Tag: dawn patrol

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.

Surf: 3.6 ft at 9.1 s from the W at 270°. Low tide.

After last week’s pint sized glass fest, I was really hoping for perfect little cruising waves. Sadly no, it was mostly closeouts. I got one or two decent, real rides and then a lot of drop and wash.

Funny moment of the day, Brien dropped in going left, Beamer going right. Beamer cannonballed over Brien. >_< Whew. That's some small wave acrobatics.

Surf: 8.5 ft at 10.8 s from WNW at 293°

I spent some time watching the storm surf over the weekend. Saturday was almost tempting (although huge and crowded, it was smooth and looked great) but Sunday had that mixed up brown sludge look that made me question the sanity (and sanitation) of a Monday surf.

Thankfully, low expectations were exceeded. I had some fun rides and a little bit of improvement. This morning’s session included a few little cutbacks (getting quicker on these) and got in to plenty of waves. It’s getting much easier, especially at our little pointish left. Still having some trouble in the beach break, especially with closeouts. On the log you can get in early and squeak out a little bit of wave in a closeout. Sitting further inside feels more like I’m going to get whalloped than I’m going to squeak out a ride. Since some days closeouts are all there is, I’m still working on it.

Surf: 2.6 ft at 11.4 s from NW at 305°. Incoming tide.

Nice clean little waves. Andrew said something along the lines of “This is the kind of stuff this beach actually does well.” That might not be what he said, with ear plugs and a hood I can’t hear anything, but if it was, he’s pretty spot on.

Sure, when it’s small there are only a few working peaks and it favors a board with more foam, but… it stays open. Long waves, no closeouts.

Before things got overcrowded, I got a few fun swooping ones. I blew a really nice one that I’d love to blame on Chris being in my way, but it was more that I fell into old habits and grabbed rail when I should have just popped up. Crashed right back into the wave.

Lots of fun. I like nice clean days where I feel like I know what I’m doing. 🙂

Oh and cookies. Brought some of my mom’s peanut butter and hershey kiss cookies to share in the lot. Yum.

Surf: 6.2 ft at 12.9 s from NW at 308°. Incoming tide.

Weeyeeeew. Nice long wave to make my morning!

What looked a little uninspiring from the lot, turned out to be a little bit of fun in the water. I got one really nice long swooping right. I looked back to see Chris on the wave behind it, also swooshing along. Fun fun fun.

Overall a little inconsistent. There were some big ole closeouts and some mixed up mush. A few good waves (and some compliments in the lineup) made things just fine.

Nice fog bank around the cove to keep things moody.