Bluebird Surf

If this keeps up I’m going to be spoiled rotten come spring time.

It was another beautiful weekend of surf starting with Friday morning before work. It was about 4-5ft with some 6ft sets, offshore winds and only a couple guys out. It was breaking on the outer bar, then reforming on the inside. I was surfing between two peaks…one going left but not quite connecting through to the inside and the right breaking out a bit further and then connecting up with the left that would go away in the rip current but then reappear as a corner on the inside of the right…making for a fun and exciting wedgy inside section. My last ride was the best as I took off on like a 4 fter which as soon as I stood up jacked into like a 6fter which sent me crouching down low just to keep the bottom from dropping out on me. It was pretty exciting and ended up taking me out as the white water outran me. I had a similar wave earlier that morning that I got ahead of and as the wedge came out toward me I was just finishing up my bottom turn…ran that into a mid face stall just ducking the cascading lip and then slingshotting out onto the quickly diminishing shoulder with a snowboard esque carve that if I was more flexible could have had me grabbing my rail all throughout the arc. Better than coffee any day.

Saturday was a bit smaller, but had some killer shape. Pretty solid offshore winds which made for some beautiful moments as the pelicans rose and fell gliding along the swells and then kicking out, so to speak, only to go on to the next peak. They are so graceful and look to be really enjoying the ocean as much as us humans. So peaceful to watch. Love it when they come in real low and right in front of you and you are able to get a glimpse of their prehistoric eyes. Amazing creatures.

I took these photos a bit later in the day when the tide created some really unique and fast tubes. It was just starting to do this when I got out. I was surfing a bit further outside in the morning and as I was coming in, sampled some of the shore break which resembled the kegginess of the late afternoon. The barrels had a bit of a chill to them, not just that the water was cold, but they were sneezing left and right.

That is always fun to see, and hear. They make like this thunderous clapping sound as they squeeze shut. It’s always fun to watch the crowds jockeying for position on these too. The results are often comical. Everywhere you looked there were little peaks doing their thing.

With the low tide the waves were doing their best impression of the super bank as they stacked up nicely on the little bars that have formed this winter.

Today, Sunday was even better. With a few more feet on it and no wind it looked really promising from the beach. My friend Ted and I noticed as we were about to paddle out that everyone had some pretty big boards. Ted was riding a newish board called the Biscuit, that was a shorter fatty, almost thumbtail at around 6′. I was on a 6’5″ and felt pretty good. The paddle was pretty gnarly….took about ten minutes to get outside. I actually snapped my leash on the way out. Lazily let go of it on a sloppy duck dive and the leash just popped. Just between the inside and outside bars. I didn’t have to swim all the way in to retrieve it and since I just started paddling five minutes earlier, figured I’d give it a go without a leash. Once I got outside realized I was about 75 yrds down from where Ted got out further south. I knew I had to pick my waves so that I didn’t lose my board right away and have to swim the 100+yrds back to shore. The first sets rolled in and they were absolutely perfect and big lefts, about three of them. The largest of which had to be about four feet overhead on the peaks. They were just massive walls too, not a drop of water out of place and barreling. It was sick. Felt like I was at Ulu’s or something.

