Tag: dawn patrol

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Sunny Morning for the 7’4

SURF: Waist to Shoulder high waves. Fairly clean, but a little swamped with the tide. 5.5ft @ 9s from NW at 306°

Gear: 7’4.

With the Stewart in the shop being patched up, the 7’4 was a good choice for a little paddle practice. The waves cooperated enough that I could paddle out without too much trouble, but still get into position on a steeper wave to really try the board out.

I caught two waves.

I faceplanted them both.

It’s all practice. I practiced being in the right spot to catch a wave, I practiced paddling, I practiced safely tumbling around in the wash after pearling a board.

I’ve been practicing a lot of things lately.

I’ve been under the weather a bit. My thyroid has been out of whack. It’s a reoccurring problem, this time cause when my doctor was unable to give me a new prescription before my old one ran out. It pretty much makes me tired beyond tired. No amount of sleep can make me feel better and since I know sleeping in will do me no good, I get up early and surf instead. I ache, my muscles are tired and I can barely keep up, but I keep going. I keep practicing.

The more engaged I can keep my mind and body, through surfing, skiing, biking, skateboarding, anything, the easier a time I think I will have hanging in there till my system recovers. I take on the challenging surf days, THEN sleep in, exhausted for good reason and resting deservedly. Like in surfing, I’m learning to practice balance.

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Paddle Out in the Storm

Surf: 4-10ft, 20s period. Raining, Windy.
Gear: RipCurl G-Bomb and 7’4 roundtail.

We’ve had storm after storm the last few months. I’ve watched the buoys spike, heard the rain pounding away at my windows, and grumbled about how it was soo big and too rough to go out. I had a new wetsuit and a new board but no beautiful day to try them both out on.

Sometimes you have to suck it up and take on unruly surf.

Josh talked me in to a dawn patrol at Lindy. Long period waves were pitching into closeouts but I did manage to paddle out AND paddle back in without getting stomped. Didn’t catch a wave, but got to claim some success in at least getting out in conditions I’m not comfortable with.

The waves were really beautiful, giant blue-grey walls on a big grey black sky. Slices of whitewater peaking through right before it slammed shut in a curtain of whitewater and a roar of spray. Not too shabby too look it. The rain wasn’t mixing well with the salt water so there was a sliver layer on top disappearing into the sea. Pretty cool.

The new wetsuit is amazing. Warm, flexible, no flushing. I’ve always liked my old suit. It’s sturdy, warm and comfortable, but the G Bomb is very toasty. Even in the pouring rain and howling winds I stayed warm and even a little dry. Definitely digging the upgrade.

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Mellow Morning at Lindy

Surf: Knee to Waist High. Clean, but inconsistent.

Lovely morning. The moon was setting over the ocean, lighting up the water like a big ole painting. I watched the little waves for a while waiting for Chuck arrive. We paddled out to small waves, great for a longboard but a little trickier for Chuck on the shortboard.

I got a few mellow rides. The best wave of the morning went to Chuck. He’d called me into the wave, but it was the first good sized wave all morning so I called him into it instead. He got a nice little ride out of it.

I love calm mornings.

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Shorebreak for Breakfast

SURF: 4-8ft.

I met a few stokereporters out for dawn patrol at Ocean Beach. I was optimistically assured by Josh it would be a nice 3-5 and good practice on the shortboard. Arg.

It was definitely bigger than I was expecting. I still haven’t been able to duck dive my 6’8 so all and all the morning was much harder than I anticipated. I let Veronica borrow my 7 that is nearly impossible to duck dive. She wound up ditching it and swimming with it in tow. I wanted to do things my way so she made it out and I didn’t.

Ahh well. It was a beautiful morning regardless. I did manage to bruise my leg up pretty good in the shorebreak. I’m not exactly sure what law of physics ocean beach had to break to administer that beatdown, but I got beatdown pretty good. 😉

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Dawn Patrol on New Year’s Day

SURF: Inconsistent, but decent waves. Waist high and mushy at the center of the beach, shoulder+ and steep at the north end. Increased frequency and closeouts as the day went on.

Mmm, 6am on New Years Day. Driving out I got to watch what was left of the Blue Moon through the trees in Golden Gate park. Not a terrible way to start the new year.

Waves were a little slow, not the excitement packed day I’d had the day before, but decent. I got in two solid rides but mostly paddled around happy to be in the water. I surfed 7-11 then watched Josh pick off waves on the north end as things started to get rougher. Once he’d had enough of the closeouts and shorebreak, we headed off to Montara to check out the waves before having a MASSIVE lunch at Half Moon Bay Brewing company.

