Tracey

July 8, 2013July 8, 2013

Low tide windswell

Surf: 3.6 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 308Â°. Low side. Light SW to W winds.

After a slightly stressful weekend, I was looking forward to getting in the water again, meh waves or not. Super low tide, but hey, not that many people out.

Brien got tons of waves on Beamer’s 5’10 Taylor. We traded off mushy closeouts for a while. Lots of duck diving practice. You know, making the most of low tide windswell.

I did managed to squeeze some wavey wave time out of the session. There was some turning that happened. That’s exciting. I’m seriously excited every time I turn or link some turns on my fish. It’s nice because it makes meh wave sessions a lot more fun.

I spotted myself on the cams, but the camera panned before I got my top turn in. Ah well. At least I can see I’m pretty close to being in the right spot. I’m the white line closest to the curl. There’s another white line about to drop in on me, but thankfully he pulled back. Whew.

In other shortboarding news, this video has been making the rounds. It has a lot of great information about using your fins/back foot to initiate and follow-through turns.

MR’s Surfing Tips #1: Back Foot Pressure from Nathan Richards on Vimeo.

July 5, 2013July 17, 2013

Quads of July

Surf: 5.3 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 321Â°. Incoming tide. No wind.

While typically crowded for a warm and sunny holiday, the surf today was surprisingly fun. Nice long faces. Some good size. Warm water warm air warm sun warm sand.

I took out my 7′ quad worrying the crowd might somehow ding my precious orange baby. The extra little bit of length and foam came in handy when trying to out-paddle the weekend warriors, but was a wee bit tricky duck diving the HH+ sets that rolled through from time to time. One particularly amazing botched dive involved the board twisting then swinging around in a perfect arc to hit me in the back of the head. Mid-length’s lack of weight for punching through a wave, and their overly beefiness for diving is probably my main complaint with these boards.

Really my only complaint, as that was pretty dang fun.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about quad set up vs single fin lately (especially as this board can handle both.) At this length I’m not really feeling the fins like I do on my 6’4. The board is still really fun, I got some big swooping turns in. I got around some sections. It all around surfed.

Saw a few of the usual morning crew out there killing it.

Afterwards, Mike said “Looks like you’re getting pretty good on these mid-lengths!” Aww, yay! 😀
Super stoked to me getting somewhere, especially after months of being frustrated.

After afterwards, caught the illegal fireworks show in the mission from safely up on Potrero Hill. Pew pew.

Happy 4th!

July 3, 2013July 3, 2013

Go, fish!

Surf: 4.6 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 317Â°. Rising tide. No wind.

After yesterday’s early start, today was some lazy sluggishness. I checked the cams. Yawn. Not exciting, but whatever. Might as well take the fish out and get some paddle practice.

As with the last few sessions, it turned out to be really fun. It was clean, that’s nice to finally see, and it alternated from waist high waves to shoulder high sets. There’s some sneaky ground swell hiding out there and it is fun.

I got a few pretty decent rides on my fish. I got a couple were I was starting to feel mildly competent (still a kook, but a happier kook), including:

-cruising along in the post-closeout whitewater rather than losing steam and falling over
-doing some sort of speed pump like move to get around a section

The last move kinda felt like I was actually using my rail, bottom concave, and fins all correctly. I’d make a small bottom turn by pushing into the wave with my toes (inside rail,) start to climb, then when the pressure of the wave felt right, I’d release the toe weight and slide back into another mini bottom turn. I guess the idea is to climb and fall and climb and fall so you slowly increase momentum (it helps that the waves here tend to steepen up further along the line, too.)

It worked really well for getting around a long section, and worked to keep on cruising on a whitewater reform.

I’m totally digging figuring out all the little things behind this board. I’m also hoping it will teach me about my other boards as well. Switching back to the longboard yesterday started out a little wobbly (weight too far back), but it’s fun to see the similarities and differences play out, especially as I’m trying to learn to maintain my speed while further up the nose of my longboard.

July 2, 2013July 2, 2013

Early shift

Surf: 2.3 ft at 14.3 s from the SSW at 213Â°. Rising tide. No wind.

YAWN.

There’s a BART strike and Chris wanted to beat the bridge traffic by avoiding the bridge all together. Unfortunately we all had time constraints so “get there EARLY” was the call.

I got up at 3:15, picked up Brien at 4, rolled up to the beach at 5:15 for some serious darkness.

Darkness, and waves. Clean tasty waves.

Yeah there were some long lulls, but it was clean and there were some nice sized sets. Waves were nice and long, perfect for working on my nose ride skills. I got in range, but every time I started to get up there, I’d lose speed like crazy. A few things I think were happening:

– 1 I’m a little too far ahead of the curl. I need to get in position a little better
– 2 Not enough rail/tail engaged in the face. Chris was recommending leaning down-face a little to keep the nose sliding forward.
– 3 My board is more of an all-arounder. It doesn’t have a ton of concave in the nose.
It should still be rideable, but a little bit more tricky.

In addition to the fun waist high practice waves, there were a few good sized chest+ waves in the mix. I got two great rides I was very happy about. One with a mix of turns, long cutbacks, skootching up, dropping back etc and one last set wave in. I was about to paddle over one of the waves in the set, but then changed my mind last minute. After a no-paddle take off, it was a fast, fun long ride all the way into the sand. Wow, was that a FUN one. Yeeeeeooooo.

