Surf: Small, a little messy, but sunny and not too bad.

Ahh holiday surf. Normally I would NOT be trying to surf Santa Cruz, heck anywhere, on a holiday. Blam and Emily were already down there and the local surf sounded a bit ratty, so I pulled the trigger and headed down.

Not too bad, a little crowded but mostly beginners who were easily avoided. Fun little waves with lots of waiting. We camped out on a nice tiny peak with Emily to get her a few waves. She’s getting it! I love seeing new surfers super stoked about catching waves.

Bodysurfed a little bit. Surfed till my arms hurt and then met up with Matt for dinner and ice cream. Holiday shaped up pretty nice.

Surf: Mellow, Waist-Chest high. Clean.

Yay for SC Thursdays. Started out at the hook. It was fun, but a little crowded on the inside. We paddled over to 38th where a fun, small little peak was breaking. Got some fun little rides in while Chris shot a little video and took some pics. Soooo stoked about the vid. Also saw a whale again. Nice!

Pics turned out pretty good, too! Here’s me on one ride. I tried to get out in front of a section in the second shot. Was hoping to get a cover up out of it or something. So close!

Thanks for the pics, Chris!

Surf: Thigh-Chest high. Inconsistent. Little Texture.

YAWN. After a busy week I >wanted< to surf but I didn’t want to get up early, drive, or get worked up about the surf.

Lucky me! Aaron was also lazily contemplating some surf and offered to drive.

Sure, we were there over high tide, not ideal, but there was still plenty of fun to be had. It was a little crowded at the main peak so we snuck off one peak over and picked up mellow waves. I had a few super long rides including a sweet little stall to keep a wave while avoiding someone who looked determined to drop in.

Afterwards, Five Guys. Nice.

Surf: 2-3ft, mellow with long lulls. Clean.

Work has been pretty stressful and pretty frustrating for months now. MONTHS. Every week I’d tell myself “If I can just get through this next thing, next week I’ll take a day and drive down to Santa Cruz.” Every week I’d get through the next thing only to find a large pile of thing after that. Sigh. With much of the project now at the printer, I found myself with some warm weather and a day where no one really needed me to do anything. It was soooo on.

I was taking a little bit of a gamble with a small wave forecast, but figured at the least I’d get some sun, some water and a milkshake. Things were in fact small. I spent a bit of time waffling between two spots before deciding. It was plenty mellow and I chased down a lot of waves that didn’t turn into anything, but I got some really nice ones as well.

Lots of waist high rights I spent wiggling down the line, connecting on all the way into the shore. A few solid smooth longboardy lefts. I spent some quality time up on my logo working on a nose ride I just didn’t quite make. It’s funny, I feel like I surf completely different depending on which direction I’m going. Left is more stand tall longboard, few turns, lots of rail. Right is more dips, turns, and the occasional mini-floater. No idea what it is. Seem like today I had to navigate more sections (and kelp) on the right, but I’ve noticed this trend elsewhere. HMMM.

Crowd was pretty friendly too. I got a few compliments on my rides and a big thank you from a guy I called into a wave. Everyone was really stoked to be enjoying some warm sun with their little waves.

Surf: 3-5ft, 6+ standouts. Somewhat sectiony in the morning but mostly clean. Glassier on the falling tide.

I had a birthday bbq to his in SC and decided to catch a few waves before dropping by. It’s fairly safe to say there was swell in the water. I stood on the cliff for a long time watching pretty good sized waves roll through. Nothing crazy, but after a whole summer and then some of rocking the knee-waist high wavelets, a solid 5ft wave looks pretty intimidating, especially on a longboard.

Pierce and I paddled out in a calmer spot between the hook and sharks. We waited, watched, and got creamed a few times before shifting even further east to a smaller peak. Since there’s been a bit of a wave drought, we watched folks for a while, taking care to pick up scraps so we wouldn’t drop in on anyone. A few hot tempers in the lineup and some squabbles between old timers kept us on our toes.

After a while, Aaron, Shawn and Tracy paddled out. After a few more larger sets, the crowd focused on Sharks and the Hook leaving this nice little wave for the 5 of us and a friendly SUP.

Aaron got some really great waves. I was pretty happy with a few of mine. After 4 hours my arms were jello. I decided to pick up one more wave at Sharks before paddling in. Man did I get a wave. Nicely shaped, pretty clean, and smooth enough I could drag my hand in the water along side me the whole ride. I had a nice cutback, straightened out for the wash, then paddled in for the day very stoked. I’ve never thought to drag my hand in a wave as I’m zipping on by so I’m not sure exactly how it happened. It’s a dorky thing to be stoked about, but I had a fun day.

After wrapping we met up with our friends for burgers, beer pong, and a pretty fun afternoon. The exhaustion when I got home was just epic. I couldn’t even sleep I was so tired and my arms were too spent to drink water. Whew, what a week!

Surf: Knee-Chest high, mostly in the knee-waist high range. Clean with long waits between sets.

I’ve been wanting to sneak down to SC on a weekday for a while. Thursday I sent ou over a thousand pages of work to be proofed and reviewed by the client so Aaron and I took advantage of his “every other friday off” schedule and cruised on down.

The plan was to swing by Pleasure Point. I’ll admit, it looked good. At 9 there were already plenty of people on it. The hook was a little more open and the lines were looking pretty good. Jumped right in.

I had a lot of fun. While there were long waits, the waves were pretty nice. Rather than my usual cruise/nose riding attempts, I decided to practice making some swooping turns. Man it was fun. Plenty of dipping down, then sneaking back up high side. I nailed a pretty fun little floater too.

The big thing I took away from the day was realizing how much I’ve improved since the last time I surfed the hook. After a summer going left at Lindy, my cutback and my dipping on my rights is a lot stronger. I got a couple hoots and a “that wave looked competent” from Aaron. He did well himself, he’s totally getting signed.

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.

SURF: 1-3ft. Inconsistent, but clean.

Headed back down to Santa Cruz with Luke and Cynthia to get in one last sunset session before the time changes. Waves were pretty inconsistent, but the sunset was beautiful and the moonlight on the waves made the couple of waves I did catch something special.

Stealing these pics from Cynthia.
Check out her site for some video of our sesh and lots of other great NorCal wave reports.

SURF: 4-5 ft. shoulder to head high with occasional 6 ft. and good conditions.

PM REGIONAL OVERVIEW: Mostly-clean, good surf prevails this afternoon as WNW and SW swells ease. Average breaks have knee-waist-chest high+ surf, while top exposures are running in the overhead+ range on the better sets.

Luke talked me in to a sunset session down in Santa Cruz. The weather was warm, waves were looking pretty clean.

I’ve only been down to SC a few times. The hook is pretty different from what I’m used to: kelp forest, reef bottom, more territorial locals, so I was a little skittish getting out. I got in two nice rides. The kelp forest keeps the waves clean and the reef bottom allows a smooth break and a long ride. I was surprised how fast the rides were, the waves definitely had more energy than I’d expected. I’m used to beach breaks where the wave is either fast and breaks fast or slow and breaks slow. Fast and breaks slow was a pleasant surprise.

Best part of the evening was watching the sun go down over the water. Lots of purple and gold waves. The moon was reflecting in the waves and the weather was just fine. Nice night out.

Also check out this pic by shredderbetty for some sunset action.