Surf:This morning’s dawn patrol: Glassy, peaky, weak lines with soft/gutless corners to the beach..

I pulled up to the lot two spot two surfers giving up trying to catch tiny little peeling waves.
I love tiny little peeling waves so I took over their watch and paddled out.

I spent the first two waves bobbing around by myself laughing at how small and slow and wobbly the rides were. After Chris paddled out we moved to a peak with a little more oomph. Rides were still slow and wobbly, but actually a lot of fun. I’m working on my lefts and with the sand bars pretty much machining them out, it seems like it will be a good summer for it.

Surf: 3-4ft with 5ft standouts. Glassy, mostly walled-up lines with a few workable corners through the inside.

Nice warm little morning at Linda Mar. The sun managed to work it’s way through the thick fog and the waves were holding up pretty nicely.

Chris and I managed to find ourselves with our own little peak to work. Plenty of fun lefts and rights. It was really nice to have the 9’4 back in the water. The superglide was really helpful. I’m hoping for another day like today sometime soon so I can take the side fins out and try the board as a single fin.

Surf: 2-4ft. Inconsistent and soft on the low tide, picked up as the tide came back.

Fun, but storming morning in Pacifica. Driving rain, thunder and lightning, slightly jumbled waves. Surprisingly, the waves weren’t that bad. Caught quite a few before my hands were so frozen my thumbs were opposed to being opposable.

Great rainbow arcing in to the ocean made this a pretty great day to start a Thursday.

Still haven’t worked out all of my thyroid stuff. Got the new meds, have definitely been feeling better, but was WIPED out around 3 or so after this session. Wow. Still not back to 100%, but trying hard!

Surf: Mixed up, 2-4ft waves with 5-6ft occasional standouts. Very sloppy, inconsistent and hard to catch.

Early morning waves were looking pretty messy. Paddled out, sloshed around, and got some exercise. Looong paddle out on the longboard. Plenty of pushback. Great sunrise through the fog though.

Surf: 2-5ft, inconsistent, windy, hard to catch.
Gear: 9’0

With the upwelling in full swing, my hands and face burned to touch the water. Oh man was it cold. Upwelling is a yearly event caused by the NW high winds. Warmer surface waters are blown into shore and are forced down by the bathymetry causing colder deep water to rise to the top to replace it. One day the water will seem a little colder than usual, the next it’s painfully cold and it stays downright icy until the winds stop. I absolutely made the right decision buying a new wetsuit when I did. I need every ounce of warmth.

For Monday’s session I’d worn my fuzzy hat and mittens to the rendezvous point. Today I’d almost wished I’d worn them in the water. After a few hours my pinkies had given up on me and refused to join the rest of my fingers in cupping my hand to paddle. The wind just added insult to injury. I have no idea how Chris goes without booties. That’s soul beyond soul right there. Brrrrrr.

Buoys and reports had suggested bigger waves, so I took the 9. As soft as these waves wound up being, the 9’4 would have been better. It’s got the float to take on anything and the weight helps with the drop on mushier waves. The 9 did hold a nice line on my last wave in. It’s fast enough to keep out ahead of the wave and as a result I managed to connect the outside wave with two inner breaks and make it all the way to shore. Yay.

Once on land there was a lovely numb footed shuffle back to the car. My hands stayed frozen for a good hour. Brrrrrr.

Surf: 2-4ft, fairly clean. A little bit inconsistent.
Gear: 9ft Stewart

My friend Chris is working on a project up in Marin and with my new flexible work schedule, picking up a dawn patrol was high on the list of great ideas. As it was also the two year mark of me learning to surf, I figured I’d give the early session a go. We met up at 6am, drove over the mountains, then surfed 7ish to 9.

The sun cut through the fog right as we got to the beach. The morning was just beautiful. Waves were small rolling mellow ones and the crowd was friendly. Folks were hooting and hollering, cheering on other surfers when they got a good ride.

I really got to work my new 9ft. I could take off in a steeper spot and got the hang of shuffling it around more fluidly. Man, I got some great long rides in. This board is good staying just in the pocket and picking up speed when needed. The board offers a lot of room to chase on the right wave.

Heading back was the hardest part. I could have stayed out all day if I didn’t have an 11am meeting. Heading up the 1 we met a parade of classic cars coming the other direction. Must have been over two dozen beautiful roadsters cruising the coast, living the dream.

SURF: Waist to Shoulder high. VERY Disorganized. Choppy, sloppy, and an all around mess.

Gear: 10’6.

Having finally recovered from the weekend and convinced by my friend’s stoke from the day before, I hit Linda Mar for a morning session. The clean organized waves he’d caught the day before were messy, nearly uncatchable and wildly unpredictable.

He managed to snag a few decent looking rides, a leash snap, and a long swim in to shore. I got one clean face for a few seconds and another that I swamped a rail on.

The leash snap got me thinking about protocol in a leash breaking situation. I did a quick check in with Chris who signaled he was okay, then scrambled over an incoming set. I felt like I should paddle in and stay with him till he made it to shore, but the waves suddenly picked up and I was doing my best to stay out of trouble. After some time underwater rolling about, I managed to spot him again, happily reunited with his board.

Had he not been confident he’d been able to swim in, I suppose we could have ridden out the set holding on to the monster 10’6 I was on just outside the impact zone. If I’d been closer to the beach than him, I wouldn’t have hesitated to chase down his board and hope both boards and myself would make it through the big set of waves. Thankfully another surfer on the inside was able to snag the board, get out of the way of incoming waves and hold on till Chris was able to get it from him. Whew.

SURF: Waist to Shoulder high waves. Fairly clean, but a little swamped with the tide.

Gear: 7’4.

With the Stewart in the shop being patched up, the 7’4 was a good choice for a little paddle practice. The waves cooperated enough that I could paddle out without too much trouble, but still get into position on a steeper wave to really try the board out.

I caught two waves.

I faceplanted them both.

It’s all practice. I practiced being in the right spot to catch a wave, I practiced paddling, I practiced safely tumbling around in the wash after pearling a board.

I’ve been practicing a lot of things lately.

I’ve been under the weather a bit. My thyroid has been out of whack. It’s a reoccurring problem, this time cause when my doctor was unable to give me a new prescription before my old one ran out. It pretty much makes me tired beyond tired. No amount of sleep can make me feel better and since I know sleeping in will do me no good, I get up early and surf instead. I ache, my muscles are tired and I can barely keep up, but I keep going. I keep practicing.

The more engaged I can keep my mind and body, through surfing, skiing, biking, skateboarding, anything, the easier a time I think I will have hanging in there till my system recovers. I take on the challenging surf days, THEN sleep in, exhausted for good reason and resting deservedly. Like in surfing, I’m learning to practice balance.

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: 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.