The WavLog: A California Surf Blog

On To My Own Site

2011-02-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

On To New Surf.Stokemaster.Com

I will be updating the stuff on all new WaveLog II at my own new web site moving forward. URL is http://surf.stokemaster.com The web site uses the same software as Huffington Post and The Onion!

Summer 2010 Recap

2010-08-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Summer 2010 Recap

Just about every local in Half Moon Bay I surf with seem to agree that this summer was a bust.

Jogging my memory, there were two factors that mainly contributed to this.

The lack of strong onshore winds in the afternoon.
The lack of south swells.

You probably say that the lack of strong onshore wind condition is a good thing in our area. I think that in a very selfish way, it is because, yes the onshore winds tend to ruin the surf locally. However, the general lack of this means that we also did not have much high-pressure induced waves. Around this time of the year, most of the local source of the waves starts off the coast of Mendocino, and a few days of winds, we get decent NW swells, like 8 seconds 5-10 feet which will give some fun waves in Linda Mar and other spots.

The South swells also have been not very active until this week. This summer I have not been surfing at the Jetty in Half Moon Bay (nor Santa Cruz) because there simply was not much south swells. This means that there has not been sever winter swells in the Southern hemisphere.

Hopefully this is not the start of a long time weather pattern.

StokeTIP 55: Go See Local Surf Flicks

2010-04-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Novice StokeTIP 55

Go See Local Surf Flicks

Here in Northern and Central California almost all of us surfers have surfed in Santa Cruz at least once, if not once a month, or every day. The quality of the waves is almost always better than my home breaks in Half Moon Bay and from novice friendly Cowells to highly competetive Hook and the Lane, the place has a lot to offer and further up the coast we got Mavericks break right in my home town of Half Moon Bay.

As you surf more and become familiar with surfing, you will start hearing about "The West Side" and "The East Side." And sooner or later you will become failiar with surfer names like "Flea", "Ratboy" and "Barney." Even if you don't want to hear about them, you will hear about them on local regular news-talk radios and in the front-pages of San Francisco Chronicle or San Jose Mercury news. In many ways, California and surfing are part of our daily life; everyone is influenced by it from the slang we use to what we wear even to work!

As you surf more in Santa Cruz, you will also get to know about the "West side" and "East side" surfing culture you will learn that they often crash, even sometime to the point of physically being violent. So it has always been curious in mind how these different cultures come about.

And of course these things being as culture they invlove people, and every so often our own surfing communities has produced great surfing documentary movies that are prouced often by the very people who grew up within.

Such is the case with the new upcoming documentary film "The Westsiders." The film was produced by Joshua Pomer who grew up with the big 3 names in Santa Cruz West Side surfing scene. Joshua got a hold of portable video camera from his high school and started to shoot videos of his surfing friends and so he knew right from the start to some day tell the story about what it is like to grow up with top surfers and being immersed in the scene. Also very important in the formation of the culture is one dominating character, Vince "The Godfather" Coller who pretty much controlled The Lane and for good or bad, he was the key part of creating the force in the Westside culture to put these surfers and Santa Cruz Stemer Lane on the map. Like a Big Bang, the melting of all forces have created some of the darkest part of the surf culture as well as some of the brightest and innovative breakthoughs in surfing like legitimizing aerials as a surf move and even surfing upside-down inside a barrell and of course the big wave surfing.

The movie is a serious and important documentary about Santa Cruz surfing culture and the history of the West Side. It is a nice and intentional departure from "just surf" type movies where you only see people surfing on the waves for an hour, and it really provides a deeper look inside how it is to grow up in the environment. Interviews include numerous people from the surfing community and partents. Jason has also used his networks of friends to collect interesting home movie clips from the 60's and 70's. Because of this approach the movie can be enjoyed by both surfers and as well as non-surfers.

My words are not going to be adequate to describe all what I have expeirenced at the preview, but one thing for sure, you being a part of the surfing culture today, you must go see this and many other surfing documentary movies produced by our very own local film makers who also surf.

