Tag: linda mar

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Catching closeouts before the rain

SURF: 3-4ft, inconsistent and mostly closed out.

Luke, Emily and I hit Linda Mar in an attempt to get a little surfing in before the HUGE winter storm on it’s way to the west coast. The rain hovered just offshore, occasionally lightly drizzling. Surf was meh. Most rides involved outrunning the closeout so none of the finesse I was hoping for.

I tried out one of Luke’s boards. It’s amazing how well suited my Stewart is for me as well as how different a board that’s the same size feels. Slight variations in shape really do feel different once you’re used to a certain board.

It was good to get in the water after 2 weeks out sick. Rain was already coming down when I brought my gear home.

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Dawn Patrol on New Year’s Day

SURF: Inconsistent, but decent waves. Waist high and mushy at the center of the beach, shoulder+ and steep at the north end. Increased frequency and closeouts as the day went on.

Mmm, 6am on New Years Day. Driving out I got to watch what was left of the Blue Moon through the trees in Golden Gate park. Not a terrible way to start the new year.

Waves were a little slow, not the excitement packed day I’d had the day before, but decent. I got in two solid rides but mostly paddled around happy to be in the water. I surfed 7-11 then watched Josh pick off waves on the north end as things started to get rougher. Once he’d had enough of the closeouts and shorebreak, we headed off to Montara to check out the waves before having a MASSIVE lunch at Half Moon Bay Brewing company.

One little bummer thing I noticed, my board’s dinged from a drop in collision the day before. I was going right, guy dropped in headed left. It’s a small ding but it will need attention. I’m debating fixing it myself but with the coming work week it might be beneficial to take it in and get the work done faster.

All and all though, not a bad surfventure day. Lots of laughing and some waves. Sure beats getting up early for just about anything else 😀

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Rounding Out the Year Stoked!

SURF: Inconsistent sets ranging from Thigh high to Head High. Warm sun, clean.

What a great way to round out the year. This pretty unassuming day turned out to be so much fun.

We hit the beach at high tide and the waves were a little mushy. I was just happy to be in the water. As the tide pulled out, things ramped up and got fun.

I caught a bunch of waves. Great longboard waves. I had solid rides down the face and even pulled off a few things I haven’t been able to do before without falling on my face.

The first was almost a noseride. I caught the wave a little early and ran up the nose, making the drop with both feet all the way up on my Stewart logo. As I was making the bottom turn I though “oh wow, I’ve never been able to hold on to a wave this far up the board!” and I held it for a LONG time. I made it down the face and almost in to shore balancing up on the front. I was so stoked.

On another wave I was gliding down the face nice and slow and smooth. I though “okay, lets see if I can’t cross step a little or at least shuffle to keep trim.” I’ve tried this before at Cowells on a long wave and typically I’ve gone face first into the water. This time I shuffled up, shuffled back, cross stepped up, shuffled back, all while keeping the wave. Soooo happy.

Also, there’s a guy out at Linda Mar that I have a bit of an embarrassing surf history with. I’ve dropped in on him before and I’m fairly certain I pegged him with my board after I got stomped by an overhead set on another day. I saw him in the water and though “man, I’m gonna kook this up…” but I got the wave and on my paddle back he complimented me on my ride and we had a friendly conversation. He snagged a real nice ride on the next wave. It’s always nice when you can make it up to the one person you’ve been embarrassing yourself infront of for weeks.

On the additionally ego boosting front, I got a compliment on my hustle from Doug (who will be showing his surf movies at Riptide Jan 13th. I am excited to see them and put in my bid for the Wet Wednesday surfboard raffle). I’m glad my relentlessly optimistic sprint for waves is getting some positive notice. I kinda assumed I looked like a crazy person sprinting after waves. Def boosted the confidence.

To top things off, I piled on a big post surf meal with friends after. Very fun day indeed.

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Waiting for the Sunrise

LM-12-15-09a

LM-12-15-09b

LM-12-15-09c

Surf: Flat. Occasionaly 2ft waves.

I tried to sneak in a Dawn Patrol before the new swell hits. 6:45 I was standing on the beach in almost complete darkness trying to make out the shape of a wave on the horizon.

There were none.

It was flat.

I waited for Luke thinking he’d want to try further north, but he was willing to give the next to nothing waves a go.
It was a nice sunrise. Now I just have to figure out how to pull all this off without showing up an hour late to work.

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Chilly mornings

LM-12-8-09

SURF: 3-5ft, choppy, sloppy and cold.

I went out for a little paddle practice on the 7′. I’d stripped the wax off my longboard on friday assuming my job would start Monday. It’s probably for the best, Linda Mar was a mess. I could have made it into the line up with my longboard but the steep chopped up waves would have been hard to ride with that much board.

Instead I got sloshed around and eventually denied. My arms are really sore and tired from some labwork I had done at the docs (which also kept me from making it to day 7. Figured best not to put pincushion arms into the ocean). My duckdive skills are still non-existent. I paddled, got dumped, paddled, dumped, paddled, then boogies back to shore only to repeat the process.

It’s been really chilly lately (below 40 in the am) so half of getting out was just to prove to myself I’m not afraid of the cold.

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Day 6 in the Marathon

LM-12-2-09

SURF: 2-3 ft.+ knee to chest high and fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Peaky, clean, soft lines, with some occasional workable little corners on tap.

After 5 days on the water I was pretty relieved to get a small wave report at Linda Mar. Just after paddling out I caught wave after wave. All nice, small, clean, pretty glassy.

Unfortunately, I’m really worn out. I caught every wave I went for except one, but each time my bottom turn was sloppy or I wasn’t angled enough in and I failed to get the board to trim and ride the face. I looked sloppy out there and I was getting more and more frustrated.

