Surf: 2-4ft, Mellow and Crumbly. Sunny.
Board: 5’10 Retro Fish.

With summer on it’s way, I’ve been eying a few smaller wave shortboards on craigslist. The shortest board I’ve been able to stand up on was something like a 6’3 or a 6’4 so I figured I’d try one of Josh’s little fish and see how it goes.

I spent most of the day practicing my duck dive. I’ve been working on this for a while, usually flailing around on boards that are WAY too thick for someone my size.

Shove, kick, dive, surface. Seems pretty easy, but with the thick boards I’ve been using I just haven’t been able to do it.

With Josh’s help, I practiced keeping the board stable under water, practiced kicking, and FINALLY got on some clean duck dives. I was really starting to get frustrated not being able to do it.

I also pulled off a spectacular arial display. I dove under the wave, the wave pulled the board out of my hands and then SHOT about 4 feet straight up. Josh got a kick out of it.

Mostly I stayed out of the way, went for a few waves, and floated around. I had pretty low expectations. This fish is about 4 feet shorter than my usual boards so I wasn’t expecting to shred. Getting in the clean duck dives was a pretty special bonus and the post surf BBQ was pretty extra special.

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.

SURF: 2-3ft, little bit of jumble but fun, peeling, and beautiful sunshine.
Gear: 9’0 Stewart Hydro Hull

My 9’4 has been in and out of the repairshop lately. Poor board has been getting dinged at crowded breaks and, since it’s practically a new board, I have it repaired professionally.

With the week or so turnaround time this leaves me high and dry if the swell is too small for my other boards. After seeing the forecasts for small clean swell, I hit craigslist looking for a backup board. Wouldn’t you know, there’s another board similar to mine for sale. I checked out for a long lunch, looked to board over and bought it.

I was looking for an 8’6, but I couldn’t really pass this one up. Sure the finbox had been ripped out and repaired, sure it had a lot of not so nicely repaired dings, but it was in decent shape and cheap. Cheap enough that I can learn to do repairs on it. Cheap enough that I can lend it to friends when I take them out surfing.

I spent saturday sanding down all the lumpy repairs and blobby resin. I touched up the fin box repairs and waxed it up.

Sunday I got it in the water. At 2 7/8th thick it’s a half inch thinner and about a half inch narrower than my 9’4. The tail is pulled in and very narrow. It’s lighter and feels like there’s not as much concave to the bottom. All of which leads to a slightly different ride. It turns fast and seems to be able to get into the wave at a slightly steeper point. I need to test it out more to really see how it’s different.

I managed to get two really great waves out of it. Both nice long rights. I could chase sections pretty well, but didn’t get any of the clean stable shuffling my 9’4 is so good at. Aaron and I stayed out for about 4 hours. He got one awesome long left and a few good rights.

The weather was so amazing people were hanging out all over the place, even the parking lot. A few kids were sitting around with a pickup overflowing with boards and a lazy boy. I’m sure somewhere just out of sight of passing officers was an ice cold bucket of beer.

California is whatever you make of it.

Surf: 1-3ft and inconsistent. Warm water, warm sun.
Gear: My usual Stewart and a 6’3 twin-keel retro fish.

Work was slow and the sun was out so I headed up to Bolinas to meet a few friends. It was small! Teeny tiny little waves rolling in, but man was that sun wonderful.

I caught lots of mellow rides on my longboard, knee paddled around. We all got ride after ride, me on the stewart and Tom and Bonnie on their fish. After a while Tom and I switched boards. There’s a good 3ft difference between our boards, plus his fish is about a third as thick so we joked how I prob wouldn’t even be able to sit on the little thing. I kept trying to line up with the snarling tiger face on the front. Rar! Rar, I sunk the nose. Rar too far back and stalled.

But I did sit on it, and I paddled on it, and I caught a wave, and I stood up!
It was a squirrelly ride, I was all over the place, but I was up! First shortboard ride standing.

I’m pretty proud.

On the drive back through Mt Tam I crossed paths with this coyote, out enjoying the sun a little too.

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: 3-5 ft. waist to head high and poor conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly walled up lines coming through with just a slight texture to the surface. Occasional workable corners through the inside.

This morning was a bit mixed up. The pumphouse was showing some niiiiice waves for people who could catch them. After paddling out, waves turned a bit mushy, lots of closeouts, lots of repositioning myself against the south current and the winds blowing me out to sea.

I tired out Jamie’s 7′ Al Merrick Roundtail. It’s actually much easier to paddle than the 6’8 Rocket. I still struggled and the one wave I did catch I immediately blew, but I seemed a little faster out there. Pretty floaty, I didn’t even try duck diving. I haven’t gotten up enough on a wave to compare the roundtail to squash and squaretail boards I normally ride. I hope to do that eventually!