The movie was selected and premiers at the Newport Beach Film Fetival on April 24th, 2010 and shown at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Saturday 5/8 at 6:30 PM (More information about the Santa Cruz Film Festival)

For more information about the movie, here are additional web sites you can try:

www.nbffaction.com

www.thewestsiders.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63949915605&ref=ts

http://www.twitter.com/TheWestsiders

http://www.youtube.com/user/westsidersmovie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvPReLc90c8

StokeTIP 54: The Importance of a Positive Attitude

2010-04-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

Novice StokeTIP 54

The Importance of a Positive Attitude

Posted originally on:

http://wavlog.stokemaster.com

http://twitter.com/stokemaster

Yes, we all know that having a positive attitude is important in just about everything. But I have been reading up more on this stuff from a neuro surgeon.

I am going to quickly summarize this. Based on our current knowledge of our brains, it appears that when our brains process information one of the first things it does it to distingulish "like" or "dislike."

As we all grow up, we tend to accumulate in our brain to process more stuff into the "disklike" category. To make things short, that occurs because our brains tend to work in the manner for preservation. So we always tend to take a safer approach.

You can see that as we get older or observe people who are older than us, they all tend not to like new things, lose curiousity and then witter away.

So what does this got to do with surfing?

Actually what I want to point out is what does this got to do with our "Stoke."

To me the Stoke is driven from our curiousity and constant queests for better experiences on the wave. I refuse to get in the mode where I waer a T-Shirts that says "I rule!" and I refuse to tell people "I only surf at this break only when it is the greatest."

So, maintain your curiousity, always hope for a better wave, better tomorrow, and even when the waves are crappy let's get out and come back and blog or tweet about how much we got out of each of our session, exchange, and share the joy.

Your brains will appreciate it!

See you in the lineup!

http://wavlog.stokemaster.com

http://twitter.com/stokemaster

StokeTIP 53: Find a Limitation To Expand Your Skills

2010-04-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Novice StokeTIP 53: Find a Limitation To Expand Your Skills

Most of us want to be technically better surfers. I certainly dream about being on the wave freely making all sorts of interesting and creating moves very often. You could be lucky in this regards with a cat-like 3D agility that you can fly with your boards. But in most cases that's usually not how we are equipped with.

When it comes to surfing for me, each paddle out is a practice that never ends. In many ways, I almost can't tell if it is the first time I have ever tried surfing or not. Surfing can bring many humbling occasions; just I thought I've learned something, next time out, I cannot repeat what I've learned and many times I feel like I hit a limit of some sort.

To this effect, I know and I do forget one thing, which is understanding my own limitations.

This seems to be obvious to many, but when you are on a wave and ready to catch one or trying to make that cut back ahead of the changing wave, it is difficult know "live" where your limit lies.

That's where I think that analyzing and truly understanding our own limitations can help improve our surfing skills (and anything else I do) and I think we don't give much time for it.

If you understand the boundaries that limit your current abilities to accomplish things clearly, that can help you set up clear goals and then remove these obstacles. For example, for me right now, I need to work on the take-off technique on steeper waves, and I am currently working just on that. To be more exact, I am too timid right now to take on steep waves, but I also know that every once in a while it works and when it does I have really great rides.

So next time, don't just blame things that make your surfing experience less than perfect. But just think and analyze what really are limiting factors in your current ability to surf the way you want.

Don't set too high of a goal, in most things in life we need to chew a little bit at a time.

Keep On Stoking!

See You on the Wave Soon!

http://wavlog.stokemaster.com

Twitter: http://Twitter.com/StokeMaster

StokeTIP 52: Volunteer for a Local Surfing Organization

2010-04-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Novice StokeTIP 52

Volunteer for a Local Surfing Organization

Have you ever volunteered to work in an organization of any kind? If you have, that's wonderful, but if the thought of doing that never came to your mind, then it is time to think about doing it.

Needless to say, you can make great contributions to your community with your volunteering efforts, but on this post I am going to touch more on the benefit to you, most of which are not immediately obvious.

I was involved in Surfrider San Mateo chapter and through this experience I have found that that;

I had to help solve problems that I was not normally exposed.

