Tag: ocean beach

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Slightly more swell

2013-OBP-08-09

Surf: 2.3 ft at 14.8 s from 286° plus a 2.0 ft at 13.8 s from 221°. Moderate wind. Incoming tide.

More swell, but more chop. Then both MORE swell and more chop. Holy crap the more swell.

Here’s me, minding my own business trying to make something out of chest high funky waves when suddenly OMG that’s a much much bigger set. AAAAA paddle for my life. I’m pretty sure Ocean Beach loves to do that to me. Especially if I’ve just blown taking off on the first wave of the set and the next three are snarling. I’m assuming it’s the two long-ish period swells overlapping. Perhaps a couple sets both hit at just the right time to turn little slop into pissed off sets. Ooof. It’s been a long time since I had to walk though my whole “this is going to suck” headgame. I have to say, I kinda freaked out a lil. Sigh.

I did manage to sneak a little fun. I got a couple of long ones. I worked on my swooping quad turns. Fun fun.

Highlight of the day: a whole pod of dolphins when past Chris and Brien inside a wave. I was further out, so I only saw 3 fins surface just in front of Chris’s board. Amazing.

2013-OBK-08-09

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Still no swell

2013-OBK-08-08a

Surf: 2.0 ft at 14.8 s from the SSW at 195°. Incoming tide. Light winds.

Not much happening on the surf front, but met up with a good crew of people up for goofing off in the water. Handplanes, boogie boards, longboards, fat flat shortboards. We had all the bases covered.

Occasionally you could kind of stretch out a closeout into something a little fun, but for the most part, it was all goofing off stoke, party waves, and good times.

Managed to fit both my longboards in the car too. How about that.

Screen Shot 2013-08-08 at 10.54.14 AM

2013-OBK-08-08b

2013-OBK-08-08c

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Almost

2013-OB-05-03

Surf: 3.3 ft at 16.0 s from the S at 184°

I *almost* got into a lot of waves today. I’m having trouble and I’m missing em. I felt like I was getting lined up right, but I was missing that last elements I needed to get up and go.

I still got a few. They were mostly scraps that felt mushy and slow. I left the set waves for people who wouldn’t totally blow it, so there wasn’t much to work with.

One wave I felt like I was set up right, I paddled, I almost got it, and then I get swept over the falls kicking and screaming. The whole way down I could hear Sticker and Josh howling from the cliffs. The orange board makes me easy to spot. I still think orange was a good color choice. As I’d mentioned to Sticker: Nothing says AAaAAAAAAAA LOOK OUT like international orange.

The surf got better as the tide changed. I didn’t want to leave but I’d gone from getting waves here and there to not getting into anything at all. I figured it was office time before embarrassing myself further. 😉

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The wind came up

2013-OB-04-24

Surf: 3.6 ft at 14.8 s from the SW at 214°

The session started out glassy. It also looked small from the cliff, which it wasn’t (it never is! never!) I struggled on my fish and drifted around with the current. Eventually the wind came up. Once things were junky, I managed to get waves. I’m guessing that’s some sort of Linda Mar skill. I can get waves when it’s junky and not when it’s clean.

Ran into Mark, Goose, and Jonas on the beach for the first time in the entire time I’ve been surfing. Little Jonas is too dang cute.

2013-OB-04-24b

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Collide

2013-OB-04-23a

2013-OB-04-23b

2013-OB-04-23c

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 323°

This session started out fun. I got a wave, so that’s pretty nice. It was a left and I was relieved (after much paddling on my little fish both to get out and to get the wave) and I wasn’t going to be skunked.

After that it was all sunshine and me being exactly in the wrong spot. I got almost right under Daniel as he was taking off. Sigh. Kook+ move. Then Chris, Eduardo, and Brien somehow got all kinds of tangled up. I had to dive a wave so I couldn’t see what happened, but when the spray settled Eduardo had a big old cut on his head.

We helped him in where Chris patched him up with a comically large band aid that had probably been in his wagon since the 80’s. Eduardo is thankfully okay. No stitches needed.

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Fishy fishy fish

2013-OB-01-31

Surf: 2.6 ft at 15.4 s from the W at 262°

Beamer let me borrow a 5’10 quad fish he’d learned on. I’ve had it in a corner waiting for me to stop battling with my 6’10 for a few sessions to take it out.

Ocean Beach was looking mellow enough today to give it a shot.

After paddling and paddling and paddling I finally made it out. While to board is a breeze to duck dive, it’s a workout to paddle.

I’ve been working on challenging my scaredy-catness, but being on a new board might have been too much to tackle all at once. I almost got in to one wave, but just missed it. Others I was way too outside for. Others I completely panicked trying to duck under because I was too far inside. Sigh.

I did manage to finally get an inside wave in.

The board seems fun. I’m looking forward to trying it out on some easier waves to better get the hang of it. Hopefully one day it’ll be zipping along at Ocean Beach nice and happy.

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Thursday Sunset

2013-OB-01-17a

2013-OB-01-17b

Surf: 2.3 ft at 13.3 s from the W at 270°

Yesterday’s sunshine and fresh air was pretty great, so I decided to sneak out again for a few more waves.

It’s been ages since I’ve taken my 9’4 out at Ocean Beach. I usually take my tri-fin longboard, but it’s still dinged, so single fin it was. A few waves were hilariously kooky. We’d camped out on a mushier smaller peak so there was plenty of room to goof off. I got one really fun wave along the seam of the rip. Broke right, left, right, left again. Worked on getting up the nose a bit for some great faceplants.

Great sunset, dolphins, all that good stuff.

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Arg.

2012-OB-12-10a

2012-OB-12-10b

2012-OB-12-10c

Surf: 2.0 ft at 10.5 s from the W at 276°. High tide.

This was probably one of those days where I should have said “yeah, you guys go to Ocean Beach, I want to take it easy” and headed south. But I didn’t.

Things weren’t rough, waves were fine, but I just couldn’t get into anything and was getting really frustrated. I was already grumpy enough after waking up to find my roommates had trashed the kitchen again. I couldn’t really get over being mad to focus on surfing. Yuck.

I finally got a pity wave to the inside where I struggled to get a follow up wave on the inner bar. Nada. Bellied in disappointed.

At least the sun was out and the beach was beautiful as always.

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Whitewater class

2012-OB-12-09

Surf: 2.3 ft at 13.3 s from WSW at 257°. Low tide.

Reports from Bolinas sounded flatter than flat. Andrew was still looking for a lesson (and looking to avoid Linda Mar) so we wound up at Ocean Beach.

I’m still pretty convinced the Beach is a terrible place to learn. With the low tide the inner bar was just dredging and the whitewater was super shallow. Not the best place to learn.

He caught white water for a while, I rode a few waves on the edge of a rip. Ehhhh. Not exactly a “surf” day.

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Little Middle

Photo by Brien

Surf: 2.6 ft at 10.8 s from WNW at 289°. Incoming tide.

Might as well do a full beach tour!

Smaller fun little waves and lots of people. Swapped boards with Josh after padding out. He got to try out the hull and I splashed around on a 5’11 fishy. I did managed to pull off a little wave on the swishy fish. It wasn’t anything glamorous, just a little hopping on some small waves. Still nice to know I can actually get a wave on a 5’11. Meanwhile Josh went screaming by as one does on a hull.

Other than that, saw Chris get a really nice little wave. I stepped on a crab. I face planted some more on a few waves. I coughed some more. Pretty typical Thursday.