Highlight of the day: BABY DOLPHINS. Oh man are they cute!

SURF: 3-5 ft. waist to head high and fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Just a slight texture to the surface with sectiony/broken up walls coming through. Plenty of scattered inside corners to work with.

Back on the 6’8. I am determined to ride this little board.

My duck dive practice on Monday was pretty uneventful. I don’t feel like I’m getting up the speed I need to complete the dive properly. Instead of spending the morning duck diving the whitewash, I paddled out past the lineup and started doing laps. I did two and a half laps from the south bathrooms to the north, or about 2500 ft total. I’m definitely getting more comfortable on the board. I was floating around just fine and paddling steady. It’s sooooo different than my 9’4. My Stewart paddles fast and easy. I could have done my laps in half the time with that board.

After recovering, I tried for a few waves. Most I was too slow to get on (practicing going for waves is just as important too) and one wave I actually managed to catch. I did a sloppy, wobbly job of trying to popup, I got to my knees and fell off laughing.

Small victories!

SURF: 3-4 ft. + waist to shoulder high with occasional 6 ft. and poor-fair conditions.

Apartment hunting had put me in a pretty rotten mood and after failing to catch a wave on Tuesday I opted for an early morning with the new shortboard. I was trying to practice duck diving and paddling to get the hang of the board rather than trying for any waves. One puzzled guy asked me why I only paddled out to the white water, flailed around, and then boogie boarded it back. I told him what I was doing and he laughed and paddled on.

I still can’t get a clean duck dive in. I had wave after wave to the face trying to get the board under.
It should look more like this:

And less like a wave smacking you in the face.

El Porto Fridays has a great description on their site:

1. Prepare: Approach the wave with some speed. I’m not saying you want to go for a full sprint, but being idle when the wave approaches won’t help your cause either. Whatever rhythm and momentum you have, keep it up.
2. Nose down: As the wave approaches, push the nose down into the water like you are submarine and the captain just called out, “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” Timing this correctly will take some practice. Dive too early and you may pop up right in the curl; too late and you may get blasted by the wave. Just experiment a bit and you’ll figure it out.
3. Tail down: As the wave starts to pass over you, take your foot and push down on the tail of the board. If timed right, the curl of the wave will pass over you and you’ll roll under and get shot out the back. Some surfers like to use their knee instead of their foot to push the tail down. The choice is up to you, but I recommend using the foot for two reasons. First, using your foot will allow you to push to the tail farther down and achieve a better arc. Second, the knee is a much more focused pressure point and can cause more damage to the tail of your board in the form of a significant pressure ding or full de-lamination over time.
4. Exit: Finally, straighten out, sail to the surface of the water and paddle on.

I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually, but I’m expecting to take a lot of waves to the face trying!

SURF: 2-3 ft knee to waist high and fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Clean, scattered lines getting up around waist high. It’s fairly small-scale, but definitely rideable this morning.

Waves this weekend were looking pretty small up and down the coast. I met up with Cryptomail to spend a little time on my Stewart at Ocean Beach.

Waves were indeed small. I got in a handful of really nice long mellow rides. I saw a dolphin and some sea lions. I pearled quite a bit and was having trouble going left but it was nice to be out on my board again and great to surf at a new spot (especially when it’s small and manageable.)

There was a group out at Kelly’s having a reunion. They had a best/worst surfboard competition, a bbq, and a memorial to surfers who have passed on. We checked out the boards. Very cool to see such a tight knit surfing family enjoying the day together.

Oh, I picked up a shortboard recently. It’s on perma-loan from a friend. I have no idea if I can even ride it.

It’s a little thick so I’m hoping I can duckdive it. I’m also tempted to pick up a great sounding little fish but I’m worried I’m collecting boards without any idea how or what I want to ride. A fish sounds like a fun small wave alternative to a longboard. Part of me wants to challenge myself with a board that can take bigger waves but I’m also afraid of taking on bigger waves. It would be more practical to have a shortboard that can work well in steeper or larger waves that my longboard can’t, but it would be fun to have a fish and goof off in the little waves!

After 8 months of searching, a board came up on craigslist the same time I had money to buy it.

This is a 9’4″ Stewart Hydro Hull. Never been ridden, never even been waxed. A father bought it for his daughter and she’s never taken it out. He’s been surfing for 53 years and spent about an hour talking up all the finer points of this board and the 10 others he has including the one he’s making himself based loosely on this board’s design. He and his daughter were really nice. I had my reservations about buying a board while my income is unsteady, but all and all I got a pretty top quality board for not much money so I keep telling myself buying this board right now was the right thing to do.

I got a great deal on the board (bag included). Now all I need to take it out is a leash and some wax!