Tag: dawn patrol

Surf: Thigh to Waist+, poorly organized. Light to breezy sideshore wind. Low Tide. 5.3 ft at 7.1 s from NW 309°

Shuffling into the low tide shallows I saw a big ole orange and purple crab. It scuttled off pretty quick.

The surf was better than Sunday, but still not so hot. I got a decent wave and a handful of drop and washy waves, but nothing great. Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m surfing terribly. I’d love to blame it on conditions, but I dunno. I’ve been blowing quite a few waves on the take off, missing waves…it’s a little discouraging.

After splashing around a while, I took one in. While bellying the last bit into shore, I saw what was probably the same orange and purple crab shifting around. Dude was probably spending the morning bodysurfing.

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Surf: 4.9 feet @ 10 seconds. NW (326°) Light winds. Low tide.

Decent little morning. With the low and still falling tide, I didn’t have a lot of hope for good waves. We were joined by a coworker on a project I’ve been working on, so we opted to just paddle out rather than drag him around all morning hunting for something slightly better.

My first wave right off the bat was super fun. I got a clean peeling right that held up all the way. I got some swooshing turns, a little cutback like thing, fun fun. About halfway through my ride I heard THWACK. Looked around, didn’t see anything. I wrapped up my wave and looked around some more. Chris was standing in waist deep water holding a leash with no board. Leash string broke and the THWACK I heard was his log hopping its way into shore. After some minor repairs, all good to go.

A gal in the lineup commented that I had a nice popup and that I made it look so effortless. Aww. Stoked to hear that. I have a hard time with compliments surfing. For the longest time I thought people were saying “good wave!” because I was kooking so hard out there they wanted to offer encouragement. Either way, it’s always nice to hear some good comments from friendly folks. 🙂

The rest of the session was all over the place. As Chris said, it was quite the sampling of Linda Mar: clean peeling waves, whomping closeouts, sun, fog, sometimes crowded, sometimes not, sometimes current, sometimes not… The rest of my waves were drop and wash but still fun enough.

Surf: 4.9 feet at 10 seconds from WNW (299°) No wind. Low tide.

Probably not the best day to take my 7’0, but fun enough. I knew it was going to be on the smaller side of things, but I need a little more water time on my little board. There was a possible option to swap with Andrew to try out one of his hulls, but the waves didn’t cooperate. It’s for the best, I was kooking out a little. I stepped off the back of my board twice. Ieee. Still managed a few fun waist high peeling waves. Small is just fine so long as it’s clean.

Major shift change as I was leaving. Seemed like everyone was itching to get out. The tide and the lineup filled up fast.

Surf: Crowded. Waist-Chest with a few Shoulder high was in the mix. Offshore S winds. 7.6 ft at 10.0 s from 316° NW

Weekend crowds make me anxious but it’s nothing compared to holiday crowds. Yikes. So many people I wanted to surf with had told me they were going out so I figured as long as I got there early enough to get a parking spot, it’d be worth getting wet.

It was pretty fun. I love watching friends get great rides. It was still pretty crowded. The rest of the beach was hucking some hefty sets so many folks were crowded where I was. The wind was keeping things fairly open on our side too, which was lovely.

I haven’t taken the 7′ out since Mexico. I knew a log would be better for the spot I was surfing, and better for me in the crowds, but I’m pretty determined to keep at this shorter board gig. It turned out to be just fine. I got a few fun waves picking up scraps on the inside. Managed a cutback, a few duckdives, and a handful of other fairly competent seeming things.

Surfed about 4 hours, hit a little back deck cookout at J-Bird and Jacob’s, then back to the city for fireworks. I think this is the only year I’ve successfully watched the SF fireworks. No impenetrable fog, no looking sideways out half a window, no driving from a highway, just fireworks from a friendly rooftop.

Happy 4th, everyone!

Surf: 6.9 ft at 9.1 s from 311° NW.

Shifty, sloppy, and waist highish. I took out my 9’0 since my arms were toast from wakeboarding. I got a handful of waves, but man…my arms were burning. Little bit of sunshine and some friendly folks. Not bad.