Surf: 2-4ft, clean, inconsistent. Dark.

After Tuesdays bigger wave morning, I was pretty excited to hear the swell was dying down. At high tide the waves were mushy. It was an easy paddle with lots of sprinting for mushy waves. I wound up doing a fair amount of kooky riding, trying to make bottom turns standing on my nose.

I surfed till I couldn’t see, went home, packed a bag for Tahoe. California living is pretty special.

Surf: 4-10ft, 20s period. Raining, Windy.
Gear: RipCurl G-Bomb and 7′4 roundtail.

We’ve had storm after storm the last few months. I’ve watched the buoys spike, heard the rain pounding away at my windows, and grumbled about how it was soo big and too rough to go out. I had a new wetsuit and a new board but no beautiful day to try them both out on.

Sometimes you have to suck it up and take on unruly surf.

Josh talked me in to a dawn patrol at Lindy. Long period waves were pitching into closeouts but I did manage to paddle out AND paddle back in without getting stomped. Didn’t catch a wave, but got to claim some success in at least getting out in conditions I’m not comfortable with.

The waves were really beautiful, giant blue-grey walls on a big grey black sky. Slices of whitewater peaking through right before it slammed shut in a curtain of whitewater and a roar of spray. Not too shabby too look it. The rain wasn’t mixing well with the salt water so there was a sliver layer on top disappearing into the sea. Pretty cool.

The new wetsuit is amazing. Warm, flexible, no flushing. I’ve always liked my old suit. It’s sturdy, warm and comfortable, but the G Bomb is very toasty. Even in the pouring rain and howling winds I stayed warm and even a little dry. Definitely digging the upgrade.

Surf: Shoulder High to Well Overhead waves. Jumbled up, short period surf. Angry.

I’ll admit it, I’m a little out of shape. 20 days between surf session is killer for surfing fitness. I’ve tried to do at least 20 pushups a day (made it to 40! yay!) but there’s no substitute for water time. That said, the Jetty was seriously unruly today. Waves were double and tripple stacked with little time in between sets to paddle out. With most sets being well over head high it was not the day to be on a longboard at the Jetty.

About the third or fourth time I was pushed back I thought to myself “Am I really about to get denied at the JETTY?”
I fought for a while, but I love my board and that pounding break was not looking exciting. I didn’t want to snap my board or fight that hard so I rode some white water like a kook, called it a day. Sigh.

After some pizza, a little surf shop browsing, I headed home. My friend Frankie had a new loaner board waiting for me. Yay! Nothing rounds off a seriously punishing session like having a new board to wax. It’s a 7′4, with a pretty mellow rocker. I’m hoping it will help me get used to riding a shorter board since it does not require the steeper waves my 6′8 requires. It is still plenty thick so I will most likely not be duck diving any time soon, but hopefully will help me get the feel of less float and more turning ability.

Surf: Knee to Waist High. Clean, but inconsistent.

Lovely morning. The moon was setting over the ocean, lighting up the water like a big ole painting. I watched the little waves for a while waiting for Chuck arrive. We paddled out to small waves, great for a longboard but a little trickier for Chuck on the shortboard.

I got a few mellow rides. The best wave of the morning went to Chuck. He’d called me into the wave, but it was the first good sized wave all morning so I called him into it instead. He got a nice little ride out of it.

I love calm mornings.

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: 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.