In my situation, I was fully unaware of local environmental issues and how peoples interests were conflicted, met and resolved.

I was able to understand and work with people skill issues that come with any organizations

If you have a party of 2 or more we do agree and disagree. At an organizational level being able to meet the challange is very important skill set to acquire. Also you get to meet people who are from much more diverse backgrounds that think (often) quite differently than you do. This will enrich your knowldge and ability to be a more diversely participating member of the community.

I had to demonstrate my leadership skills

As a part of organization, you do need to take charge and make things happen, I had both success and failure in this area, but I did learn a lot what works and what does not thoughy my efforts.

I got chances to meet or network wtih people with whom you would not normally be able to hook up including community people in Half Moon Bay all the way to nationally known surfing figures etc.

This is probably one of the greatest benefits to me. I got to expand my network in a very meaningful way. Many of people are live and real friends I met in local community, we do business or even go surf trip to other countries with! I also got to meet the top notch surfers, surf movie makers, surf publishers and such both locally and nationally, and that's really exciting.

StokeTIP 51: Be Well Hydrated To Prevent Muscle Cramps

2010-04-04T09:03:00.001-07:00

Novice StokeTIP 51:

Be Well Hydrated To Prevent Muscle Cramps

Since I took up swimming in collage days, I have been bothered by calf muscle cramps. Now I get this painful muscle spasms when I over-stretch or stress the calf muscle; frequently enough. The most devastating time to get this is when I try to kick the water hard while taking off... imagine if that's the best wave in a surf competition! I also get one when I stretch in the morning in the bed.

While there is no complete cure for this either by drug or doing warm-up/stretch exercises there is one thing that seem to lessen the chance of this happening for me, which is the importance of being hydrated.

With the help of StokeMaster.com friends, I found out this article at this Mayo Clinic web site http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/muscle-cramp/DS00311/DSECTION=prevention

If you are like me, so stoked and busy forgetting to drink water pre-sessions (somehow I don't forget to drink Beer post session but that's actually causes more dehydration) .

Since then I drink a glass of water at home before leaving and packing a eco-friendly water bottle full of tap water and remember to take a drink before a session and also immediate after it too, since an elevated heart rate does cause my kidney to work hard too... I am sure you can relate.

Also for me a sudden stress in the calf causes the issue so I should try to move the leg often while in the lineup. It is also a good way to stabilize your position yourself while in the lineup after all.

This site http://www.health911.com/remedies/rem_cramp.htm has more information and also many Folk Remedy techniques. I am not entirely sure if any of them work other than I try to eat a Banana in breakfast for potassium, but instead of over-drugging myself I will stick with the Hydration and stretch methods as my main means.

Keep on Stoked and See You in the Lineup!

Manabu Tokunaga

Blog: http://wavlog.stokemaster.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/stokemaster

Novice StokeTIP #50: Go Take a Rest

2010-04-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Novice StokeTIP #50

Go Take a Rest

More often than not, after a so-so session, and while changing, I see some great weave coming through at the spots that I was not realizing while I was in the water, but the time is already out for me to move on to other stuff in my daily life.

So, especially when you are not having so good of a time, get out of a water in the middle of a session and observe from the shore what is happening and re-assess your lineup.

I think I will try to do that myself.

Surf Tip 49: Go See a Pro Surfing Competition Live!

2010-04-01T22:38:00.001-07:00

Novice Surfer Tip 49

Go See a Pro Surfing Competition Live!

I find that going to see a live professional competition is a part of the essentials all new surfers should experience. As a budding surfer, you owe it to yourself. Whether you agree with the principal of competing or not, you can get a lot out of it from just one day of attending.

