Surf: Thigh high.
Much better than I thought the low tide would be. It was small, with looooooong lulls, but with winds were southerly and the waves were are clean. I was happy to have plenty of foam to cruise the soft thigh-waist high waves. The water was a rather funky brown. Fun enough for me, the whales took a pass and headed south.
Photo by Chris
Surf: 7.5 ft at 16 sec 290° WNW. Chest-Head High+
I was a little skittish after the run of big days I’d had in SC all spring. Every time a set would line up and I’d see the black wave faces start to build, I ran for it. I guess one too many crushing hold downs will do that. Eventually, after some teasing, I pulled myself together and got a few. I got a handful of nice long swoopy waves before even getting my hair wet. Wheeee.
Chris got a whole 3 seconds of footage from behind me on a wave. 😀 It kinda looks like I can surf.
Saw Chris take the drop of all drops. I didn’t think he was gonna make it, I really hoped he was gonna make it, and then he made it. Woooohooo. I heard a few shortboarders in the lineup say “whoa” quietly as he went by. It was a very steep drop for a 10+ft log.
Wrapped up the morning with some fun little knee-waist high waves over at 38th. I tried to get some shots of Chris, but pushed all the wrong buttons. Almost had a dry hair session.
Surf: 3-5ft. Clean. Occasionally inconsistent. 3ft @ 11s from the W 261°
Oh man, it feels like I’ve been out of the water for EVER. There’s been wind, there’s been rain, there’s even been me not being able to get out of bed before 7.
There’s nothing to get my stoke meter back in black like a nice mellow Ocean Beach day.
After a few logistical hangups and some confusion, I wound up paddling out by myself before running into Drew and Josh in the lineup. I got some very fun waves. While I normally ride a singlefin, it’s a lot of fun to swoosh around nice Ocean Beach waves on my tri-fin. Wheeee-hhheeee. Worked on some mean leans and some cutbacks. Had pretty much all solid waves till I got greedy taking a wave in and faceplanted on a hollow inside section. Nearly bodysurfed that wave in.
Very happy to be back in the water!
Photo by Chris
Surf: Waist High. Closed out. Inconsistent.
Looked like Chris got some fair- waves out of the lully low-tide closeout mix, but I was not as lucky having evidentially signed up for the poor+ package. The one nice long, lovely shaped waist+ high last wave I got all the way into the beach made up for all the waiting and the kicking out of closeouts prior. Could have used a few more like that and a hot chocolate.
Big ole dead elephant seal on the beach. Yikes. Thing was so big I thought it was a log.
Surf: Waist-Chest high. More closed out than yesterday.
It’s that old surfer idiom: Ya shoulda been here yesterday.
Folks were trying to keep from outright saying it, but in the lot and the lineup I heard plenty of: “Man, yesterday was great”s and “Wow, was I ever glad I paddled out yesterday”s
Today was much more closed out, but got a little better towards the end. The waves that didn’t close out were plenty fun, but things were so inconsistent the only way to know a wave was going to stay open was to go for it and see! I had a pretty great one what just didn’t work out. Took it, went for a bit of a high line, the thing dumped and I skipped down the face a while before going back up and over the falls. Wheeeeeee. At least I got a good laugh out of it.
Surf: Clean, Chest high, and fairly consistent. 4ft @ 11S WNW 290°
Wow, what a morning. 😀
Clean, beautiful waves and lots of laughing hooting folks. It’s pretty rare that we get days with well defined peaks and fun fun fun. I got a handful of waves that I’m plenty proud of. Got some shoulder high lefts where I swung a nice bottom turn right into the pocket and cut back when I needed to on the inside. Got a few compliments that added to the stokeyness. Very happy.
Surf: Waist high and closed out.
Forget washing machine, that was a freaking rock tumbler. Oooch owch eeech. Got a few fun ones, but even the nice open faced waves had a rough ending. I don’t suppose it helped that my neck was jacked up so it was harder to turn off the line before the wave closed out. I managed to faceplant one wave and land flat on my back for another. Ooooch. May hair was full of seaweed and sand by the end of the morning.
Surf: Knee-Shoulder high. Somewhat clean. 3 ft @ 12.9 sec – NW 323°
I’ll admit, Ocean Beach makes me nervous. I pick days on the smaller side and I’m typically out with a buddy or two. As a longboarder there’s that moment where I’m sprinting for my life to get outside knowing I can’t duck the wave that’s coming. I’m worried about breaking a board. I’m worried about blowing a wave and making a fool of myself. I still remember my terribly kooky first time out at Sloat where I had no business paddling out and, after much floundering, washed back up on shore.
All that said, I don’t want tell someone that they shouldn’t try paddling out (assuming it’s not genuinely dangerous conditions) so when my brother said he’d like to join me at Ocean Beach, I agreed. I worried quite a bit, not that he’d get hurt or he’d break a board, but that he wouldn’t have fun. Chris teased me for reminding Wes he could stay in the whitewater if he wanted, or that he didn’t have to go in if he didn’t want to. And in the end, I was being a little silly. Wes paddled out to his own level of comfort and got lots of whitewater rides to the beach. Everything worked out just fine. Sometimes you can’t help but be a big sister, even when you don’t really have to.
I paddled farther out on my 9’4. I don’t take that board out at Ocean Beach as much since it’s sooo thick and the 9′ has a narrow tail for steeper drops. I got a few really fun waves. It was crowded. It’s funny, I hardly ever notice a big difference switching between my tri-fin 9 and my single fin 9’4, but on two of my waves I had probably the widest bottom turn that could still make the wave. Man, I was leaning so far in, my face was nearly in the wave. Ha!
Afterwards we loaded up on Devil’s Teeth cookies and brownies to take into the office. Mmmmmmm.
Surf: Waist high and clean with some Chest high sets. 5ft @ 11s WNW – 301°
The wind has been howling for days so I didn’t expect much from this little morning. Reports suggested surf on the larger size of average, maybe with favorable winds, maybe not. Rolling over the hill I spotted some rather small, but very clean surf instead.
With the longboard I know I can catch waves in even the smallest of small peelers. With the 7’4 beside me in the passenger seat I was thankful to be still super stoked from Sunday and mentally gearing up for a paddlefest.
I managed to sneak four lovely waves in. Sure, lots of paddling to get them, but not bad! I practiced duck diving a bit and enjoyed the sun.
Surf: Started out 3′ @ 9sNW, cranked up to 4′ @ 17sNNW. Clean, long rides. Went from Waist High to Shoulder/Head High.
Lovely sunday.
Paddled out with Josh and Brein in the early morning for some fun, small, clean waves. As the morning went on, the waves got a little beefier and the rides a little longer. I got some great lefts. There were a few I manage to work some tighter turns into. I got in some great practice listening to the wave and making adjustments with some slow, but slightly better cutbacks. My last wave I might have been able to try and tuck into, the lip was curling right over my head. Still a great wave tho, got me all the way in, stoked as punch.
Lots of fun watching everyone tear it up out there. Some folks were getting beautiful waves.
Sunny, dolphins hanging out. Very nice.
