Tag: linda mar

Surf: 3.9 ft at 7.1 s from the W at 279°

This week has been a return to my surfing roots: making the most of terrible waves. These sessions are all about positioning, patience, and making unmakeable sections.

It’s been mixed up, choppy, and all around messy. These are the kinds of waves I started out surfing on. Since it’s been a desperate month with too much time out of the water, I’ve been willing to give it a shot.

These are great skill building conditions. It’s one thing to catch a clean perfect wave, it’s another to really work to make slop into a wave.

Surf: 3.0 ft at 7.7 s from the WNW at 293°

More desperado waves today. Brien didn’t want to haul all the way down to yesterday’s waves so we made the most of the usual hangouts. It was pretty much as expected: mixed up, sloppy, etc, but kinda surfable. I think we wound up chasing a few soft tops out of the water. I imagine it was more fun for them when they thought it was totally unsurfable. Then we come by and grab tiny meh wave after tiny meh wave and show them up… or they were tired of the nauseating wash and slop. Uff.

Can’t wait for the wind to take a break.

Surf: 6.9 ft at 19.0 s from the SW at 219°

I’ve been sick as a dog the past week. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hand going down to Santa Cruz, so I opted for local waves.

This is one of those times when things I think should do and things I ACTUALLY should do are in total conflict.

I felt like I should go surf. I’ve been out of the water a while and I’d made promised to meet up with folks. However when I woke up, I felt HORRIBLE. Oh my god. Wow. The fact I got out of bed at all was kind of amazing.

I took my 7’0 quad out. It was actually pretty fun, between waves of agony.

I kept pushing myself to keep going, before finally giving up and washing in. I wound up spending some serious time in the parking lot sitting on the ground being miserable.

This was enough to finally motivate me to go to the doctor, so there’s some good in my bad decision. Doc said I have the flu and was really dehydrated. No surf for me till I’m 100%. In the mean time, I’m gonna crawl back in bed and be properly miserable for a while. UNNNGNGG

Photo by Darren

Surf: 3.9 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 265°. Outgoing tide.

Smaller than yesterday, but pretty fun!

I took my stub quad out (it’s been a while) and wound up getting quite a few waves. I’m hoping that surfing this board as a quad for a bit will help me figure out how to surf my fish better. It’s the same thickness as my fish, with an extra 8 inches of length for more catching power. I got into a couple waves that I wasn’t expecting to get. It’s amazing how much easier some of my boards seem now. This board was really hard a year ago, but I seemed to be doing okay today.

It’s nice to feel like I’m getting somewhere, but I’ve gone back and forth with my shorter boards. One sessions I’m fine, the next I’m skunked.

I had planned to let Heather borrow this board for the summer. I might have to rethink that idea. 😉

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the SSW at 208° Small and kinda clean.

Started out the morning at Ocean Beach. It was windy, small, and all around not inspiring. After kicking some dirty and waiting for a wave, the wind shifted south and we decided to look for a more sheltered spot.

I’d brought my hull hoping to convince myself that my hull was not really all that fun and I shouldn’t take it to Mexico (even though Burros is pretty much the perfect wave for it.)

Linda mar looked small. I thought it would be perfect. I’d struggle and get frustrated and decide that all I need to take is my fish, not my fish AND my hull.

Of course, when you decide something like that, the waves turn out to be super fun. My little hull zipped all around, gliding like crazy, swooping a little. It was silly fun. I got some great long rides.

I wound up walking away from the session knowing I was going to take one heavy board bag to Mexico and that I was going to have a heck of a lot of fun.

Surf: 3.3 ft at 13.8 s from the SSW at 198°. South Winds.

I knew the surf would be on the small side and I figured it would be a good day to get in some log time. What I forgot to do was switch out my 6ft leash for my 9ft leash. Opps.

Rather than try to navigate the crowd while leashless, I went up to the north end where I had a solid hour of solo time, just me and some really fun little waves. Well, me, fun little waves, and a whale right in the lineup!

I got some real nice long ones.

Eventually folks figured out that I was having a ridiculously fun time and joined me. Sure, it wasn’t as fun to have to share, but it did mean I got to surf with Heather for a while, that was fun.

All around lovely morning.

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 310°

Today’s surf was bigger and softer than it’s been. Crowded too. With the softness I was really fighting to get into waves. I managed to get a few but they all felt slow.

I had a duck dive that went wrong and I kicked my fin. My whole foot is blue. Having so many fins so close to me means I’m constantly kicking them. Owwww.

After struggling a while on the bigger wave, I snuggled up to a small left and picked up a few more fun ones.

It’s always the little waves I catch easy, not the big ones. It’s silly, but I’ll take it.

Surf: 5.3 ft at 8.3 s from WNW at 302°

Short period and ranging wildly from small mush waves to bigger push waves, but fun enough for a few short rides. I was really working hard on my fish. I managed to get into a few fun ones. Most of them started off great, then the wave faded under my feet. Aww.

Well, fun enough. I’ll take every surfable day I can get.

Brien got a shot of me doing some of my post-surf chores. I usually soak everything quickly, then dry it all on my car at work. Sadly, we’re losing our parking spaces at the office in May so it looks like I’ll be driving home to drop off gear first. It does mean cleaner gear, but it also means I have to add an extra 45 minutes to my morning routine to fit in bus time back to the office. Still happy I get to surf before work. I’ll take two 45 minute busses before I give that up.