Tag: california

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Quick Session

2013-LM-05-28

Surf: 4.6 ft at 9.1 s from WNW at 293°

Had just enough time for a quick session before driving to San Jose.

My original plan was to go to SC first, but with the negative tide the last few days, all I saw on the cams was bare rock.

While the session started out foggy, there seemed to be waves. The fog burned off while I was suiting up. The waves looked less fun once I was paddling out, but for a 30 min session, it wasn’t too bad. A little whomping and closed out, but okay.

Smacked my shin pretty good. Now I’ve got more dings to try to find on my performance longboard. I think I’m just going to dip that board in resin and call it a day 😉

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Almost like summer

2013-MT-05-26

Surf: Chest to head high+, pretty clean. 3.3 ft at 14.8s from SW at 215° with a W swell at 3.3 ft at 12.9 s mixed in.

Wooohooohoo. I did not expect actual surfable conditions today. This was quite the fun surprise.

Expecting windblown, jumbled slop, I took out my narrow longboard. Where this board really works well the kind of beach waves that start out mushy, then steepen up. That’s exactly what we found.

From the cliff it was looking clean, but a little bit big on the sets. We gave it a shot.

It was a little warbly here and there, but given what the surf’s been like lately, it was perfect. There was a moment watching a set go by that I watched the first wave roll by, watched the second, then realized a little too late the third was about to break on top of me. I started laughing to hard I could barely get a breath. Ohhh surfing.

One of my best waves today started out pretty unassuming. I paddled for a nice looking one, dropped in, then saw the whole wave stack up. It was over my head for sure. Waves like this are great on this board. It’s got speed and, even though it’s a big board, it turns well on the narrow tail. I swooped through the bottom turn, super fun top turn, second bottom turn and I almost kicked out thinking the wave was going to close but decided to stick with it, swoosh another top turn, another bottom, then it really looked like it was going to close out on me so I launched off the back. Wheeeeee. Oh man that was fun. I haven’t had a wave like that in a long time. Probably since the last time I surfed summer waves here.

Evidently my wave caught the attention of folks on the cliff. Quite a few more people paddled out, including one guy who said my wave saved him from driving all the way to Santa Cruz.

Surfed for a while, then bodysurfed when the fog came in. Oh man, it was exhausting but super fun.

I’m hoping this means summer’s on it’s way. I miss surfing this spot. It can be so fun in the summer and I really want to try my fish out on it.

Went home sunburnt and stoked.

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Catching up to the swell

2013-PP-05-21

Surf: 3 ft at 16s from SSW at 205° Rising to high tide.

This is the swell. This is the swell that we heard about the whole time in Mexico. This is the swell that was “supposed to be here tomorrow” every day. I’ll admit, I thought about bumping the trip a few extra days to catch it (and to say Hi to the folks from theseea.com who were coming in on Sunday for a shoot), but sadly between obligations back home and flights being crazy expensive if we had stayed, it didn’t work out.

Word from Ed was that when it came in, it came in huge. Big big waves full of thousands of juvenile Portuguese Man O’wars. Not only would I not have known what to do with that much swell, my delicate skin would have been toast after just a few stings. Ouch.

The nice thing about a swell like this swell is that not only did it hit Tahiti, Hawaii and Mexico, but it snuggled right up to Santa Cruz.

Although I was feeling some serious work guilt about coming back from vacation and turning right around for the water, I plowed through my first day back chores on Monday and hit the surf early Tuesday.

Normally I’d want my longboard for this. I’m still skittish about the point when it’s on the bigger side (I either want to be able to duck dive or be able to scratch to safety with paddle power.) My log’s in the shop getting a ding fixed so I decided to try out my new an improved hull skills.

I get some confused looks whenever I paddle over to the longboard peak with my little 6’10. Thankfully I’d just gotten out to the peak when a beautiful wave came straight towards me. Remembered my Mexico lessons and paddled longer, stood up faster and swish…I was off.

It was a pretty good wave. 😀
I was really stoked.

After that it was a lot of floating around, answering questions about my hull, being in everyone’s way, getting a few more waves, and doing some horribly kooky things.

I know I’m gonna be a kook for a long time, but I still am so embarrassed when it shows. I was trying to get out past an incoming wave, didn’t make it, went flying backwards and right over the top of Tim. He’s thankfully great at duck diving so he only got a knee to the back. I was slightly horrified. Glad no one got hurt.

He got some great waves. I saw Darren and Noah get a few beauts too.

Also saw a small pod of dolphins slip right by me. Always a cool thing to see.

Overall, I’m glad I chased that swell down. It was a great end to a fun little surf trip.

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Hullabaloo

2013-OB-05-08

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the SSW at 208° Small and kinda clean.

Started out the morning at Ocean Beach. It was windy, small, and all around not inspiring. After kicking some dirty and waiting for a wave, the wind shifted south and we decided to look for a more sheltered spot.

I’d brought my hull hoping to convince myself that my hull was not really all that fun and I shouldn’t take it to Mexico (even though Burros is pretty much the perfect wave for it.)

