california – Page 39 – Learning to Surf

April 24, 2013May 27, 2013

The wind came up

Surf: 3.6 ft at 14.8 s from the SW at 214Â°

The session started out glassy. It also looked small from the cliff, which it wasn’t (it never is! never!) I struggled on my fish and drifted around with the current. Eventually the wind came up. Once things were junky, I managed to get waves. I’m guessing that’s some sort of Linda Mar skill. I can get waves when it’s junky and not when it’s clean.

Ran into Mark, Goose, and Jonas on the beach for the first time in the entire time I’ve been surfing. Little Jonas is too dang cute.

April 23, 2013May 27, 2013

Collide

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 323Â°

This session started out fun. I got a wave, so that’s pretty nice. It was a left and I was relieved (after much paddling on my little fish both to get out and to get the wave) and I wasn’t going to be skunked.

After that it was all sunshine and me being exactly in the wrong spot. I got almost right under Daniel as he was taking off. Sigh. Kook+ move. Then Chris, Eduardo, and Brien somehow got all kinds of tangled up. I had to dive a wave so I couldn’t see what happened, but when the spray settled Eduardo had a big old cut on his head.

We helped him in where Chris patched him up with a comically large band aid that had probably been in his wagon since the 80’s. Eduardo is thankfully okay. No stitches needed.

April 22, 2013May 27, 2013

Bigger, softer waves

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 310Â°

Today’s surf was bigger and softer than it’s been. Crowded too. With the softness I was really fighting to get into waves. I managed to get a few but they all felt slow.

I had a duck dive that went wrong and I kicked my fin. My whole foot is blue. Having so many fins so close to me means I’m constantly kicking them. Owwww.

After struggling a while on the bigger wave, I snuggled up to a small left and picked up a few more fun ones.

It’s always the little waves I catch easy, not the big ones. It’s silly, but I’ll take it.

April 19, 2013May 27, 2013

Few short ones

Surf: 5.3 ft at 8.3 s from WNW at 302Â°

Short period and ranging wildly from small mush waves to bigger push waves, but fun enough for a few short rides. I was really working hard on my fish. I managed to get into a few fun ones. Most of them started off great, then the wave faded under my feet. Aww.

Well, fun enough. I’ll take every surfable day I can get.

Brien got a shot of me doing some of my post-surf chores. I usually soak everything quickly, then dry it all on my car at work. Sadly, we’re losing our parking spaces at the office in May so it looks like I’ll be driving home to drop off gear first. It does mean cleaner gear, but it also means I have to add an extra 45 minutes to my morning routine to fit in bus time back to the office. Still happy I get to surf before work. I’ll take two 45 minute busses before I give that up.

April 16, 2013April 17, 2013

South by Northwest

Surf: 7.9 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 305Â°

With the wind howling locally and swell in Santa Cruz being inconsistent at best, finding in a window of “not awful” to paddle out in has been tricky.

While the sunrise was lovely, I was really struggling. The new leash works much better (no tangled up feet) but I couldn’t get in to a wave to save my life. I finally got one and very slowly rode it in. Uff.

Oh, thanks to the orange board, I’m quite visible on the cams:

April 10, 2013April 13, 2013

Terrible

Surf: 5.3 ft at 14.8 s from the NW at 321Â°. Winds: ARG.

Wow. The wind has been blowing like crazy, but even with rock bottom expectations, I didn’t think the surf could be this bad. What a frustrating afternoon. Not only did I not get any waves, but I put the first ding in my new board. Sigh.

Waves were big, disorganized, lumpy, closed out, and just plain bad.

April 6, 2013April 13, 2013

Kelpfish

Surf: 9.2 ft at 19.0 s from WNW at 282Â° Low Tide. Side/offshore winds.

WHEEEEEE. 😀

After surfing the fish every day this week, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for real waves or exhausted.

From the cliff I could see big barreling waves at 38th. Not quite ready for 6-8ft mayhem, I paddled out further east looking for a nice, sensible 4-6ft mayhem.

Now, every time I do something like that, I paddle out, I’m feeling good then that 8ft set I was trying to avoid comes and finds me. Aaaaa. The first few waves I paddled like a maniac (maniac on a tiny tiny board) to get over. The third was going to break to far out so I stopped, waited, and decided to test out the duck dive ability on this board. AAaaand under. Whew. Just being able to do that gave me a huge confidence boost.

When it came to catching waves, I was struggling a bit. There was so much kelp. It was thick, it was everywhere, and with the limited glide it took a lot for me to get going. I drifted further and further from the crowd, looking for a less kelp covered spot where I could go for everything without dropping in on anyone.

A few attempts in, I finally got a wave. I got a nice long face where I could practice this whole turning stuff. It was so much fun. Bottom turn, top turn, bottom turn, cutback, drop, top turn all the way over to the next break. Yeah! I was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of this.

I got a few more as the day went on. Mostly bigger ones that closed out. All and all, worth the extra paddling. Got to watch Beamer and Darren get some nice ones too.

April 5, 2013April 13, 2013

Party Wave Friday

Surf: 4.3 ft at 19.0 s from the S at 170Â° High and falling tide.

Bigger than yesterday, but still plenty small. I got a few fun party waves with friends and a few all to myself. This board catches little waves like a dream. It’s still plenty of work, but the fact I can even get a little thigh high wave on a board this small makes me happy.

I spent most of the morning making wiggly turns all over the place. I had one awesome wipeout where I went end over end, came up holding the board, tried to get back on, went end over end again. Ahh well, laughed it off.

Last wave I squiggled all the way into the beach. Quite exactly into the beach. The last little bit of the wave I was in dry sand trying not to ding my board.

What a week!

April 4, 2013April 13, 2013

Tiny Wave Thursday

Surf: 3.0 ft at 11.4 s from the WSW at 253Â°

After watching Andrew catch little peeling waves all by his lonesome, we headed south to check conditions. It was mostly an excuse to use the new tunnel. The surf over there was pretty meh so we came back to crash Andrew’s party.

I got a few little ones. I’m so surprised at how small of a wave this board can catch. All this paddling for little waves is certainly getting me back into shape.

April 3, 2013April 13, 2013

Fogistics

Surf: 3.9 ft at 12.9 from the NW at 305Â°

After some unpleasant logistical confusion this morning, I finally made it to the beach. After the work/life/whatever stress I’ve had lately, I was not thrilled to spend valuable surf time driving aimlessly through the fog. In short: arg grumpy unstoked me. Grr missing waves GRR Chris and Brien have to go to work after like 45 min. Grr.

Oh wait. I don’t have meetings. I don’t have to go to work. I’m going back out there. So, yeah, whatever responsibility.

Going back out was actually a really good idea. I got 4 waves straight away. It was actually pretty exciting. There was even a little section I made it around, just like regular ole surfing. The first wave I got in, bottom turn all normal like, then the top turn I was looking at the wave, but the board wasn’t going back down. It felt stuck. I was leaning and leaning and not really going anywhere. Then I stepped back and sheepishly realized that yes, this board has all kinds of fins and no, you can’t turn it like a longboard where you can just soul arch your way to wherever you want to go.

Once I did that, things got pretty fun.

Then the tide changed and I had to go to work.