Took off on my first left, not a set wave, but a good size overhead left that provided a couple nice turns before I kicked out making a point not to get too far inside. It’s funny how a leash is so psychological. If you surf with a leash all the time, your surfing becomes reliant on it and you get lazy. You don’t keep your board under you, you try to pull stuff you know you can’t pull etc. My next couple rides were perfect smooth take offs. Got a really nice righthander that walled up beautifully as I sped across the wall, dodging the lip halfway down the line, coming around the end section and ending with a nice round cutty. On my way back out I was duckdiving a set wave and tried with all my might to hold onto the board as I get twisted all around and right at the last second it popped out of my hands. I swam to the surface to find my board about ten feet away. I swam to it quickly and hopped on. I was about to take that as a sign that I should go get a leash, but another surfer on his way out said something to me….not sure what it was since I had earplugs and water still swishing around in my hood, something about a good ride and …?? I took it to mean, ‘that was a good ride you shouldn’t paddle in just cause your leash snapped. Surf till you lose your board completely and have to swim all the way in.’ So I swung back around and paddled out again. Caught one more wave which was really fun, but on my next wave got a little lax and got the tip of my booty stuck on the wax as I was getting to my feet and just fell forward into the face of the wave and then gone was my board to the inside. So much for feeling good about surfing OB without a leash…any bit of confidence was dashed away with that kook maneuver. I did some backstroking, tried to bodysurf a few…but kept missing them. Hard to swim with all that neoprene. After a couple minutes retrieved my board in the inside channel and then figured I’d find Ted who I hadn’t seen in about thirty minutes or so. Tried to catch an inside hollow one and it basically exploded behind me and took my board the remainder of the way to the beach. As I got in I saw Ted up on the dune watching my whole ordeal …pretty comical. The rest of my Sunday flowed along really effortlessly. Another great weekend down.

I found out that the fish I enjoyed the day before Thanksgiving already had a name…so I can’t exactly call it The Black Manta anymore.

Behold, Black Sabbath!

First guy out in the water at dawn…greeted with 4-6ft peelers, offshore winds, and beautiful weather.  What a great way to start the day…better than anything, well nearly.  Now I’m teased by Wavewatch and their damn surf cams as I sit behind my computer.  Check out the guy taking off on the left in the screen grab.  Actually, on any other day it would be a distraction…but I had so many good rides before most people got out of bed.  Glowing and Stoked!!

Well, I guess the Thanks we all gave on Thursday really paid off.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Friday was large but looked doable for me. I took out a borrowed 8’6″, which made me feel like a real man. I say that with a bit of sarcasm, since there is nothing manly about drowning. I got looks from people as I ran across the Great Hwy…and felt a little self conscious cause it was probably a foot bigger than what most guys were riding that day. On top of that I usually don’t ride boards over 6ft most of the time. Coming over the dunes I recognized it was sizey, there were only a couple guys out, and so was happy I had some extra length and girth under me.

I started my paddle at Noriega and was in front of the Beach Chalet in about ten minutes of duckdiving. I finally broke through and got to the somewhat lumpy section where the sets clean you up…and, well, I got cleaned up. Rode a small one in to shore and gave it another go not wanting to give up after a single try. The second attempt wasn’t much better and I was in front of the Windmill in about 5 minutes this time.

I felt a little kooky since I couldn’t snag one of the bombs…need more practice in heavy surf. More confidence is all it is, cause I could have gotten out. I got spooked after I had to toss my board three times and swim down to Davey Jones’s locker. Thought that if it got much bigger, my board snapped or I got in a bad spot I would be in over my head. The 8’6″ has about a dozen stress cracks that run down the bottom of the board probably from some serious throttling somewhere nearby.

There were a couple other guys out snagging some good ones though. It seemed to get funkier as I came in and saw two out of the four remaining surfers walking back to where they had come out. I’m sure it was quite the spectacle for the onlookers which speckled the beach.

I felt a certain sense of pride in the fact that I gave it a couple good shots and it was the largest beach break I’d ever attempted to surf. There would be other days and so I packed it in as the sun started to fall.

It only got bigger over the weekend with the big finale on Sunday. Saturday was still rideable and somewhat glassy on the outside. There was a maelstrom of whitewater to navigate as always.

Ocean Beach is always challenging, but on days like this it really tests you. There were only a handful of surfers along the entire 7 mile stretch…like 4 or so, but some nice rides had by all of them. No bad wipeouts, good positioning, and very carefully chosen waves.

The pictures don’t do it justice. The waves are moving so quickly, they close out, can be lumpy…you can see what I mean by the lines these guys draw. Straight ahead…no cutbacks.

I got a couple good sequences of guys dropping in, picking a line and shooting for the shoulder. They all pulled each and every ride off flawlessly.

