Surf: 4ft @ 6s from WNW at 299°, light winds.
More windswell, but with low expectations, sunshine, and a few inconsistent sets, it turned out to be a nice little morning.
Little bit of softness mixed with a little bit of steepness.
The shift change was pretty amazing. Went from sunshine and a handful of longboarders, to foggy and a good sized crowd of shortboarders.
Surf: 2.3 ft at 13.8 s from SSW at 242° Low tide. West wind. Messy, barely breaking.
One of those “all forecasts and buoy readings suggest marginal to no surf but let’s go looking anyway” mornings. Checked a few spots. With the low tide, wind, and mix of tiny short period NW swell and tiny medium period SSW swell there wasn’t much on offer.
Thankfully it was better in the water than it looked from the cliff, but it was still pretty not great out there. Things were rideable and I got a few that were fun, but it was mostly a game of dodging shallow draining closeouts just to get a second or two of face time.
I’ve also been surfing just terribly, which didn’t help. I blew plenty of waves. I’m not sure if I’ve just forgotten how to surf a longboard, or it’s conditions, or summer funk. I did manage to make myself laugh pretty hard by falling a way I’d never fallen before: I had my tail pretty solidly in the curl and was trying to walk up. The thing was the wave was pretty much just breaking on the tail and the board was bouncing like crazy. I got bucked forward and towards the shore like a springboard diver. Splosh. Ah, summer.
Surf: 5.3 ft at 7.1 s from the NW at 318° Light winds. Low incoming tide.
While slightly cleaner than a few other spots we checked, this particular breaking wave was still offering up plenty of short period shiftiness. It seems like lately it’s all been short period shiftiness. 12s would seem pretty nice right about now. The churning inside felt like winter, the disorganized outside was summer for sure.
With the low tide and the nearly overlapping waves, it was a bit more work than our usual haunts. All and all worth it to snag a few chest and occasional shoulder high waves with a surfable bit of shoulder. I’ve spent so much time on my little boards in little waves that I’d forgotten how much lean I needed to make a solid bottom turn on my 9’4 in slightly bigger surf. I got some pretty fun ones, but those were some wide wide drops! Ha!
Surf: 3.6 ft at 12.9 s from the SSW at 196° No wind. Outgoing high tide.
With a high tide and almost no swell in the water, I brought low expectations and a big ole board. Driving down the coast, almost everything was flat. Flat flat flat. Flat and crowded. Flat. Kinda breaking. Flat. Windy and barely breaking. We went back to Kinda breaking.
Sure it was thigh, maybe waist high, but it actually wasn’t bad. I got a few really fun ones off the bat that held up. Then I started kooking things up, terribly. I blew a few waves, got a few closeouts. I gotta remember to give my big boards some water time so I don’t forget how to surf them! Finally got a redeeming wave all the way into shore. Little bit of sun rounded the morning out to be kinda decent. 🙂
Surf: 5.6 feet at 12.1 seconds from the S (176°) Light south winds. Low tide.
Wheeeeeeeeee. Fun stuff. Not as smooth as some of the other, smaller breaking waves we checked, but plenty fun with a little pep. Lovely peeling Waist-Chest high waves and just enough space between sets not to get pounded.
Beamer and his intern joined us. Beamer was in a shortie (brr) and tearing up the rights on a leashless fish. I watched him make a daring bodysurf down a wave to snag his board after a wipeout. When I went to duckdive, he had it, when I came up it was sproinging away flying fish style. Doh. Fish just love to jump.
Had a peak all to our lonesome for a little while, too. Grey, almost glassy at times, and plenty of waves.
I love these kinds of mornings.
Photo by Chris
Surf: 3.6 ft at 13.8 s from the SW (218°) Winds 6 kn from the S (170°)
With the swell still set to “mellow,” Chris and I headed back to Montara for a morning surf. It was pretty much just us at this peak. Lots of soft waves, moody skies, and a little bit of glassiness.
I figured I’d be worn out from yesterday, but I managed to do just fine on my 7’4. My cutbacks still need work (they’re a bit more of a longboard lean than a cut) and I need to work on not making such serious faces. > : | You wouldn’t think I’m having any fun at all.
Thanks for the pic, Chris!
Surf: 3.9 ft at 14.8 s from 218° SSW. Waist high with occasional shoulder high sets. Light Winds
I’ve been house sitting in the Sunset. It’s been lovely. Unfortunately I haven’t felt confident enough on my 7’4 to paddle out alone at the beach, so I swung down to Montara to meet up with some folks. It’s always nice to have someone to laugh with you when you’re kooking things up.
Sunny, warm, and plenty mellow at Montara. I had an exciting paddle out blowing a few duckdive attempts. The waves were pretty soft. I did my share of furious paddling to get into them and actually got a few. Not a lot in the way of turning, but I’m feeling much more stable on this board than I used to feel.
Towards the end of the session, my arms were beat and I just wanted one wave in. I missed wave after wave before finally getting into a right. I got hung up at the lip! I was not going to let this wave go. If I didn’t get it, I was most certainly going to have to paddle in. I heard J-Bird yell “C’MON!!!! YOU CAN GET IT” I threw my weight forward and made the drop. It was a big wide swoop of a drop. I heard J-Bird howling from the shore. YESS!!! I made the bottom turn, got in a little cruise, then swamped my cutback. Still, I’d made it back to shore. Whew.
While walking back to the car, I passed a little girl and her brother on the stairs. She saw me with my blue surfboard and said: “SEE! I told you girls can surf!”
Between the drop and the little girl’s comments, I was beaming. 😀
Super stoked.
Surf: Waist-Shoulder high. Backwards. Closed out.
Ahh, physics. Physics does not always do what you think it will, or what you want it to, or even really what it should. Today it was reflecting waves pretty strongly off the beach, jacking up waves into steep closeouts left and right.
Every time I get a little air on a longboard it tends to be accompanied by a considerable amount of surprise. Usually me getting air on a 9’4 means something weird is going on.
Today’s surprising air move was brought to you by me catching an outgoing wave while paddling out, ramping the incoming closeout at pretty good speed, and launching myself back into the lineup. If you wanted exciting, ungraceful chest high waves, they were out there.
Surf: Chest-Shoulder, funky and dumping.
Ahh, there was the skunking I’d expected. Oww.
This little board doesn’t have the heft to punch through waves paddling out, but I haven’t gotten the hang of ducking it (it’s pretty big.) So I took wave after wave on the head. At one point I was pretty sure a seabird was laughing at me as I got hucked over and over. Sigh.
Wound up spending a lot of this morning on the bottom of the sea contemplating life and how I was going to get the sand out of my ears later. (“Never” might be the answer to the ears question.) SUPER funky, jumbled, but with some rideable shoulders that jacked into booming closeouts. C
hris got some cruising big ones. I mostly got wash. Wind not as blustery as other spots I checked, but waves not any cleaner. Sigh.
Surf: Funky Chest-Shoulder High.
I paddled out expecting to get skunked on my stubby. I actually got a few, if ungraceful waves. I feel like I’m getting in to them too late so I keep dropping then kicking right out when I could probably stand to hang in there a little longer.
Got some fun fun wipeouts too. Oww. Went for a pretty good one, got in, then tried to sneak out before it came down on my head. Skidded my turn, went flying and skipped like a freaking stone for a good 4 impacts before finally going under. Uffle.
It’s going to take a little bit to get competent on this board, but so far two days of okay starts!
