Author: Tracey

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Beach/hike Sunday

2014-DS-04-06

Surf: 5.9 ft at 19.0 s from the W at 281°. Low Tide.

After Friday’s wet but successful hike, we came back on Sunday for round two with other coworkers and kids. Weather was sunny and warm, a rarity that I’m not sure was appreciated by the little ones. Everyone pulled through. The parking situation was definitely a little wild west, but doable.

Afterwards we hit the beach. I was able to get in a little bit of surf. Not every wave was a closeout, but it was crowded. After working a few lumpy, congested waves, I opted for fins and caught a few more.Saw a sea lion bodysurfing another wave nearby. Even managed an on-wave high five, ha.

Some sand castle building, some sunburn getting (whoops), and a little bit of swimming.

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Rainy hike

2014-DS-04-04

Surf: 3.3 ft at 7.1 s from the W at 277°

The surf looked pretty blown out and meh this morning so we skipped surf and headed to the new Devil’s Slide trail that just opened up off highway 1.

What a great little trail. It’s the old highway 1 router from before the tunnel, so it’s paved rather than a “trail,” but wow, it’s something special. Before the trail it was a bit of a white-knuckled drive, rather hard to really get to check out the view or watch the birds. There’s so much neat stuff to look at! We even saw some sea lions swimming around.

About halfway through the walk it started raining. Pretty amazing to watch the stormclouds come in over the water.

Great spot. I’d recommend checking it out on a weekday as the parking lots are small. There is a shuttle from Pacifica that leaves once an hour on the weekends: http://www.cityofpacifica.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=5349 Looks like the best place to pick it up is at Pacifica Beach, but it also picks up a variety of places around town.

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Sea Lion

2014-LM-04-03

Surf: 4.9 ft at 10.8 s from the W at 279°. Spanning the low tide. Light winds.

Size came down, in theory so did did yuck factor (although that can be disputed), but the closeout factor was still high. It was a little bit ridable, so it counts as “better than expected” in my book.

A big ole sea lion came barging through to catch a few fish.

Same waves were had.

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Sewage

2014-LM-04-02

Surf: 8.2 ft at 10.8 s from the W at 274°. Incoming tide. Light offshore winds.

Spent a long time staring at the surf this morning. I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be so I waited for the tide to come up and storm pumps to stop pouring dirty water into the sea. Chatted with some folks in the lot about the local wildlife and other stories. Got to hear the Pacifica Tsunami warning test blast. Soaked up some sun.

Finally a wave like wave started to break so I suited up.

I love surfing that spot and plenty of somewhat sectiony, but otherwise fun little shifty waves were happening. I worked on my stepping (and face planting.) I got plenty of waves. I went in.

Ran into Mike who talked me into heading about out for a few more.

Not bad. Wind eventually shifted and turned it all to chop. Went home for a hot shower and general post-storm surf disinfecting. Bleh.

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Sketch a Day 92, inspired by parking lot conversation.

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Not closed out!

2014-LM-03-28a

2014-LM-03-28b

Surf: 7.6 ft at 11.4 s from the NW at 306°. SW winds. Rising tide.

Drug myself out of bed this morning hoping to make up for Tuesday’s disastrous surf while still full expecting frustration and slop as the result. Thankfully the usual spot was serving up somewhat unusual breaks in the closeout party.

With the exception of Tuesday, it’s been really nice to have my longboard out lately. It was nice to get into waves early, cruise past lumps and warbles, and have the weight to plow through incoming waves.

Sunshine, a rainbow, some birds. All kinds of good stuff this morning.

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Not Summer

2014-MT-03-25a

2014-MT-03-25b

Surf: 3.9 ft at 16.0 s from the W at 281°. High tide.

The usual spot was looking pretty flat on the high tide (and pink, thanks to the sunrise), so we continued on. Sadly the spot I was hoping to hit was not yet in summer form.

I’m not sure why I paddled out. I think I wanted so badly to make it work or to think I could make it work. The waves were shifty, fast, and raw. I paddled out. I looked around. I got clobbered by a set and went right back in.

It wasn’t even a bad clobbering. I wasn’t down long, I didn’t get drug, I didn’t hit the bottom. But for whatever reason, I freaked out. No excuses. It was frustrating. Even on the beach I was still huffing and puffing watching Chris go for waves and really wasn’t feeling better to he was back on shore. Sigh. I really thought I’d been doing better managing surf-related fear, but I’m not sure it’s working.

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Bodysurf

2014-OBK-03-23a

2014-OBK-03-23b

Surf: 5.9 ft at 16.0 s from the WNW at 295°

Did another beach day with all the kiddos. There was plenty of playing in the dunes and collecting beach junk. I need to remember to bring a trash bag. There was so much junk already on the beach and I can only carry so much back to the car. I’d love to really round up all the stray beer bottles and other crap.

I brought Blam’s handplane to see if I couldn’t make something out of the junky surf. It was pretty dang fun. I got a couple solid rides in before handing the plane off to the guys to try. Chris got one wave so long it took me a good 10 minutes to find him again. I almost go into a pretty good sized wave, but needed just a few more kicks.

Headed to dim sum after.

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Closeout crowd

2014-LM-03-20

Surf: 7.9 ft at 14.8 s from the W at 279°

Hooo. Crowded out there today. I’m not sure I’ve seen so many beginner shortboarders trying to get in to shallow water closeouts.

With the longboard I was able to squeeze plenty of rides out of the whompfest, but not without a face full of sand and silt here and there. Plus banging around into my board.

Around the end of the session there was a moment when there wasn’t a single wave in sight. Everything turned into a mixed up wash. Huh. I tried to belly in but there were just so many people in thigh deep water on the inside. Oookay. I suppose you could surf there if you really wanted.

Paddled up a little further to an empty spot to take one in.

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Hull + 38th

2014-SC38-03-17

Surf: 12.5 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 298°

Solo surf mission this morning.

Took the hull out in SC for some super super fun ones. This has to be my favorite spot when the surf gets to be around chest to shoulder high. It was perfect for the hull. Most folks were at the larger point so I got wave after wave pretty much uninterrupted.

Today was all about hull-cutbacks. I tried to find myself on the cams to see if I could get another view of what it was I was doing, but sadly I couldn’t spot myself. It felt like I was rolling more on the middle belly and tail to keep myself in the pocket. Hulls don’t really “turn” the same way other boards do and I haven’t learned the BIG drawn out cutback people do on them. Any progress in being able to stay in the pocket rather than totally outrunning the wave is fine by me.

Last wave I got around section after section and pretty much hopped off my board on to the sand. Guy paddling in near me said “well, that seems like a good one to end on.” Pretty stoked.

Hull cutbacks can be graceful if you know how to do it:

Hull-O Malibu – Sea Movies from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.

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Not so bad

2014-LM-03-14

Surf: 6.2 ft at 13.8 s from the W at 267°

Today looked absolutely awful, but was super fun to surf. It’s always funny how that happens.

Took the longboard out for plenty of swoop and step practice. Sure it was sloppy, but it was workable and a few of us were working it. There were a couple gals (one on a log and one on a mid length) tearing it up. I got a few hoots and comments, too. It was a totally unexpected morning, given how it looked.

Of course this is only fueling my belief that I can only surf when the surf is crap 😉