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. 🙂
Surf: 1.6 ft at 15.4 s from the S at 191°
Back down the cliffs for more waves! 😀
If there’s one thing I love to do on little surf trips, it’s surf the ENTIRE time. And when I’m not surfing, eating or napping works too. Chris is on a mission to try ALL of Mike’s pigs, which aligns very well with my “Always be surfing” mission.
Mike’s boards are amazing. I was too chicken to try any of them, but very stoked to watch Chris surf them all. Wow. Maybe next year I’ll have the guts to take them out (plus the arm power to get those beastly boards up and down the cliff.)
Got to try out my Seea surf leggings today. Love them. There will be a review later.
Chris also got a lovely little video of me surfing. Wheee. Just a quick fun little one. I almost blew it. I’m pretty sure that happens almost every time the camera is on me ad about half the time when it’s not. 😉
We got back up just about the time the pig roast was kicking off. I was so beat I totally missed that that was what was happening, went back to the van and napped. Oops.
Goals for next year: ride pigs, eat pigs, be more social.
Surf: 3.6 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 308°. Low side. Light SW to W winds.
After a slightly stressful weekend, I was looking forward to getting in the water again, meh waves or not. Super low tide, but hey, not that many people out.
Brien got tons of waves on Beamer’s 5’10 Taylor. We traded off mushy closeouts for a while. Lots of duck diving practice. You know, making the most of low tide windswell.
I did managed to squeeze some wavey wave time out of the session. There was some turning that happened. That’s exciting. I’m seriously excited every time I turn or link some turns on my fish. It’s nice because it makes meh wave sessions a lot more fun.
I spotted myself on the cams, but the camera panned before I got my top turn in. Ah well. At least I can see I’m pretty close to being in the right spot. I’m the white line closest to the curl. There’s another white line about to drop in on me, but thankfully he pulled back. Whew. 
In other shortboarding news, this video has been making the rounds. It has a lot of great information about using your fins/back foot to initiate and follow-through turns.
MR’s Surfing Tips #1: Back Foot Pressure from Nathan Richards on Vimeo.
Our friends at Quality People’s have shot a few videos of spots I love to surf in MX.
Here’s one with the Seea crew at a boat spot I surfed on my last trip:
Diosa De La Costa from Quality Peoples on Vimeo.
And another at my favorite spot, the first day of this last trip:
Getting Lost In The Beauty Of It All from Quality Peoples on Vimeo.
In addition to their wonderful videos, they have wonderful clothes!
They’ve just launched their online store:
I’ve already picked up a shirt. <3
Pismo party wave by @traceythompson
Surf: 3.6 ft at 7.7 s from the NW at 307°. Lil windy.
(from Santa Maria 21 NM NW of Point Arguello, CA)
Day two of the surf and space roommate trip. I got up early and scoped out the waves, but forgot that once I left the room, I was going to be stuck outside (no room key) so I watched the surf slowly deteriorate.
Ah well. Worse waves means fewer surfers and more whitewater for my beginner roommates to catch.
Once we packed up the room. I went out for a short surf while Meghan picked up a soft top. I splashed around in my swim fins trying to push her into waves. While she didn’t stand up, I think she’s figuring out enough to have fun with me in bolinas or a cowells. 🙂
Always nice to see someone stoked.
Swapped the fins for my board and caught a few more waves. Chatted with folks in the water. All around, not fun sloppy surf.
The other girls went out with Kaitlyn and each stood up once or twice.
By then our warm beach weekend had turned to wind and puffy jackets.
Not a bad trip. 🙂
Surf: Windy! 20-25knots. Waist-Chest High. 6.6 ft at 11.4 s from the WNW at 283°
Hoo hoo howdy. It’s plenty windy out there, plenty hard to catch, but plenty fun once you’ve got it. Cleaner than Wednesday, but a little more vengeful. Fair for the shoulders that held up, Poor+ if you count for vengefulness/closeouts. Ouch+ on the Hawaiian kickout I pulled on a wave about to close out on me on the inside.
I got a really fun wave that was evidently pissed I was able to break through the wind and catch it. Dropped me and my big board right into a churning unruly inside. After trying to fight that much foam back out, decided to call it a day early and fight the wind back to the lot instead.
