Bluebird Surf

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.

Well by now you have heard all the stories from biggest ever Puerto and PWC assists at the US Open to all types of nooks and crannies going off.  Well up north was no exception.  The best swell seemed to hit on Friday and Saturday lighting up everything in its path.  Above is a good sized set wave at a popular summertime line up.  With sets coming every 15 minutes or so and probably close to 75 guys all up and down the various peaks, getting a good one to yourself could be a real challenge.  When you did get one, it was well worth the wait and crowds.

There were plenty of options to choose from and many spots had more than enough waves to go around.  This guy below hits the eject button as this spot had lots of water moving and he was seconds from being on the rocks.  Looks like an absolutely rippable shoulder though.

At some of the more protected spots guys were pulling out the stops and putting on a pretty good show.

It was pretty fun when the sets would roll in.  Everyone scrambling to get in the right spot to either make all the fast sections or get out of the way.

These were from Saturday afternoon as the tide started to drop again.  It just got better and better.

You could get so much speed on these waves, and had to in order to make it through.

Little tap on the end section

Surfed out, most found it hard to leave.  It was just too beautiful to walk away from. As I made my way back home it was like going from summertime to winter in about a mile.  You could see the silky fog creeping over the hills and starting to settle.

Then POW…Winter in July.  As Mark Twain said, the coldest winter I ever had was Summer in San Francisco.  Nothing like that cool fog to help soothe a red sunburned face.