I awoke on Sunday and ran out to check the scene. It was easily triple to five times overhead with stiff offshore winds and bombies way out the back on the outer reefs about a mile out.

You could also see scattered peaks way up in Marin going off. There were no ships around. I sat and wondered how friggen scary it would be if you were in a boat way out to sea thinking you were out far enough when one of these behemoth sets came through on the outer reef and just steam rolled you.

I tried to capture some of the wild in this swell. You would see some of the waves just do some weird things.

I watched a view of the videos posted on YouTube from farther down the coast at Mavericks. It was pretty amazing and inspiring.

Stormsurf was calling it 12-13ft at 22-25 seconds, which created some pretty sizey waves on the face.

There was a young girl playing in the foam castles that had washed up from the big surf and playing a game of chase and be chased as the push and pull of the ocean became her best friend. The cold wasn’t even an issue. With no one in the water she was having the most fun of anyone that day. Watching her made me feel good and reflect on all there is to be thankful for.

What a great weekend! Happy Thanksgiving!

The other day my friend Ted came out for a surf and was gracious enough to let me borrow his very first board. It must have been the way my eyes lit up when I saw it lying in the back of his pick up truck. It wasn’t until after he left that I realized how special it was that he lent it out. The day he brought it out we were stoked to get overhead perfection and after a big lunch I planned on taking it out for an evening spin. Well I was pretty wrecked from the dawn patrol and the wind was on it so opted for another day. It wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that I got to try it out.

The waves were perfect at about 4-5 ft with really slow rolling sets breaking from way outside all the way through. The board is quite heavy and thick so I had no problem stroking into the set waves and making a real smooth drop. It was so heavy in fact that you had to make up for it when you paddled just to get it up to speed and make sure it didn’t hang up in the lip. As you got to your feet it almost felt like you had a brake on or something. It was really smooth and stable, but slow and seemed to match the slow swell perfectly. After looking at the skegs you can see why.

They seem to point inward towards the center which gave the effect of pushing water. The tail would lock into the wave and the skegs would almost hold it there so you could ride the board from the nose practically or at least the top half at all points in the wave. I found it really interesting and completely unlike any other twin fins I’d ridden. It felt like an old 70’s car my dad used to have. The big old Pontiacs or Buicks….or Plymouths. Actually it reminds me a lot of this old green station wagon my dad had called a Vista Cruiser. First car I ever drove…I digress.

I really dug the black with red stripes too. Felt like a bad ass surfing it, especially when I did a little step back to cutback from the shoulder into the foam. It was like a flashback for me and really forced me to slow up my style and just cruise.

The next day I wanted something a bit more responsive and so took out my modern version of what I now call The Black Manta. My Soul Fish from Randy French. It was a bit choppier and less predictable and so it got me where I needed to be quicker. As most of you know from Surfline.com or your own experience, the swell that started to come in on Friday and over the weekend was epic and pretty sizey. Friday I busted out the biggest board I had, which is a 8’6″ gun that a friend lent to me. It was maybe a bit overkill but the waves were sizey and they just got bigger for Saturday and then Sunday. Stay tuned for that post coming soon.

So I’ve had Woodshed Films on my mind recently as they have been promoting their new film, as you know.  Last night got The Seedling in from NetFlix and watched it over a pint of 2 degrees below.  Such a beautiful film that it got me all jazzed to ride the ole 9’6″ that I now fondly refer to as my ‘amplifier’.

It’ll take any session and turn it into a blast.  Luckily for me this morning the surf has been tiny the past few days after the epic weekend of sun and surf.  By lucky, I mean that it fit into my mind state after watching the film and dreaming about hanging ten.  I woke up and ran out in the fog and cold over the dunes to find one other surfer out.  The waves were tiny….like knee high on the sets, but with the same perfect shape its held all week.  Little barrels fit for an action figure were rifling down the sand bars.

I paddled out super stoked to play around and wake up.  Way better than coffee.  I was super cozy with my new found Patagonia hood with wool inside…so stoked on that.  Before long the other guy went in and I had a fun little playground all to myself….I used it too, paddling like a maniac for every peak that came in.  You go so fast on a big board you feel like you have to catch everything…can’t let anything go unridden.