You might say, you can see all that on a Fuel TV or DVD, but here are some of the things you may be missing out of:

On the TV (especially DVDs), you are only seeing what they want you to see. Mostly pictures of the top people just surfing on the waves. As a person learning how to surf, you get a whole lot more out by watching how the real professional surfers take off, from the wave spot selection to the direction to which they take off. Then how they set up for the initial turn. Most videos won't be able to capture that phase of surfing; they want to cut directly to them catching some air or getting tubed. But to me the initial 5 seconds of surfing is the most critical part of succesful surfing.
By being there, you will also get to see everyone, from the top notch competitor to the ones that do not have the right day. Again, videos tend to capture only the top people. You should watch and compare among all competitors.
Also, you can see all different sorts of styles how people surf and compete.
The excitement of being among the live audience is also just something you cannot experience even if you have a 500w surround and 1080p HD television system.

For the people in Bay Area we got many top international level professional competitions that hapen at Steamer Lane or Pleasure Point, among few others, so it is worthwhile checking the calendar and plan on spending a day.

One of the most amazing things about going to Santa Cruz is that due to the configuration of the cliffs, you can see the surfers often from all the anges of the wave, from the front, side or even from the back. This is something that would be difficult to do at beach break compeitions unless you can get on the pier.

Still Love My Stretch F4 Quad

2009-12-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Technical Update

Still Love My Stretch F4 Quad

DISCLAIMER: Just before I blurb on with surfboards or technique, I am not one of those hot surfers. I am still trying to figure out how to get there and the progress is at the snail's pace.

So what prompted me to write this note is that I put away the Stretch F4 Quad board for a while mainly because the tail-pad started to peel off and I did not get a chance to fix it until this weekend. In the meantime, I was using the JC Ugly Stick 6'4 for several weeks and not having much fun. Until the repair I have been riding the F4 exclusively for short-board sessions, for at least a year at all sorts of conditions.

When first I got this F4 board, I did not know what to say about it, I was much more used to the JC board, but one important thing I've learned is the importance of sticking with one board for a long time. I have realized after being back on the F4 board that this morning I felt like the "magic" has come back. It is probably true that if I stayed on the JC for a long time, I would probably like that too.

Having said that though I have really noticed the following things that I can do better with the F4 board.

Taking off on an angle at the top of the wave is more controlled. You know when the edge of the wave starts to fold, and I am trying hard to get into the wave at an angle so I take off and at the same time, I won't get crushed. This is where I feel my surfing is the weakest and every little bit of help is needed still. And since that means I am giving up the wave to the next surfer a lot, I get less time on the wave. Most other buddies I know bring out longboards, take off much further out and sooner, while I sit a bit inside and wait for the sweet spot (yes, I should be paddling for it.)
I feel like stalling less often after a take off. This is where I usually (OK, I admit, almost all the time) lose a momentum and can't surf well. I can pump a bit and gain a bit more of speed, and when that works, I can head the board to where the power is on the wave. This is where I feel much more confident and once I am really on the wave like this; getting power from the wave, I can begin to be a bit more creative... perhaps a bit more aggressive in all movements. I am getting there slowly, but there is still a lot of room to work, and more consistent taking-off is most important agenda for me right now. But now it does happen once or twice in a good session, finally I am getting some pay-off.
Turns especially going from the bottom going up then cutting back works great... nothing is more satisfying to me than than a clean and long "S" cutbacks! And from the shore it looks like I am drawing an 8. Yeah! That's fun!

When I got the board, I thought 4-fins are a bit of a gimmick (and still may be) but in my situation, I feel like sticking with this board patiently has helped me a lot!

Surfing is very interesting and continues to be because I can never get good at it to the extent I am rarely satisfied with the rides... when I think I have done a good ride there always is someone who does it better than me and more consistently!

Enjoy!

Review: RipCurl F-Bomb vs O'Neill Mutant 3/4

2009-11-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

RipCurl F-Bomb vs O'Neill Mutant 3/4

I have written smaller piece of information with respect my new RipCurl F-Bomb and O'Neill Mutant suits before. I have two suits because I usually alternate between them and usually buy a new suit 1 to 1.5 season(s) apart, replacing one at a time, but for some odd reasons two of my old suits ripped this year within a few months of each other.

