Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Exhausted in SC
Surf: Beautiful peeling Waist-Shoulder high waves.
So. Tired. OMG.
I think I’m surfed out. It was perfect conditions today and I was slogging along, barely able to catch anything. My arms and my shoulders were burning.
Other than the frustrating lack of waves, it was a pretty fun day. Nicole, Tim and I met Beamer, Robert and Blam down south. Tim got some GREAT waves. He threw some serious spray. Dang.
I mostly floated around and watched everyone else score. Proxystoke is little comfort when you’re out in the water, but much moreso thinking back on it.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
Pretty nice
Surf: Waist-Shoulder high. Clean, glassy. Woot!
Nice nice morning out there today. Met up with Matt and Cali down at 41st. 38th was breaking with some good size and we got plenty of nice waves. Chris, Nicole and Cali hit Pleasure Point for a while. It was looking more crowded and on the larger side that aways. Matt and I were pretty content to pick up waves at 38th, so we did.
Fun, fun, fun.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
Sunny 38th with Nicole’s New Board
Photo by Chris
Surf: Waist-Chest high. Peeling, glassy, occasional whomp.
Pretty beaut out there. Nice sun, clean waves, lots of action. It was pretty steep for 38th. Saw a few cover ups. Lots of short boarders in the water that far east. I got some nice ones. Chris got a top 10 ride of his life style wave. Nicole got to try out the sweet new board. It’s very fancy.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
East Side Tour
Surf: Mellow, Waist-Chest high. Clean.
Yay for SC Thursdays. Started out at the hook. It was fun, but a little crowded on the inside. We paddled over to 38th where a fun, small little peak was breaking. Got some fun little rides in while Chris shot a little video and took some pics. 
Soooo stoked about the vid. Also saw a whale again. Nice!
Pics turned out pretty good, too! Here’s me on one ride. I tried to get out in front of a section in the second shot. Was hoping to get a cover up out of it or something. So close!
Thanks for the pics, Chris!
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Day Off!
Surf: 2-3ft, mellow with long lulls. Clean.
Work has been pretty stressful and pretty frustrating for months now. MONTHS. Every week I’d tell myself “If I can just get through this next thing, next week I’ll take a day and drive down to Santa Cruz.” Every week I’d get through the next thing only to find a large pile of thing after that. Sigh. With much of the project now at the printer, I found myself with some warm weather and a day where no one really needed me to do anything. It was soooo on.
I was taking a little bit of a gamble with a small wave forecast, but figured at the least I’d get some sun, some water and a milkshake. Things were in fact small. I spent a bit of time waffling between two spots before deciding. It was plenty mellow and I chased down a lot of waves that didn’t turn into anything, but I got some really nice ones as well.
Lots of waist high rights I spent wiggling down the line, connecting on all the way into the shore. A few solid smooth longboardy lefts. I spent some quality time up on my logo working on a nose ride I just didn’t quite make. It’s funny, I feel like I surf completely different depending on which direction I’m going. Left is more stand tall longboard, few turns, lots of rail. Right is more dips, turns, and the occasional mini-floater. No idea what it is. Seem like today I had to navigate more sections (and kelp) on the right, but I’ve noticed this trend elsewhere. HMMM.
Crowd was pretty friendly too. I got a few compliments on my rides and a big thank you from a guy I called into a wave. Everyone was really stoked to be enjoying some warm sun with their little waves.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Small Wave Holiday
Surf: 1-3ft. Inconsistent but clean. Warm sun, low winds, blue water.
Sunny and warm down in SC. Small waves, relatively small crowd given it’s a holiday, and lots of kelp. I got one very dramatic over the nose of the board pitch when I came to a dead stop mid wave on a big clump of the stuff. Lots of long rides if you could manage to stay high and I out of the kelp. Got a few into the beach. Really could have used the 9’4 instead of the 9. I went with the 9 just to try it out on that kind of wave and in case it was crowded. The 9′ is great for dodging kelp, but the 9’4′s big float would have made these soft little waves a breeze to catch.
