Surf: Waist high and occasionally zippy with lots of wind.
Cold. Not horrible. Pretty fun for a maintenance sesh.
Sup?
Surf: Junky waist-chest high.
I saw one of the funniest wave-steals by a SUP in the very brief history of me surfing.
The guy went out of his way to row right infront of Chris as he was paddling into the wave. Not like “oh he’s further inside and thinking about it if Chris doesn’t get it”, like the guy frantically rowed over and went for the wave about a foot infront of Chris’s board. There was some emergency breaking happening on Chris’s part to avoid him. Everyone around said “what the heck was that?!” and laughed. All except for the SUP who triumphantly surfed away, clutching his mushy chest high wave proudly. Such precious waves out there today! Can’t let even a single closeout slip by!
Meanwhile, other SUP-goers caught waves peacefully, evidently unaware of how epic each wave truly was.
Bolinas Marathon
Surf: Thigh to Waist high. Slow. Cold.
Wow. LONG day up north.
I got up early for a morning surf with Chris. At low tide things were a little closed out on top of being very slow. While throwing ourselves into little dumping waves, it looked like the other side might actually be breaking. We took the 1/2 mile long paddle thataways and caught a few more. I think one or two actually counted.
After 3 hours or so, we met up with Andrew who I’m helping learn how to surf. I spent another 3 hours in the whitewater with him catching fun little rides. When I got too tired to surf, I bodysurfed a while and watched Andrew get a few more waves. It also gave me a chance to test out my new earplugs. My doc says I have the very start of surfer’s ear and if I start wearing earplugs now, it shouldn’t get any worse. The plugs are awkward. I can hear everything fine except myself. My breathing is so loud it sounds like I’m out of breath before I even am. BUT, they seem to stay in place and they seem to be keeping water out.
After all that water time, I was BEAT. Beat and hungry and sunburned. Just another successful California day.
Back in Half Moon Bay
Surf: Waist High. Somewhat peeling.
I had my expectations set to “low” and they got lower which each junky, barely-breaking spot we passed. By the time we reached this particular side-road-of-a-side-road, my expectations were set perfectly to have a nice litte morning taking some small peppy lefts. The lulls were long and you had to use the wave reflection to your advantage, but hey, it worked!
No whales in sight, but a few cruising pelicans and several people who watched from the cliff but didn’t find our little wave to be that exciting.
Nice to be back in cold water.
Monday AM boat ride
Photo by Beamer
Surf: Glassy. Waist-Chest high. Awesome.
After surfing only the breaks by the house all week, we finally got to hit another spot. Yeah! And on from a boat! Double yeah!
I’d never surfed from a boat before, so I was pretty excited. We met the captain in the harbor at sunup. He brought us out around the point, dropped us off, and said he’d be back in a couple of hours.
It was beautiful out there. Just the four of us, glassy peeling waves, and the sun coming up over the hills. The waves were super fun. Beamer and Ed got some very stylish rides. I got a few swooshing down the line. I couldn’t have asked for a better morning. The water was so clear.
After an hour or so, another surfer ooched ouched his way across the sharp rocky beach and paddled out with us. Turns out he was from SF.
Just about the time we were wrapping up, another boat pulled up, anchored and folks got out to surf. Valuable lesson learned: you want the boat captain who drops you off to surf alone, not the captain who anchors the boat and hogs all the waves 😉
All and all, great morning. Wrapped with lunch in town and beautiful weather. I love Mexico. 🙂
Thanks for setting us up with the boat, Ed!
Sunday Morning
Surf: Small. Thigh to waist high.
Wow, I’ve finally started to get sore. I suppose I’m in better shape than last year to have lasted this long without getting stiff and tired.
The waves were pretty small and with my sore arms, I opted for the longboard. Talked to some friendly folks in the lineup, including a gal visiting from Santa Cruz. It’s a small, surfy world.
Saturday Morning
Photos by Beamer
Surf: Waist-Chest high. A little bit closed out. Chilly.
I try not to laugh when Ed says it’s cold. Coming from water in the low 50’s, even this unseasonably cool spring in Mexico feels like paradise. However, this particular morning was a little brisk, even in my 2mil wetsuit top. I sured with Aaron and Ed a while before breakfast while Beamer got some shots from the shore. The waves were a little bit closed out, but still added up to a wonderful morning.
Friday Morning Dawn Patrol
Aaron. Me, taking a wave in.
Carl
Photos by Beamer
Surf: Waist to chest high. Not as clean as usual, but fun.
We got up nice and early to get on the main peak for the the crowd. It was still dark and very foggy when we paddled out. Already there was a handful of people. Still always nice watching the sun come up from the water. Can’t beat that. I got a few zippy little waves before things got too crowded and breakfast was ready.
After breakfast I went for a walk on the beach and totally missed saying goodbye to Carl and Natalie. I feel like a jerk. There were super nice folks, they even helped translate for us so we could sort out what being a Vegetarian meant to Luis and Alicia. Hope to run into Carl and Natalie again sometime.
Thursday Morning
Surf: Waist high. Clean. Later a little more closed out.
I took out Ed’s log early while surfing by myself before breakfast. I’m still working on feeling confident on the 7’0. I chatted with some folks in the lineup. A gal from Santa Cruz. A local guy who says he’s working on his cross step because he hops to the nose and it’s just “not classy.” A few folks laughing about how slow the surf was because of the tide. There is only about 6in to a foot of tide swing here, yet every time I go out and it’s the slightest bit slow, someone will say “the tide’s killing it.” High tide, low tide, in between tides. It always makes me smile a little.
After breakfast I took the 7’0 out and hucked myself into closeouts. I’m feeling a little better on the 7’0 but I need to stop making excuses and stick to riding it. Gotta learn! It’s a pretty fun board. I got into a steep drop I didn’t think I’d make. Since I’ve got it as a single fin right now, I did some swishing around when the faces held up a little longer. Fun fun.
Wednesday Morning
Surf: Clean and mellow waist-chest high waves, as usual.
I took Ed’s log out at the main peak. It’s amazing how crowded it’s gotten from one year to the next. Last year we saw half as many people, only a handful of Stand Ups. I took the log because I feel more confident on a bigger board and I was going to need that confidence in all those people. Crazy.
Plenty of sea turtles checking out the crowd, too.
Beamer took my board while waiting to get his back from ding repair (dinged in transit, doh!) It’s fun watching friends on your board. I got some fun ones on Ed’s board. You can really stick the tail of that thing into the wave and walk around. I’ve done a little bit of walking around, but nothing I’ve done has felt as glued into the wave as the waves I got today. I snuck way way way up. I should have gone for the nose, but I was worried about dodging in the crowd. Still pretty fun and now I have an idea of what my board should feel like when I’m trying all those fancy longboard moves.