SURF: 4-8ft.

I met a few stokereporters out for dawn patrol at Ocean Beach. I was optimistically assured by Josh it would be a nice 3-5 and good practice on the shortboard. Arg.

It was definitely bigger than I was expecting. I still haven’t been able to duck dive my 6′8 so all and all the morning was much harder than I anticipated. I let Veronica borrow my 7 that is nearly impossible to duck dive. She wound up ditching it and swimming with it in tow. I wanted to do things my way so she made it out and I didn’t.

Ahh well. It was a beautiful morning regardless. I did manage to bruise my leg up pretty good in the shorebreak. I’m not exactly sure what law of physics ocean beach had to break to administer that beatdown, but I got beatdown pretty good.

SURF: UNNNG.
SNOW: 4-6ft.

It’s been raining and raining and raining. The surf is jumbled, big, messy, not to mention the sewer overflows. Eww.

But when it rains, it snows.

Laura, Sahana and I booked it to Tahoe to pick off some snow. After a month of barely surfing, it felt so great to get on skis and go. I haven’t skied in years (I can’t remember the last time I went) but it all came back pretty quickly and I had a blast. Tahoe is really beautiful.

Big fluffy snowflakes are a good thing to keep in mind when it’s shin deep puddles and slopsurf. It’s gotta be snowing somewhere!

SURF: 3-4ft, inconsistent and mostly closed out.

Luke, Emily and I hit Linda Mar in an attempt to get a little surfing in before the HUGE winter storm on it’s way to the west coast. The rain hovered just offshore, occasionally lightly drizzling. Surf was meh. Most rides involved outrunning the closeout so none of the finesse I was hoping for.

I tried out one of Luke’s boards. It’s amazing how well suited my Stewart is for me as well as how different a board that’s the same size feels. Slight variations in shape really do feel different once you’re used to a certain board.

It was good to get in the water after 2 weeks out sick. Rain was already coming down when I brought my gear home.

SURF: Inconsistent, but decent waves. Waist high and mushy at the center of the beach, shoulder+ and steep at the north end. Increased frequency and closeouts as the day went on.

Mmm, 6am on New Years Day. Driving out I got to watch what was left of the Blue Moon through the trees in Golden Gate park. Not a terrible way to start the new year.

Waves were a little slow, not the excitement packed day I’d had the day before, but decent. I got in two solid rides but mostly paddled around happy to be in the water. I surfed 7-11 then watched Josh pick off waves on the north end as things started to get rougher. Once he’d had enough of the closeouts and shorebreak, we headed off to Montara to check out the waves before having a MASSIVE lunch at Half Moon Bay Brewing company.

One little bummer thing I noticed, my board’s dinged from a drop in collision the day before. I was going right, guy dropped in headed left. It’s a small ding but it will need attention. I’m debating fixing it myself but with the coming work week it might be beneficial to take it in and get the work done faster.

All and all though, not a bad surfventure day. Lots of laughing and some waves. Sure beats getting up early for just about anything else

SURF: Inconsistent sets ranging from Thigh high to Head High. Warm sun, clean.

What a great way to round out the year. This pretty unassuming day turned out to be so much fun.

We hit the beach at high tide and the waves were a little mushy. I was just happy to be in the water. As the tide pulled out, things ramped up and got fun.

I caught a bunch of waves. Great longboard waves. I had solid rides down the face and even pulled off a few things I haven’t been able to do before without falling on my face.

The first was almost a noseride. I caught the wave a little early and ran up the nose, making the drop with both feet all the way up on my Stewart logo. As I was making the bottom turn I though “oh wow, I’ve never been able to hold on to a wave this far up the board!” and I held it for a LONG time. I made it down the face and almost in to shore balancing up on the front. I was so stoked.

On another wave I was gliding down the face nice and slow and smooth. I though “okay, lets see if I can’t cross step a little or at least shuffle to keep trim.” I’ve tried this before at Cowells on a long wave and typically I’ve gone face first into the water. This time I shuffled up, shuffled back, cross stepped up, shuffled back, all while keeping the wave. Soooo happy.