Walking from the far north end to the lot was a battle. The wind was just howling. I had to stop and sit down at least once.
Packed up just in time to get out before the squall hit. Well, mostly. I’m pretty soaked. Stoked!
Weather got so rowdy there was a waterspout at ocean beach:
I’ve been collecting a few videos that I really dig both the surfing and the music. Here they are in no particular order:
I love the ride anything mentality. Boards, inflatable mats, big waves, small waves, weird wooden board like things.
Really dig the song. I wish this video was higher quality, some of the shots are really beautiful.
And just in case you thought I was all folksy romantic guitars, I have this one from Modern Collective. Btw it’s ABSOLUTELY worth watching via Vimeo to see in HD.
Modern Collective teaser ft: Jordy from Poor Specimen on Vimeo.
Late entry to the game:
SURF: 3-4ft and clean. Great day for the longboard.
After 2 solid longboard days my arms were mush. Jello. I could barely sit up to answer the phone when Luke texted me at 9:30am. I knew it was going to be a negative tide at Cowells but had written Sunday off as a day of rest.
Still, it’s really hard for me to resist a good longboard spot when it’s at its best and it was certainly looking wonderful today. Cowells really shines with a low low tide. I hopped in the car and drove back down south towards Santa Cruz. This weekend has been a marathon for both my arms and my car.
The sun was shining, the waves were great, the crowd was light (for a usually crowded spot) and I got in ride after ride. Nice long rides too. I started practicing my cross stepping on some of the longer rides. I haven’t quite gotten it yet. So far I’m really good and falling off, but a few more nice long rides like today and I might just have it.
Cross stepping is when you walk the board. It’s sort of a board ballet and the first step to nose riding like a pro:
It’s been really great to have a chance to spend some quality time on my longboard. The large winter swell can make it a challenge to find a good spot for it to really shine. Being able to spend three days letting my board do what it does best has been just awesome. My Stewart is a great match for me. Easy to paddle, catches waves wonderfuly and has enough speed and control to really take advantage of these sweet little waves. What a fun holiday weekend.
SURF: 3-4 ft. + waist to shoulder high with occasional 6 ft. and poor-fair conditions.
Apartment hunting had put me in a pretty rotten mood and after failing to catch a wave on Tuesday I opted for an early morning with the new shortboard. I was trying to practice duck diving and paddling to get the hang of the board rather than trying for any waves. One puzzled guy asked me why I only paddled out to the white water, flailed around, and then boogie boarded it back. I told him what I was doing and he laughed and paddled on.
I still can’t get a clean duck dive in. I had wave after wave to the face trying to get the board under.
It should look more like this:
And less like a wave smacking you in the face.
El Porto Fridays has a great description on their site:
- Prepare: Approach the wave with some speed. I’m not saying you want to go for a full sprint, but being idle when the wave approaches won’t help your cause either. Whatever rhythm and momentum you have, keep it up.
- Nose down: As the wave approaches, push the nose down into the water like you are submarine and the captain just called out, “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!†Timing this correctly will take some practice. Dive too early and you may pop up right in the curl; too late and you may get blasted by the wave. Just experiment a bit and you’ll figure it out.
- Tail down: As the wave starts to pass over you, take your foot and push down on the tail of the board. If timed right, the curl of the wave will pass over you and you’ll roll under and get shot out the back. Some surfers like to use their knee instead of their foot to push the tail down. The choice is up to you, but I recommend using the foot for two reasons. First, using your foot will allow you to push to the tail farther down and achieve a better arc. Second, the knee is a much more focused pressure point and can cause more damage to the tail of your board in the form of a significant pressure ding or full de-lamination over time.
- Exit: Finally, straighten out, sail to the surface of the water and paddle on.
I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually, but I’m expecting to take a lot of waves to the face trying!
While hunting for some photos of Saturday’s big waves, I came across a few surfing videos shot by people with waterproof cameras. It’s a lot of fun to watch other people out there having a good time. The fun thing about the boardcams is seeing people fall off and come right back up smiling and laughing.
🙂
