Surf: Waist-Shoulder high. Sloppy.

I said I wasn’t going to surf today. I’m tired. I was settled in to my day nicely when Blam and Emily said they were heading out.
Well if they were heading out, I guess I should to?

I got down there a little late. It was a mess. Crumbling, closing out. Not pretty. I was really hoping Emily wasn’t out in this slop. I did managed to get one good ride out of it all. That made the paddle out worth it.

Afterwards we had a nice dinner at Blam’s. Got to meet a few new folks including a couple from San Diego who were in the water while I was out. They commented on my no-booties/no-hood style. I like being able to pretend I’m hard core but it’s summer! Summer is a good time to go without booties!

Dinner was great, fun day.

Surf: Crumbly, disorganized, but it’s always overhead when you’re on your belly.

Did some ding repair during the day with Blam. My 9′ is now back in action after a few weeks drying out some minor dings. I glassed over a large section of the nose that wasn’t water tight. It’s not pretty but it’s not a terrible job.

After a few hours of that, we checked out the beach. It looked ragged and I figured it was a good time to start bodysurfing.

Swimming with a handplane is a little awkward but I was stoked to catch two waves and be able to swim the whole time. I’m not the best swimmer (not awful either) and was expecting to wear out pretty fast. It certainly is hard and I was wiped out later, but happy to have hung in there as long as I did. Yay.

What they say about bodysurfing is true, sand EVERYWHERE. Full suit + hood and I still had sand in my ears.

Surf: Waist High with some Chest high waves. Lots of wind and plenty of sun.

In honor of Chris’s birthday, we snuck out to Bolinas for a few waves.

I spent most of the time fighting the wind. Chris got plenty of nice waves while I was flipping over in the sideshores. I got a few decent ones in the Channel, but mostly enjoyed the nice weather and the birthday picnic his family was kind enough to bring (and endure the wind to have).

Surf: Waist high with some Shoulder High standouts. Crowded.

Ready for some more sheltered shot surfing, I picked up an afternoon surf. Unfortunately the rest of the beach was closed out and ALL the afternoon traffic was bunched up in this one spot. Quite a few exciting (chaotic) takeoffs, but some decent rides.

Watched a little gal of about 9 years old get some great rides in after a push from dad. She’ll be tearing it up in no time!

Surf: Foggy 2-3ft waves. Very soft and inconsistent. Somewhat clean.

Back to Linda Mar…I think. The fog was so thick we could have been anywhere. The tide was high, things were a bit swamped and small, but we managed to make it work. Chris scored some ridiculously long rides. Wow.

After he left, I floated around with Daniel waiting for the waves to turn back on. They eventually did, with almost no visibility to see them coming. I got some nice long rides standing on my logo, trying to cheat a 5 out of the sleepy waves.

Red tide. Yiiick.

Surf: Waist High+ dumpy, mushy waves. Warm and Sunny.

It’s good to be back. 5 days on dry hot earth is too much and the pile of work waiting for me when I got back wasn’t helping.

Surfed a short bit. Got a few waves in. Saw a dolphin take a wave on in inside.
Chris got lots of stellar long lefts in. Nice work.

Great sunset over the water. ++

Here’s on parting image from the desert experience. Gotta love the west coast where even camping involves funny costumes and hats.

Surf: Waist-Chest High, less consistent.

Yay! Freckled and happy. I got to watch a nice looooong sunset and catch a few waves. Wave quality was better in the am but I’m more than happy to doublestack my stoke. I saw both Chris and Aaron get some nice rights. Crowd was crowded, but mostly friendly. Saw a few faces from this morning out there.

With the crowd I had to take a few slightly close drops. Sorry to the newbies on the inside I gave heart attacks to. I got a night left right around Aaron. Next time I’m gonna high five him and we’ll both get signed.

Surf: Waist-Chest High. Consistent.

Look at that blue sky. Blue! And all of a sudden it’s summer in San Francisco. The parking lots were packed and I found myself in the very foreign situation of walking barefoot across hot sand. Yup, hot sand. Just like a beach anywhere else in August.

Waves were fun, but a little crowded. Lately I’ve been pulling some funky grab rail action to get trim and dodge folks camping on the inside. Got a few fun ones. It’s nice to chill in the lineup with sun on my face and barefoot feet. Such a treat to surf in the sunshine.

Surf: Knee to Waise high, junky.

Yeah, it was junky. Yeah the wind was on it and warbling it up. But hey, it was pretty dang fun. Poor wave quality but def a good time. Like most Linda Mar summer days, it favored those with foam. One spot breaking pretty well but Chris and I went for the surfari and rode the current up the beach checking out a few more. Some good shoulders. Much crumbly crumbling.

Surf: Knee-Waist High. Junky.

Pretty low expectations once again exceeded. Spent about 4 hours paddling around catching waves here and there, running in to friends. In the last hour or so of the session I was looking out to sea and saw a pretty big something jump pretty far away from us. Something big with a white belly and some serious heft.

Since it’s shark week on discovery, I’m not going to speculate. The ocean’s plenty wild and this season’s been rather active for animals of all sort. It spooked a few people, the rest of us kept on surfing. Seeing a quick glance of something very far away isn’t enough to know what is was. Dolphin, whale, big fish. Whatever it was it was far off and doing it’s ocean wildlife thing.

To put it in perspective I’ve surfed over a hundred times, once seen something like this and once been in the water when someone else had experienced something like this. It’s their ocean, the fishes, the mammals, the critters, and the plants. I’m doing my best to be considerate of them and I certainly hope they return the favor.