One little bummer thing I noticed, my board’s dinged from a drop in collision the day before. I was going right, guy dropped in headed left. It’s a small ding but it will need attention. I’m debating fixing it myself but with the coming work week it might be beneficial to take it in and get the work done faster.

All and all though, not a bad surfventure day. Lots of laughing and some waves. Sure beats getting up early for just about anything else 😀

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Early Friday at the Jetty

SURF: 3-4ft, mellow and fairly smooth.

Second attempt at dawn patrol before my new gig. I’d already lost time putting my roof rack before I even got around to picking up Mike. He was a pretty good sport with my relentless swearing and freaking out about needing to be at work by 9.

The delay gave us a nice sunrise over Devil’s Slide on the way to the Jetty. Sun was beautiful, air was relatively warm, and with only 2-3 people in the water we had the place to ourselves.

Paddling out I say Luke getting a nice ride. He picked off a few waves while we were out there. I got skunked. I dunno, too mushy or my energy is still low. My system’s been all screwy. Low vitamins, muscles burning out fast. My unemployed surfer bum diet certainly isn’t helping. With this new gig I should be able to make a big push towards balanced nutrition and actually eating for the intense physical workout surfing provides.

Wrapping up I realized I was exceptionally late for work. ARG. My contract is flexible, however that doesn’t stop me from being hard on myself. I wound up taking a cab to work muddy, salty, and frustrated. Grrr.

Hoping as the days get longer the work/life balance will get easier.

In the mean time, Luke took a pic from the Jetty as we were packing up.

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Waiting for the Sunrise

LM-12-15-09a

LM-12-15-09b

LM-12-15-09c

Surf: Flat. Occasionaly 2ft waves.

I tried to sneak in a Dawn Patrol before the new swell hits. 6:45 I was standing on the beach in almost complete darkness trying to make out the shape of a wave on the horizon.

There were none.

It was flat.

I waited for Luke thinking he’d want to try further north, but he was willing to give the next to nothing waves a go.
It was a nice sunrise. Now I just have to figure out how to pull all this off without showing up an hour late to work.

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Shortboard Dawn Patrol at Ocean Beach

oceanbeach

Surf: 3-5 ft. waist to head high and poor-fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Slightly jumbled, crossed-up peaks on offer this morning. Looking a bit more disorganized than yesterday, with a few rideable corners still making it through at times.

I have never surfed on a shortboard and I have never surfed at Ocean Beach. Shortboards are harder to paddle, harder to catch waves with, but when you’ve got them you can tear up waves. You can also duck dive with a shortboard (swim under an oncoming wave with the board instead of paddling over). Duck diving comes in very handy at a place like Ocean Beach where the waves are bigger, more powerful, and take a lot more paddling to get through.

I’m on a smaller, harder to paddle board facing bigger, more powerful waves. Fantastic idea right there in the works!

Cryptomail gave me some pointers on duck diving and waited patiently as I failed at it over and over. I didn’t manage to paddle out past the breaking waves. I did catch one wave boogie board style, but spent most of the morning under water or falling off the board. I need a lot of practice before I stop looking like a flailing wet mess and look more like a surfer. Ha.

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Sea lions!

Dawn Patrol at Pacifica

SURF:
2-3 ft.+ knee to chest high with occasional 4 ft. and fair conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly walled up lines with inside shoulders that are open and workable, but a little soft and crumbly. Clean conditions.

Headed out early for another dawn patrol. Short swell period made a tough paddle out. Weather was beautiful. I got spooked pretty good by a tricky sea lion who decided to catch the same wave I did.

Nothing like seeing a 4ft long black shadow coming at you in a wave :p
I wussed out and sat on the beach for a good 20 minutes trying to get the nerve back up to charge out in the waves. Still didn’t really get any rides, but a nice day to be out.

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Dawn Patrol with the New Board!

Washing the boards off after a great morning out!

Conditions:
2-3 ft.+ knee to chest high and fair – conditions.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Mostly peaky lines with soft/crumbly shoulders that are workable (mainly for a bigger board). Slight texture to the surface.

Gear:
First day out on my 9’4″ Stewart Hydro Hull!

Took the new board out today! We did an early morning surf session. Got down to to beach around 6:45 and surfed till 9. Conditions were great, slow, clean, some bigger waves. Dolphins, whales, and sea lions were all hanging out in the cove, checking us surfers out.

The new board is wonderful. It paddles really fast. I caught a few waves, got one almost clean ride in. It will take some getting used to, but I’m so excited to have a board! <3