Surf: Waist High, mellow, and clean.

After two weeks dry with a miserable cold, I picked up a double session today. Fair in the morning with no wind, good shoulders holding up, and long mellow waist high waves. Lots of fun on the longboard.

I attempted Beamer’s tiny asymmetrical board. Of course the big set had to come through as we were switching boards. I ducked the first wave, but the leash didn’t hold on the second and away the little board went. I swam and swam and eventually got it back, paddled it back out, and went for a wave. Didn’t get into anything, but mighty fun trying (and fun watching Beamer and Nicole try my board out.)

It was nice to be back on my log after a few attempts on that little board.

Nice morning!

Surf: WH-HH and alternating between soft and hollow. 6′ @ 14s, NW.

Holy Holiday Heros. With rain, howling offshores, and some good size I wasn’t expecting to see so many people in the water. Chris was kind enough to help a guy with his wetsuit on inside out as he chased his finless, waxless board across the parking lot. Poor guy was getting in the water for the first time…on a dumping head high day. Yikes.

In all honesty, I’m not really one to talk. I was out there coughing and sneezing and feeling miserable. I should have stayed home too. I wussed out on quite a few waves but snagged a pretty fun ride or two.

There were some beaut little barrels rolling through, but all and all a bleak friday.

Surf: WH-CH and a little zippy.

Ahh, learning a shorter board. I know I’ve got to put in my time and pay my dues, but blowing waves is noooo fun.

I got one really nice wave off the bat that made me feel plenty competent. After that, it was kook kook kook. I blew the takeoff on TWO solid waves that were set up right for me. Argh! Watching those beauties peel on by without me was heartbreaking. To add injury to insult, I managed to cut my foot getting closed out on by another wave. Yeowch.

Well, gotta keep at it!

Surf: Waist-Chest High. Mushy to closed out.

It’s starting to get a little chilly in the morning! I’ve been getting excited thinking about sandbars, emptier lineups, and cleaner conditions. Ahh.

Today wasn’t exactly one of those days tho. Not bad, but days where waves are either crazy mushy or crazy closed out can be tricky. Short rides and wash. Not terrible.

Surf: Knee-Waist High, crumbly, bumpy.

With the Rip Curl Pro in town the beach has been a pretty active place. Pro surfers tearing it up in beautiful conditions, crowds of people cheering on the beach…and me at a desk. Poop.

The first few days of the competition had stellar conditions, today had tiny slop. Tiny slop may be bad for the pros, but a-ok for me. I paddled out, met up with a few friends in the water, and set about picking up little waves here and there. After a while the loudspeaker mumbled some unintelligible warnings our way as the boat drug the competition buoy.

Out paddled the Groms! Poor kids had to compete in this slop! I watched them from the water a while while picking up waves of my own. What amazing kids. They were punting airs left and right, shredding shoulders barely solid enough for me to get my longboard in. It was a lot of fun to cheer for them.

While I’d love to have been on the beach when the pros were out, it was still a fun little morning and I’m plenty stoked to see those kids shred.

Check out the Groms tearing it up on the rest of the tour:

Surf: Chest-Head High, little bit rough.

Bigger surf means taking hoping all night that my favorite spot is working. While big and a little bit stompy on the lower tide, it was working well enough for a few fun waves.

I got two long rides that left me stoked, then called it a day. Big thanks to the guy who saw me eat it dropping into a closeout and flashed me a big smile when paddled I back out. I’m glad someone enjoyed the performance.

I managed one nice big ride in before calling it a day. The same guy laughing after I wiped out gave me a big “nice last wave!” when I was packing up in the lot. Wooohooo fun lump morning.

Pictures by Josh:

Surf: Waist-Shoulder High. Very foggy.

Maria emailed me months ago about surfing Santa Cruz. I was happy to paddle out with her, we’d exchanged a few emails in the past and she sounded like a pretty rad woman.

She mentioned in her email that she had stage four lung cancer and occasionally had a little bit of trouble breathing and wanted to let us know so we wouldn’t worry.

Had she not included that brief line in her email, I’d never have known she was sick. I’ll admit, I didn’t know what to expect since I’d never met her in real life, but here in the parking lot was this tough gal who couldn’t wait to paddle out. She tore it up out there. It was a big day and she was going for some great waves.

When I’d heard she’d passed away, I was stunned.

I’d had been some time since we’d talked, so in my mind she was still that same woman, tearing it up.

I feel pretty fortunate to have known her and even moreso to be able to make it to her paddle out.

The beach was socked in by fog during the ceremony. As we paddled out the sun appeared and there was a huge fogbow over the ocean. What a great way to remember a great woman.

Afterwards we paddled north to catch a few waves in the fog. Big and a little crowded, but fun.

Thanks for everything, Maria.

Surf: Waist-shoulder high and warbly.

Emotional minicoaster this morning. Paddling out I saw Hugh nail a really nice peeling lovely waist+ high right. Aww yeah! Expectations were up! Then I paddled around in the warbleness for a bit wondering if that wave was the only one. There were some thumping larger closeouts and some weird wrapping confusing lefterly rights. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of things.

There was a very very long lull and I was sure things were shut down for sure. Out of the blue it bumped to a lovely 45 min of organized, fun, beautiful waves.

Very stoked after that 45 min.

Surf: Chest- Shoulder high. Little textured with some whompin closeouts.

I got there late and stood in the fog watching closeout after closeout. There were big booms from somewhere I couldn’t see and a hugh pack huddled up in the place I could see. Slowly the fog lifted and around the time the morning shift was packing it up, a Fog Bow appeared. What was closeoutcity fogfest became sunny prettyworkableville. There was some size out there for sure, things swung wildly between waist high and just above shoulder high. There were still plenty of closeouts but also a good bit of fun. I have lots of sand in my ears, but overall happy with the morning.

Surf: Waist-Shoulder high. Little closed out. Slightly offshore/sideshore.

Beautiful morning. Dramatic fog, sunshine, all that. Lots and lots of seabirds flying about.

The surf was a bit closed out in the morning, but for every two or three drop and wash monster there was something with a bit of a face. It looked like the later shift got the best of the morning. I watched lots of noserides and swooping turns as I suited up.

There’s some potential out there for some beautiful fall mornings headed our way. Trying not to get my hopes too high but it would be nice to see things clean up!