south swell, lost keys & longboarding

 
 
 
 
This weekend a solid south hit, and Santa Cruz lit up. Took the motorcycle down to the Hook for a fun dawn patrol with Nic and Ryan K, shot some photos but unfortunately the ones of Ryan and Nic came out pretty blurry. Some decent shots of randoms though ripping some set waves. After work the same day I headed back down to surf with Ramin and Ryan north of town a bit. It was mostly closed out, but a few makeable corners here and there. Ramin and Ryan were both charging some pretty heavy closeouts. I was the last one out of the water just before 8pm, and scrambled to grab my clothes and my boardbag and hike back to the parking lot. After getting back to my bike I realized that I had dropped my keys somewhere along the beach, and it was too dark to bother going looking for them. Everything was locked in my bike, my wallet, phone, ring, latop, etc, so I was pretty screwed. Ramin is awesome though and let me borrow his car to get back to the city, and also treated me a burrito and modelo at Taqeueria Vallarta. We made a fool-proof plan to meet up the next day so I could return his car and get my bike after bringing the spare key from home. Saturday AM I headed down south around noon, running late as usual. Got to the lot, but didn't see Nic's car, so I grabbed my phone and wallet out of the bike and sent a quick text message to Ramin just before my phone died. I drove down the coast checking every spot for Nic's car, eventually making it to Lazy Town and leaving a note on the door and some wax with Horace. At that point I figured I'd head back up north to the lot and just leave the car there for Ramin to pick up later, and I would call either from a payphone or when I got home to a charger. After more driving, I finally got back to where my bike was, only to find a note on the seat anchored by a few rocks saying that they were there but headed back to Lazy Town. We must've just missed each other, so I turned around and headed back to Lazy Town. After 4.5 hours on the road, I finally got back to Lazy Town and found Nic, Joel, and Ramin suiting up for a longboarding session at 38th. I was relieved they were there, and glad to get out of the car. Nic generously lent me a 8'6" longboard to ride, and we all paddled out. There were long lulls between sets, but some solid sets rolling through, and we were all in good position to snag a wave practically every set for the beginning of the session. The waves were remarkably good, walling up all the way to the inside for some long, fast rides. Having very little longboarding experience, it was a lot of fun gliding and trimming down the line and running the nose for some cheater fives. Definitely a lot more fun than trying to wrestle a 10' longboard out at OB. I'm looking forward to another mellow longboarding session at 38th in the near future. After a couple hours, Ramin dropped me off at my bike and I drove back up the coast in the dark, battling the crosswinds and the fog all the way home to SF. It was an exhausting and crazy weekend, a bit of a farce, but I'm grateful to have such generous and reliable friends keeping me stoked through the whole ordeal. The rest of the pics are here:

south swell

Sessions 51 & 52 - dare I say epic OB?

From OB sessions 9/5/8

Indian summer is upon us, and the last few days at OB have been beautiful. Thursday night I paddled out with Ramin, Gillian and Jon. Sets were head high and the waves were really clean and fun. I couldnt stop giggling...Ramin and I caught a ton of waves, and stayed in the water well after sunset. It set around 7:30, and we stayed out until about 8:20. Ramin caught a little barrel after dark too, although it mustve been hard to see in there...This was definitely one of my best OB sessions since maybe January or February, although this time I didnt even need to wear booties, let alone gloves.

The surf was so good that I was amped to hit it again at 6am. Ended up meeting Karl and Mark at Irving and hit the water by 6:30. Low tide wasn't very low, and it was a little washed out, but still pretty clean and an awesome day, especially by OB standards. Caught a few nice ones, got covered up a little on my first wave. Mark and Karl caught a lot of waves, I got a few shots of them. After a while I paddled in to meet up with Ryan and his friend Julie on the beach. Paddled back out and surfed my brains out, got out of the water at 8:30, realizing that everyone else had already left. Still managed to get to work by 10 too. Tonight on the way down to Monterey I'm looking forward to scoring some waves at the Hook, I hear it's pretty good and low tide isn't until like 9:30.

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 9 - Saturday @ the Hook

Fun day, tiny beginner waves with a camping crew. Cory, Jon, Joan, Ryan all out there catching waves. Even Gus got on the board for a second before freaking out. Otters playing, followed by belly busting burritos at Taqueria Vallarta.

Session 1 & 2 - the Hook & OB

So totally copying Nic's format here with the goal of having 50+ surf sessions between now and Bali on September 25th. That should leave plenty of time, especially if I try my best to paddle out daily.

This weekend saw some fun shoulder high swell at the Hook in Santa Cruz. Waddell Creek was actually looking pretty good too, but a bit too heavy for Joanie to surf.

This morning was even more interesting. Looks like there was an algae bloom or something, tons of jellies in the water, and even found a beached baby gray whale on the shore. I'll add a pic later. Gotta run to meetings! 48 more sessions to go, then maybe I'll actually be in decent shape to tackle some Bali reef breaks!