BIRTHDAY!

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Surf: 3.3 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 291°

It’s my birthday 😀 Yeeww

With a tent filled with snacks on the beach, I spent hours and hours surfing, bodysurfing, snacking, and pushing Meghan into waves. It was sunny, water was warm, surf was decent enough. So much fun. Meghan got three pretty good waves! She was starting to get on the face (with a little push from Chris in the right direction.)

I got some great bodysurf rides. Probably one of the best I’ve gotten without a hand plane. Most of the board rides and bodysurf rides were almost right into the sand. Pretty punchy for little waves!

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Following day (after much sleeping in) I did some kayaking on San Pablo reservoir. So swimming here (aww) but so pretty! And perfect weather. Just enough breeze to keep cool. Plenty of sun. Super nice day. Had a picnic on a rock!

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Lovely lovely weekend. Birthday stoked!

Afternoon wave

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^This is actually from 8/3, but the conditions and crowd were about the same.

Surf: 2.3 ft at 15.4 s from the SSW at 196°. Incoming tide.

After lunch and picking up Beamer’s van from summer camp, we headed out for a few more waves.

It was crazy crowded out there. We opted for the hook to get some shortboard time in, but the place was pretty mobbed. I watched a crew of guys get wave after wave. It was kind of nice to watch the good loggers do their thing after my class this morning. Okay, there’s the left-go-right drop. Okay, now he’s right in the pocket and stepping up.

While that’s great for thinking, it was tough for actually surfing. I got a few short mushy waves that went wide, but everything else I had to pull out of to let a logger through.

Finally one of the older guys called me in to one. Wooooo. It was little, but just right for me to zip zip zip on the fish. I got around a section, I did a little bitty floater. It was enough to make it worth sticking around for the extra session. After that I bellied in and headed home.

Lessons with Ashley Lloyd

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Surf: 2.6 ft at 15.4 s from the S at 190°. Incoming to High tide. No wind.

Shortly after picking up my fish from Sunset Shapers, I started obsessing over longboards again. Before I get too wrapped up in shortboard-fishland, I want to learn more about longboarding. While I feel pretty competent on my Stewart, the one thing I don’t have is style. I shuffle instead of cross step. I can get up near the nose, but things don’t quite feel right. The board bogs and I fall on my face. More than one person had blamed this on my Stewart being a performance board rather than a traditional log. While it’s a really fun board for our inconsistent beach breaks (and a great all-arounder), the board hunter in me can’t help but look at more traditional boards. Wide noses, more traditional rails, pin tails, big ole fins. The works.

The problem is, there are so many amazing boards out there. I don’t even know where to start.

A couple of Ashley Lloyd’s boards showed up at Mollusk recently. They’re so beautiful. I highly recommend following her instagram for shots of boards like this one:

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Source: Ashleylloyd on Instagram

While hemming and hawing over wether or not I wanted to buy one of her boards off the rack, Jake recommended meeting up with her for a surf lesson and talking customs.

The short of it, Ashley is great. Take lessons from her! Her site is: She’s a great teacher!

A few takeaways:

Cross stepping and muscle memory – I realized I’ve been going about this both too aggressively and not aggressively enough, if that makes any sense. I realized that I’ve either been forcing steps when the timing wasn’t right, or not taking steps when the timing was right.

Ashley pointed out that I can start with just one step when the timing is right. The important thing, she pointed out, is to build that muscle memory. Step up, step back. And bend your knees! I’m going about this all a little too stiff legged, which makes it harder to get that second step in.

I got quite a few toe touches in. That was pretty satisfying. When it came to more steps, I fell pretty spectacularly on my face except for one backwards fall onto the board. The toe touches alone are plenty to work with for the rest of the summer.

Timing and wave positioning – One thing I knew I was going to need to work on was my timing and wave positioning. Most of the waves up here have very little face before slamming closed, so I have the very kooky habit of outrunning my waves instead of being in the pocket.