Linda mar looked small. I thought it would be perfect. I’d struggle and get frustrated and decide that all I need to take is my fish, not my fish AND my hull.

Of course, when you decide something like that, the waves turn out to be super fun. My little hull zipped all around, gliding like crazy, swooping a little. It was silly fun. I got some great long rides.

I wound up walking away from the session knowing I was going to take one heavy board bag to Mexico and that I was going to have a heck of a lot of fun.

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Board Swap

2013-MT-05-07

Surf: 3.0 ft at 12.9 s from WSW at 245°. Windy.

Sometimes when the surf is less than inspiring, the only thing you can do is swap boards. Brien got a chance trying both Chris’s 10’something” log and my 9’4, Chris got a try at Brien’s 7’4 egg and my board, and I got a try at Brien’s board.

I got some fun rides all around. I also managed to flip myself completely over. Chris got some good ones on Brien’s board, but I think my board falls into the “too similar but too different” window so no love there. Brien got some long ones on Chris’s board, but my board turned out to be a little less intimidating.

Fun party waves all around too. Not bad, but spring conditions for sure.

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Almost

2013-OB-05-03

Surf: 3.3 ft at 16.0 s from the S at 184°

I *almost* got into a lot of waves today. I’m having trouble and I’m missing em. I felt like I was getting lined up right, but I was missing that last elements I needed to get up and go.

I still got a few. They were mostly scraps that felt mushy and slow. I left the set waves for people who wouldn’t totally blow it, so there wasn’t much to work with.

One wave I felt like I was set up right, I paddled, I almost got it, and then I get swept over the falls kicking and screaming. The whole way down I could hear Sticker and Josh howling from the cliffs. The orange board makes me easy to spot. I still think orange was a good color choice. As I’d mentioned to Sticker: Nothing says AAaAAAAAAAA LOOK OUT like international orange.

The surf got better as the tide changed. I didn’t want to leave but I’d gone from getting waves here and there to not getting into anything at all. I figured it was office time before embarrassing myself further. 😉

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Offshore

2013-LM-05-02

Surf: Offshore. 4.9 ft at 10.0 s from WNW at 302°

Wow. I was not expecting this at all. Not only was the wind off shore, but the waves were working. Good size, nice long waves. Wow.

Of course, in typical Lindy style it was packed to the gills. I’m not yet comfortable with sitting inside so every wave felt like a firing squad. It didn’t help that in trying to avoid being the the way, I got squarely in the way over and over. John nearly hit me, Mike nearly hit me, dozens of strangers nearly hit me. Yeeow.

I guess it’s good duck diving practice? (Although a failed duck dive resulted in me turning my eyelids inside out. Ow)

I managed to get a few waves, but man did that take effort.

There was a cameraman in the water. I’m pretty sure half his roll is me *not* getting the wave. Ahh well. That’s me in the bottom photo, trying to see in the morning sun.

I got a few drops to remember out of the morning and got to see friends get some really nice ones. 🙂

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By Steve Byrne Photo

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Sun in Santa Cruz

2013-HK-05-01

Surf: 9.5 ft at 10.8 s from WNW at 300° Low tide.

I wanted more fish time so I snuck out to Santa Cruz. Rolling up the low tide was a little too low. Like bare rock low. Beamer and I hit breakfast and the hot tub and waited for it to come back up.

The waves were slow and it was tricky to navigate the homeschooler grom stinky-eyeing up the place, but Beamer got lots of nice ones. I paddled and paddled and paddled but only managed one wave.

These one wave sessions in SC are killing me. I want to get better at this fish but it’s so frustrating driving all that way for one wave.

We hit the hot tub again to help my pride recover.

What I lacked in wave catching, I more than made up for in sunburn and hot tub time. Getting ready for Mexico!

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Sandbar

2013-MT-04-26

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the SSW at 211° Windy

After yesterday’s fun waves, today’s windy small stuff was a bit of a let down. Oh well. We got a few fun tiny warbly ones off this very shallow sandbar.

So shallow, I took a close out wrong, board hit the bottom, board hit me, and I wound up with a real nice bruise on my thigh. Ouch.

This beach will always be a strange one for me. Super shallow sand bars. Crazy deep channels. Shifting, bending, backwashing. It’s a tough one to figure out some days.

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All to myself

2013-LM-04-25a

Surf: 3.3 ft at 13.8 s from the SSW at 198°. South Winds.

I knew the surf would be on the small side and I figured it would be a good day to get in some log time. What I forgot to do was switch out my 6ft leash for my 9ft leash. Opps.

Rather than try to navigate the crowd while leashless, I went up to the north end where I had a solid hour of solo time, just me and some really fun little waves. Well, me, fun little waves, and a whale right in the lineup!

I got some real nice long ones.

Eventually folks figured out that I was having a ridiculously fun time and joined me. Sure, it wasn’t as fun to have to share, but it did mean I got to surf with Heather for a while, that was fun.

All around lovely morning.

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