Pleasure Pt & Sharks summer south swell, crappy BoBo

South swell mania. 2nd peak Pleasure Point, population: Thrashtown. Later hit up the Hook & Sharks with Karl as the tide filled in. Crowds, aggression, snaking, but still plently of memorable rides. Found a little cover on my 2nd wave at 38th, popped a teeny little air on my last wave in at Sharks, fun stuff. Took the family to BoBo on Sunday, but it was disappointingly small and gutless. My left arm has been feeling wonky too, carpal tunnel? Hope not. OB looked fun this AM but I had to get to work. Maybe tomorrow...

thursday evening and friday AM dawn patrol

south swell hype = too many people at the hook despite the tepid conditions thursday night. i hit the water around 6:20 and watched people snake each other left and right, resulting in a few heated verbal exchanges over waist high waves. however, it was slowly building and the sets, while still few and far between, were pretty fun. it was walled up so you had to race down the line, not too much room for cutting back on the larger set waves. a lot of fun floater sections though, i landed what was perhaps the longest, cleanest floater in recent memory, which made my session.

went to see a Entrance show at the Crepe Place on Soquel, and then crashed at Ryan's buddy Cory's place. coffee and a blueberry muffin at Emily's, then headed to west cliff around 6:30. Cowell's was a mob scene already, foam boards as far as the eye can see. the Lane looked fickle and had a small crowd, and we drove further up and paddled out at a little cove with 3 guys on it. Some good fast waves, but sectioning and closing out quick, so I only had a few longer rides. Fun drops and pumping down the line though. Paddling back out after one I caught a lip to the back of the head, and smashed my face into my board in a lame attempt to duckdive a pitching set wave. No blood though ;) It was fun but didn't live up to the hype, I'm not sure exactly where to paddle out tomorrow now...

Some pics of Ryan charging in the slideshow, unfortunately one of the better barrel shots I would've had didn't come out clearly. Damn GoPro camera!

Sunday dp @ Kirkham

Hit the water at 9:15 after checking Stokereport.com and hearing it was 'fair'. It was - a bit of paddling to get through the messy inside section, but once you're out there it was pretty clean, and the waves had plenty of juice. Only one other guy out on the north end of the beach, I guess everyone else was sleeping or headed south for sunnier skies. In any case, I caught a few seriously fast rides, hitting the lip pretty hard and keeping my speed. One solid backside hack off the top that felt great, and one closeout barrel that I got super deep into before getting smashed into the sandbar. I'm getting more consistent with pulling off rail-grab cutbacks too without burying my board, the peaky fast drops gave me ample opportunity to practice. I wiped out plenty too, the waves were steep and if I take off too deep the inside rail of my quad seems to lose its grip pretty easily. I'd love to try a thruster setup on a board with similar dimensions, I bet it would rip in more powerful conditions. If I ever get around to finishing the shaping bay I'll have to experiment with that idea...
 
 
 
 

Saturday @ WC

Checking out of the hostel took longer than I anticipated, so I was late meeting up with Nic, Josh and Ramin, but Joanie spotted their cars on the side of the road. As I suited up I watched the crew catch a good amount of little crumblers, and saw Ramin piggydoggy a little closeout. Good stuff. By the time I made it down to the water the peak they were sitting on wasn't working well, so they had moved south. However, the peak just north of where I was looked good, and only 1 guy on it, so I opted for a few waves to myself. Joanie found a nice little ledge to perch herself on and busted out the Jetboil to make some hot breakfast and coffee. Waves were pretty poor, as the onshore winds were beating it up, but I still managed a few decent rides. When I got out of the water Joanie welcomed me with a cup of hot chocolate, which was a real treat. I'm a pretty lucky surfer, having a wonderful wife shooting pics and making me cocoa!
 
