Tag: ocean beach

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Northern Faceplants

Surf: 3.0 ft at 12.1 s from W at 277°. Incoming tide.

Decided to give a different stretch of the beach a shot this morning. Still coughing, I appreciated the smaller waves.

Spent the morning trying for steeper inside waves. It’s a good way to realize exactly how little rocker my hull has. Yeeeesh. Faceplant after faceplant. I’ll admit, it’s almost entirely that I don’t know how to surf this board in that kind of wave, but man, it still smarted a little.

Upside of the morning was watching Brien get a couple great waves and watching Beamer screaming down the face of some steep little inside waves.

While I know hulls aren’t exactly meant for Ocean Beach, it’s still been good getting it out there and paddling paddling paddling. I’ll need all that paddle for Pleasure Point this winter.

Eventually I’d love to get a board just for Ocean Beach, but I’m a ways off from that. I made the mistake of mentioning something to that effect on twitter and got quite a few opinions back. Yow. When I’m ready, I’ll either look for something generic off the rack (that I won’t cry if I snap in half) or I’ll drop by Sunset Shapers for a chat. For right now, I’m not going to think about new boards. Gotta learn things one board at a time. Slow and steady.

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Flip it

Surf: 4.3 ft at 12.1 s from the WNW at 4.3 ft at 12.1 s. Incoming tide. Minimal winds.

Of course I get a cold right before the start of a smooth friendly week at Ocean Beach.

Standing in the lot in the dark, the only sound louder than the waves was my coughing and sniffling. Ugh. I started to feel better on the paddle out, but every other duckdive ended with me barking and carrying on. Once outside, I caught my breath watching folks drop into some very lovely waves. Things swung between soft waist high waves to shoulder high with a few just barely overhead waves here and there.

I struggled a bit on the softer outside waves. I finally set up right for something steeper and flipped right over the falls. Unlike most days, it was a pretty forgiving flip. Most of the waves today were forgiving, which I was grateful for as I was in the wrong spot almost ever time.

After finally getting something, I found a great little spot on the inside for some very fun zippy smooth waves. I drifted past Parkside on my way to catching a few more. Nice little morning.

Wrapped it up with some Trouble Coffee hot chocolate. 🙂

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Go

Surf: 4.6 ft at 10.0 s from W at 274° Shoulder to head high. Clean.

There’s a certain set of conditions I wait for. I look for a small forecast and light winds at Ocean Beach with things falling into place nice and early in the morning. Typically it’s just on the edge between sounding like it’s going to be terrible and sounding like it’s going to be awesome.

I’m not exactly confident on the shorter board. After yesterday’s disappointment, I was hoping for clean little cruising waves. In the dark I could hear it wasn’t little. As the sun started to rise, I could see that it wasn’t little. It was clean, but with some good size. I gulped and suited up.

Whenever I surf ocean beach, I’m anxious the night before, I’m anxious on the drive over, anxious suiting up, paddling out, waiting for waves. There’s a quote I heard recently “‘If you’re nervous, you’re afraid you’re going to fail. If you’re anxious, you can’t wait to get out there and succeed.’ -Robert Griffin III”

I think I’m somewhere in the middle.

Paddled out to find some really beautiful waves. So great to watch other folks zipping by on clean head high waves holding up. And that’s mostly what I did. Watch. Watch and chicken out.

Josh kept yelling GOOOOOOOO!!!! and I kept…not going. Or I’d paddle, feel like I was already too late and pull out when I should have gritted and put a little more paddle into it.

I still got a few and they were still really really fun, but I’m struggling. Thankfully the weather was amazing and the folks I was surfing with were stoked enough to keep me stoked. Gotta get back out there and gooooooooooo!!!!

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Break in the storm

Surf: 3-5ft. Clean. Occasionally inconsistent. 3ft @ 11s from the W 261°

Oh man, it feels like I’ve been out of the water for EVER. There’s been wind, there’s been rain, there’s even been me not being able to get out of bed before 7.

There’s nothing to get my stoke meter back in black like a nice mellow Ocean Beach day.

After a few logistical hangups and some confusion, I wound up paddling out by myself before running into Drew and Josh in the lineup. I got some very fun waves. While I normally ride a singlefin, it’s a lot of fun to swoosh around nice Ocean Beach waves on my tri-fin. Wheeee-hhheeee. Worked on some mean leans and some cutbacks. Had pretty much all solid waves till I got greedy taking a wave in and faceplanted on a hollow inside section. Nearly bodysurfed that wave in.

Very happy to be back in the water!

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Ocean Beach with Wes

Surf: Knee-Shoulder high. Somewhat clean. 3 ft @ 12.9 sec – NW 323°

I’ll admit, Ocean Beach makes me nervous. I pick days on the smaller side and I’m typically out with a buddy or two. As a longboarder there’s that moment where I’m sprinting for my life to get outside knowing I can’t duck the wave that’s coming. I’m worried about breaking a board. I’m worried about blowing a wave and making a fool of myself. I still remember my terribly kooky first time out at Sloat where I had no business paddling out and, after much floundering, washed back up on shore.

