Tag: santa cruz

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Board Meeting

Surf: 1-2ft and 2-4ft. Mellow SW swell. Light Winds.

One of the projects I’m on involves frequent trips south of San Francisco and another needed me to swing by Palo Alto today. It’s been a negative low tide and nearly flat locally the last few days, time for some pre-work team surf in SC. 😀

Nicole, Chris and I paddled out at the Cowells side of indicators where Darren had already been catching a few of the small slow waves occasionally rolling in.

I got some nice long ones on the super mellow little waves, but the crowd was growing and the guys had their eye on some waves further west.

Paddled over to find the break to be still mellow, but bigger and with a punch at the end. I got a few really fun drops and enjoyed the sun.

Pastries, then off to client meetings. Excellent team work.

Meeting summary: Fun, chill waves were ridden.
Next steps: schedule more team board meetings.

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Santa Cruz!

Surf: Soft, mellow. Knee high. 8.9 ft at 17.4 s from the WNW at 300°

Finally! Been bugging Chris for ages to do an SC dawn patrol. Winds were light and the waves were mellow. Nothing epic but plenty of little fun waves. Sea otter chilled with us for a bit. Grabbed pastries after before making the trip back up to the city.

My old wetsuit is back from being repaired. Sadly RipCurl wanted $125 to repair everything so I just had them do the worn out knees. Looks like it will be a summer suit from now on. Poor suit, it was fun while it lasted but since it was deteriorating after less than a year I can’t imagine it will have too many summers left.

Hoping to get more SC time in now that the sun is coming up a little earlier. 🙂

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Welcome home, Cowells

Surf: Slow, mellow knee-waist high waves. Clean. 6ft @ 14s from W 278º

Nice to be back in the water after my work trip.

The surf was plenty big in the city and, after almost 2 weeks dry, I figured a mellow SC session was in store. Shannon also had SC on her mind. We took her big surf van down there. I haven’t had the luxury of taking BOTH longboards before. Swanky!

Cowells was slow and sweet. I got man long, mellow rides in with long mellow paddles back out. I was beyond beat. It’s amazing how fast one gets out of shape.

The drive was beaut. The surf was firing all along the coast. I saw whales spouting, barrels being thrown, and some of the most beautiful sunsparkled mist I’ve seen in a while. Great day.

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Lazy SC Sunday

Surf: Thigh-Chest high. Inconsistent. Little Texture.

YAWN. After a busy week I >wanted< to surf but I didn't want to get up early, drive, or get worked up about the surf. Lucky me! Aaron was also lazily contemplating some surf and offered to drive. Sure, we were there over high tide, not ideal, but there was still plenty of fun to be had. It was a little crowded at the main peak so we snuck off one peak over and picked up mellow waves. I had a few super long rides including a sweet little stall to keep a wave while avoiding someone who looked determined to drop in. Afterwards, Five Guys. Nice.

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Day Off!

Surf: 2-3ft, mellow with long lulls. Clean.

Work has been pretty stressful and pretty frustrating for months now. MONTHS. Every week I’d tell myself “If I can just get through this next thing, next week I’ll take a day and drive down to Santa Cruz.” Every week I’d get through the next thing only to find a large pile of thing after that. Sigh. With much of the project now at the printer, I found myself with some warm weather and a day where no one really needed me to do anything. It was soooo on.

I was taking a little bit of a gamble with a small wave forecast, but figured at the least I’d get some sun, some water and a milkshake. Things were in fact small. I spent a bit of time waffling between two spots before deciding. It was plenty mellow and I chased down a lot of waves that didn’t turn into anything, but I got some really nice ones as well.

Lots of waist high rights I spent wiggling down the line, connecting on all the way into the shore. A few solid smooth longboardy lefts. I spent some quality time up on my logo working on a nose ride I just didn’t quite make. It’s funny, I feel like I surf completely different depending on which direction I’m going. Left is more stand tall longboard, few turns, lots of rail. Right is more dips, turns, and the occasional mini-floater. No idea what it is. Seem like today I had to navigate more sections (and kelp) on the right, but I’ve noticed this trend elsewhere. HMMM.

Crowd was pretty friendly too. I got a few compliments on my rides and a big thank you from a guy I called into a wave. Everyone was really stoked to be enjoying some warm sun with their little waves.

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South Swell, SC BBQ

Surf: 3-5ft, 6+ standouts. Somewhat sectiony in the morning but mostly clean. Glassier on the falling tide.

I had a birthday bbq to his in SC and decided to catch a few waves before dropping by. It’s fairly safe to say there was swell in the water. I stood on the cliff for a long time watching pretty good sized waves roll through. Nothing crazy, but after a whole summer and then some of rocking the knee-waist high wavelets, a solid 5ft wave looks pretty intimidating, especially on a longboard.

Pierce and I paddled out in a calmer spot between the hook and sharks. We waited, watched, and got creamed a few times before shifting even further east to a smaller peak. Since there’s been a bit of a wave drought, we watched folks for a while, taking care to pick up scraps so we wouldn’t drop in on anyone. A few hot tempers in the lineup and some squabbles between old timers kept us on our toes.

After a while, Aaron, Shawn and Tracy paddled out. After a few more larger sets, the crowd focused on Sharks and the Hook leaving this nice little wave for the 5 of us and a friendly SUP.

Aaron got some really great waves. I was pretty happy with a few of mine. After 4 hours my arms were jello. I decided to pick up one more wave at Sharks before paddling in. Man did I get a wave. Nicely shaped, pretty clean, and smooth enough I could drag my hand in the water along side me the whole ride. I had a nice cutback, straightened out for the wash, then paddled in for the day very stoked. I’ve never thought to drag my hand in a wave as I’m zipping on by so I’m not sure exactly how it happened. It’s a dorky thing to be stoked about, but I had a fun day.