Some things Ashley had me work on: left-go-rights and right-go-lefts to set me up in the pocket better than a regular old angle take off. These are pretty fun. It’s great to really swoop that bottom turn.

I’d borrowed her Bing Lightweight Pintail for this class. It made me realize how quickly my Stewart turns compared to something with more traditional rails. The first few turns felt like trying to turn a tanker, but once I get in the swing of it, it was really fun. Those left-go-rights are a blast.

Also in the timing and positioning camp, stalling and cutbacks. I have so many more options for staying in position than I think I do. I need to thing more than screaming down the line. Cutbacks brings me to the next item:

Arms and Shoulders – Ashley gave me a few pointers for how to engage my shoulders to flow into a cutback rather than my usual “stare at where I want to go till eventually I’ve over there” move. She also suggested I loosen up my arms. I’ve noticed in pictures my back arm looks like I’m going to punch someone. More relaxed arms = that extra subtlety for trim and balance.

She suggested a few closing moves to help reinforce what I’m learning. One is flowing over the top of a crumbling section with a big top turn, the other is using those shoulders again to make a more swooping kickout.

Ashley also said I paddle well, which might not seem like a huge complement, but I was stoked to be doing something well. 🙂

All those years of sprinting from the outside to get my waves was good for something.

Esther and Ashley both took a turn riding my board. While they looked beautiful and amazing on it, they both agreed that the board isn’t really helping my cause any. It’s overly sensitive and is not happy when it has more weight on the front. In short, a great beachbreak board.

For now, I think I can get away with practicing the toe taps and the left-go-rights on my board. Hopefully next class I’ll snag one of Ashley’s boards and give that a trial run.

BIG thanks to Ashley for a wonderful surf lesson!

Check her out at:

Last surf out

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Surf: Soft, slow, but fun. Waist high with the occasional shoulder high set.

I packed up the fish, threw my clothes in the board bag and joined the guys for pancakes. Everything wound up taking less time than I’d planned so I figured I could sneak in one last surf.

Paddling back out I saw a puffer fish darting around and what I think was a skate cruising between sandy-colored spots. One of the guys out every day joked “shouldn’t you be on a plane?” I said one or two more, then he could have his wave back.

I got a few, but was having trouble making the section on these smaller waves. I was down to my last half hour before I had to go wrap the Vaquero up for the flight when a set finally came.

I got a nice wave. I swished around that section, no problem. I cruised down the then very end, then, in a rare act of competence, managed to lay down on my board and belly in to the beach with a little flair at the end to avoid the rocks. Not a bad way to wrap a lovely little trip.

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Friday Morning

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Surf: Thigh to chest high, long waits between sets. Clean and fun.

Last morning! I woke up early to check the surf. It was pretty much the same as it’d been all week. Good enough for me.

I wanted to get in one more surf on the fish before packing it up, but with conditions as soft as they were, I figured the Vaquero would have a better shot.

I got a few fun ones off the bat. Gotta love these clean waves.

Chatted for a bit with a gal from Palo Alto who seems to spend most of the year surfing in Mexico. We talked about the bay area and boards. People usually have a lot of questions about my little hull. I mentioned Sunset Shaper’s class. Hopefully they’ll wind up with another customer out of it. 🙂

Cruised around till breakfast.

Tuesday Sunset

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Surf: Glassy, waist to chest high with a few larger sets. Fun fun fun. Super glowy.

After being filmed all day, Beamer was hoping to try his hand at shooting. I was pretty tired from the first few sessions, so I grabbed a longboard.

After spending so much time between my hull and my fish, it felt great to be on a longboard again. I’m way more confident on a longboard and was able to set up closer to the peak, take off later, and hold a better line (or at least that’s how it seemed in my head.)

Beamer said the best way to get a shot is to try and run him over. First wave I took off, lined up and shot down the line. Weeeehooo. Fun fun. He got a few good videos before the sun went down too far to see.

