Tag: santa cruz

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Back again

2014-SCHK-07-09

Surf: 5.9 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 310°. Low tide.

A little unexpected to be back so soon. The guys had another meeting. Smaller today and I wow was my neck hurting, but still rideable and still kinda fun. I had a little moment of surf etiquette to debate. My friend lives down in SC and was leaving the state soon for grad school. I’d told him we were surfing yesterday, but wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to call him at 4am, when I found out we were headed back, or even 6 am when we were suiting up. Around 7:30 I saw him giving me the “huh?” shrug from the cliffs. Thankfully he wasn’t mad I didn’t give him the heads up. We got a few waves and all was well. After that: breakfast!

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New log in SC – Afternoon

2014-SCHK-07-08pm

Surf: 6.2 ft at 9.1 s from the WNW at 303°

After a solid breakfast an a tour of my friend’s place in Santa Cruz, I headed back out for a few waves more. Sunnier and a little more crowded, but still fun. Since I got so many waves in the morning I opted to work on my steps. I managed to do a full step over step over step cross step all the way to about 5 inches or so from the nose. YESSSSS. Once I get a little more confidence, maybe I can cheat a five or something. Rounded off the wave walking back for a little move, too. Starting to get somewhere! I just need more surf days and more smooth waves 😀

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New log in SC – Morning

2014-SCHK-07-08am

2014-SCHK-07-08b

Surf: 5.9 ft at 9.1 s from the WNW at 298°

Taking my new board out in Santa Cruz has been high on my list of summer goals. Today was a good morning for it. Small, clean, super chill. That board is so buttery! It swoops. I got in a few steps, too. Loving the new style. I’m going to have to work pretty hard to catch up with what the board can do, but I’m looking forward to trying. 🙂

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Santa Cruz

2014-SCHK-05-20a

2014-SCHK-05-20b

Surf: 5.9 ft at 10.0 s from the WNW at 285°. Low tide.

Still sore. The waves were a little bigger than I’d thought, so I stayed out of the pack. It was still a good spot. About half the sets had a wave or two that swung wide and I got some real fun ones. Not as much walking. The waves were really zippy and I went more for swoosh than for heading up to the nose.

The tide was so low. I got hooked up in the kelp a few times. Sploosh!

Afterward, hung around and poked at the tidepools. Lots of little hermit crabs.

2014-05-23 22.49.04-1

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Sunrise

2014-SCHK-04-23

Surf: 5.9 ft at 12.9 s from the NW at 311°

Lovely sunny little morning. More small waves. I got a little bit of stepping in, which was pretty fun. I watched another longboarder get in a solid head dip and once fall of his board, bodysurf for a sec before scooping it back up and continuing on. Pretty sharp. 🙂

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Clear Water

2014-SCHK-04-09

Surf: 5.9 ft at 13.8 s from the WNW at 297°. High tide. No wind.

Headed south for a pre-client meeting surf.

Wow. The water was SO clear and dark. I saw lots of little fish. There were crabs, sea anemones, kelp, all kinds of things to look at.

Up at the surface, the grey skies and grey water were about as smooth as can be which made wave hunting a little exciting. (I think that’s a wave? Oh yep, it’s a wave.)

The spot I picked was perfect for grabbing scrappy little waves no one else wanted. I worked on some swishing, a little stepping, but mostly tried to squeeze every little bit out of these small waves. Got into a pretty good loggy groove.

Had a leisurely morning with breakfast, a cafe stop, and ice cream.

Sketch a Day 99, Clear Water:

Screen Shot 2014-04-17 at 12.36.02 PM

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Hull + 38th

2014-SC38-03-17

Surf: 12.5 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 298°

Solo surf mission this morning.

Took the hull out in SC for some super super fun ones. This has to be my favorite spot when the surf gets to be around chest to shoulder high. It was perfect for the hull. Most folks were at the larger point so I got wave after wave pretty much uninterrupted.

Today was all about hull-cutbacks. I tried to find myself on the cams to see if I could get another view of what it was I was doing, but sadly I couldn’t spot myself. It felt like I was rolling more on the middle belly and tail to keep myself in the pocket. Hulls don’t really “turn” the same way other boards do and I haven’t learned the BIG drawn out cutback people do on them. Any progress in being able to stay in the pocket rather than totally outrunning the wave is fine by me.

Last wave I got around section after section and pretty much hopped off my board on to the sand. Guy paddling in near me said “well, that seems like a good one to end on.” Pretty stoked.

Hull cutbacks can be graceful if you know how to do it:

Hull-O Malibu – Sea Movies from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.

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Hull in SC

2014-SCHK-01-29

Surf: 9.2 ft at 13.3 s from the WNW at 287°. High tide.

After struggling quite a bit lately, I was looking forward to a little Santa Cruz redemption (and a little hull time.) The tide was high, the wind was up, and Cg was having car troubles, but somehow things worked out.

I settled into a nice little takeoff away from the crowd. At first I was worried my crowd aversion was a mistake as I was having trouble getting in to anything. Finally things fell into place and it was a total wavefest.

There was another guy on a hull near me and we traded wave after wave. I finally managed to get into some steep ones and some bigger ones. Fun fun fun. My last wave was just perfect. Swooping, fast, long. Nice to be surfing again. 😀

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Birthday Beach Day – Afternoon

2013-SCHK-10-01

Surf: 10.8 ft at 14.3 s from the NW at 308°. Low tide to incoming. More wind.

The swell came down in the afternoon, but the surf was plenty fun. I took out my fish to sit further inside with Beamer and Brien on their fishies. Paddling out was a pretty amazing time to realize how completely exhausted I was. Whoops. I managed to sneak in one very long wave that made me very happy. I kept the fish snug in the pocket with lots of fast swooping turns. Managed to hold on to the very end of the wave. So stoked.

Sadly, an older guy on a log was fussing with his board, swung his tail around and put the fin directly into my rail. MAAAAAN. First ding on that board. The guy didn’t even apologize, he paddled off.

I shrugged the whole thing off with some hot tubbing and milkshakes for dinner.

Way too stoked on my wave to be as crushed as I thought I was going to be by the first ding on my baby.

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Birthday Beach Day – Morning

2013-SC-10-01

Surf: 11.8 ft at 15.4 s from the NW at 306°. Incoming tide. Light winds.

Birthday surf is pretty much my favorite excuse to skip out on work and head to the beach. 😀

It was Chris’s birthday yesterday and unfortunately yesterday was full of meetings so today we got up very early and headed south to escape the local winds.

The surf in SC was pretty solid. It had a little texture on it from all the winds out in open water, but otherwise was running just a little bit overhead and lovely. I took my longboard hoping to get a few extra waves in and hoping I could sit further outside for maximum birthday hooting. Of course, I wound up doing what I always do and camping out wide of the peak to get the soft sets that miss first peak.

I got some funnn ones. Big ole longboard swooshes and swoops. What a blast. Everyone else got some nice ones, too! We were out there for about 3 1/2 hours. I was starving by the time we were done.

Headed to Paula’s for some seriously syrupy breakfast. That totally hit the spot. Grabbed a new wetsuit for Chris (finally!) before head headed back north.

Napped on the beach waiting for the tide to change. 😀