So I had to replace two suits at about the same time. I paid approximately $320 for each Mutant and F-Bom, though I got RipCurl at discount and and O'Neill at more like the full price so this may not be a "fair" comparison since O'Neill Mutant is a bit lower end positioned product. There are higher-end suits costing more than $500, but I am not sure if they last any longer, so I usually opt for a mid-range price stuff, and buy new ones more often. Besides, the two suits I got this time are both warm enough, I see no points in paying more.

Both are front-zip kind and that's basically the only type of suits I will be using. This is because I do not like verclo around the neck. It is almost amazing that people can construct suits without any verclo on them.

Now that I have been out with both of them, I can write a bit more.

Warmth:

I can definitely say that F-Bomb is noticeably warmer. When I am paddling around a lot in the 53-54 degree Half Moon Bay water, I do get quite hot inside. It feels a bit more water tight. There is quite a bit of the "red" stuff inside the suit, whereas on the Mutant the heat shield material seems to be in the chest and back only. So the "red" matter may be making quite a bit of difference.

I do not mean to say that the Mutant is cold, both are nice and warm in Half Moon Bay surfing situations, but if you want a bit more warmth then between the two I'd choose F-Bomb.

Construction

The next day I got F-Bomb I ripped the seams on the neck flap. It took almost a month for them do a warranty fix. It came back with more stitches.

What I did was I pulled the neck flap too hard and the threads in the seam on the flap broke. It is partly my fault to have pulled the flap too hard, but I think there is a bit of design issue there since this never happened with the Mutant or other Xcel suits I have owned. I must say that F-Bomb is still harder to get in and out of. I also like the thicker bigger zipper on Xcels. But after several times of getting in and out of the suits I now can do it with much ease.

In terms of the construction, O'Neill always seem to have mastered the quality in stitching. There is not much dangling threads at the end of seams. Seams are clean. I usually tidy those up by cutting them, and on the RipCurl I had to do some of that.

Also the inside collar part on the O'Neill has stitched re-enforcements. I have been using front-zipped Xcel suits for many years and the inside is just scissors-cut without much re-enforcements (later models put tapes around it), and that's where the suits starts to tear (and that's how I lost two suits this year).

A Major Advantage of the Mutant Constructions

All my suits seems to deteriorate first from the collar. Either the collar rubber splits, deteriorates or tears after a while of use when the rest of the suit look practically new. On the Mutant model, I am supposed to be able to buy replacement flaps both in hooded and plain collar styles. This might help me keep the suit longer. I would like the suits to last two seasons.

Please also note that in my case the suits gets more abuse than typical weekend warriors since I usually do dawn patrol 2 ~ 3 days a week and head to work while the suit stays in the car most part of the day all wet. This is, in addition to, weekend surfing too!

I will be sure to revisit the longevity of both suits in the future WavLog.

Winter Surfing, Staying Warm

2009-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Do You Really Need A Heated Wetsuit?

The winter surfing season is upon us, we often think about how we stay warm in the water.

Actually, the coldest water I have experienced here in Half Moon Bay is not in the middle of November or December but in May when strong winds blow across and bring a lot of cold water up in the phenomenon called upwelling. This is the time when the average water temperature dips below 50 degrees F. Getting in and out of the suits in the winter is another story.

I have been surfing here in Half Moon Bay area for many years now with 4 mm suits, but I have not yet switched to a 5 mm suit, and I do not think I ever have to. There is nothing wrong with 5 mm suits, but I also use 3 mm suits in the summer and I can tell how light I feel in and out of the water, so while it is a pure guess I would think I feel significantly heavier with a 5 mm.

In the past couple of years, the suit technology has made a significant evolution. The rubber material feel much lighter, and also many makes started to use welded seams rather than blind stitches. I think that's a great improvement since a break in a string in a seam often cause splits and blind stitch repairs take time. In most warranty repair situation it can take 2 to 4 weeks to get your suits back from the shop.

In addition to the whole suit material they have started to add more heat retaining materials in front of the chest. This firewalling does make quite a bit of difference and when I am paddling hard, I feel the heat reflecting off the chest.

So today's 3/4 mm suits are significantly warmer than the ones just a few years ago. I am not sure what they will come up with next, but I am sure more lighter and warm materials will come in the future.

