Author Archive
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
South by Northwest
Surf: 7.9 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 305°
With the wind howling locally and swell in Santa Cruz being inconsistent at best, finding in a window of “not awful” to paddle out in has been tricky.
While the sunrise was lovely, I was really struggling. The new leash works much better (no tangled up feet) but I couldn’t get in to a wave to save my life. I finally got one and very slowly rode it in. Uff.
Oh, thanks to the orange board, I’m quite visible on the cams:
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
Terrible
Surf: 5.3 ft at 14.8 s from the NW at 321°. Winds: ARG.
Wow. The wind has been blowing like crazy, but even with rock bottom expectations, I didn’t think the surf could be this bad. What a frustrating afternoon. Not only did I not get any waves, but I put the first ding in my new board. Sigh.
Waves were big, disorganized, lumpy, closed out, and just plain bad.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Saturday, April 6th, 2013
Kelpfish
Surf: 9.2 ft at 19.0 s from WNW at 282° Low Tide. Side/offshore winds.
WHEEEEEE. 
After surfing the fish every day this week, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for real waves or exhausted.
From the cliff I could see big barreling waves at 38th. Not quite ready for 6-8ft mayhem, I paddled out further east looking for a nice, sensible 4-6ft mayhem.
Now, every time I do something like that, I paddle out, I’m feeling good then that 8ft set I was trying to avoid comes and finds me. Aaaaa. The first few waves I paddled like a maniac (maniac on a tiny tiny board) to get over. The third was going to break to far out so I stopped, waited, and decided to test out the duck dive ability on this board. AAaaand under. Whew. Just being able to do that gave me a huge confidence boost.
When it came to catching waves, I was struggling a bit. There was so much kelp. It was thick, it was everywhere, and with the limited glide it took a lot for me to get going. I drifted further and further from the crowd, looking for a less kelp covered spot where I could go for everything without dropping in on anyone.
A few attempts in, I finally got a wave. I got a nice long face where I could practice this whole turning stuff. It was so much fun. Bottom turn, top turn, bottom turn, cutback, drop, top turn all the way over to the next break. Yeah! I was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of this.
I got a few more as the day went on. Mostly bigger ones that closed out. All and all, worth the extra paddling. Got to watch Beamer and Darren get some nice ones too.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Friday, April 5th, 2013
Party Wave Friday
Surf: 4.3 ft at 19.0 s from the S at 170° High and falling tide.
Bigger than yesterday, but still plenty small. I got a few fun party waves with friends and a few all to myself. This board catches little waves like a dream. It’s still plenty of work, but the fact I can even get a little thigh high wave on a board this small makes me happy.
I spent most of the morning making wiggly turns all over the place. I had one awesome wipeout where I went end over end, came up holding the board, tried to get back on, went end over end again. Ahh well, laughed it off.
Last wave I squiggled all the way into the beach. Quite exactly into the beach. The last little bit of the wave I was in dry sand trying not to ding my board.
What a week!
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Tiny Wave Thursday
Surf: 3.0 ft at 11.4 s from the WSW at 253°
After watching Andrew catch little peeling waves all by his lonesome, we headed south to check conditions. It was mostly an excuse to use the new tunnel. The surf over there was pretty meh so we came back to crash Andrew’s party.
I got a few little ones. I’m so surprised at how small of a wave this board can catch. All this paddling for little waves is certainly getting me back into shape.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
Fogistics
Surf: 3.9 ft at 12.9 from the NW at 305°
After some unpleasant logistical confusion this morning, I finally made it to the beach. After the work/life/whatever stress I’ve had lately, I was not thrilled to spend valuable surf time driving aimlessly through the fog. In short: arg grumpy unstoked me. Grr missing waves GRR Chris and Brien have to go to work after like 45 min. Grr.
Oh wait. I don’t have meetings. I don’t have to go to work. I’m going back out there. So, yeah, whatever responsibility.
