K street dawn patrol

Nice to be back in the water after too many days of early meetings. Swell is small, but some punchy waves, lots of doubled up closeouts and short rides, but fun. Looks like tomorrow might be offshore and marginally bigger, I'll probably hit it again.
 
 
 
 

Sunday at Ft Point

Ft Point

Fort point pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/joanpranata/FtPoint11809#
We rolled up to check the surf at fort point this morning, and Gus spotted another dog. He got so excited that he jumped out the window of the moving car! We were going slow so he didn't get hurt or anything, just scared the shit out of the lady who was walking the other dog. Crazy Gus...pretty agile for a fat little thing.

Bad vibes Bob!

 
 
 
 
These are some photos from lat Sunday that I just got around to uploading. It was pumping! If you haven't checked out the sailboat washed up on the beach down by Pacheco, it's a trip. I saw today that there is some new graffiti on the boat, so it no longer reads 'Bad vibes Bob!'. I guess Bob is a shitty sailor...

Towards the end of the slideshow there are a couple pics from the evening low tide session with Mark. The backlight was too strong and the surf was breaking really far from the beach though, so it was impossible to keep track of Mark and really get any solid shots. I'm hoping this weekend will be just as good if not better than last Sunday, stay posted for more action shots from this weekend.

Bad vibes bob!

offshore Judah dawn patrol

 
 
 
 
Karl's disappearing act...

Met up with Karl and Mark for a little dp action at Judah. Swell is building, but waves are still pretty small. Offshore breeze is holding it up nicely and there are some barrels to pull into if you're in the right place at the right time. Caught a handful of fun rides, still really amused by the boogyboard. Compared to a surfboard, it's such a bouncy ride going down the line, and pulling into closeouts it really forgiving. Got a nice right that barreled over me, got smashed by the lip but held on and basically ended up riding sideways in towards the beach. Fun stuff. Had an opportunity to capture Mark pulling into a nice closeout barrel, but the camera batteries weren't happy with the cold, so I missed it. Gotta charge em before the next session. On my way out I saw Mark catch his last wave, a nice set wave that he ripped a few turns on, hit the lip and then proned out to the beach. Nice one. I'm looking forward to a weekend of building swell, more photos, and hustling people in bumper pool...

Update: Swell filled in nicely, check out some pics from sunset -

OB Sunset 1/16/2009

Boogy time!

 
 
 
Tiny waves, nice weather, and some new Viper swim fins. Met Brian at Judah at 7am for a fun session. Super mellow waves, not as good as yesterday, and my first time riding a bodyboard since I was 13. It was fun though, caught a few pretty long rides, and since I was prone they seemed maybe a tiny bit bigger than if I was standing. I'm not used to kicking so much, my feet and ankles were tired after half an hour. Brian caught a couple decent little ones, and we bullshit for a while before heading in. Riding a boogy board felt silly, but fun, I felt like a kid again. It brought back memories of childhood, riding a styrofoam board in the whitewash all the way into the sand and thinking it was sooo awesome. I bugged my parents until they bought me a pink Morey Boogey in Cape May, NJ. I used to buy Australian bodyboarder mags and get stoked on riding mush waves in Breezy Point, Queens. Eventually I was standing on the thing and pretending it was a surfboard. Shit, I must've been really light back then.
I didn't intend this post to turn into a brief history of my surfing career, but I guess that's where it's going. After getting good standing on the pink boogyboard, I was intent on learning to surf for real, having watched a lot of the older kids. My mom convinced one of the kids who worked at the tennis courts of the beach club, Liam, to take me out one day. It was late summer, and the waves were actually decent (for NY). He took me out on his T&C shortboard, and with no real instruction, told me to paddle for a wave that was closing on me. I tried to take the late drop totally straight, pearled, and ate shit. Probably similar to many beginner experiences...I went for a few more, but Liam wanted to surf more, so that was the end of that. The next year, my aunt and uncle moved into a house in Jersey, and the previous owner had left a 7' Bahn singlefin in the basement. They offered it to me, and my boogyboarding days were over. My buddy Andrew inherited an old G&S from his dad, and we took to the surf. The Bahn was way more buoyant, and I got to my feet on the first wave I caught, rode it until the skeg ground into the sand. I was 13 or 14 at the time. The next year, after borrowing a friend's board and realizing how much easier it was to turn on a newer style board, I convinced mom to buy me a 6'10" Australian. It was on sale for only $120, because the deck was all warped, despite it being brand new. Anyways, this post is getting too long, and I have work to do, so I'll continue the history in a later post. Who knew boogyboarding would be so nostalgic?

First session of the year

 
 
 
It was a perfect day for a recovering gimp surfer like me to hit the water for the first time in 09'. Small, clean, fun, and most importantly, minimal paddling required. I suited up in completely fresh rubber (5/4/3 West hooded suit & brand spanking new Oneill Mutant booties) and walked down to Kirkham. I'll write up a review of the wetsuit in a later post, for now lets focus on the session and the shoulder ;) I was able to walk all the way out, only having to duck under one or two 3-4 footers. Paddling actually felt ok at first, but I was careful not to extend too far with my right arm, so I was kindof taking gimpy half strokes. Kicking and paddling with my left arm alone felt really silly, but worked well enough if I was just lazily moving around. Popping up didn't cause me any noticeable pain, though I was consciously using mostly my left arm. It felt great to finally ride a wave after 5 weeks out of the water, the longest I've been dry since possibly last spring. A few nice 3-4 foot sets would roll through, and I caught a handful of good waves. Pulled into a backside barrel, but didn't make it out. After maybe 20-30 minutes my shoulder was feeling a bit tender from paddling for set waves, and started getting a little stiff. I sat and took some photos, and rode one in to the beach. Taking off the wetsuit proved to be the biggest challenge for my healing AC joint, but paddling definitely didn't improve things. I figure I'll buy some fins and try my luck on a bodyboard for the next few sessions, and keep up the physical therapy until my shoulder is a bit stronger. Overall though it was a memorable first session, and I'm stoked just to be back in the water. Can't wait to be dropping in on my friends on a bodyboard next session ;)

OB jan 15 2009

OB crew slideshow

A great weekend of surf and sun at Ocean beach this weekend. On Saturday I met up with Ramin, Josh, Ryan, Mark and Brian at Kirkham to shoot from the beach. The waves were beautiful, but the current was pulling pretty hard south, and it looked like a lot of work to stay in position to catch waves. I shot a decent amount of photos before heading off to dim sum with the fam. I especially like the ones of the guys coming over the dunes and scoping the surf for the first time, and also the ones of the discarded christmas trees on the beach.

On Sunday it was pumping too, and I got out of bed at 8am to go shoot photos down by the beached sailboat at Quintara. Some decent shots, but I was having trouble getting them uploaded. I'll post those soon though.

New Years eve barrels at Noriega

It was pumping on the 31st and I cruised to the beach with Ramin to shoot some photos. I was using Joanie's Canon G9, but it was difficult to figure out how to change the setting to continuous shot so I could shoot sequences. I sat on the beach messing with the settings, and in the process I lost track of Ramin in the lineup. Also, like an idiot I somehow changed the resolution to 0.3 megapixels, so the photos turned out thumbnail sized instead of 12mp poster size. Oops. Despite the newbie photog blunders, I managed to get a few decent shots, including some of Ramin, and this sick barrel sequence below: