Session 44 - early morning beat down

Yesterday AM I was tired, sleep deprived, and not in the mood to wake up. But it was sunny out, and the waves actually looked decent, the swell had picked up a bit, sets looked to be head high. To make a long story short, the current was really strong pulling south, and I basically paddled for 30 minutes straight. I finally made it out, and then wiped out pretty hard on a jacking right. I tried surfing the middle bar instead, where the reforms would wedge up and break. Caught a crappy takeoff, but pretty much just got knocked around a bunch and did a lot of duckdiving. It wasn't any fun, or maybe I just wasn't feeling up to the punishment, so I cut my session short and went to work. Yay!

Session 43 - Monday AM fog

Today visibility is pretty bad, but the waves are fun and sets are shoulder high. Captain Kirk and I were the only ones in the lineup, I guess people couldn't really see what they were missing. I got a lot of waves in a short 40 minute session, they were pretty workable, most set waves allowing 2-3 solid turns before closing out. My last wave was a nice left that walled up and I bashed the lip repeatedly, rode it all the way to the beach. Wish I could've stayed out longer, maybe tomorrow I'll get out of bed earlier...

Session 42- head high OB

This AM I woke up and took Gus for a walk to check the surf. It looked about head high, pretty mixed up, and the inside section slamming pretty hard. Nobody out, just some fishermen on the beach. I decided it would be a good day to jump in the car and check out whale cove or somewhere more protected. I got home, started getting ready, then felt lazy, changed, my mind, and suited up for a punishing OB session.

It was 7:30 by the time I got in the water, and it took me 7 minutes to make the paddle to the outside. That inside section was just dredging and pounding, so it took some patience and timing to navigate through. I saw a few seals and dolphins swimming around while I waited for the sets to roll through, and this one seal kept stopping and staring at me. I didn't mind, since I was the only one out and could use the company, so I named him Captain Kirk, for Kirkham. Unfortunately Captain Kirk was catching more waves than me, and I ended up drifting too far outside to catch anything. I worked my way back inside, catching a weak one that didn't fully break before getting frustrated and paddling even further inside. It was getting late and I need to get to work, so I went for the first juicy wave that jacked up behind me. I took off on a ledgy righthander and practically made the drop before it sucked out at the bottom and dropped me really hard onto the side of my face. It was my best faceflop in a while...I surfaced, gulped a mouthful of seawater, and rode some whitewater to the beach. Ahh, what a way to start a Friday, a classic OB dawn patrol.

Session 40 & 41 - OB & the Hook

Wednesday evening at OB was SUPER foggy, it was so dense that even standing with your feet in the water, you still couldn't see if there were any waves or anyone else surfing. Visibility was limited to ~15 yards, and the sun wasn't even setting yet, it was 6:30. Paddling out I was greeted with nice 3-4 footers breaking over the middle sandbar, mostly walling up and closing out, but a few corners to snag here and there. There were 4 other guys out at Judah/Kirkham, and as the sun began to set the visibility actually got a little better, and the waves were backlit through the fog, which added a nice effect to the hazy conditions. I caught a few fun drops, mostly into closeouts, with a couple lefts that gave me a shoulder to work with. Paddled back in around 8 and found Joanie doing some yardwork.

Yesterday was a unique Thursday in that I had a work offsite in Santa Cruz. I picked Cristelle & Caitlin up around 8am, and we planned to go surfing at Cowell's by the boardwalk before joining the rest of the team going on the rides, etc. We took the scenic route, stopping at 4 corners for a bagel and coffee, then making Caitlin carsick by bombing down Hwy 9 all the way into SC. Unfortunately, Cowells wasn't breaking at all, so we decided to go on rides, have lunch, and try surfing Pleasure Point on the way home.

We got to Pleasures and the tide was still pretty high, with the waves crashing into the rocks and cliff. Cait and Cristelle being the troopers that they are, and me being the reckless and negligent instructor that I am, we rented them boards and wetsuits and hit the surf. Getting in was pretty sketchy for them, having to jump off of the slippery rocks into the surf and paddle out before another wave came crashing in. It was exciting, but they both made it out into the lineup with minimal drama. Actually catching waves proved to be tough too, not ideal for learning, but they both managed to catch a few and have some decent wipeouts and collisions. Too bad we had only an hour in the water due to my scuba class in the city, or else I'm sure they would've gotten some rides as the tide dropped.

I was hoping that the tide would drop enough to make getting out of the water not so sketchy, but that wasn't really the case...the girls had to do the best they could timing in between sets and washing into the rocks to scramble up to the stairs and out of harms way. Cait got a little cut on her foot and struggled with the board a bit, as did Cristelle, but I kept a close eye on them from the water and they both made it out practically unscathed. Practically. Before getting out of the water I caught one really nice little pup-tent sized barrel, which just left me drooling for more, and regretting having to drive back to SF so soon.

I love the Hook, it's my favorite wave when it's working, and it was a treat to be able to surf it on a weekday in the early afternoon with a relatively light crowd. Hopefully next time I take Cait & Cristelle it will be a bit more beginner friendly and manageable for them. I did take a few pics too, I'll upload those this weekend.

Session 39 - sunset at OB

Yesterday evening it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, the surf was clean and fun, seals were jumping around in the water. Joanie and Gus and I all went down to the beach for a little while after scarfing some food that Joanie brought home from work. It was a great session, but I didn't stay out for too long, had to get home to finish my anniversary gift for Joan! Happy anniversary to us! It's been such a wonderful first year, so many adventures, so many good beach days...

Session 38 - Sunday afternoon Linda Mar

After a spectacular anniversary weekend backpacking trip though Castle Rock, Joanie and I headed west on Hwy 9, hoping for some surf at Waddell Beach or somewhere in the vicinity. Waddell was small and the weather sucked, so we decided to work our way north and check spots, maybe we'd get lucky somewhere. Nothing was working and it was cloudly almost all the way up the coast. The best spot was Linda Mar, the waves were clean, although small and weak. We surfed for about an hour, Joanie caught a lot of boogieboard rides into the sand. I caught a few waves but all pretty weak and bleh. In any case, OB looked promising this weekend, hopefully we'll see some more swell throughout the week.

Sesssion 37 -dawn patrol

I was up late last night doing some trip planning, and this morning I didn't want to wake up. I think my eyes were closed while I was paddling. That's ok because the waves werent anything special. The tide was filling in really quickly, and I felt more like I was navigating river rapids than surfing in the ocean. I caught 3 waves and called it a day, hopefully tomorrow AM will be better.