Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
No Wax
Surf: Thigh to Waist high. Clean. Slow.
My 7’0 is in the shop, and my 9’4 had a ding I’ve been meaning to repair. With new swell supposedly on it’s way, I grabbed my 9’0 and headed down to the beach.
As I unzipped my bag, I had the sinking realization that before I’d sent the 9′ to Alex for a bunch of work I had stripped all the wax. Stripped all the wax and not put any back on.
Crap.
I found myself standing in the lot with a very smooth and shiny board gleaming back at me. There was no way I was going to turn around and head home. I dug half a bar of wax out of my bag and spread that little lump of wax as thin as I could trying to cover the board.
I wore the wax down to a tiny tiny nub, but it worked.
The first half of the session the tide was too high and things were slow and plodding. The second half, things picked up. Kinda fun to see what I’ve started to learn on the quad translating to a try fin. I managed a few tighter cutbacks digging in.
Not an epic day for sure, but happy to have made it work.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
The start of Fall
Surf: Thigh High, clean.
Fall is here. Warm temps, lower winds, lovely mornings.
Plenty crowded out there though. Wow. 2 waves in and my board was dinged crashing into a dude dropping in. Thankfully no one was hurt, but I wasn’t ready to get out of the water just yet.
After a few too many close calls, I headed up north to throw myself into some closeouts. I got a few waves that made me feel slightly more competent on the 7′ (which I badly needed after the earlier tangle up.)
Nice to have the warm weather.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Lunchbreak
Surf: Crumbly Waist-Chest high surf.
Looked better than I’d expected and, given that I was taking a very long scenic route back from a way too early client meeting, I gave it a go.
Surprisingly not awful. I’ve surfed way worse. Wasn’t junky, wasn’t too closed out, it wasn’t all that bad it just wasn’t all that great. The sun was out a while and there were even a few moments the onshore winds stopped blowing and I got a couple smooth waves in. huh.
Thank you, o ocean, for a little bit of something in an otherwise desperado session.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Saturday, September 10th, 2011
Windy
Surf: Waist-Head High. Closed out, Crowded.
Got the stubby back from the shop. Now that it’s old dings are fixed correctly, I took it out for a spin. The waves today were crowded and womping shut. Not ideal for struggling with a board. I had quite a few duckdive attempts that went wrong and false starts on waves, but FINALLY finally managed to land two. One was pretty respectable and linked up all the way to the inside.
Afterwards got sandblasted by the sideshores a while. All my gear is sandy.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Pre-Labor Day Crowd
Surf: Waist-Shoulder high. Little crowded. Long lulls.
Got a couple chest high waves that left me stoked (especially the one I had all to myself, crowded out there today). Wandered to a less crowded peak for some shoulder high drop and wash. Mostly wash. It was sunny and decent enough. I’m happy. Def “fair”
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Cross Stepping
Photo by Chris
Surf: Waist-Chest High.
Patient logging this am in the patient logging spots with some cruising long rides. Practiced some cross stepping to the tune of Faceplant Sonata. Hope the late morning shift had fun.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Saturday, August 27th, 2011
You go hike, I’ll stay here and surf
Surf: Crumbly Waist-Chest high. Windy. Crowded.
My friend Katie is visiting me! Yay!
Katie doesn’t swim or surf, so she and Lindsay went out on a hike on the hill above Linda Mar and I surfed.
It’s a little selfish but Aaron wanted to try out his 7′ and Blam wanted some water time, so hey, why not have a big group beach party.
Got a few decent wavelike things. Got some hefty mexican food after. Good enough day 
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Bumpy
Surf: Bumpy. Waist-Shoulder high.
Little windy, little bumpy, plenty crumbly with the typical amount of closeouts and wash. Waist range with a few chest high waves. Rideable, but more suited for the desperado temperament. I had fun, saw other people have fun, but you may very well not have had fun.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Clean
Surf: Knee-Waist high. Clean.
A few waist high sets to keep things lively. Clean with some closeouts. Nothing epic and def on the mellow sleepy side, but not too shabby for a fair summer day. Very crowded when I paddled out, but got a little better.
No Comments » - Posted in surfing by Tracey
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Surf Class
Surf: Clean Knee-Waist high.
I spent the morning playing surf instructor attempting to teach someone’s teenage daughter to surf. After hiking 14 miles the day before, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to move let alone instruct but I wound up in good enough shape to swim for an hour while pushing her into waves. Not bad.
I’m not the best instructor tho. Oh the poor student. I mostly pushed her into waves and yelled PADDLE!!! She caught a few waves, but didn’t get to her feet. Hopefully she didn’t have a terrible time.
After that I took the stubby out to try to catch a few waves. Did fine getting the waves, but the tricky part today was finding a decent spot where I could pick off a few scraps the longboarders let pass. On such a mellow day, almost everyone had something so I snuck into a group of beginner SUPs. A dangerous strategy, but I did get quite a few waves and they were all friendly folk.