Going back out was actually a really good idea. I got 4 waves straight away. It was actually pretty exciting. There was even a little section I made it around, just like regular ole surfing. The first wave I got in, bottom turn all normal like, then the top turn I was looking at the wave, but the board wasn’t going back down. It felt stuck. I was leaning and leaning and not really going anywhere. Then I stepped back and sheepishly realized that yes, this board has all kinds of fins and no, you can’t turn it like a longboard where you can just soul arch your way to wherever you want to go.
Once I did that, things got pretty fun.
Then the tide changed and I had to go to work.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Shannon’s Birthday
Surf: 4.6 ft at 13.8 s from WNW at 292°. Winds 9.7 kn – 11.7 kn from the NW.
I’m pretty sure if anyone, anywhere in the world says “Let’s go surfing for my birthday” the ocean immediately switches to suck. The surf was lousy. I splashed around. It was meh, but I got a couple waves so that’s something. Yay.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Monday, April 1st, 2013
FISH !
Surf: 6.6 ft at 16.0 s from the W at 273°
It was raining like crazy this morning, but now that I had the right fins, very little was going to stop me from taking the fish out.
I checked the buoys and saw 6.6@16. I checked the beach and saw maybe waist high waves and plenty of flatness. Hmm.
Thankfully there was just enough going on to try out this board.
Paddling: It paddles! It’s not as easy as my bigger boards, sure, but it’s not crazy hard! Yay.
Catching waves: It does this too! It was so small today I was worried I wouldn’t get much, but I got some. Nice.
Duck diving: WAY easier than all my other boards. 6@16 managed to roll on by and I made it under easy peasy.
Turning: I need to learn this! There wasn’t a ton of wave action to really try this, but I can already tell it’s gonna be fun.
Stylin: Oh yeah, it’s styling:
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Friday, March 29th, 2013
Back in the Water
Surf: 4.6 ft at 12.9 s from the NW at 322°. Low tide.
Wow. It’s been a couple rough weeks being injured and unable to surf. And also really walk around. Ow.
Went back and forth as to if I should take it easy my first day back and log it, or go all out and take the fish out. Around midnight I decided FISH! I waxed it. I went to put the fins on…and the fin set I had wasn’t quite right. Oops. It was a front right fin, two back fins, and one center fin? It probably would have surfed kinda okay, but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to take em back used…or something. It was 1am, whatever.
So I took my longboard out. Waves were kinda crummy, but catchable. I got some fast fast rides before everything closed out. Just happy to be back in the water.
Crazy out of shape, but hopefully I’ll be back into the swing of things in no time.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013
Glassed and ready for pickup!
YAAAAY My board is ready YAAAAY.
YAAAAAY.
I’ve spent the last few weeks e-stalking my board through the process (and trying not to bug James with OMG ISIT DONE YET!!!)
Here’s a little of the process with photos from Sunset Shaper’s instagram feed.
Step 1- Give your block of foam over to your glasser. Watch foam get put in a pile, loaded in a truck, and moved to the glassing shop.
Step 2- When the glasser posts a workshop picture, assume every board that’s even remotely the color you asked for is yours. Freak out when you see even a hint of it in the background.
Step 3- Shamelessly talk about step 2 on twitter as a passive aggressive hint that you’d really like to see photos. Freak out when you get one. OMG OMG OMG OMG.
Step 4- Wait for glasser to post finished pics. Adjust expectations along with instagram filters. Freak out that it’s done and not be able to sleep wanting to go pick it up.
Step 5- Go get it!!! But maybe make sure they don’t close early that day cause you’ll show up to a locked door after racing across town after work and completely freak out (in the bad way, not the good way you’ve been freaking out all along.) Thankfully someone’s waiting for you to pick it up so it all works out. YAY.
Step 6- Take several thousand pictures and post them to the internet. Eventually stop before you drive everyone crazy, but have fun. (This step is optional and is based on how much freaking out you’ve done. OMG YAY)
Step 7- Surf!
Thanks everyone at Sunset Shapers. This has been an absolutely blast.
If anyone is looking to learn more about shaping, or just wants a new board and can’t make up their mind, I highly recommended their shaping class. You get a sweet new board and you’ll have a lot of fun making it.