Session 6004 ****

Winter surfing certainly has different set of challenges than summer surfing in this area. During the summer, we have longer days, but then we have a lot of onshore wind and smaller waves and mainly NW waves to deal with. On the other hands in the winter we definitely have better choices of the swell directions where waves can either come more from the W or bigger waves coming from NW, both cases we will get wider options opening up if they are not too big. Of course in the past month the swells were just really too big for me and most of us, especially this year. We had to carefully select "in between" days where the surf condition is "doable." I am not just talking about a beginner like me, but my local friends all agree that this has been one of the hardest seasons to find surfable waves.

Though between wind and rain, this morning was just a bit of a respite from these powerful conditions and increment weathers we have had. The wind stopped in HMB and even though the morning surfing meant to surf in a very high tide, there was enough power in the swells that there were some really fun wave to surf, and not just there hefty closing out kinds.
When I got to the Jetty with my neighbor buddy, this morning, he was not all up for it, but I really wanted to go there. He said he would check another place, but as soon as he headed down to another place, I got a call from him that he actually wanted to surf the Jetty. Great idea! There was nobody but us and there was a wide spread break all over the places, anywhere from the break water to what we know as the Turkey's. It was glassy and easy to get out (for this place that is). A few duck diving by the shore was all that was needed, and there also was a bit of a channel too.

For a good hour and a half session, there was just me, my neighbor buddy and during the middle of the session my friend Dog House showed up. But that was the lineup.
I was on my favorite 6'6 board and I had a real blast and very long ride. Also today is definitely the first time that at the end of a ride I could pull out consistently. This was not the case before. I think that this is attributed to the fact that I really had good speed and also the final bottom turn up and out through the waves worked. This was something that I was working on but it never materialized until now. Come to think of it, through, I have started additional conditioning exercise with Indo Board. So I really now think that I am thankful for having being able to do more balance practice out of the water. I really suggest a lot of my friends start to do this.

The difficulty in pulling out right is that if I don't have a sufficient speed to do this, then the wave closes out before I get to the very tail end of the lip. But today, everything worked out to the extent that I had enough speed to start with and with that speed I can gain the final speed at the last bottom turn back up to aim for getting to the back of the wave. Now, though, when I get to the back of the wave, I cannot get back on the board and paddle out right back. But I think that I am not too far from it. All these is attributed to being able to do more powerful bottom turn when I can transfer a lot of my own weight to the board.