This year I got two new suits, one is Rip Curl F-Bomb and other is O'Neil Mutant. It just so happened that I have ruined two of the Excels that I have been using for a couple of years. On the average I buy one suit a year alternate them each session as I go in the water 3-4 times a week, often the first thing in the morning and also they stay salty and wet in the car all day until I come home in the evening.

I have used both brands of suits recently and I must say that these are significantly warmer than the others I had in the past. Especially when I am paddling I can actually get hot inside the suits, but that's one of the points of staying warm which is to keep on moving. So I do that a lot by adjusting my lineup positions or going to other peaks throughout the session, I usually am not just in one spot. Trying to get to the next peak before others find out is part of fun in surfing.

In terms of the styles of the suit, I tend to like the front-zip ones. Especially during duck diving, the front-zip ones tend to leak less water. The integrated hood also does help to this effect. The part I do not like about the rear-zip ones are two folds. Most rear-zip ones require a verclo closure. This material tends to lose the grip before the rest of the suit goes. When that happens you have one heck of a leaky suit. And anyone who have forgotten to tighten the neck closure or forgotten to zip up fully know this.

Another irritations with verclo are if any part of it is exposed to your skin, it makes a rash, and also it sticks just about any place and damages the jersey material inside the suit when washing or handling it after a session.

Most front-zip ones do not use verclo. In fact it is so much so that Excel front zip Infinity suits I had did not have any verclo on the suit. I was amazed with the clever design of that too.

The next key to retaining the warmth is to wearing a hood. If your suit does not come with a hood, I recommend you either get a Squid head type or a vest with an integrated hood. The vest kind is a bit warmer as it helps seal the water around the neck too. Often I actually get hot so I take it on and off in a session.

Another important thing may be is preventing the surfer's ear condition, which is an unwanted bone growth in the ear canal. It is said to be triggered even from the outside of the skull. So keeping the whole head warm may be important especially if you go out a lot.

If your suit is a bit older and you want to hang on to it (I'd rotate that into a spare stock myself), get a thicker under-garment called Mysterioso which is available in surf shops or outdoorzy places like REI. Pull the collar as high as possible after you put the suit on. This helps seal (i.e., slow down the speed and volumes of water coming in) and so makes a significant difference over plain rash guards.

So in summary, I would;

Invest in a newer mid to high range front-zip wetsuits with welded seams. Invest $60 to $100 more than the lowest end ones (almost always a rear-zip type) will get you a significantly better deal, I paid < $400 with tax for mine. No need to get into a high-end costing $600 or above with fancier materials. You are reaching for an incremental improvement there. I'd rather get new suites more often.
Get a hood.
Keep on moving in a session.
Ask or Share Your Experience On This Blog.

It's The Shape That Matters

2009-09-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

It's The Shape That Matters

Don't Laugh at Small Waves

Our friends Miguel from El Porto provided me with this link to a local blog site out there on the other day.

As long as we know, the "size" is usually what people talk about. Just eaves drop on a surfer on a cell phone, the chances are you'd hear "It's small", "It's big..."

My findings have been though it isn't really the size of the waves that really matters to me. It really is the shape that I am going for. If the shape of the wave is nice, clean and forming somewhat slow and not walled up or closed out, I'd go out practically any size from knee high to double the size of my height and I am a bit at an advantage with my 5'6 height, there are more overhead days than my my much taller buddies. I can also fit inside more tubes than them too (provided that I know how.)

Small waves are just as difficult to surf than bigger (and especially faster) ones and surprisingly require similar technique. I mean the following sort of things;

I need to paddle harder to catch.
I need to get up on the board quickly
I need to turn the board to the wave sooner

OK, so what do I need to do in a bigger more demanding situation?

I need to paddle harder to catch.
I need to get up on the board quickly
I need to turn the board to the wave sooner

In essence I believe that if I master small waves, the same technique provides the building block necessary to master the wave riding in just about any conditions. The only difference in the small wave condition is that I need to be a bit more gentle and precise in all moves once I am up on the board. These requirements also help make me a more precise surfer in bigger condition.

