Author: Tracey

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Raw Fall Swell

Surf: 8.9 ft at 17.4 s from the W at 280°

Folks had been hyping this swell all week. I get that people are swell starved, but man, people were frothing. I had a suspicion it would be big, but rough around the edges. Reports were bouncing from 6ft to 14ft to 8ft… I figured Chris and I would check out our usual big day spot and if it was too snarly, get donuts and hit work early.

It wasn’t epic by any stretch, but it was rideable. Things were raw and a little ragged, but I still got a few really fun ones. There was the occasional cleanup set that was a good reminder the seasons are changing.

Kinda weird thing, even tho I got some decent ones, I was getting really frustrated. Ugh. Not sure if it was the crowd or conditions making me edgy. Ahh well.

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Sunday Closeouts

Surf: 4.3 ft at 8.3 s from NW at 305°

Andrew was looking for some water time this weekend. Bolinas sounded like it was barely breaking so we tried Lindy. As usual, it was crowded and closed out. There was plenty of whitewater for him to practice on, but only a few shoulders here and there for me to grab. I got a couple closed out waves and spent the rest of the time bellying around, cheering Andrew on.

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One Wave

Surf: 3ft @ 8s from NW 311° with a little bit of south in there maybe? Incoming tide. Calm winds.

I’ve spent the last few months swooshing little waves on my longboard. It’s been fun. I like riding a board I know and there’s plenty to learn on my log.

With fall coming, I figured I’d take a break from my old standby and get a workout in taking my 7’4 out. I figured it would be rough. I haven’t taken that board out in a while. Sure enough, I struggled trying to get into waves. I blew a few takeoffs. Timing off, positioning off, paddle strength off. Uff.

Around the time when I was accepting that I was going to get skunked, I finally got a wave. It was a smooth, peaky, shoulder high wave. I got two cruisey turns before casually kicking out at the end. That one wave made the whole session for me. I didn’t get a single wave after, but I still left stoked. That’s the largest wave I’ve gotten on that board so far and one where I felt pretty comfortable.

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Clean Lefts

Surf: 4ft @ 10s from NW at 318° Calm.

Caught a few lovely later-shift waves this morning. The crowd was focused on a little stretch of fairly log-like waves, but Chris and I headed North for another peak. We found a nice bunch of clean, mellow waist high peeling waves.

Our quiet spot soon attracted attention and a small crowd formed. A group of guys camped out right infront of me on the inside. I heard one of them say: “Are you sure we should sit here? That girl is getting like, every wave and we’re totally in her way.” My first thought was “well yeah, you _are_ totally in my way” but feeling generous, I decided to wait a set out. One they got a couple, everyone shifted around nicely and folks were sharing waves peacefully with minimal drop ins and chaos.

I spent some time working on sneaking up the nose. Nice to have some smooth waves again. 🙂

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Buffet Style

Surf: 5ft @ 8s from NW at 307°

Nice little morning sampling various breaking waves along to beach. Also nice to see lots of folks I haven’t in a while, usually because they headed to Ocean Beach or I headed to Montara on the small summer days. Little bit glassy with plenty of mush on the incoming tide (plus plenty of closeouts as per usual), BUT plenty of actual waves too.

I got a few swoopy little squiggly waves and one mostly hilarious cutback. I put so much rail in I was nearly laying flat on my back. Just when I thought “I _might_ make this turn!” I blew it trying to come back around. So close!

Towards the end of the session, I was furiously trying to paddle back out for one more. Things were starting to get a little more mixed up and I Was huffing and puffing. After about 10 minutes of paddling and making no progress, I heard HEY! Brien had swam out to me to let me know he and Chris were going on. I sheepishly turned around and bellied in. Gotta get back into paddle shape before winter.

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Dropoff

Surf: 3ft @ 10s from NW at 304° Low tide, some wind.

Ducked out of work early hoping to find SOMETHING surf like. I had my 7’0 with me so barely breaking first spot check didn’t seems all that appealing. Second check seemed like it was breaking a little close to shore, but we paddled out anyway.

Upon further inspection, it was pretty much jacking up and dropping straight down into the sand.

Chris got plenty of nailbiter drops and fast rides that ended in the sand. I mostly got a freefall drop into a faceplant, followed by some unnerving tossing around in really shallow water. I’m not a fan of shallow water let alone being flung into it. Duckdived a bit. Took in some sun. Had a few minor heart attacks, then went home.

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Pickup

Surf: 4ft @ 9s from NW at 304°

The morning started out pretty soft and slow, but eventually picked up a tad. I got a handful of fun long rides, then spent the rest of the morning waiting. Things went from soft to steep and shallow as the tide changed.

Pretty spectacular scenery, a flock of seagulls, and a swarm of jellyfish.

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Midmorning

Surf: 4.3 ft @ 14.8 from S at 187° and peeling

Snuck in a little bit of surf time between my morning meeting and my afternoon meeting. It looked long and loggy at the first spot a checked and short and smooth at this spot. I watched from the cliff a while before deciding I’d rather work on my cross step than rain on the shortboard party with my log.

Plenty fun on the loggier waves. Waist high and long enough to try and work on some moves. Nice to see the later shift folks stoked and happy. 🙂

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High water

Surf: 2.6 ft at 16.7 s from S at 190°. High tide. Light/moderate shifting winds.

BOOOOM. Wave after wave of the set hit the breakwall. The ramp was swamped and folks were trying to time their entrances just right. Today was one of those no-beach days where the water swallowed the coast of the town whole. With the fog it was hard to see the next wave coming, but with the long period there was a pretty good window to make it out in one piece.

Waves were typically on the soft side and with the holiday the crowd was typically on the thick side. Thankfully the long sets made it easy to find a wave to yourself here or there.

I’ve been complaining for weeks about surfing terribly. Blowing waves, flying all over the place, etc. Today I finally felt like I was surfing competently. After getting a nice long wave, I paddled back out and was met by a woman laughing to herself. She looked over at me and said “Every time you get a wave, there’s five guys who frantically paddle to the spot you were just at trying to get the next one. Then you move somewhere else and they follow along behind you.” I kind of couldn’t believe anyone was pay attention, let alone following me. Ha.

Later a guy yelled out to me: “Great wave! You’re tearing it up out here!” I was seriously blushing under my sunburn.

It felt good to hear some kind words from folks in the lineup. In the back of my mind I’m still thinking they’re cheering me on because I’m doing terribly. I mean, there were folks out there cross stepping away and all I was really doing was squeezing soft little waves into long rides. My best guess is all my smiling and hooting for other folks makes it a little easier to hoot for me. 😉

Brien and I were certainly having fun out there. He got some long ones and one great one where he came down the line nice and clean before I managed to get in his way. He zipped right around me and back down the line. I got a wave early on that I thought I might bail on because of traffic on the inside and overall meh-ness of the wave. Instead I wound up catching the wave riding on my knees. It turned out to be a silly, very fun ride dragging my hand in the face and steering while sitting nearly on my nose. I laughed the whole ride. Weeeheww.

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Choptara


Photo by Brien

Surf: 4ft @ 8s from NW at 305°

Oh man. Crowded, windy, choppy and sloppy. But somehow, still rideable. I think every desperado for miles wound up at the same stretch of beach this morning. When the crowd finally left, I managed to get a few barely passable waves before heading off to work.