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.