What a beautiful morning. Big group of pelicans cruised by before disappearing into the fog.

July 1, 2013July 1, 2013

Quality Peoples

Our friends at Quality People’s have shot a few videos of spots I love to surf in MX.

Here’s one with the Seea crew at a boat spot I surfed on my last trip:

Diosa De La Costa from Quality Peoples on Vimeo.

And another at my favorite spot, the first day of this last trip:

Getting Lost In The Beauty Of It All from Quality Peoples on Vimeo.

In addition to their wonderful videos, they have wonderful clothes!
They’ve just launched their online store:

I’ve already picked up a shirt. <3

June 28, 2013June 28, 2013

Yay, Fish!

Surf: 4.6 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 269Â°. Calm – light WSW winds. Dropping to negative tide.

Wooohooohooo ooo.

The forecast sounded pretty mediocre and the cams weren’t helping. After last week, I figured I’d find something rideable. After yesterday, I figured it would be closeouts. I took my fish thinking at bare minimum I wouldn’t get quite so clobbered and I might get a couple half second closeout rides.

Thankfully, the surf turned out to be pretty fun.

I got a few short rides, a few longer okay rides, a few rides where I faceplanted trying to cut back (I’m still figuring out this whole “more than one fin” thing), and then one ride that counts as my most competent wave so far on the fish at Linda Mar.

I got a GREAT wave in Santa Cruz, but conditions were so good that day, it was the wave and the board doing all the work. I’d be happy to have a million more waves like that, sure, but today’s wave made me feel like I was starting to learn a few things.

The key things being that I got my weight right (I keep being too far forward, too far back), used the rail nicely (you know, to go forward instead of standing there), used my fins well for my turns (I could use a little more work here but still excited to be doing turns at all), and got nice smooth glide though the sections.

All and all, pretty satisfied.

<3 Fish!

June 27, 2013June 30, 2013

Whiteout closeouts

Surf: 5.6 ft at 12.9 s from W at 273Â°. Falling/low tide. No wind.

Heavy fog this morning. Not only only a blind paddle out, but some foldover closeouts. Probably not the best day for the hull, but that seems to be a theme lately.

After getting clobbered a few times, I headed south for smaller closeouts. I got a few short rides. Nothing fantastic, but workable considering the day.

There was one moment where I was trying to paddle out over and incoming wave and the water in front of where I was about to paddle started moving. I’d seen quite a few dolphins already so I was banking on it being friendly sea life moving around. After the shark vs kayak reports the other day, it was a little tough to paddle straight into in fog that thick.

Whole morning was a little spooky.

June 26, 2013June 28, 2013

Test run

Surf: 3.9 ft at 14.8 s from the NW at 306Â°, low tide, calm.

JBird had been wanting to try my Vaquero out for a while. I figured we’d swing by Linda Mar and she’d get some cruisey little waves on it.

Well, plans change. We hot another spot that, in addition to being crowded, was about shoulder high+, steep, and short. Not the best waves to try out that board on. I have to pop up so fast and with the crowd and the low visibility, it’s hard to weave through people. I got a few fun waves on it (I figured I’d get a few rides and then I’d be able to tell her where to sit), but had to kick out of most due to people. I got one really fun ride on her board. Not surprisingly, people move out of my way a lot faster when I’m on a longboard vs a 6’10. I had a clear ride all the way in. Nice.

Sadly, Jbird didn’t get any waves on it. I think what she want is as far as a hull goes is more of a Andrieni Serena than a Andrieni Vaquero. They are supposed to be better in steeper stuff, better all-arounders. I love my Vaquero, but it deserves a long point-break wave. Short fast waves are a bit of a waste of all it’s cruisey goodness. It’s also 4 feet shorter than Jacob’s Andrieni. That’s a big change. It’s not that easy to just hop on a shorter board.

I’m hoping to get a chance to have her try it out again, maybe in something a little smaller and smoother.

June 25, 2013June 30, 2013

Waves!

Surf: 1.6 ft at 8.3 s from the WNW at 282Â°. Low tide. Offshore.

After weeks of serious slopsurf, it was nice to see something that looked like a wave. Sure it was small, knee high to waist high, but it was clean enough and there were rainbows on top of rainbows. This was Hawaii level of rainbow action.

Got some fun little ones in shallow water and a nice tour of the whole beach. Surfable enough for me. 🙂

June 23, 2013June 30, 2013

Surf Lessons in Pismo

Pismo party wave by @traceythompson

Surf: 3.6 ft at 7.7 s from the NW at 307Â°. Lil windy.
(from Santa Maria 21 NM NW of Point Arguello, CA)

Day two of the surf and space roommate trip. I got up early and scoped out the waves, but forgot that once I left the room, I was going to be stuck outside (no room key) so I watched the surf slowly deteriorate.

Ah well. Worse waves means fewer surfers and more whitewater for my beginner roommates to catch.

Once we packed up the room. I went out for a short surf while Meghan picked up a soft top. I splashed around in my swim fins trying to push her into waves. While she didn’t stand up, I think she’s figuring out enough to have fun with me in bolinas or a cowells. 🙂

Always nice to see someone stoked.

Swapped the fins for my board and caught a few more waves. Chatted with folks in the water. All around, not fun sloppy surf.

The other girls went out with Kaitlyn and each stood up once or twice.

By then our warm beach weekend had turned to wind and puffy jackets.

Not a bad trip. 🙂