baby Kirra & paternity leave sessions

 
Kirra Elise Bogart was born on Nov 23rd at 4:23 am, and needless to day I am super stoked to be a dad. She's absolutely beautiful and Joanie and I are a ridiculously happy little family.
It's been as tiring as everyone said it would be, with constant feedings, changing diapers, and housekeeping stuff. Although my life priorities have completely shifted, I've been able to sneak out to OB twice so far this month for some solid waves. On most of the other days when I can't make time to surf, I've been running with Gus down to Sloat and back, trying to stay active. Life is good- and having a baby really gives me so much to look forward to, taking care of her and watching her grow and eventually teaching her things. I can't wait to get her out in the water as soon as she is able to walk, maybe down at Cowell's or the HMB jetty - it will probably be a while until she's out in the lineup at OB. Not until she's at least 3...

This shot is from my first post-partum session, on Dec 1st. The waves and weather were beautiful, but it was a mob scene in the water. People dropping in left and right too, but still scored some really good lefts.
 

These shots were from today, there were some nice barrels to be had, although I didn't make it out of any. Lots of pulling in and getting pounded, but the paddle wasn't too bad.
 
 

obdp 101310

 
 
 
 
good waves on tap this morning, I paddled out north of Judah and surfed for a solid hour. I surfed like crap though, wiped out hard a few times trying to take off too deep. Made a few solid ones though. Hopefully more glassy nuggets tomorrow AM...

5'6" convertible fishing

 
 
 
 

This past weekend offered extremely varied conditions to test out my new shape, which came out well, although the sanding job isn't quite as clean as on my first board. I definitely burned through a couple spots and had to touch it up with some sanding resin to make sure it's all watertight. On saturday the waves were small and weak, so i rode it as a quad. the fins are fairly far forward, the tail is thick with generous vee, and my Stretch quad fins are pretty small, so it's super loose. the first time i tried to do a cutback the tail almost immediately broke loose into a snap. fun when you expect it, but definitely takes some getting used to. it's really fast and fun to work down the line, at least in small surf like this, which it's designed for. I want to test drive some larger keel fins and try running it as a twin, or just a more stable quad. Once I get it dialed in with the right fins I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Sunday the swell was forecast to come up a bit, so I pulled out the trailing fins and used one as a center fin. So basically a thruster configuration, except using my quad fins, so it would still be really loose, but have slightly more control and centering. It was foggy and hard to see, but the surf was pumping. The inside bar was relentless closeouts and it kicked my ass. I got shut down a couple times, but eventually was able to punch through. Took me 20 minutes to make it to the outside bar. Sets were head high+ and pitching, with some fast and steep sections to navigate. I was definitely undergunned, but managed to catch a few screamers and make a couple big drops on my new board. It's really fast down the line so I was able to catapult myself pretty high out of a few, although I didn't manage to keep my board under my feet. I tried a few turns at speed, but the board felt way too loose still and would just slide the moment I threw my weight into a turn or tried to force the board to track up a really steep fast section. Again, I think I'll be able to reign it in a bit with the right fins, I need to find the sweet spot for this board between speed and looseness and control. On most days though I'll gladly trade a little control for a bunch more speed.

As usual, thanks to Joanie for taking some pics and hanging out on the beach. She was able to capture some of the dolphins frolicking around in the surf too, which always makes a session that much more special.

quick dawn patrol

got up kindof late this morning but snuck in a 45 minute session. OB was fun, head high and glassy. Would've been perfect for my new fish, but I still haven't sanded it...hopefully the conditions will hold through the weekend
 
 
 

dead whale at K st

big whale washed up at the beach right at kirkham, so i ran back to the house to get my camera. figured it wouldn't be a brilliant idea to surf, despite not sighting any dorsal fins cruising the area. i could see the headlines now - "expectant father eaten by sharks while surfing next to dead whale". i don't want to win any Darwin awards...
 
 
 

south swell nugs

saturday was bigger than sunday, but the head high+ combo swell made for some short, fast rides at OB. ALSO, Joanie and I finally finished preparing the baby room, complete with ocean theme mural. Pics of the mural to follow...
 
 
 
 

first barrel of the fall

chest - shoulder high sets, peaky and glassy at 7am. my first session back on the WU quad and i was loving it. lots of speed, lots of wipeouts, but a few really fun rides and one little cover up to start the day
 
 

finally some waves at home

it's been a pretty poor summer here as far as surf goes, even by san francisco summer standards. to kick off the beginning of fall the weather cleared up for a few days and the surf kicked up to shoulder high. I had a fun session with Nic and another with Karl the other day, as well as a few solo sessions. Felt good to be out paddling, catching waves and taking some pictures. I'm looking forward to some nw swell and east winds, and I'm optimistic that OB will deliver this fall to make up for such a dismal summer of surf.
 
 
 

Oluwalu longboarding

had to return the board at 10am, so we hopped in our sweet Chevy Malibu and drove down the coast for an early morning session down at Oluwalu. I wanted to try a different spot, but everything else was small to the point of being unrideable. I was all by my lonesome for almost the entire session, which is the best part about surfing when there's harldy any swell in a wave rich area like this. Reminded me of a few fun sessions I've had at Steamer Lane when it was too small for anyone else to bother.
 
 
 
 

maui wauwi

practically skunked as far as surf goes, but i managed to get a few small wave sessions in. i rented a 6'4" NSP fishy thing from Local Motion in Lahaina. The people at the shop are super nice. I drove the coast and ended up surfing a little left called Oluwalu. It was teeny, so most rides I was focused on just getting enough speed to stay afloat. The swell dropped even more, so after my session I traded in the 6'4" for a 8'6".
 
