Tag: montara

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Mixed up

2013-MT-07-15b

2013-MT-07-15a

Surf: 3.9 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 323°

Met up with Beamer and John this morning. Pretty slim pickings around, but something working at Montara. I fell on my face a lot. Switching back and forth between longer boards and my fish, I get all off rhythm and,fall pretty much straight on my face. Sigh.

I was trying really hard not to gush about how cool I think the boards John shapes are. Both of them were on one and those boards looked pretty fun. Dang.

Session was short and sadly the waves were cleaning up as we packed up. Got at least one good one in, so I’m happy.

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Summer spot check

2013-MT-07-09

Surf: 2.6 ft at 10.0 s from the WNW at 250°. Low tide. 4-8knot NW winds.

More fish time, now at one of my favorite summer spots. Wind was up and things were a little lumpy and slow, but hey, still rideable. 😀 Super clear water and lots of friends too. I’ll take it.

A guy in the lot joked about how he was hoping to get a shot of someone surfing but all we were doing was floating around. That pretty much sums up how this summer has been. I still had fun anyway.

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Almost like summer

2013-MT-05-26

Surf: Chest to head high+, pretty clean. 3.3 ft at 14.8s from SW at 215° with a W swell at 3.3 ft at 12.9 s mixed in.

Wooohooohoo. I did not expect actual surfable conditions today. This was quite the fun surprise.

Expecting windblown, jumbled slop, I took out my narrow longboard. Where this board really works well the kind of beach waves that start out mushy, then steepen up. That’s exactly what we found.

From the cliff it was looking clean, but a little bit big on the sets. We gave it a shot.

It was a little warbly here and there, but given what the surf’s been like lately, it was perfect. There was a moment watching a set go by that I watched the first wave roll by, watched the second, then realized a little too late the third was about to break on top of me. I started laughing to hard I could barely get a breath. Ohhh surfing.

One of my best waves today started out pretty unassuming. I paddled for a nice looking one, dropped in, then saw the whole wave stack up. It was over my head for sure. Waves like this are great on this board. It’s got speed and, even though it’s a big board, it turns well on the narrow tail. I swooped through the bottom turn, super fun top turn, second bottom turn and I almost kicked out thinking the wave was going to close but decided to stick with it, swoosh another top turn, another bottom, then it really looked like it was going to close out on me so I launched off the back. Wheeeeee. Oh man that was fun. I haven’t had a wave like that in a long time. Probably since the last time I surfed summer waves here.

Evidently my wave caught the attention of folks on the cliff. Quite a few more people paddled out, including one guy who said my wave saved him from driving all the way to Santa Cruz.

Surfed for a while, then bodysurfed when the fog came in. Oh man, it was exhausting but super fun.

I’m hoping this means summer’s on it’s way. I miss surfing this spot. It can be so fun in the summer and I really want to try my fish out on it.

Went home sunburnt and stoked.

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Board Swap

2013-MT-05-07

Surf: 3.0 ft at 12.9 s from WSW at 245°. Windy.

Sometimes when the surf is less than inspiring, the only thing you can do is swap boards. Brien got a chance trying both Chris’s 10’something” log and my 9’4, Chris got a try at Brien’s 7’4 egg and my board, and I got a try at Brien’s board.

I got some fun rides all around. I also managed to flip myself completely over. Chris got some good ones on Brien’s board, but I think my board falls into the “too similar but too different” window so no love there. Brien got some long ones on Chris’s board, but my board turned out to be a little less intimidating.

Fun party waves all around too. Not bad, but spring conditions for sure.

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Sandbar

2013-MT-04-26

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the SSW at 211° Windy

After yesterday’s fun waves, today’s windy small stuff was a bit of a let down. Oh well. We got a few fun tiny warbly ones off this very shallow sandbar.

So shallow, I took a close out wrong, board hit the bottom, board hit me, and I wound up with a real nice bruise on my thigh. Ouch.

This beach will always be a strange one for me. Super shallow sand bars. Crazy deep channels. Shifting, bending, backwashing. It’s a tough one to figure out some days.

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Montara Late Shift

2013-MT-01-16

Surf: 3.0 ft at 14.8 s from NW at 307°

After Monday’s ice cold morning, a late shift warm and sunny surf in small waves sounded absolutely perfect.

The surf has been small and clean so we headed to Montara. It was a short, but nice little sesh. Clean, peeling, knee to chest high waves. Lots of fun on the longboard.

I’ve finally been getting some good waves again. I’m not sure if it’s the longboard or that I’m working harder on committing to waves or that I’m finally starting to get my thyroid stuff back in check so I have more energy.

I got one really nice wave that I thought for sure I was too far inside to get. I went for it and it paid off. Fun, fast and the wave of the day for this short little session. Yeeew. I still chickened out on that last little section in the shallows, but overall, it seems like progress.

Saw a sea lion napping in the sun on the beach. Everyone’s loving the sunshine after so much cold.

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One Wave

Surf: 3ft @ 8s from NW 311° with a little bit of south in there maybe? Incoming tide. Calm winds.

I’ve spent the last few months swooshing little waves on my longboard. It’s been fun. I like riding a board I know and there’s plenty to learn on my log.

With fall coming, I figured I’d take a break from my old standby and get a workout in taking my 7’4 out. I figured it would be rough. I haven’t taken that board out in a while. Sure enough, I struggled trying to get into waves. I blew a few takeoffs. Timing off, positioning off, paddle strength off. Uff.

Around the time when I was accepting that I was going to get skunked, I finally got a wave. It was a smooth, peaky, shoulder high wave. I got two cruisey turns before casually kicking out at the end. That one wave made the whole session for me. I didn’t get a single wave after, but I still left stoked. That’s the largest wave I’ve gotten on that board so far and one where I felt pretty comfortable.

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Dropoff

Surf: 3ft @ 10s from NW at 304° Low tide, some wind.

Ducked out of work early hoping to find SOMETHING surf like. I had my 7’0 with me so barely breaking first spot check didn’t seems all that appealing. Second check seemed like it was breaking a little close to shore, but we paddled out anyway.

Upon further inspection, it was pretty much jacking up and dropping straight down into the sand.

Chris got plenty of nailbiter drops and fast rides that ended in the sand. I mostly got a freefall drop into a faceplant, followed by some unnerving tossing around in really shallow water. I’m not a fan of shallow water let alone being flung into it. Duckdived a bit. Took in some sun. Had a few minor heart attacks, then went home.

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Pickup

Surf: 4ft @ 9s from NW at 304°

The morning started out pretty soft and slow, but eventually picked up a tad. I got a handful of fun long rides, then spent the rest of the morning waiting. Things went from soft to steep and shallow as the tide changed.

Pretty spectacular scenery, a flock of seagulls, and a swarm of jellyfish.

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Choptara


Photo by Brien

Surf: 4ft @ 8s from NW at 305°

Oh man. Crowded, windy, choppy and sloppy. But somehow, still rideable. I think every desperado for miles wound up at the same stretch of beach this morning. When the crowd finally left, I managed to get a few barely passable waves before heading off to work.