 
 
 

Friday @ the Lane

After playing some volleyball and watching the seals breach at Manresa, we headed to Santa Cruz to stroll downtown and catch some waves. While we were checking Steamers some guy lost his hat in the water, and I rescued it for him. That was my good deed of the day, and I was rewarded later on with some fun waves wrapping all the way from the Slot down through Indicators. The lulls were really long, so I sat and chatted with an older guy who ripped, and we took turns picking off the best set waves, which were shoulder high and fast. Joanie caught some decent rides on the inside as well, but eventually the creeping tide washed it out and we called it a day. We drove north and stayed at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel, which has an awesome jacuzzi overlooking the ocean.
 
 
 
 

Thursday @ the Hook

South swell didn't fill in as well as Ramin promised me it would, but I still caught some fun little log rides on Ruben's 8'0" at the Hook on Thursday night. Followed that up with burritos at Taqueria Vallarta with some friends, and then headed to Manresa SB for camping. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday night.
 
 
 

cheater 5!

 

new GoPro camera

cause 5 megapixels is better than 3. and it's not like I don't use it enough. I also splurged and bought a whole bunch of extra mounting devices so I can take the camera mountain biking or motorcycling with me. even got the board mount thingy, although I don't have the wide angle camera, so unless I mount it on a log it will probably result in a lot of pictures of my legs. there's also the dilemna of what board to mount it on. I don't want to put it on my quad because I sometimes like to run the nose, so having a baseplate wouldn't be cool, not to mention the board is only 5'9". maybe i'll put it on my 6'5" JC and take it barrel hunting this winter, I'd love a picture of my legs getting a sick barrel. I want to experiment with facing the camera forward too, since I'd rather have a picture of the wave when I pull into a closeout than a picture of myself getting closed out on.

anyway, this morning the waves were a little bigger than yesterday, but a little junkier too. a few fun little drainers, but mostly out there just enjoying the sun and the water. i'm hoping this south swell fills in so I score some waves this Thursday and Friday down in Santa Cruz.
 
 
 

gutless but glassy

 
 

low tide dawn patrol at the hook

fun. kelpy. easy floaters and hittable lips. waves for all, crowd not too bad. no time to blog, must work!

backpacking 4th of july

pics from Joanie's camera, i'll upload the rest from hers tomorrow, need to sleep!
 
 
 
 

Slideshow from Joan's camera:

4th of July backpacking

 
Had an amazing 4th of July weekend backpacking and surfing with Joanie and Gus. I'm sore and tired and still exhilirated from the trip. Such amazing sweeping vistas, empty waves, and wildlife. Sadly lots of starving seals, as well as dead octopi washing up into the rocks. No bear encounters, just racoons at night, and Gus did a good job scaring them off.

Waves weren't big or hollow really, but it was still a lot of fun, especially being the only one in the lineup for the most part. When we arrived the only other waveriders camped on it were a surfer and a bodyboarder who were only in the water when I first got there. The rest of the weekend I surfed alone, save for one guy who paddled out the last day. He was there on a bachelor party, he and his friends arrived on a boat that day with a ton of beer. I was envious of their beer situation, only having packed a Nalgene flask of vodka in Gus' backpack. Anyway, yeah the waves, I took a lot of pics in the water but it's tough to get a sense of scale with nobody out there. Joanie's pics do a better job of that, but still some pretty water shots.

We had an adventure on our last night, as we underestimated how high and fast the tide was rising, and ended up having to scramble to high ground in a little cove and wait for numerous hours until the tide dropped enough for us to pass the next section without getting smashed into the cliff by the roaring surf. We made the best of it though, Joanie is a real trooper and Gus was zonked out through most of the ordeal. After the tide dropped enough, we setup camp at the mouth of a really beautiful creek and got a few hours of sleep before making the trek back to the car in the morning.

This was our second trip up there, and despite the surf not pumping as good as last fall, it was an incredible adventure and one of my most memorable 4th of July's to date. Hope to make this at least an annual pilgrimage, I know Joanie does too. Gus might be having reservations, as he's still nursing his tender paws, but I think he'll be game for another trip next year.

North Coast Backpacking 2009 -water cam