Surf

Nice swell this week in the range of way too scary big to more human sized proportions.  The swell seems to be dropping fast today with beautiful hollow DOH A-frames still marching in every 7 minutes or so.  There were a handful of guys out this morning sampling the clean lines on their 7’+ boards to handle all the water moving.  Thinking this afternoon may just get better with the tide.

Here are a few photos shot over the past few days…

One of the best lefts in my neighborhood doing a lumpy version of its thing.  The right is fun too, mostly just a big wall on days like this.

Hard to capture the size and power that a wave out here produces.  Here is a shot of a guy on a respectable board trying to stay close to the power source.

This guy was just milking his all the way to the inside so that he can get as far as he can into the channel before paddling back out.

You’ll get the occasional section that will go top to bottom and start grinding…hard to tee it up, but if you can hang on you get a nice little slingshot action.

Some of the smaller waves had everyone sharing whether they liked it or not.  Karma got this guy out front and he ended up face planting just after this was taken.

The other guy didn’t really have anywhere to go either.

If you were patient you could get one of these which would hold up all the way through.  I had one on Christmas Day that put a grin from ear to ear and cleared the Eggnog fog flowing through me.

Happy New Year!!  2010 here we come!!

Very cool idea that will have you saying ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

to all!!  These were taken over the past couple days…but today was absolutely epic with only a few lucky ones catching the goods.  I had the wrong lens with me, but may post one shot from today a bit later.  I paddled out at 4:45 and caught the last thirty minutes of light.  Took off on one of the most perfect and solid waves I’ve ever had at OB.  DOH sets and glassy perfection.  What more could you ask for on Christmas!

or maybe it was Nusa Dua, Nias, or your favorite perfect right.

Right or left, it was all good.

What an epic day.

Happy November!!

As Californians, we surf, swim, bodysurf, kayak, kiteboard, paddle, dive, and relax on and off some of the most beautiful beaches in the world — sharing them with otters, seals, and sea creatures large and small. Unfortunately, the delicate marine ecosystems are at risk — wildlife populations are dropping fast. Environment California is working to establish protection for turtles, otters and other wildlife by establishing marine protected areas, which work like national parks in the ocean. Right now, state officials are considering putting a new protected area off the San Diego shore, and we’re working to make sure it happens. Please join me, and send an e-mail to the state commission today.

Check out this page at the Environment California Web site:

http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/oceans/protect-the-ocean?id4=tafsent

Thanks…from Environment California

Remnants of Super Typhoon Choi-Wan still standing and delivering today.  The past few days saw lefts coming in that were reminiscent of something found on the Bukit.  The rights weren’t as long as the lefts, but were generally pretty steep and hollow.  Saw more than a few spit today and had quite the challenge keeping my quad from blazing out into the shoulder with all the speed from the drop.

The lefts allowed you to draw out your turns a bit more, whereas the rights required a more pivotal approach if you wanted to take advantage of the best part of the wave.

On the right ones you could get a nice long bottom turn into racing wall and then cover up like this lucky guy above.

The past few days of warm sunny beach weather, no wind, and overhead swell further reinforces why California is one of the best places to be in September.  Choi-Wan just put a few extra exclamation points on the end for us.

Who would have thought that I’d be surfing the remnants of Super Typhoon Choi-Wan here in SF 14 days after it started as a Tropical Depression somewhere near Guam.

What goes around comes around.

Nori Rolls as I affectionately refer to it, was ‘going orf’ today.  Long period ground swell with some long drops and nicely shaped lines.  Fun Fun and Fun.

Will try to get some shots tomorrow before this next NW fills in.

So last week we got a bit of winter sized juice, but with a bit of summer dribble mixed in.  You can see from the photos that although there were a few gems, the majority were a bit funky.  Up top is a lonely wave at one of the more well known spots in SF.

Here is a big right hander rifling its way along tempting someone to paddle out and give it something to play with.

and it didn’t take long before someone did.  Here is a nice looking wall, the kind you can just lean into real hard and go for broke.

Across the channel, or should I say rip, there was a hunky left that was entertaining for the tourists and the flock of pelicans kicking out of the wave here.

This lone bodyboarder that I came across was either admiring the rippable little left or figuring out how to navigate the shore dump.  I think he was contemplating a second go out, and perhaps leaning towards a hot cup of coffee and a breakfast burrito.

These were all shot on the same morning and if I remember correctly the wind came up around noon and pretty much ended any hopes of a repeat sesh.

I imagine this fisherman likes it that way.

My favorite time of year is when the fog starts to lift, the sun comes out, and the winds start to shift and clean up the normal summer dribble.  Nothing sweeter than warm sand between the toes and a view like the one above as you come over the dunes and get your first glimpses of the lineup on a late summer day.

The past few weeks have been pretty good as we’ve had everything from fun longboard days to well overhead dumpers acting as a solid warm up for the season to come.  Even the real locals are stoked.

Lots of life in the water and plenty to make you feel alive.  A few weeks back we had a solid run of super shallow low tide thumpers that were just a blast.  Had to get in early and just shoot the curl as they used to say…kicking out before the inevitable beating chased you down.

The week after; I guess the sandbars took a beating and the waves started to line up really nicely.  You could get tucked in nice and tight on a few of these…and I couldn’t decide which were more fun, the lefts

or the rights.

No matter which way you went, there was fun for all.