After that we surfed for a while in the fading light. The whole point was lit up with little glowing jellies. We’d seen a few in other sunset surfs, but just a few, kinda like fireflies. These were everywhere. Every eddy and wave around the boards was full of little glowing spots.

I went to take off on a wave and absolutely everything was glowing. I almost didn’t make the drop, it was so distracting.

I also tried to go for a noseride in the dark. That didn’t work. I got clobbered by a section. Whoops.

I heard Beamer get one in (at this point I couldn’t see anything) and decided to get one in myself. I realized I had no idea how close I was to shore. I bellied a bit, listening for the waves on the rocks on the beach. Thankfully the tide was high and I cruised in no problem. Whew.

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Tuesday Midday

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Surf: Waist high and a little windblown.

Ed showed up with his camera gear to get some shots of Beamer. I headed back out with my fish and rashguard and bikini combo. a few duckdives in, I was not feeling very confident in my bikini bottoms. Walking back to the house to change into my supersuit, I couldn’t help but think about boards.

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The one problem with bringing two boards is you still can only surf one board at a time.

I knew if I switched to the hull, I’d get more waves given the conditions…but I really wanted some shots of my on the fish. From a vanity perspective: OMG I made this board, I want shots of me ripping on it! From a reality perspective: I want to see how horrible I surf my fish so I can fix it.

Sure enough, Ed got shot after shot after shot of me missing waves. I’m so close, then at the last minute I’m just not getting it. I need more paddle and more weight on the front. It’s plenty mushy out here so I need extra “more paddle” and extra “more weight.” While I might not get the fish figured out this trip, I’ll keep all of this in mind for when I get home.

The other thing I saw from the footage was something that I can’t quite explain. Either it’s an optical illusion from the shot angle or it was actually happening, but it sure looked like I was surfing sideways. With my hull that’s supposed to happen, but I’m pretty sure with a concave bottom there’s no crazy slide allowed. That whole ride I felt stuck in the wave. I think I need more weight over my front foot and better rail engagement.

All around I think it was a frustrating session for everyone. Beamer didn’t get the shots he was hoping for and I didn’t get waves. But hey, water’s warm. Missing waves hurts a heck of a lot more when it’s cold.

As it’s been every day, the surf picked up again in the evening.

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Tuesday Morning

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Surf: Glassy and small.

The surf looked so good last night, I was surprised to find it to be smaller in the morning. Ahh well. I’ve been hearing it’s flat back home so I’m happy just to have something clean and surfable.

Went out for some fun long cruising waves on the hull.

Man, the weather’s just perfect out here. I’ll take it.

Sunday Evening

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I took the fish out for a sunset session. I think it’s conditions, but I feel like I’m less capable on the fish than I’ve been surfing it in SF. I’m not getting the weight right or the rail right. Something’s not quite right.

It also might be that switching between the hull (glide machine) and the fish (only a little glidey) makes the fish feel like it’s in slow motion.

Complaining about not knowing what I’m doing aside, I did have some really fun rides on the fish this evening. Every now and then I get a run where I catch most of the waves I’m going for (instead of missing them) and I’m starting to get more of the cruising pump down. It’s really fun to turn quicker. The waves aren’t exactly right down here, but it’s really fun to try.

Sunday morning

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Surf: Knee to Waist High. Little ruffled but plenty nice.

I took my fish out to try and get a little bit of time in on it. My rides were pretty short. I’m not sure if it’s the waves, or just me. I’m pretty sure there’s a big “me” factor in there.

I’m also missing so many waves. Beamer got a great shot by shot of what happens. Keep in mind that while it doesn’t look like I’m paddling, I am (just not enough.) I’ll be set up properly, but then I don’t quite get in and wind up watching the wave roll on by. Sad. Ahh well. Practice practice practice.

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The mid-day winds came up. I decided to re-wax the fish in the shade. I really should have stripped both boards before flying, but laziness won out. After watching all my wax flake off into the ocean, I decided to do the right thing and clean up.

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