Author: Bluebird Surf

One of the many waves of the day.  Still beaming from the weekend.  More to come…

There were hopes that this storm would make for some Mavericks action this weekend, although that hope dashed as we neared the weekend.  Fine with me cause Mavericks size conditions means I have to to travel. I awoke Saturday to nothing short of epic conditions.  I surfed for about three hours in the morning and then spent some time in the afternoon enjoying the summer like weather and snapping photos of the handful of guys that weren’t surfed out.  Got a little bit of video and tons of shots…so as I go through them I will put down a more thorough account.  Today has more beautiful weather, offshore winds, and SWELL.  Stay tuned…

Read a cool piece about a surfer in New Zealand sharing his session with Orcas earlier this week.  Grabbed the photo from the AP…thanks!  If anyone has seen what they do chasing seals, you can imagine it could be a little unnerving having one nearby.  The surfer made a good point in stating that if it had wanted to take him out, it would have done so very early on in his session.  It certainly would be a terrible way to go, being tossed way up in the air as you cling to life.  I’m sure you have all seen the National Geographic shows.  If anyone remembers the old movie Orca, you may have been tainted by the image portrayed of the hyper intelligent whale that gets his man in the end.  I was pretty young, but remember it being fairly entertaining.

Forget about all the crap you read about White Sharks in the area.  These bad boys eat them for breakfast.  Heard from buddies in B.C. that you can get Orcas in the lineup up there as well.   SurfersVillage.com had a link to this Orca article and some info from the Shark Research Committee…some reported sightings in San Clemente recently etc…  Anyone ever hear of a shark attack at the Hook?  That was one of the attacks listed.  The only attack I ever heard of between SC and SF was in Davenport in the late 70’s or early 80’s. Anyway thought I’d share a little digression.

When you pull in, it’s a funny thing.  Time seems to slow down and your senses become more acute.  It’s really a surreal experience.

I captured this quick…and I emphasize quick, clip of my second wave last week on the dawn patrol.  My memory is so much more grand.  I don’t remember that sheet of white foam covering my head after I came up though.  Kind of funny to experience an event like this in this way.

I surfed with the camera again yesterday and its a little like texting while driving, which is illegal now in California.  As I paddled out, I noticed at least one other guy had one also.  I think the board mount is the way to go.  Having it on your wrist is a bit tricky.  It definately affects your wave choice and ability to surf as you become focused on lining up the shot.  You take bigger waves, but can’t activate the camera until the best part is over…maybe it’ll get easier.

Well enjoy!  Hoping to get this down soon so I can provide some more entertaining footage.  Hey, it’s a start.

Wasn’t going to let another morning sesh pass me up…even though I snoozed it a couple times.  My friend lent me his GoPro Hero and I had batteries, a new SD card and sort of figured out the basics of how to use it and its different settings.  At least so I thought.  It was freezing cold, but threw on my suit and ran out to the beach with sleepies in my eyes.  I didn’t really know what it would be like since the swell was forecast for a slight drop, but the previous day wasn’t showing the 13 ft or so they had forecasted and so It could have come in late or not at all.  Turns out it was a bit bigger than the previous morning with a good high tide…almost 7 ft.

The crowd was right, no one in sight and the waves were glassy and overhead on sets and so it would be the perfect stage to test out the camera.  I did a couple weak stretches, made sure the camera was on securely and paddled out.  The waves were breaking fairly close to shore, relatively speaking, but with lots of water and so I was taken pretty quickly in the rips.  First north and then south.  I only had about 3o minutes or so before I had to head off to work so I had to maximize time.

Once outside, it was a pleasure to see how perfect the waves were.  They were chunky but slow and just peeling.  I played around on the inside a bit and caught some whitewater on the head.  Just feeling out how I would best capture my adventure.

Within the first five minutes or so I stroked into a nice righthander with little effort.  I cruised out into the flats for my bottom turn which projected me forward into the face.  I was so fixated on the camera that my surfing was pretty simplistic.  It actually helped me to slow up and as a result I flowed a bit better.  I was headed for a nice left peeling my way and so I thought I would hit that lip and land out in the flats.  The video doesn’t do it justice…I thought it was going to look sick, but the lense wasn’t quite wide enough to capture everything and I was swinging it all over the place.  Good learning experience.

I paddled back out after this ride pretty stoked and looked back at the beach and noticed I had drifted south a couple blocks.  My next ride was better.  It was an effortless take off, stood up and just let the wave do its thing.  I probably could have pumped or something, but I was just trying to keep the camera straight so I could catch some tube time.  I dropped in and pulled up close to the face and tried to crouch a bit.  The lip came over and I was inside a nice little shack for what felt like a couple good seconds.  After that ride and subsequent washing I decided to point myself toward the shore and call it a morning.  After all I was trying to get to work on time and was stoked to check out the footage.

As you can see, it wasn’t quite what I thought I had.  I swear I was in that barrel for a good length of time, I was totally much deeper…that lens didn’t do it justice;)  Anyway, tomorrow I’m going to try and get some better footy.  I’m going to get this wired.  I wish GoPro would make a 5 mega pixel with that super wide angle lens for your wrist.  The photos arent’ so hot, the video will be cool once I figure it out, but regardless its still pretty cool to be able to have such a cool little camera to play with in the surf.

Until the next session….

High surf in Dubai last week caught my attention.  Lots of buzz about that place recently with some ad campaigns saying you can fly direct from SF with lay down biz class etc.  Sounds like it could be the next Vegas baby…with surf.  Could be a good time had for all.

Check out the article here.

A bit late I know, I’ve been pre-occupied with non-digital pursuits.  It was a beautiful white christmas at the beach. White with foam. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

 We are at the mercy of the great North  Pacific with these weather patterns that  are not making for ideal surf conditions.  I’m sure there were and will be windows  to get wet though.  I’m aiming to build up an appetite for food, food and more food over the next couple days….and lots of surf in between storms.  Hoot!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1427146&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1
Picaresque from Dustin Miller on Vimeo.

This video reminded me a bit of the chilly perfectly groomed surf this morning.  Trunks make it seem a bit more inviting.

It’s been fun with all this wet cold weather.  Starting to think of adventures in the snow as the Mountains have been getting a bit.  I was considering the morning sesh as last night it was dead calm, but that didn’t last too long.  When I awoke it was pretty chilly out.  Would have been exhilarating on the first couple duck dives.

Check out these brave souls from Michigan.  Hope they have that new heated Rip Curl suit.

I’ve been in some pretty cold water, but nothing where I actually had ice on me like these guys.

Cold is all relative.

If you want to read up more on these guys check out.

Third Coast Surf Shop