So if you have been hesitating or even ashamed of getting into the smaller stuff. I'd encourage you to try it out. I recommend it highly.

Beside it is always surprising more often than not, it is always more fun than what it looks like from the shore. I am thanking to those surfer who turn away. I get to catch a lot more waves!

The Fear Topic: Fear of Getting Better

2009-08-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

The Fear Topic

The Fear of Getting Better

It has been quite a whil since I wrote a post on my blog. I had a bit of cold last week that put me down for about a week. Then at the same time our area was blanketed with a massive Red Tide phenomenon. As I wrote here before I am very sensitive to the Red Tide situation, and when I go in the water, I am sure to get some nasty sinus problem that can last for a few months. So these days I have been very cautious and I have not had an incident for over a year now.

Another reason why I do not write often is that I should write something when I can really write about something so it would be both worthwhile for me to write and for you to read.

I was surfing at Montara yesterday in late morning and there was one other good surfer out there. He was catching waves significantly more than I did. I was thinking about what the difference between him and me, and I came to the conclusion that another "Fear" is part of the issue.

Let me explain why.

Over the years I have been able to handle pretty fearful conditions (I am still talking about relative to myself.) But going to Montara was one of the biggest fears that I had to work on. The waves does pack more energy. It is a beach that we usually lose a few people every year. It did happen this late spring too. I had a surfing accident there that resulted in 5-stitches and where nearly missed the siatic vein. I overcame the fear when I got more used to handle the waves... getting in and out of massive shore breaks, duck diving through to get to the outside etc.

You've probably read about my fear of ocean currents. The current is usually very strong around here even at the Jetty. I paddle out and I usually end up at a totally the different spot from where I intended and during the session I often notice drifting fast. The most fearful time is though when I get caught in the rip and I start to move further away from the shore. That have been very terrifying. I ended up overcoming this fear through one of the most fearful incidents. My leash snapped quite far out in one of the bigger spots near the "radar" As it turned out I was able to swim back to the shore. You've read about that also.

Catching faster waves, pearling, held over etc. I am managing those too. When the condition is right I can catch shapes and sizes of the waves the other good people are catching.

So these days I have gotten sufficient technical skills and body strengths that I can handle the situations where most "regular local" surfers handle. The level of the fear in these areas are now significantly less in my mind.

But still I am not surfing as well as those locals.

And that's this post is all about.

From Friday's session I now came to the conclusion that I am now afraid of surfing as good as others. I am afraid of being "successful" at something even though I have all the confidence and skills to do that. If I am forced, I will go further out, go to the peak and catch the waves more aggressively. As this Friday, there was nobody else really out so I don't even have to be so aggro about getting waves. I just have to make myself do it.

I am not quite sure that why I am stuck with this type of fear, but then I was thinking more about it, a lot of people have this type of fear in many other aspects of daily life.

Things like "slump" or "writers block" got a lot to do with this. May be this is something about "Self Esteem" issue. And that's probably true. Deep inside I have been keep telling myself, "I am not a good athlete. These good surfers have been in sport team when they are in high school..."

So I my next project to join the rank of "Local Good Surfers."

Whatever you are working on, perhaps, you may be stuck in similar kind of fear.

I am going to work on it now, and you should and you can too!

Surf’s Up at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery

2009-07-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Surf's Up at SFMOMA Gallery

Exhibition Explores Ocean Environment and Surf Culture

via Press Release

June 4, 2009

Contact: Maria Medua, 415/614-3201, mmedua@sfmoma.org

Surf’s Up at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery

Exhibition Explores Ocean Environment and Surf Culture

From July 16 to August 28, 2009, the SFMOMA Artists Gallery will present the exhibition Pipeline: Art, Surfing, and the Ocean Environment. The exhibition examines the influence of surf culture on Bay Area artists and will feature paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, film, and mixed media works alongside custom surfboards by Jeff Clark, one of the most noteworthy big wave surfers. Artists in the exhibition include Doug Acton, Anthony Bacigalupo, Jo Ann Biagini, Leo Bersamina, Charlie Callahan, George Corzine, Peter Shepard Cole, Keone Downing, Jessica Dunne, Jack Y. Ford Collection, Colin Gift, Dale Hope/Kahala, Terry Hoff, Max Lawrence, Ian MacLean, Reuben Margolin, Serena Mitnik-Miller, Linny Morris, Adrienne Keahi Pao, Frank Quirarte, Don Ross, and Charles Valoroso.