After wrapping we met up with our friends for burgers, beer pong, and a pretty fun afternoon. The exhaustion when I got home was just epic. I couldn’t even sleep I was so tired and my arms were too spent to drink water. Whew, what a week!

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Santa Cruz Friday

Surf: Knee-Chest high, mostly in the knee-waist high range. Clean with long waits between sets.

I’ve been wanting to sneak down to SC on a weekday for a while. Thursday I sent ou over a thousand pages of work to be proofed and reviewed by the client so Aaron and I took advantage of his “every other friday off” schedule and cruised on down.

The plan was to swing by Pleasure Point. I’ll admit, it looked good. At 9 there were already plenty of people on it. The hook was a little more open and the lines were looking pretty good. Jumped right in.

I had a lot of fun. While there were long waits, the waves were pretty nice. Rather than my usual cruise/nose riding attempts, I decided to practice making some swooping turns. Man it was fun. Plenty of dipping down, then sneaking back up high side. I nailed a pretty fun little floater too.

The big thing I took away from the day was realizing how much I’ve improved since the last time I surfed the hook. After a summer going left at Lindy, my cutback and my dipping on my rights is a lot stronger. I got a couple hoots and a “that wave looked competent” from Aaron. He did well himself, he’s totally getting signed.

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Indicators and Steamer Lane

Surf: This morning’s dawn patrol: Mainly knee-waist high with some inconsistent + sets. Conditions are clean and glassy, but expect a solid wait between waves. Less tide helps.
Gear: 9’0

Yup, small and inconsistent in Santa Cruz. With warm sun, temperatures in the 80’s and almost no one out, I really wasn’t complaining about the long wait in between sets. I’d have probably been better off with the 9’4, but after seeing the rocks I’d have to scramble up and down, I’m glad I had the 9. Slippery rocks, cliff faces, and delicate surfboards don’t mix well.

Stop by some of the west breaks on the way home to gawk at the sunshine and waves. Gotta love California.

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Small Wave Holiday

Surf: 1-3ft. Inconsistent but clean. Warm sun, low winds, blue water.

Sunny and warm down in SC. Small waves, relatively small crowd given it’s a holiday, and lots of kelp. I got one very dramatic over the nose of the board pitch when I came to a dead stop mid wave on a big clump of the stuff. Lots of long rides if you could manage to stay high and I out of the kelp. Got a few into the beach. Really could have used the 9’4 instead of the 9. I went with the 9 just to try it out on that kind of wave and in case it was crowded. The 9′ is great for dodging kelp, but the 9’4’s big float would have made these soft little waves a breeze to catch.

Afterwards I headed to the O’niell shop for their Memorial day sale. The 9’0 now has it’s own bag. 😀

Dropped by Ward Coffey’s shop. I’ve been drooling over one of his boards on craigslist and was looking for an opportunity to talk to him about what kind of fish or shortboard would be right for me. Looks like I’ll prob need something in the 6’4 range, about 2 1/2″ to 2 5/8″ thick so my craigslist board might be too small. His custom boards are really reasonably priced and he had a few suggestion of types of boards and hybrid boards he shapes for people looking to ride the mellow small waves I like to ride.

I still struggle with the idea of a custom board. Not becauseI doubt a shaper’s skill or question resale value or anything remotely considered to be a rational concern, but because all my boards are craigslist finds, giveaways, borrowed boards and I’m not quite comfortable with the idea of a brand spanking new board just for me. Especially a shorter board. I don’t really feel like I’ve earned the honor just yet. Silly, I know.

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38th Ave Longboards

SURF: 2-4 ft, knee to chest high. Clean, light/moderate west crosswind. Sunny, warm, nice peeling waves. Light crowd. Otters.

Gear: 9’4 Stewart

A good day in Santa Cruz feels like a vacation. Warm, blue water, sunshine, point/reef breaking waves groomed by the kelp forest.

Most surf spots near the city are beach breaks or rocky point breaks that reward takers with rocks. Lots of rocks. At our breaks (beach breaks),the wave breaks as it meets the shore. The prime takeoff spot to catch a waves shifts and changes with the sand on the bottom. It’s a workout to find a spot to sit and the waves are typically shorter. There are gems, but it takes patience. Reef and point breaks (like most of Santa Cruz) have fixed bottoms and the wave becomes more predictable, often with a nice clean shape and a long ride.

38th was long ride after long ride. The conditions were lovely. Mellow medium/small sized waves would roll through and give you a long, smooth ride with a few kelpy speedbumps.

That much time on the face of the wave gives you time to think and make choices. You have the opportunity to learn to be a better surfer. Being able to look down the line of a wave and read it is a big step for me. Linda Mar waves tend to be less predictable. A close out is a closeout and your ride is done. I drop in and go.

On this wave I was able to see the wave start to close out, get around that section and back into position. It was a great feeling to outrun the whitewater, have time to do cutbacks, top turns, bottom turns, and hold one wave all the way to the beach.

My friends Aaron and Pierce joined Luke and I on the trip. It was awesome to see them get nice long rides and come out of it stoked. A few waves in and they were starting to get wired to the spot. Few more trips down to SC and they’ll be nose riding with the locals. Luke was getting ride after ride.

And on the topic of locals, sea otters were everywhere. Eating, surfing, napping in the kelp. Adorable. I also poked a sea anemone and watched hermit crabs in the tide pools. Great day.


Sea otter photograph by mikebaird:

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