Surf: 7.9 ft at 16.0 s from the NW at 308°
After Wednesday’s success, I figured Linda Mar would be junky (it’s almost always junky after I go to Santa Curz) so I brought out the fish.
I managed to get waves! I would up having to swallow my pride and catch a few slightly broken waves on the inside, but I got up, I turned. Success! It’s a pretty fun board once I’m up, but I’m still working on the getting up part.
Also, arms. Oww. So sore after Wednesday.
Surf: 7.6 ft at 16.0 s from WNW at 296° Low and incoming tide.
After Wednesday I had pretty low expectations and a pretty high frustration level.
I brought my longboard and I’m glad I did. Fun lefts! Nothing perfect, but fun. Plus it doesn’t hurt to feel competent. Oh and there was a whale. And sunshine.
The whole morning got me thinking. There were plenty of closeouts today. Sure it was a little smaller than wednesday and there was a bigger chance of the wave staying open, but still closed out for sure. This problem I’ve had with closeouts started with me getting clobbered last winter over and over again. It seems to be worse when I’m on a smaller board, probably because I can’t get into waves as early and have to deal with a steeper drop. But it seems like it shouldn’t be THAT much easier on a log. I’d really like to figure this out. As much as I love riding my longboard, I’m getting tired of the frustration on my shorter boards.
Surf: 6.9 ft at 12.9 s from WNW at 289°. Low, outgoing tide.
I snuck out early for a sunset surf, hoping conditions had cleaned up since yesterday. They had not.
There were corners here and there, but for the most part the waves closed out. I didn’t get into anything on the shorter board, so I paddled around, ducking here and there. One failed duck dive, my face went right into the rail. Oww. Thankfully it only bled for a few moments, and didn’t puff up too bad. It didn’t help with me feeling competent, but otherwise no harm done.
Stayed out till it was almost dark, rode some whitewater in.
This shorter board stuff is so hit of miss. Some days I’m on, the rest, skunked. So frustrating!
Surf: 4.3 ft at 12.9 s from W at 277°
Ugh. I woke up feeling like craaaaap. Chris couldn’t surf and I’d overslept so Brien was already at the beach and suiting up. I wasn’t feeling another round of noodle arms at Ocean Beach so I buried myself under the covers and sulked back to sleep.
Around the tide change I decided I needed to get over my grumpiness and go to work or get out and surf before the new swell and winds hit. I drug myself out of the house and down to the beach.
Sun. So much sun. Sun and whales jumping. Sometimes midday surfing just seems too perfect to be real (that’s what the crowds are for, to keep the fantasy in check. Winds too if you’re really unlucky.)
I jumped into my wetsuit superquick and found a spot in the crowd.
Waves were mellow but with some fun long rides. I caught plenty on the 6’10, falling on my face a few times due to lack of wax. But I did manage a few competent swooping ones. Wheee.
Tide came up and headed to work.
Still not feeling 100%, but a little better.
Surf: 7.6 ft at 14.8 s from WNW at 294°. Rising mid tide.
Yessss. Finally getting waves on my 6’10 again.
It’s such a relief after struggling and struggling. The waves I got weren’t amazing, but they were waves and there were plenty of them. I’m trying to work on committing to waves, giving a few extra paddles, and popping up quick. I still missed a few waves, but it’s nice just to get moving around again. I really want to get the hang of this board.
Surf: 4.9 ft at 16.0 s from WNW at 295°. High tide.
Hmm.
I was hoping there was enough energy in the water to get my favorite little spot working despite the tide. There wasn’t. Instead it was a mix of long lulls, broken up by HUGE closeouts and small peeling waves. I’d decided to give my little board another shot, but was getting nowhere.
I get into such a headgame when it’s closing out. I’m fine on the big board (which is way more of a battering ram in those conditions,) but on the little board I’m stuck. I just don’t commit and as a result, I don’t get into waves. I paddled around, trying to keep warm, before heading south.
Facing total skunkage, I swapped boards with Andrew. He had a rad 8’4 hot gen hully thing. Super smooth. I finally got something. First time riding leashless and of course I blew it and lost the board on a closeout set. Sigh. No harm done except to my pride. Fun to watch Andrew cruising around on my 6’10.
I gotta figure out whatever’s not working right between me and that board. I’m at that point where I have to decide if I keep frustrating myself trying to get past the holdup, or go back to my 9’4 for the winter so I feel like I actually know how to surf. Hmm.
Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 317°
Wow that’s cold. Cold cold cold. I was fine in the water, but as soon as I was out…sheesh. My hands were screaming trying to hold my longboard in the offshore winds. I had to sit in Chris’s car to warm up long enough to get my key off the pesky short key loop. Oh man.
Surf was fine. Clean, long steep waves. I was struggling a bit, especially since the tide was rather low, but still managed to get a fun wave or two out of the morning. It was really starting to look nice was I was thawing out. The later session folks likely scored. 🙂
Surf: 7.6 ft at 11.4 s from W at 281°
Well, it finally happened. After 15 years and 135,000 miles, my Civic blew a head gasket.
I’d spent the weekend agonizing over wether or not to fix it. It was really hard to let the car go, especially since it was still running. The car had never had a problem before, so it very was unexpected when it started running rough in November.
After a lot of thinking, I decided to trade it in. It was hard, but I picked up a more surf-friendly Honda Fit to replace it. Believe it or not, this 13 and a half ft long car fits a whole 9’4 longboard inside, no problem.
Today was it’s first day at the beach.
Getting my 6’10 in as easy. It’ll take some work to figure out my new routine, especially now that I have a digital key instead of an old school metal key.
The surf was…not so great. I really struggled out there and got straight up skunked. Uff. That hasn’t happened in a while. Ahh well.
At least I had a sturdy new heater to keep my toes warm driving home. 🙂
Surf: 7.9 ft at 12.9 s from NW at 313°
Car is still in the shop. Looks like there might be something serious wrong with it. :\
Had some high hopes for another surprisingly fun session, but the surf turned out to be lousy. Oh man. It was seasick. Doubled up, tripled up, warbling all over the place. Got a few rides, including one that took some footwork to dodge the ever sectioning bits. Still, not so good.
One amazing thing, it was beautifully sunny at the beach. There was an amazing sunrise in Half Moon Bay during our Jetty check. But in the city, the fog was so thick I couldn’t see past the edge of the freeway. I couldn’t see the Bay Bridge until we were right under it. Then, just a few dozen feet before the pier, it cleared up again. Dramatic fog.
Surf: 11.2 ft at 12.1 s from WNW at 286°
My car’s back in the shop. Bummer.
Chris was kind enough to give me a ride to the surf. It looked crummy from the lot, but we gave it a shot. It actually turned out to be pretty fun. Sure there were the usual closeouts and crumbles, but there were some nice long rides too.
It helped that I’d taken the 9’4 out. It was really nice to get waves again after putting myself though so many low count/high frustration sessions on my shorter boards.
At one point someone said, Dude! You’re killing it! Blushing like crazy.