I had one of the best sessions…gliding and sliding my way left and right.  I don’t know if it was the inspiration from the movie, the small waves, the nice shape or what, but I was cross stepping, riding switch stance, riding two feet together, and generally felt like I was on par with those log riding legends in the movie.  Tudorish I dare say….ok, I wasn’t even close, but I had some styly rides where my knee caps got all covered up…cutbacks, the whole nine.  Tomorrow the swell is supposed to jump up…have to break out the shortboard just when I was having so much fun on my log.

Next time its small, check out The Seedling and see if it works for your surfing.

Ps…the image above is a frame grab from the film that I tweaked a bit….thanks Woodshed!

The new film by Woodshed Films which promises to be a keeper. I mean come on….Thicker than Water, A broke down Melody…need I say more.

Check out the cool progression animation in the clip below.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2280642&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
‘One Track Mind’ Webisode 1: The Progression from Woodshed Films on Vimeo.

Here are the upcoming premieres…

One Track Mind Premieres!
Nov 19, 2008
November 19-23 – Santandar – Spain
More Info Coming Soon

November 20- Toms Shoes Headquarters – Santa Monica, CA
When: 7:30pm
Where: 3025 Olympic Blvd. Santa Monica CA 90404
Admission: FREE!
More Info: Drinks and live music from Pawnshop Kings and Kai Brown

November 22 – Ojai, CA
When: 4:30pm
Where: Ojai Theatre, 145 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai, CA
Admission: FREE!

Check out WoodshedFilms.com for more of the goods.

I am totally exhausted. What an epic weekend. We had record temperatures this week, about 10 degrees past the previous record set in 1906. Couple that with offshore winds and a super fun swell and well it just doesn’t get much better.

I surfed my 6’5″ quad yesterday taking off on some long extended drops…as the wind held up the face nice and long. The walls were lining up for about 50 yards and breaking both left and right depending on where you sat.

It was a good size and nice long period ground swell. The wind would feather the tops and make for beautiful rainbows that extended from the lip to the trough behind it and almost completing a full circle. I wish I had a picture of that for you guys. Need to work on picking up a water housing. The views from the beach in between sessions were nice too.

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Because of the offshore, some guys would get held up in the lip longer than they probably would have liked and ended up having to straighten out on beautiful ones like this.

So many good waves and so little energy to chase them all. As the sun was setting a couple surfers got pulled out in a rip and had trouble getting back to shore. One of them finally made it back to the lineup only to see the other about 100 yrds out waving for help. The first surfer made it to shore and called 911. Moments later three lifeguard trucks pulled up on the beach with spotters standing on their trucks sirens blazin searching with binoculars for this surfer. Swimmers got in the water, a Coast Guard boat came out and started patrolling beyond the surf and a couple fire engines were up on the Great Hwy. It was quite a scene. I was pretty far out there and didn’t see anyone past where I was sitting, which is what I told the guy who alerted the Fire Dept., Coast Guard and Lifeguards when I came in. I sat and scanned the horizon for about 20 minutes before the sun went down and didn’t see anyone out there, except for a few surfers getting their fill. I didn’t hear anything on the news either, but I bet whoever it was probably came in down the beach not realizing all the commotion was for him.

The waves were big, but they were nicely spaced and had perfect shape so the guy probably just got tired. I know I was…I must have paddled several miles over the past couple days. It was well worth it too, trying to stay in position, cause when the sets came through you forgot all about your burning arms and back and just dropped in nice and smooth and relaxed stoked that you could now use the lower half of your body to carve it up.

Well, I’m pretty beat just talking about how tired I am…so I’m going to leave you with a couple last images.

The sunsets the past couple days have been unreal…

Stellar conditions for two days in a row. 4-6ft with occasional 7 ft sets yesterday and 2-3ft and offshore today. The rainbows coming off the spray were unreal forming almost a complete circle.

Time for seconds.