Also, there’s a guy out at Linda Mar that I have a bit of an embarrassing surf history with. I’ve dropped in on him before and I’m fairly certain I pegged him with my board after I got stomped by an overhead set on another day. I saw him in the water and though “man, I’m gonna kook this up…” but I got the wave and on my paddle back he complimented me on my ride and we had a friendly conversation. He snagged a real nice ride on the next wave. It’s always nice when you can make it up to the one person you’ve been embarrassing yourself infront of for weeks.

On the additionally ego boosting front, I got a compliment on my hustle from Doug (who will be showing his surf movies at Riptide Jan 13th. I am excited to see them and put in my bid for the Wet Wednesday surfboard raffle). I’m glad my relentlessly optimistic sprint for waves is getting some positive notice. I kinda assumed I looked like a crazy person sprinting after waves. Def boosted the confidence.

To top things off, I piled on a big post surf meal with friends after. Very fun day indeed.

SURF: 3-4ft with 5ft standouts. A little inconsistent, not terribly clean but protected from the winds. Warm for the season, friendly and sunny.

Trying to wait out the high tide, Aaron and I rolled up to the Jetty early afternoon. Aaron has pretty much the raddest board ever. I need to snap a pic next time. It’s this old Mike Junrod 9′6 roundtail that someone had done years of home repair jobs on the dings that they then pained over with a variety of paint colors. The deck is red and white checkers. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

We managed to score wave after wave after wave. Sure, not the most epic waves but man it feels good to get something. I nailed my bottom turns, kept trim, threw in some slow gentle cutbacks. It was really really nice to not completely suck at surfing.

Good way to leave things before heading home for the holiday. Can’t wait to get back soon.

SURF: 3-4ft, mellow and fairly smooth.

Second attempt at dawn patrol before my new gig. I’d already lost time putting my roof rack before I even got around to picking up Mike. He was a pretty good sport with my relentless swearing and freaking out about needing to be at work by 9.

The delay gave us a nice sunrise over Devil’s Slide on the way to the Jetty. Sun was beautiful, air was relatively warm, and with only 2-3 people in the water we had the place to ourselves.

Paddling out I say Luke getting a nice ride. He picked off a few waves while we were out there. I got skunked. I dunno, too mushy or my energy is still low. My system’s been all screwy. Low vitamins, muscles burning out fast. My unemployed surfer bum diet certainly isn’t helping. With this new gig I should be able to make a big push towards balanced nutrition and actually eating for the intense physical workout surfing provides.

Wrapping up I realized I was exceptionally late for work. ARG. My contract is flexible, however that doesn’t stop me from being hard on myself. I wound up taking a cab to work muddy, salty, and frustrated. Grrr.

Hoping as the days get longer the work/life balance will get easier.

In the mean time, Luke took a pic from the Jetty as we were packing up.

Surf: Flat. Occasionaly 2ft waves.

I tried to sneak in a Dawn Patrol before the new swell hits. 6:45 I was standing on the beach in almost complete darkness trying to make out the shape of a wave on the horizon.

There were none.

It was flat.

I waited for Luke thinking he’d want to try further north, but he was willing to give the next to nothing waves a go.
It was a nice sunrise. Now I just have to figure out how to pull all this off without showing up an hour late to work.

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: 3-5ft, choppy, sloppy and cold.

I went out for a little paddle practice on the 7′. I’d stripped the wax off my longboard on friday assuming my job would start Monday. It’s probably for the best, Linda Mar was a mess. I could have made it into the line up with my longboard but the steep chopped up waves would have been hard to ride with that much board.

Instead I got sloshed around and eventually denied. My arms are really sore and tired from some labwork I had done at the docs (which also kept me from making it to day 7. Figured best not to put pincushion arms into the ocean). My duckdive skills are still non-existent. I paddled, got dumped, paddled, dumped, paddled, then boogies back to shore only to repeat the process.

It’s been really chilly lately (below 40 in the am) so half of getting out was just to prove to myself I’m not afraid of the cold.