106: Tunnel of Pummel - K st dawn patrol

Surf was pumping this AM, and practically no wind to mix things up. A bit smaller than yesterday, so my 7'5" was overkill, but it did make the paddle out extremely easy, relative to yesterday at least. Doing cutbacks on the 7'5" pintail is a bit of a chore, but otherwise the board is super stable and is easy to pump down the line. Hopefully I'll get some more use out of it this winter.

Headed to Orange County for Thanksgiving, camping on the beach at San Onofre. Hoping to score at Trestles, but it looks like it will be 2-4, and the real pulse will be up here in NorCal. Maybe I'll head home early for a Sunday session...

NYC surfing roots

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1231019871

This is a decent little video of surfing in Rockaway Beach, NYC, where I surfed before seeking greener pastures ~10 years ago. The comments about the garbage on the beach are true, and riding the subway with a board always gets weird looks. I miss it though, especially those fall hurricane swells after the summer crowds dissipate.

Undergunned on a heavy day at OB

Session 105 - Gloomy weather this AM and big fat heavy surf on a full high tide. One other person paddling out as I arrived, and they were getting pummeled on the inside by wall after wall of relentless whitewater. I couldn't let them suffer alone, so I waded in and started duck diving. I fared a bit better than them, finally making it outside after a solid 10-15 minutes of paddling and diving, and a minute later they made it outside as well. Some big overhead+ sets were barreling through, and the waves were moving fast. It was extremely difficult to paddle into anything on my 6'3". The other person out was a girl on a fish, and we briefly commiserated over the brutal paddle out and our poor choice of equipment for the conditions. After countless attempts to catch one of the shifting beasts, I finally found myself in the right spot to snag a big set wave. I had to position myself for a late drop, so the wave was already starting to break on me as I turned and popped up. It's nerve racking turning your back to a 8-10 ft wave as it's coming down on you like that, but I made the drop and raced down the line. It was a big, fast wave and I made it pretty far down the line before it decided to shut down. Adrenaline pumping, I paddled out for another. The girl took off on a wave but never came back. I assume she just got caught on the inside and couldnt make it back out, but in big stormy conditions like this it can be a bit worrisome. Catching my next wave proved to be every bit as frustrating as the first. It's one of those days where it's really hard to be in the right place at the right time and almost guaranteed you'll be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I took a few almost double overhead waves on the head, and barely missed catching a few good ones. I eventually caught a shoulder, but then ended up back inside again getting smashed. After a good faith effort of paddling and diving for another 10 minutes, I decided to call it a day. On big and brutal days like this I'm glad to have caught even one of the big set waves. Driving down great highway to work I didn't spot anyone else out there, just big beastly waves rolling through unridden.

Session 104 - morning glass

heaving lips sink ships...

this morning's dawn patrol was sweet, barreling morning glass in the 3-5 range and only 3 other guys out within a few blocks. the winds started getting on it by like 8:30 though. hopefully we'll get some new swell as this one is fading out. and it looks like rain for Turkey day. If the waves are decent I don't mind camping in the rain to score surf, but if it just sucks all around I don't know what the plan is anymore...

102 -103 Head high+ OB

This weekend I had big plans to head south and surf some point breaks, or at least score Fort Point if it was big enough. Friday on my way home from work I rode to Fort Point to check it, but it looked like the tide was killing it. Talked to someone in the parking lot who told me it was pretty fun at low tide. Next morning I had plans on meeting up with Nic and Joel and Ramin, but OB was looking swampy and unspectacular, and I was determined to surf somewhere else this weekend. Anyways, Fort Point wasn't breaking, too small, so I ultimately ended up surfing OB at low tide. It was good size, head high with a couple feet bigger on sets, and a lot of paddling. The onshore winds messed it up though, so I only surfed for an hour and a half before heading in. Sunday AM I woke up and it was beautiful out, head high sets stacking up and rolling through, with really light winds and clean conditions. Lots of surfers out and was a really fun session, caught a few meaty rights and worked on fine tuning my frontside cutbacks. Getting that leading arm down into the wave is really helping me I think...we'll wait to see some photo evidence though.

Gus was being bad, and totally peed on the dead sea lion while the marine biologist dude was taking samples.

won oh won

kirkham was being all kirkhamy this dawn, as you can see in the picture. i imagine if i were much smaller this wave would be pretty good.

SESSION 100 - sunset in the outer sunset

the big hundo...it just snuck up on me, and luckily happened on a beautiful glassy evening, classic fall OB. The waves were mellow, and it was just nice to watch the sunset over the water. I think tomorrow might be a longboard dawn patrol...