Surf: 4-6ft, some larger sets. Little bit choppy, but surprisingly clean for the size and the howling winds elsewhere.

Left work early to sneak in a little sunset surfing. The sunset was beautiful. Big gold waves moody clouds. The surf was big. I tend to get skittish around 4ft on the longboard. It’s a lot of board to have in the water. Even with the 9′ (which is meant to be ridden on a bigger, steeper wave), I was making whimpering noises paddling out.

The waves were fairly clean so the paddle out wasn’t hard. I was doing my best to avoid going for a wave, but did finally stop being a complete wuss long enough to catch two nice waves, probably the biggest I’ve caught. definitely the biggest I’ve caught and held a clean line all the way down. That 9′ can really fly.

I had a pretty exciting wipeout too. Over the falls, me and to board held down by the wash, bouncing along the sandy bottom. Oooof. I laughed it off because it must have looked spectacular. I also gave my friends on shore another good laugh watching me get caught inside on a BIG set just after sunset. I must have spent 10 minutes scratching over waves, diving under them, being a tiny dot in a big blue grey wall, before I caught one that had already broken and bellied in to shore. Whew.

Surf: 2-3ft, Inconsistent, Mushy but smooth.
Gear: 9’0 Stewart LSP?

After wrapping work early, I decided to go for my first double session and catch a few waves at the jetty. Conditions were a little weak, but at that point, so was I. I haven’t done double sessions before (especially after getting up at 5am), so I was sloppy out there. I got maybe one okayish wave. There was a pretty embarassing moment when another woman in the linup (who was TEARING it up on a longboard) asked if my board was mine or I was just borrowing it.

Ouch.

She was legitimately interested in my board and suggested that perhaps it’s an LSP and not a hydro hull. After looking up the specs on the LSP, I’d say she’s right. The upside is that I’m learning a new board and it’s one that should be able to handle steeper, larger waves next winter. It’s what Stewart calls their “9’0 shortboard”. Hopefully it will help me learn to be more agressive and take on steeper waves. I’m also hopeful those skills will translate to my shortboards once I get better at riding them.

The lineup was pretty great to watch. Between the woman cutting screaming lines down the face and Jeff Clark turning a mushy peak into magic, there was a lot of great surfing going on.

Hopefully I’ll be able to up my second session game in the future.

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: 3-5ft, inconsistent, steeper than yesterday, much more closed out.
Gear: 7’4 and 8’3 Petty

With the size and steepness building for Sunday, I decided to go back to the 7’4. I paddled around, I didn’t catch anything. I saw a large crab floating around. I didn’t catch anything.

I switched to the 8’3 and caught one wave. I bailed on it early. I was high up on the wave taking a line and as I turned to drop down the face an align more in the pocket, I realized I was only in about a foot of water (not counting the 4ft wave I was on top of). The waves were closing out an a wrong move would cause me to pretty unpleasantly and forcefully hug the beach face first. I bailed. I bailed and tried to land flat. I figured a blown wave was better than nosing the board into shallow water.

At least the paddle practice was good.

SURF: 2-4ft, very mellow, very clean. Long period small south-southwest swell.
Gear: 10’6

A perfect longboard day spent on a shortboard is just cruel. A day like today is when longboards can really shine. They can catch even the smallest waves and float down the line like it’s nothing.

With the Stewart still off being repaired I was prepared to suffer in the 7’4. Thankfully Chris was up for a good longboard Saturday and lent me his 10’6. It’s a huge singlefin board that turns surprisingly well and had just the right amount of float to pick of anything coming by. It was great.

I love sitting in the lineup, spotting a hint of a wave no one else would give a second thought to, charging for it and getting a beautiful little line out of a wave that was barely even there.

My friend Aaron (who has the most amazingly patched up Michel Junod longboard) came out with us after 3 months on land with a skiing injury. He got a few nice ones.

Chris and Luke both picked off their fair share and beautiful ones on both their longboards and the Alia. Great sunny day for everybody.

Taking the 10’6 home was a bit of a feat. 3 flights of winding stairs with that baby was hard work. At least I have 12ft ceilings.

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: Inconsistent, but decent waves. Waist high and mushy at the center of the beach, shoulder+ and steep at the north end. Increased frequency and closeouts as the day went on.

Mmm, 6am on New Years Day. Driving out I got to watch what was left of the Blue Moon through the trees in Golden Gate park. Not a terrible way to start the new year.

Waves were a little slow, not the excitement packed day I’d had the day before, but decent. I got in two solid rides but mostly paddled around happy to be in the water. I surfed 7-11 then watched Josh pick off waves on the north end as things started to get rougher. Once he’d had enough of the closeouts and shorebreak, we headed off to Montara to check out the waves before having a MASSIVE lunch at Half Moon Bay Brewing company.

One little bummer thing I noticed, my board’s dinged from a drop in collision the day before. I was going right, guy dropped in headed left. It’s a small ding but it will need attention. I’m debating fixing it myself but with the coming work week it might be beneficial to take it in and get the work done faster.

All and all though, not a bad surfventure day. Lots of laughing and some waves. Sure beats getting up early for just about anything else

SURF: 3-4ft with 5ft standouts. A little inconsistent, not terribly clean but protected from the winds. Warm for the season, friendly and sunny.

Trying to wait out the high tide, Aaron and I rolled up to the Jetty early afternoon. Aaron has pretty much the raddest board ever. I need to snap a pic next time. It’s this old Mike Junrod 9’6 roundtail that someone had done years of home repair jobs on the dings that they then pained over with a variety of paint colors. The deck is red and white checkers. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

We managed to score wave after wave after wave. Sure, not the most epic waves but man it feels good to get something. I nailed my bottom turns, kept trim, threw in some slow gentle cutbacks. It was really really nice to not completely suck at surfing.

Good way to leave things before heading home for the holiday. Can’t wait to get back soon.

SURF: 3-4ft, mellow and fairly smooth.

Second attempt at dawn patrol before my new gig. I’d already lost time putting my roof rack before I even got around to picking up Mike. He was a pretty good sport with my relentless swearing and freaking out about needing to be at work by 9.

The delay gave us a nice sunrise over Devil’s Slide on the way to the Jetty. Sun was beautiful, air was relatively warm, and with only 2-3 people in the water we had the place to ourselves.

Paddling out I say Luke getting a nice ride. He picked off a few waves while we were out there. I got skunked. I dunno, too mushy or my energy is still low. My system’s been all screwy. Low vitamins, muscles burning out fast. My unemployed surfer bum diet certainly isn’t helping. With this new gig I should be able to make a big push towards balanced nutrition and actually eating for the intense physical workout surfing provides.

Wrapping up I realized I was exceptionally late for work. ARG. My contract is flexible, however that doesn’t stop me from being hard on myself. I wound up taking a cab to work muddy, salty, and frustrated. Grrr.

Hoping as the days get longer the work/life balance will get easier.

In the mean time, Luke took a pic from the Jetty as we were packing up.

SURF: 3-5ft. Cleaner than yesterday. Good shoulder high waves for some folks, waist high closeouts for me.

Caught a mid-day session with Cynthia to celebrate her birthday. I caught one nice long mellow right and swamped a right I should have gotten. My neck is still really tight so I didn’t get in a smooth bottom turn like I’d hoped. Ahh well. It was a pleasure to paddle out on my longboard after the shortboard workout and very fun to see Cynthia get some great happy birthday rides.

Happy Birthday Cynthia!