All that said, I don’t want tell someone that they shouldn’t try paddling out (assuming it’s not genuinely dangerous conditions) so when my brother said he’d like to join me at Ocean Beach, I agreed. I worried quite a bit, not that he’d get hurt or he’d break a board, but that he wouldn’t have fun. Chris teased me for reminding Wes he could stay in the whitewater if he wanted, or that he didn’t have to go in if he didn’t want to. And in the end, I was being a little silly. Wes paddled out to his own level of comfort and got lots of whitewater rides to the beach. Everything worked out just fine. Sometimes you can’t help but be a big sister, even when you don’t really have to.

I paddled farther out on my 9’4. I don’t take that board out at Ocean Beach as much since it’s sooo thick and the 9′ has a narrow tail for steeper drops. I got a few really fun waves. It was crowded. It’s funny, I hardly ever notice a big difference switching between my tri-fin 9 and my single fin 9’4, but on two of my waves I had probably the widest bottom turn that could still make the wave. Man, I was leaning so far in, my face was nearly in the wave. Ha!

Afterwards we loaded up on Devil’s Teeth cookies and brownies to take into the office. Mmmmmmm.

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Sunday

Surf: Started out 3′ @ 9sNW, cranked up to 4′ @ 17sNNW. Clean, long rides. Went from Waist High to Shoulder/Head High.

Lovely sunday.

Paddled out with Josh and Brein in the early morning for some fun, small, clean waves. As the morning went on, the waves got a little beefier and the rides a little longer. I got some great lefts. There were a few I manage to work some tighter turns into. I got in some great practice listening to the wave and making adjustments with some slow, but slightly better cutbacks. My last wave I might have been able to try and tuck into, the lip was curling right over my head. Still a great wave tho, got me all the way in, stoked as punch.

Lots of fun watching everyone tear it up out there. Some folks were getting beautiful waves.

Sunny, dolphins hanging out. Very nice.

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Late Shift at Ocean Beach

Surf: Mellow. Waist-Chest high with long lulls, no wind.

Got a late start on a mellow morning. It was so mellow I took my 9’4 out, which I rarely do since it’s so thick I worry about it in waves that break as heavy as Ocean Beach (even when small!)

Lots of fun waves this morning. I like a good long wave where I have some time to think. I worked on my cutbacks to keep from outrunning the wave. I worked on some exits. Nice day with some nice mellow surf.

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Ocean Beach Paddle

Surf: Start – Waist High, Finish – Head high. Clean, lully.

Yay, another mellow Ocean Beach day! Or at least a day that looked like it was going to be mellow…

Paddling out the waves were very mellow. Waist high sets would roll through with some frequency but the paddle was relatively easy. After a few waves, it was pretty evident that the size was increasing.

I’ve been pretty lucky my last few times out at Ocean Beach. I’ve been out on mellow days with low to no current and an easy paddle. Today was a bit harder. I had at least two paddles back to the lineup that must have taken at least 20-30 minutes. It may not seem like very long compared to the 45 minute paddles most folks do on bigger days, but on my longboard unable to duck dive it was a lot of punching, pushback, punching, paddling, pushback, etc etc.

I was really starting to appreciate those lulls. Whew.

I got some pretty dang fun waves today. Lots of big drops, long rides, and swooping turns. I got one big one on the outside that was quite a drop. There was a moment when I was screaming down the line that I realized all the shortboarders on the inside were looking at me with some very wide eyes. I’m sure it was a mix of “that girl on the longboard is going to run me over” and “I am about to take a pretty big wave on the head.” I hope I did everything right to not embarrass myself. I made my drop, I didn’t run anyone over, and I almost made it to the shoulder after a few tentative turns.

After a few more lovely waves, I decided to go for another big one. I was way too deep. I fell out of the air, attempted to still land, bit it, then went over the falls with my longboard. Oww. I managed to whack my forearm and my shin on the rail pretty good while swashing around, but hey, I didn’t “lose” my board I guess.

I paddled back out to shake it off before getting a super fun right all the way to the beach. Fun fun.

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High Tide Logging at Ocean Beach

Surf: Waist-Chest High, smooth, and super mellow. 4′ @ 10s, NW.

I love mellow days at Ocean Beach. I get to surf with folks I don’t normally get to surf with and the change of scenery is nice.

With the high tide things were pretty soft. I had a few embarrassing moments paddling out and paddling for waves. I’m still huffing and puffing from being sick and I”m always nervous at Ocean Beach since I don’t normally surf there. After a few blown waves, I got into a much better groove.

Stoooooked. I got a few nice drops followed by long swooping rides. Beautiful morning too!

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Bodysurf Classic

Bodysurf: Way way WAY overhead with a booking current.

Lots of pretty famous bodysurf folks were in town for the Save The Waves Film festival and the SF premiere of “Come Hell or High Water.” Some SF folks put together a bodysurfing competition to celebrate.

I have to say, it was pretty awesome to see folks like Mark Cunningham bodysurf in person. Looked like everyone was having a heck of a time. The park service had a few sad words about permits and plovers that will hopefully be kinks to work out next year. All around fun morning.

Check out the Surfermag article by local bodysurfer Mark Lukach.

Come Hell or High Water Trailer:

Bodysurf Competition Trailer:

Get to the Beach! from ***** on Vimeo.