Afterwards I headed to the O’niell shop for their Memorial day sale. The 9’0 now has it’s own bag.
Dropped by Ward Coffey’s shop. I’ve been drooling over one of his boards on craigslist and was looking for an opportunity to talk to him about what kind of fish or shortboard would be right for me. Looks like I’ll prob need something in the 6’4 range, about 2 1/2″ to 2 5/8″ thick so my craigslist board might be too small. His custom boards are really reasonably priced and he had a few suggestion of types of boards and hybrid boards he shapes for people looking to ride the mellow small waves I like to ride.
I still struggle with the idea of a custom board. Not becauseI doubt a shaper’s skill or question resale value or anything remotely considered to be a rational concern, but because all my boards are craigslist finds, giveaways, borrowed boards and I’m not quite comfortable with the idea of a brand spanking new board just for me. Especially a shorter board. I don’t really feel like I’ve earned the honor just yet. Silly, I know.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Storming in Santa Cruz
Checked 38th Ave
Blown out, cold, choppy and unsurfable.
The Hook was breaking, but still windy as all heck.
After cruising around a while, we decided on Cowells. It was looking small, inconsistent, sheltered from the wind a little. Nothing inspiring but we thought hey, at least it’s small and mellow right?
Surf: 1-6ft, inconsistent, stomping, mellow, choppy, clean….basically schizophrenic surf.
Looking from the cliff it seemed small, barely breaking. In the time it took us to change and paddle out, conditions had shifted to skattered waist high peaks with shoulder + sets. It was confusing, difficult to read, cold and grouchy. Shoulders would jack up, then die, then reform in seconds making most of the wave catching guesswork and luck.
It was like Cowells took a vacation and Linda Mar stood in for it, but was angry about having to do so.
Aaron and I both managed to work some good rides out of it. It was split between clean faces and meandering rights, unsure if the wave wanted you to ride it or not.
Just after low tide, it started to become more organized, Waist to shoulder high peeling waves. Around 4 it started to look like a hung over version of usual Cowells, but by then we were exhausted and ready for some post surf Bear Claws. yum.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
38th Ave Longboards
SURF: 2-4 ft, knee to chest high. Clean, light/moderate west crosswind. Sunny, warm, nice peeling waves. Light crowd. Otters.
Gear: 9’4 Stewart
A good day in Santa Cruz feels like a vacation. Warm, blue water, sunshine, point/reef breaking waves groomed by the kelp forest.
Most surf spots near the city are beach breaks or rocky point breaks that reward takers with rocks. Lots of rocks. At our breaks (beach breaks),the wave breaks as it meets the shore. The prime takeoff spot to catch a waves shifts and changes with the sand on the bottom. It’s a workout to find a spot to sit and the waves are typically shorter. There are gems, but it takes patience. Reef and point breaks (like most of Santa Cruz) have fixed bottoms and the wave becomes more predictable, often with a nice clean shape and a long ride.
38th was long ride after long ride. The conditions were lovely. Mellow medium/small sized waves would roll through and give you a long, smooth ride with a few kelpy speedbumps.
That much time on the face of the wave gives you time to think and make choices. You have the opportunity to learn to be a better surfer. Being able to look down the line of a wave and read it is a big step for me. Linda Mar waves tend to be less predictable. A close out is a closeout and your ride is done. I drop in and go.
On this wave I was able to see the wave start to close out, get around that section and back into position. It was a great feeling to outrun the whitewater, have time to do cutbacks, top turns, bottom turns, and hold one wave all the way to the beach.
My friends Aaron and Pierce joined Luke and I on the trip. It was awesome to see them get nice long rides and come out of it stoked. A few waves in and they were starting to get wired to the spot. Few more trips down to SC and they’ll be nose riding with the locals. Luke was getting ride after ride.
And on the topic of locals, sea otters were everywhere. Eating, surfing, napping in the kelp. Adorable. I also poked a sea anemone and watched hermit crabs in the tide pools. Great day.
Sea otter photograph by mikebaird:
