Frustrated

2013-LM-10-29a

Surf: 4.6 ft at 11.4 s from the NW at 309°. High tide. Light winds.

Oh MAN. So frustrated today. Waves were a little soft with the tide, but come on. I just couldn’t get going. I managed to pick off some quick-dying shoulders but nothing FUN. Then on top of that, I had more than a few people take off without looking nearly right on top of me. Uff. Ufffff. I think I might need to take my longboard out for the rest of the week. I need a win.

At least there was a friendly note on my car to cheer me up.

2013-LM-10-29b

Chilly bodysurf

2013-LM-10-27

Surf: 4.3 ft at 9.1 s from the NW at 321°. Windy! Cold!

I was so confident in the mehness of the waves today, I only brought the fins. While freezing cold with the wind, it was pretty fun! Splashed around a while and spent the rest of the day trying to thaw out. Brr.

More fog

2013-LM-10-23

Surf: 5.3 ft at 16.0 s from the W at 272°. Low tide.

Today was a bit more surfable. Less size, almost like a shoulder here and there. Got lots of waves. Since it was still a little closed out, I spent a few waves trying to see how far up on the rail I can put my fish. It can go pretty far before I fall on my face 😀

Drove around a little checking out other spots. The Devil’s Slide tunnel was doing some cool foggy things, but the surf spots were looking closed out and windy. Too bad.

Orange fish is back!

2013-LM-10-22

Surf: 5.3 ft at 17.4 s from the W at 270°. Incoming tide.

Got my fish back from Sunset. All patched up and ready for action. Unfortunately, it took me a solid hour or more before I got back into the swing of things. Surf was closed out and pretty solid size. I was not digging it. Eventually the tide came up and I was able to snag a few waves, finally. It was actually really fun once their started being a shoulder to work with. Wheeee. I missed turning.

Waves!

2013-LM-10-11a

2013-LM-10-11b

Surf: 3.9 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 306°. Falling tide. Light winds.

After a week of some sizeable sloppy waves, it was so nice to have more of the beach to surf and EXTRA nice that the waves were waves and not closeouts! I realize my bar is set pretty low but yeeeewwww. I’ll take it.

Got a few big swooping waves up north by myself for a while. A few fun attempts to work on my longboard tricks in the middle. I’m trying to work my way back up to the kinds of waves I was getting on my longboard before I got clobbered in Santa Cruz. Today was a pretty good start. A few of the waves were quite steep and fast, so I had to really commit.

Overall, plenty fun surf. Pretty wavelike.

Pink sky and closeouts

2013-LM-10-10

Surf: 6.9 ft at 10.8 s from the NW at 308°. Falling tide. Off/side shore.

The sunrise was beautiful this morning. The crowd at the usual end of the beach was not. Between a strong current and the rest of the beach being pounding closeouts, there was a huge clod of people down there. I tried to stick further north and huck myself into closeouts but MAN. I was having a hard time getting into them. I got one wave, the rest was faceplants or totally misses.

Terribly frustrating. I know I need to commit more and just get clobbered, but uff. It’s one thing to go for it and get a great wave at the risk of getting worked (or get a great wave, then get worked at the end.) It’s another to know the only thing this wave offers is a suckerpunch and still want to launch yourself into it. But hey, maybe it’s better than no waves at all?

Late morning, late drops

2013-LM-10-09

Surf: 7.9 ft at 10.0 s from the WNW at 296°. Low tide. Offshore.

We woke up super late this morning, but somehow managed to sneak in a surfy session. Most of the beach was closed out and the usual spot was serving up some fairly exciting fast, late drops. Yipe. It was actually really fun. I got a few screaming swooshing air eject rides and some very surprising duck dives where I >didn’t< get steamrolled which was a huge relief. Sometimes the days when the waves seem like they are going to be soul crushing, then aren't, are really fun. All the perceived risk, not so much of the actual risk.

Scrapes and Bruises

2013-LM-10-08

Surf: 9.8 ft at 10.8 s from the WNW at 300°. Outgoing tide.

While I didn’t have the highest hopes for today, I was still a little bummed by how mixed up the surf was. Oh well. I took the hull out and managed to pick of some long, extra wiggly waves. It was pretty fun, for a sloppy session. It helped that only a few people were out. I forgot how hard it is to duckdive that board, I was exhausted after a few waves.

Somehow, both Brien and I managed to cut up our feet. Him on his board, me on a rock. I didn’t even notice mine till we were done making sure he was okay. It’s a big ole scrape, but not too serious.

Friday

2013-LM-10-04

Surf: 5.3 ft at 9.1 s from the WNW at 304°.

Still sloppy, but plenty fun this morning! Margit is back from her surf safari in central america. While I didn’t get too many details on the trips certain awesomeness, we did catch a ton of fun, silly waves in the sun. Nice morning. 🙂

Short rides, relatively

2013-LM-10-03

Surf: 5.3 ft at 7.1 s from the WNW at 297°.

I get terribly spoiled by Santa Cruz. While it was more crowded, the rides were very long. Today was a little messy and the rides were shorter. It was still plenty fun (messy but fun will be a theme for a while.) Even with the slop, there were still some long rides to be squeezed out of the lemons. Wheeeeeeee.