Surf: 2.6 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 277°
Paddled back out for some pre-feast exercise. Still closed out, but with a wave or two in the mix. The good news is yesterday’s paddle out didn’t make my neck any worse, sadly it still hurts. Aches and pains aside, the sun was beautiful, the water wasn’t super cold, and I watched Chris get a great long wave, dodging all the sections, traffic, and weird warbles. Good pre-stuffing stuff.
Surf: 5.3 ft at 12.9 s from the WNW at 285°. Low and incoming.
I had a bit of a setback in physical therapy progress over the weekend. Saturday I spent about 45 minutes or so drawing, went about my day, went to sleep at a normal time and, when I woke up Sunday, I couldn’t sit up to get out of bed. Arg. It’s frustrating. I was making good progress, but now I feel like I’m back near the starting line. Driving to PT on Tuesday, I passed a couple cars loaded up with boards and thought, well, I guess this is just going to hurt, wether I baby it or not.
Of course, when I was thinking “Screw it, I’ll just paddle out” I was still hoping the waves would be gentle and not teeth rattling closeouts, but ahh well. The little waves stayed open and were actually a little fun, but everything else was a rough ride straight down. I saw someone buckle their soft top! Yeesh.
But hey, sun was out, got wet, and got a donut.
Surf: 5.3 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 280°. High tide.
After the weeks’s success on a shorter board, I was both excited to get back out, but also hoping to take it a little easy. My shoulders were a bit sore and I didn’t want to push them too far. Sadly the surf did not cooperate. The tide was very high and the shorebreak was a sloshing mess. About halfway out I was feeling that sharp pain in my neck again so I turned around and bellied in.
It was disappointing, sure, but I did get some swim time in.
Surf: 4.6 ft at 10.8 s from the W at 273°
Experiment, part 2. After surfing my face off yesterday, I decided to push my luck and try the hull again. The waves were a little messier and much more grey, but the first wave I got was worth paddling out for. Wow was that a good one. Good size, the hull did all it’s hull magic and rubber-banded it’s way through turn after turn. I even nailed a kickout, whee.
Fun morning. I was a bit sore after, that might have been a little too much hull-time, but hopefully it’s a sign of improvement. I really want to get back out and get surfing again!
Surf: 3.9 ft at 13.8 s from the WNW at 283°
My physical therapy has been going pretty well. I decided to run a little experiment and see if I could take out one of my shorter boards without totally throwing my neck out. Past attempts at anything shorter than 9′ had me laid up in bed after so, in addition to the likelyhood that I wouldn’t catch any waves, this was a risky proposition.
Thankfully they waves were very forgiving. Hardly a duck dive needed. 🙂
And surprisingly enough, I got waves! It was like I hadn’t even put that board down. The tide was in just the right swing that there were plenty of fun fun rights. It was a little sketchy on the inside, but lots of fun swooshing turns before hitting that point. I eventually got back into the hang of kicking out on my little board (I kept stepping off.)
Nice morning!
Surf: 6.6 ft at 12.9 s from the WNW at 285°
So lovely to wake up in Santa Cruz and walk down to the water. My wetsuit was freezing cold and pretty wet from last night’s surf, but warmed up quick on the walk down.
Waves were much smaller today, with a few good sized ones here and there. The sun was out and, for the most part, people were super friendly and having a great time. I shared a wave with an older guy I see out there often. After he called me into the wave, I looked back to make sure there was enough room for both of us and saw he was crouched down inside the most pint-sized of barrels. Yeah! 😀 What a fun wave to share.
Surf: 9.8 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 294°. Incoming tide.
After a very busy and very stressful run at work, I snuck off to an airbnb in Santa Cruz for a much needed getaway. In a rare stroke of luck, some sizable swell came in as well. My host happened to have a key to Privates and let me borrow it for the evening surf session. That is a lovely staircase and park.
The waves were pretty perfect for surfing that break, too. The waves had just started to glass off and the rides were really long and smooth. I’d gotten out a bit late and it got dark far too soon. I couldn’t resist watching the sunset over the water. My last wave was in almost complete darkness, which was fun and fast (I could see the even darker patches of kelp streaming along below.) I did have a bit of a moment when I realized I hadn’t been keeping track of where I was in relation to the stairs and now the tide was too high to walk along the beach till I found them. Thankfully it didn’t take too long to work it out. I kept looking for a shadow with a hard edge, anything different from the rough cliffs and trees.
Wrapped up with a nice dinner and a show. Perfect getaway!
Surf: 4.9 ft at 14.8 s from the WSW at 258°. Incoming tide.
While I’m always supportive of anyone trying to learn to surf, I’m not the best surf teacher. My advice ranges from “paddle! keep paddling!” to “you ok? want to rest?” and not terribly much in between.
I took a few friends up to Bo. They’d both had lessons before and we’re interested in trying someplace with gentler waves. While happy not to be bashed by wave after wave, they weren’t super thrilled with the current into the lagoon. Now, this current has been a problem in past lessons, but never THIS much of a problem. There’s hardly any sand left on the lagoon side so the current was really whipping. One friend made it to shore relatively quickly but the other wasn’t making as much progress. In between yelling “paddle! keep paddling! paddle and then you can rest!” I also swam out to help get her back in.
After leaving them on the beach to test a slightly different spot (where I got a really fun wave on the rental cheese puff soft top) I decided maybe the patch would be better.
One friend was beat from the walk and the fight, but my other friend was able to get out and get some waves. With the exception of the shore break, things were pretty gentle. I’m not as comfortable swimming on this side, so I used the other board and yelled “paddle! more paddling!” behind her.
Next time I need a slightly better plan. Maybe we’ll go down to Cowells.
Post surf we went on a bit of a north bay adventure. Lunch at Lagunitas brewing and then a quick stop in the countryside. All around nice day.
Surf: 3.9 ft at 16.0 s from the S at 186°
It’s boiling hot in the city, so naturally it’s completely fogged over at the beach. I like the fog, but from the looks of the crowd down there, everyone was hoping for a sunny beach day.
I bodysurfed for a little while before eventually grabbing my board. I did get a couple long, fun waves that made it worth the traffic. Lots of swinging the board around to sneak just a little bit more out of every wave. Had a few right into the sand.
Surf: 3.6 ft at 19.0 s from the SW at 299°
Yeeehooo, that was a fun little morning. Yeah, waves were a little lumpy with the backwash, but still plenty fun. Chris and I paddled out and immediately split a peak. Yay for shared waves. Sadly did not get a ton of stepping in, but did get in some zipping and swooshing. Plenty of folks in the water were getting fun waves. This is definitely the kind of morning I’ve been missing.
