Tag: dawn patrol

Surf: 11.2 ft at 17.4 s from the WNW at 293°

Yay for rain! These winter storms have been slowly chipping away at our drought. It’s great for the water table, not great for water quality. It was pretty lucky to have both my shoulder stamina and a window from the line to line up.

Pretty fun waves out there, too. Really, it was nice just to get up, get going, and catch a few waves. I had fun swooshing around, did a little shuffling up, and mostly avoided getting knocked around until the very last wave. I’d forgotten what it was like to sit in my favorite corner of the beach watching the huge mountains of water roll by out at sea. Wow.

You could see the clouds shifting out over the ocean too. The storm coming should be a pretty good one!

Surf: 2.6 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 277°

Paddled back out for some pre-feast exercise. Still closed out, but with a wave or two in the mix. The good news is yesterday’s paddle out didn’t make my neck any worse, sadly it still hurts. Aches and pains aside, the sun was beautiful, the water wasn’t super cold, and I watched Chris get a great long wave, dodging all the sections, traffic, and weird warbles. Good pre-stuffing stuff.

Surf: 5.3 ft at 12.9 s from the WNW at 285°. Low and incoming.

I had a bit of a setback in physical therapy progress over the weekend. Saturday I spent about 45 minutes or so drawing, went about my day, went to sleep at a normal time and, when I woke up Sunday, I couldn’t sit up to get out of bed. Arg. It’s frustrating. I was making good progress, but now I feel like I’m back near the starting line. Driving to PT on Tuesday, I passed a couple cars loaded up with boards and thought, well, I guess this is just going to hurt, wether I baby it or not.

Of course, when I was thinking “Screw it, I’ll just paddle out” I was still hoping the waves would be gentle and not teeth rattling closeouts, but ahh well. The little waves stayed open and were actually a little fun, but everything else was a rough ride straight down. I saw someone buckle their soft top! Yeesh.

But hey, sun was out, got wet, and got a donut.

Surf: 4.6 ft at 10.8 s from the W at 273°

Experiment, part 2. After surfing my face off yesterday, I decided to push my luck and try the hull again. The waves were a little messier and much more grey, but the first wave I got was worth paddling out for. Wow was that a good one. Good size, the hull did all it’s hull magic and rubber-banded it’s way through turn after turn. I even nailed a kickout, whee.

Fun morning. I was a bit sore after, that might have been a little too much hull-time, but hopefully it’s a sign of improvement. I really want to get back out and get surfing again!

Surf: 3.9 ft at 13.8 s from the WNW at 283°

My physical therapy has been going pretty well. I decided to run a little experiment and see if I could take out one of my shorter boards without totally throwing my neck out. Past attempts at anything shorter than 9′ had me laid up in bed after so, in addition to the likelyhood that I wouldn’t catch any waves, this was a risky proposition.

Thankfully they waves were very forgiving. Hardly a duck dive needed. 🙂

And surprisingly enough, I got waves! It was like I hadn’t even put that board down. The tide was in just the right swing that there were plenty of fun fun rights. It was a little sketchy on the inside, but lots of fun swooshing turns before hitting that point. I eventually got back into the hang of kicking out on my little board (I kept stepping off.)

Nice morning!

Surf: 3.6 ft at 19.0 s from the SW at 299°

Yeeehooo, that was a fun little morning. Yeah, waves were a little lumpy with the backwash, but still plenty fun. Chris and I paddled out and immediately split a peak. Yay for shared waves. Sadly did not get a ton of stepping in, but did get in some zipping and swooshing. Plenty of folks in the water were getting fun waves. This is definitely the kind of morning I’ve been missing.

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.0 s from the W at 265°. Incoming tide. Light S winds.

Day two of getting up and getting out. It was raining when I left the house. How great is THAT? I’ve been waiting for these south wind mornings and we could really use a wet winter to ease this drought. (Note, I may not feel the same way after my third sinus infection from dirty water.)

Got down south and the waves looked fun. I decided to skip the bodysurfing and go straight for the board. Wheee. Sure, it was kinda closed out, but lots of friends I hadn’t seen in ages were out and there were a few makeable waves.

The big highlight: making it through a whole session without the sharp pain I’ve been having in my neck. Sure, I’m sore in all the usual spots, but it’s a big step up from the kind of pain I’m normally in these last few months.

I think that’s a win.

I’ve been adding a sticker to this thing every time I’ve had a really great session, pulled off a surf move, or something else pretty rad. So far, not a ton of stickers, but today I added one for cooperative shoulders. Not bad.