMOOTH. Couple of folks said it was so glassy you could see the wake off the tankers rolling up the beach.
Today was not that day. Today was mixed up, closed out, and next to zero visibility. I was really struggling on my fish. It was too soft to get in, too closed out to get a solid ride. Ugh. I paddled around in circles getting frustrated before going in for breakfast. Pretty fun belly ride in at least. (shrug)
Surf: 1.0 ft at 13.8 s from the SW at 226°. Outgoing. 3-6kn winds.
That was so much more fun than I’d expected. It was still small and kind of terrible, but the winds were lighter than the forecast and the little waves were a bit cleaner and more frequent than I thought I’d find given the forecast.
I took my 9′ which managed to hang on to plenty of lumpy shoulders. The biggest thing it was doing well was being maneuverable paddling back out. I forget how thin that board is. It’s nice to be able to slice it through waves on the paddle out.
There was the typical small wave drop-in contests and laugh riots from the usual crew as well as plenty of excitement from the sea life. Dolphins, porpoises, AND sea lions jumping left and right. A big bull surfaced near us with a salmon in it’s jaws. He thrashed around a while, ripping big chunks out of the fish. Pretty cool to watch, if you don’t mind the unease of having a 700lb creature thrashing within arms length. Another big guy decided he wanted to surf for a while, so the drop in contest had to be put on hold.
All and all, not a bad morning.
Surf: 2.0 ft at 14.8 s from the SSW at 195°. Incoming tide. Light winds.
Not much happening on the surf front, but met up with a good crew of people up for goofing off in the water. Handplanes, boogie boards, longboards, fat flat shortboards. We had all the bases covered.
Occasionally you could kind of stretch out a closeout into something a little fun, but for the most part, it was all goofing off stoke, party waves, and good times.
Managed to fit both my longboards in the car too. How about that.
Some big waves moved in to our area Friday night. Buoys spiked to 30ft and a lot of folks were on edge wondering if the waves were going to come in clean and rideable or big and scary.
It was big and scary.
I met up with Tom in front of Wise. We walked around North Ocean Beach and the Cliff House, gawking at waves there. There were waves breaking so far out ir was unbelievable. We cruised on down to Sloat, Rockaway, and finally Linda Mar waiting for Josh to wrap up his session at Half Moon Bay.
Rockaway was, well, hurling rocks:
There was one lone dude out there. He was holding his own, I didn’t see him get stomped but wow. He was a tiny dot surrounded by big angry waves.
Linda Mar wasn’t as big as projected, but still looked rough. A handful of people were out getting waves.
I stayed nice and dry. Had lovely brunch at the Cliff House instead.
SURF: 2-3 ft knee to waist high and fair conditions.
This morning’s dawn patrol: Clean, scattered lines getting up around waist high. It’s fairly small-scale, but definitely rideable this morning.
Waves this weekend were looking pretty small up and down the coast. I met up with Cryptomail to spend a little time on my Stewart at Ocean Beach.
Waves were indeed small. I got in a handful of really nice long mellow rides. I saw a dolphin and some sea lions. I pearled quite a bit and was having trouble going left but it was nice to be out on my board again and great to surf at a new spot (especially when it’s small and manageable.)
There was a group out at Kelly’s having a reunion. They had a best/worst surfboard competition, a bbq, and a memorial to surfers who have passed on. We checked out the boards. Very cool to see such a tight knit surfing family enjoying the day together.
Oh, I picked up a shortboard recently. It’s on perma-loan from a friend. I have no idea if I can even ride it.
It’s a little thick so I’m hoping I can duckdive it. I’m also tempted to pick up a great sounding little fish but I’m worried I’m collecting boards without any idea how or what I want to ride. A fish sounds like a fun small wave alternative to a longboard. Part of me wants to challenge myself with a board that can take bigger waves but I’m also afraid of taking on bigger waves. It would be more practical to have a shortboard that can work well in steeper or larger waves that my longboard can’t, but it would be fun to have a fish and goof off in the little waves!