A guy tried to give me advice about angling in and I was absolutely crushed. I don’t know why, but I was really bummed that I was looking that bad in the water that the guy assumed I was just clueless instead of exhausted. He was trying to be nice so I smiled and said thanks, but man it hurt to realize I was doing about the same on waves as I was a year ago. I just hope my other sessions in this marathon haven’t been that embarrassing. I’m not sure I have the energy left for day 7.

Oh well, at least I got to surf and talk to some friendly folks.

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Swamped

LM-12-1-09

SURF: 3-4 ft. + waist to shoulder high with occasional 5 ft and fair to good conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly walled-up, glassy lines continue this morning, with some occasional lined-up, makeable corners through the inside.

A +7 high tide and freak big weekday crowd made Linda Mar a bit of a challenge today. Even after trying to get accustomed to crowds all weekend in SC, this was tough. It felt like every wave I was in position for had someone on the inside I wouldn’t have been able to avoid.

My arms are mush, the waves were mush, and there were a fair amount of growly people out in the water. I managed to get a few okay rides in, one good one, and two embarrassing screw ups. Wow. My arms are so worn out that I made a few pretty lousy mistakes today. My leash also got tangled up in my feet on the pop up and it was all slow, ungraceful falling after that.

The job I was supposed to start this week has been pushed back, possibly till next week. I’m not sure how to take this news. I now have three extra days to surf! But I’m also worn out from my recent surf marathon (surfed 5 straight days, or 7 out of the last 8). It’s nearly impossible to keep me out of the water because I’m “sore” or “tired”. I have a feeling I’ll be back out there tomorrow, burning out what’s left of my poor arms. Ha.

Additional Ha for the day: There’s me in the top right! Neat!

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Back to Steeper Waves

LM-11-30-09

SURF: 3-5 ft. waist to head high with occasional 6 ft. and fair to good conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly walled-up, glassy lines with open, workable corners to be had.

After a few good days of solid longboard waves, I’m back to Pacifica and the steeper mix of things. I got a couple good rides in. I had pretty low expectations given that my arms were burned out from the weekend. I was very happy to have an easy paddle out, but was missing the speed I needed to get some of these waves.

In the end, wasn’t too shabby. Dolphins were out, sun was shining. That bumps up the positive points for sure.

I’ve noticed I’m starting to get a wetsuit necktan to match my mitten tan hands. I’m laughing thinking that now I’m looking about as awkward out of the water as I am in it. Perhaps SPF 35 isn’t cutting it for winter.

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Pre-Holiday Crazies

LM-11-25-09

SURF: 3-6ft. Great Head High peak by the pumphouse, mushier jumped 3ft waves on the south end.

After my interview and various other pre-holiday obligations, I managed to get in a little time at Pacifica. There was a great peak working by the pumphouse with quite a few people already on it. I paddled out there, say Hi to Steve, then paddled further south to try and get something a little less crowded.

Unfortunately my head wasn’t in the game. I had a feeling I’d come off pretty nervous in my interview earlier. I was kicking myself thinking I’d blown it. I hadn’t performed that poorly in an interview in quite some time. While thinking about all of this, I went for a wave without reading it first. It was a SOLID closeout. I got pitched off my board, did a two handed cartwheel in the sand underwater and sprung up just in time to get nailed by the second and third waves in the set. It was shameful, these weren’t even big waves. I bellied in, sat on the beach and tried to clear my head.

After some attempts to stop worrying about the interview I paddled back out and ran into Tom. I caught 2 decent rides on the softer stuff and we chatted for a bit. The wind was really picking up and the surf was so jumbled at this point that the waves had started heading back out to sea. No good at all. I was shivering and had plenty of holiday things to do so I wrapped for the day and headed home.

BAG-11-25-09

Wednesday was also Wet Wednesday at Riptide. The bar hosts surf films, free food, and a charity auction. I won this rocking messenger bag. I was so excited to win something AND something useful at that! 😀

I met up at Riptide with Tom, Josh, and Tom’s Girlfriend (sorry, I’m lousy with names). We talked a lot of surf spots and boards and really painful wipeouts. Tom’s girlfriend pointed out that I was exceptionally critical of myself as a surfer. She pointed out that I was talking about how I sucked at xyz, or times I blew waves I should have gotten, etc. I hadn’t really thought about it, but she’s absolutely right. I do the same thing to myself as a designer as well. It’s not that I want to be the best at everything, I just want to be better than I currently am. I’m overly modest when talking about my accomplishments, even if I was SUPER excited at the time. It’s okay to be modest, and yes I don’t consider myself a “good” surfer, but perhaps I could champion my small victories a little more after a really good session.

I love my new bag. Thanks Riptide.

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7′ Al Merrick

AlMerrick

SURF: 3-5 ft. waist to head high and poor conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly walled up lines coming through with just a slight texture to the surface. Occasional workable corners through the inside.

This morning was a bit mixed up. The pumphouse was showing some niiiiice waves for people who could catch them. After paddling out, waves turned a bit mushy, lots of closeouts, lots of repositioning myself against the south current and the winds blowing me out to sea.

I tired out Jamie’s 7′ Al Merrick Roundtail. It’s actually much easier to paddle than the 6’8 Rocket. I still struggled and the one wave I did catch I immediately blew, but I seemed a little faster out there. Pretty floaty, I didn’t even try duck diving. I haven’t gotten up enough on a wave to compare the roundtail to squash and squaretail boards I normally ride. I hope to do that eventually!

Highlight of the day: BABY DOLPHINS. Oh man are they cute!