 
 

dolphins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrSvxedzKjw
this is from a session last week, the morning after watching the Cove. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the film and the website: http://www.takepart.com/thecove

what is this...a barrel for ANTS!?!

 
 
 
ankle biters on tap this AM, but it was relatively nice out and i just got a new sony tx5 camera that i've been dying to test out, along with a new wrist shot strap from a cool local company called Golden Hour. i'll post a more thorough review when i'm able to test the setup in more serious surf for a longer session, but so far so good. the 10mp resolution is 2x better than that of the GoPro cam, and I'm a sucker for the 10fps burst mode. perfect for capturing those critical moments. it also does a lot better in low light, has a 4x zoom, touch screen display, panorama, etc. basically it's a fully featured slim little point and shoot that also happens to be waterproof to 10ft and shockproof too. my only gripe so far is that the touch screen is too sensitive in the water for my fat fingers, i end up pressing things and get stuck in the menu by mistake. It's probably something I can disable in the settings, I need to play with it some more. The new wrist strap from Golden Hour worked well so far, although like I said, the waves were tiny and I was only in the water for half an hour, so I can't really give it an accurate assessment yet. It appears to be a well made peice though, and the velcro is strong so I expect it will hold up well. Stay posted for a full review soon, and pray for surf...

the dawning of a new era

i haven't been blogging much lately, although I've still been surfing a few times a week. part of the reason for the neglect of w2h is that i've been super busy, both at work and at home. another reason is that the waterproof housing on my GoPro is busted (actually I broke 2 of them...) so I haven't been taking as many photos, which is usually the main reason I post to w2h. but really, I've mostly dropped off the radar because I'm gonna be a dad -a baby girl on the way, due in late November. so obviously priorities have shifted, and dawn patrolling every day has been replaced with things like shopping for cribs and painting the baby room.

in any case, I've actually had a few memorable surf sessions in the last month. for a few sessions when the waves were small, I pulled the 2 rear fins out of my Wu Wallace quad and surfed it as a twin fin. It was super fast and super loose, a lot of fun going frontside, but really out of control going backside. I rode it like that for a while, and then one morning the swell came up significantly, and I found myself paddling into 6-7 footers. The speed is ridiculous, and turns are a lot harder to get a feel for, but it was a lot of fun. One good wave I caught that session I was flying down the line while some dude on the inside was throwing shakas and hooting. Overall though it was not enough control, so I put the other fins back and rode it as a quad for my next couple sessions.

In one of my next sessions, there was some tiny but fun little combo swell in the water. I was out trading waves with maybe 5 or 6 other guys, and as I bottom turned into a left, an older guy on a hybrid ditched his board right in front of me. I clipped the back of his board with my right side rail and two huge chunks got taken out. So unfortunately my favorite small wave board is currently out of commission. It's repairable, but it's not going to be pretty. As a replacement, I'm currently 80% done shaping a 5'6" fish, the template based off of a Shane Stoneman fish that Matias rides. My goal is to finish it before the summer is over.

In the meantime, I've been riding my own 6'4" as my everyday board, and starting to really get it dialed. I've had some solid head high days on it now, so have gotten used to the way it handles at speed, and I'm quite pleased with the performance. I've made some really late drops on it, pulled into some nice barrels (although haven't made it out of a clean one yet) and have even landed a couple of small airs on it. If anything, I would say that I could've put more concave into the tail, to make it a little looser and easer to snap the tail around. Going fast it seems harder to slide the tail than some of my other boards.

Lastly, I just ordered a new Sony TX5 waterproof camera. Coupled with the new WristShot universal strap that I bought today from a really cool local company, Golden Hour I think it will make an awesome surf camera. The ability to zoom, shoot 10fps bursts at 10mp, and shoot HD video should make for some quality surf pics. I just hope the camera will stand up to the abuse. As soon as my new camera arrives I'll post a review of it, along with the wrist strap too. I'm really stoked to be moving up in terms of image quality for my water shots, without having to sacrifice the convenience of a wrist cam.

monday dawn patrol

rolled out of bed at 5:30, made some coffee and suited up. hit the water just before 6. south winds blowing, but not too hard. surf was jumbled on the inside, but the outer bars were actually a lot of fun. shoulder to head high sets rolling through regularly, and nobody else out except for a few sea lions patrolling. mostly rights, but a few really clean lefts as well. the new board feels good - stuck a few late drops, worked on milking as much speed as i could out of my bottom turn, and was able to find a few nice walled up sections to do some turns and hit a couple of floaters. for a while i got stuck on the inside paddling through a rip, and the current pulled me 2 blocks south. a healthy jog home after a solid 1.5 hour dawn patrol to kick off the week.

cStar maiden voyage

finished sanding my first board last night and took it for a spin today in some choppy sloppy waves at OB. on my first wave i was able to pump down the line and hit a little floater - stoked! really happy with the board so far, it feels intuitive dropping in and bottom turning, pumping down the line, and cutting back. it pretty much goes where I want it to without bogging or pearling, which is all i could really ask for out of my first board. i'm looking forward to testing it out on some punchier waves and longer pointbreaks so i can really get some solid turns in. already looking forward to finishing my next board, which will be more designed for small gutless summer waves.
 
 
 
more pics:

C-Star 1 maiden voyage