Thursday, June 16th, 2011
Mellow Eastside
Surf: Mellow, inconsistent. Knee to Thigh high at Cowells. Waist-Chest at Indicators.
Crossed our fingers hoping there’d be some waves after a very mellow, barely breaking week down south. With the low low tide there was a little something happening. Got some looooooong rides over at cowells. Not too much uumph but I did get to work on a few tiny style points.
Headed over towards the Lane to try a longboardy peak thataways for a while. Some big drops and short rides. I got one nice top turn/cutback move to stay in the pocket. Nice to feel occasionally competent!
Chris shot some video. Yay!
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
South Swell, Whales, and Hot Chocolate
Photo by Chris
Surf: Waist-Chest high. Peeling. Long lulls but lots of energy.
Nice south swell rolled in this week. Cowells was breaking sooo nicely. It was crowded for sure, but plenty fun. Got some nice long waves that really zipped on the outside and held up all the way through. Plenty of otters chilling in the lineup and a whale splashing around outside the kelp. Grabbed some hot chocolate, a pastry, and cruised on in to work.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Board Meeting
Surf: 1-2ft and 2-4ft. Mellow SW swell. Light Winds.
One of the projects I’m on involves frequent trips south of San Francisco and another needed me to swing by Palo Alto today. It’s been a negative low tide and nearly flat locally the last few days, time for some pre-work team surf in SC. 
Nicole, Chris and I paddled out at the Cowells side of indicators where Darren had already been catching a few of the small slow waves occasionally rolling in.
I got some nice long ones on the super mellow little waves, but the crowd was growing and the guys had their eye on some waves further west.
Paddled over to find the break to be still mellow, but bigger and with a punch at the end. I got a few really fun drops and enjoyed the sun.
Pastries, then off to client meetings. Excellent team work.
Meeting summary: Fun, chill waves were ridden.
Next steps: schedule more team board meetings.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Santa Cruz!
Surf: Soft, mellow. Knee high.
Finally! Been bugging Chris for ages to do an SC dawn patrol. Winds were light and the waves were mellow. Nothing epic but plenty of little fun waves. Sea otter chilled with us for a bit. Grabbed pastries after before making the trip back up to the city.
My old wetsuit is back from being repaired. Sadly RipCurl wanted $125 to repair everything so I just had them do the worn out knees. Looks like it will be a summer suit from now on. Poor suit, it was fun while it lasted but since it was deteriorating after less than a year I can’t imagine it will have too many summers left.
Hoping to get more SC time in now that the sun is coming up a little earlier. 
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Welcome home, Cowells
Surf: Slow, mellow knee-waist high waves. Clean. 6ft @ 14s from W 278ยบ
Nice to be back in the water after my work trip.
The surf was plenty big in the city and, after almost 2 weeks dry, I figured a mellow SC session was in store. Shannon also had SC on her mind. We took her big surf van down there. I haven’t had the luxury of taking BOTH longboards before. Swanky!
Cowells was slow and sweet. I got man long, mellow rides in with long mellow paddles back out. I was beyond beat. It’s amazing how fast one gets out of shape.
The drive was beaut. The surf was firing all along the coast. I saw whales spouting, barrels being thrown, and some of the most beautiful sunsparkled mist I’ve seen in a while. Great day.
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 14th, 2010
Shifting Sands at Cowells
SURF: 1-3ft. Light winds. Warm and sunny.
Gear: 9’4 Stewart, 8’3 Petty
The winter has done some strange things here in Norther California.
A giant chunk of Sloat is missing and a new beach seems to have appeared smack in the middle of Cowells. The spot where I picked off wave after wave back in November is now occupied by families grilling up burgers and lounging in the sun.
The waves were still mellow, but the crowd is a bit more compact. I was unable to navigate 20+ people got get down the line and get the long rides of last November. But the sun was warm and it was a good day out overall.
I spent a little time picking off waves at Indicators before heading back to the pack at Cowells. Had a minor tangle up with Cynthia on a wave resulting in a broken rail on my board. She uses Protek fins so the damage was minor. I ran up the cliff, grabbed the 8’3 and went back out for a few more waves.
One highlight for the day: spotted a sea otter at Indicators. I hadn’t seen one in the wild before. They are really dang cute.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Negative Tide at Cowells
SURF: 3-4ft and clean. Great day for the longboard.
After 2 solid longboard days my arms were mush. Jello. I could barely sit up to answer the phone when Luke texted me at 9:30am. I knew it was going to be a negative tide at Cowells but had written Sunday off as a day of rest.
Still, it’s really hard for me to resist a good longboard spot when it’s at its best and it was certainly looking wonderful today. Cowells really shines with a low low tide. I hopped in the car and drove back down south towards Santa Cruz. This weekend has been a marathon for both my arms and my car.
The sun was shining, the waves were great, the crowd was light (for a usually crowded spot) and I got in ride after ride. Nice long rides too. I started practicing my cross stepping on some of the longer rides. I haven’t quite gotten it yet. So far I’m really good and falling off, but a few more nice long rides like today and I might just have it.
Cross stepping is when you walk the board. It’s sort of a board ballet and the first step to nose riding like a pro:
It’s been really great to have a chance to spend some quality time on my longboard. The large winter swell can make it a challenge to find a good spot for it to really shine. Being able to spend three days letting my board do what it does best has been just awesome. My Stewart is a great match for me. Easy to paddle, catches waves wonderfuly and has enough speed and control to really take advantage of these sweet little waves. What a fun holiday weekend.
4 Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Surfing in Santa Cruz
Ali, Kevin, Athena, Joyce and I getting ready to hit Santa Cruz. Photos by Ali
Conditions: 2-4 ft. + – knee to shoulder high and fair+ conditions.
Gear: 8’6″ NSP Epoxy.
After a year+ living in San Fran, I still hadn’t managed to get down to Santa Cruz. This weekend a nice, mellow swell and some warm weather came in so I figured it was time to try out a new beach.
Ali, Kevin, Athena and Joyce all came along. SC’s about an hour and a half south of the city on Monterrey Bay. Since I’d never been, I asked Dave at Wise what the good spots for beginners were. He made me a map.
He pointed out the good places to hit, how to get there, where to park, and what kind of waves to expect. He said he grew up surfing Pleasure Point and sent us off in that direction.
We got there to find a surf competition was going on. Not wanting to screw up the good waves (and look like fools getting smoked by high school kids), we headed to Cowell’s.
It was crowded, but the weather was great, the waves were clean, and we got in some pretty good runs. I was struggling a bit with the shorter board, but got a few solid waves using the 10′ board Ali was on. It definitely made me rethink getting an 8’6″.
I’m still agonzing about boards. 9ft, 9’6? I keep seeing boards go by on craigslist that are close, but not exactly what I want. If I can swing borrowing a friend’s board, I’ll try to do that for a little while, wait till I’m feeling more confident and then look again. I will probably drive everyone I know crazy till I decide on a board and catch a few solid waves.
All and all, a great day. Ali made us snacks and we spent our post-surfing time kicking back with some beers, fresh fruit, snacks, and mexican food. Can’t wait to get back!