Tag: california

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 317°

Wow that’s cold. Cold cold cold. I was fine in the water, but as soon as I was out…sheesh. My hands were screaming trying to hold my longboard in the offshore winds. I had to sit in Chris’s car to warm up long enough to get my key off the pesky short key loop. Oh man.

Surf was fine. Clean, long steep waves. I was struggling a bit, especially since the tide was rather low, but still managed to get a fun wave or two out of the morning. It was really starting to look nice was I was thawing out. The later session folks likely scored. 🙂

Surf: 7.9 ft at 12.9 s from NW at 313°

Car is still in the shop. Looks like there might be something serious wrong with it. :\

Had some high hopes for another surprisingly fun session, but the surf turned out to be lousy. Oh man. It was seasick. Doubled up, tripled up, warbling all over the place. Got a few rides, including one that took some footwork to dodge the ever sectioning bits. Still, not so good.

One amazing thing, it was beautifully sunny at the beach. There was an amazing sunrise in Half Moon Bay during our Jetty check. But in the city, the fog was so thick I couldn’t see past the edge of the freeway. I couldn’t see the Bay Bridge until we were right under it. Then, just a few dozen feet before the pier, it cleared up again. Dramatic fog.

Surf: 11.2 ft at 12.1 s from WNW at 286°

My car’s back in the shop. Bummer.

Chris was kind enough to give me a ride to the surf. It looked crummy from the lot, but we gave it a shot. It actually turned out to be pretty fun. Sure there were the usual closeouts and crumbles, but there were some nice long rides too.

It helped that I’d taken the 9’4 out. It was really nice to get waves again after putting myself though so many low count/high frustration sessions on my shorter boards.

At one point someone said, Dude! You’re killing it! Blushing like crazy.

Surf: 5.9 ft at 12.9 s from WNW at 298°

Back from the Great Lakes, back from Santa Cruz, ready to face the reality of cold dawn patrols.

My car’s been acting up. I’m not sure if it’s from the cold, the early mornings, the rain, or what. It rumbled and grumbled on startup, but made it to the beach like a champ.

The waves looked like nothing from the lot. Maybe knee high. From the water, they were actually looking pretty fun! Nice, peeling waves, a few in the chest+ range. I would have loved to have had my longboard for a day like this, but still picked up a few fun ones on the hull.

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.8 s from NW at 305°. Low Tide.

I probably should have quit while I was ahead, but of course I went for another surf before the Holiday. Today was a mix of long lulls and some stomping closeouts. Uff.

I got plenty clobbered almost right off the bat. Was in the wrong place looking at a close out folding over and no were to go. I tried using some of my free diving course techniques. I got a big breath. I tried not to blow out any air while tumbling around. I kept telling myself: “I’ve got at least two minutes. I’ll be okay.” But in the whipping around and, what I’m pretty sure was me getting sucked backwards over the falls, I was still pretty scared. Coming up, I couldn’t really get a breath. It felt like there was a big bubble in my gut and I couldn’t get much in. The second wave, I wasn’t feeling as confident. The third, even less. I belled in, hacked for a while, then headed back out.

Once back out, I didn’t make much of myself. I missed a lot of waves.

I dunno. I’ve been having a ton of trouble. I’m pulling out of waves too early, thinking I’m getting into them too late. I think I’m just scared about getting stomped. I don’t really know what to do about it.

But I managed one decent wave in, so that’s something!

Surf: 5.3 ft at 14.8 s from the W at 265°. High tide. REALLY high tide.

Happy to have taken my own advice and gone for something a little easier.

Rolling up to the lot, there was only one peak working in the high tide. By time I’d suited up, there must have been 50 people camped on it. The first wave I got was fun, but heart attack inducing as I swooped around people on a nice long right. There were people nearly standing on the sand trying to catch the shorebreak. Yiiiii.

I paddled north to find something a little less crowded. It was bigger (though all of chest high) and either closed out or shorbreak, but I did manage to get something worthwhile.

I walked back to the lot to find that crowded peak was finally reasonable. While approaching 9am, I figured it was worth getting a few more. Happy I paddled back out. I managed to get a couple right and one great little left zipping me all the way to the sand and off to work. Yay.