The title of the exhibition takes its name from the Pipeline, a wave that breaks at Ehukai beach on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii, the birth place of surfing. The sport was popularized by Olympic swimmer and Hawaiian waterman Duke Kahanamoku in the early part of the 20^th century. It spread to the United States, catching on first in California, and reached new heights in the 1960s, when surfing as a phenomenon became a nexus between youth culture and expressions of personal freedom. In recent years, California surfers have become an important arm of the environmental movement, raising awareness about the condition of the shoreline and ocean.

Exhibition Highlights

In the exhibition are paintings by Charlie Callahan that reverse the typical roles in which nature and humans are cast. His vivid, large-scale works painted on beach debris, imagine humans as victims consumed by sea predators.

Reuben Margolin looks closely at water, observes its dynamics, and translates it into handcrafted forms using salvaged materials. The resulting kinetic sculptures are moving tributes to the unseen forces that move water.

Adrienne Pao’s series of color photographs evoke travel posters that have attracted tourists to the Hawaiian Islands since the advent of jet travel.Beachfront Property at Diamond Head/Lei’ahi Kapa depicts the Waikiki shoreline of today, overrun with tourists and encroached upon by concrete high rises. The Hawaiian title, Lei’ahi Kapa, refers to the origins of the site and calls to mind a past that cannot be retrieved. Pao re-frames the visitor experience and calls into question the practice of exoticizing other cultures, the natural environment, and women.

Charles Valoroso grew up surfing Kalapaki on the island of Kauai. He is noted as the first artist to pay homage to the Aloha shirt in a series of large-scale oil paintings. His work has been translated into textiles for the Kahala shirt line. For the exhibition he will present an installation piece that includes paintings of the ocean that verge on the abstract and as well as works from his Bikini Atoll series.

Linny Morris photographed environmental issues such as the struggle to preserve Midway Atoll and its wildlife. She also made photographs of the world that exists below the surface of the water. Her appreciation of the ocean and her eye for abstraction are showcased in the exhibition.

Peter Shepard Cole’s realist works evoke the early period of Hawaiian contact with the West. His references are haunting; there are native women donned in layers of Victorian garb and hand-to-hand combatants. In the painting, Self-Portrait as Captain Cook, Cole imagines himself in the vulnerable position of the man who opened the door to the transformation of Hawaii and paid a high price for it.

Related Film

In partnership with The Surfer’s Journal, the exhibition will also include an education room featuring the Journal's series 50 Years of Surfing on Filmshowcasing prominent surf filmmakers. The film surveys the history of surf films through interviews of the most influential filmmakers and the surfers in their films, along with clips from those historical features. In the process of covering the evolution of surf films it also depicts the surf culture in transition from 1940s to 2000s.

* * *

Where: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Building A, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA 94123

When: July 16–August 28, 2009.

Gallery hours: 11:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Tues.–Sat.

Opening reception: Thurs., July 16, 5:30–7:30 p.m. featuring the music of The Eldorados, a four-piece surf band that includes Stu Brandt, Mark Scardello, Jeff Moon and Scott Culbertson.

Admission: Free

* * *

Representing Northern California artists, the SFMOMA Artists Gallery offers a diverse selection of original artwork for sale and rent.

The SFMOMA Artists Gallery is located in Building A at Fort Mason Center. Gallery hours are 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission to gallery exhibitions is free of charge.

Visit our website at www.sfmoma.org/artistsgallery or call 415/441-4777 for more information.

* * *

Q/A Stinky Wet Stuff?

2009-07-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

StokeMaster Network Q/A

Stinky Wet Stuff?

So this one is a response to Peter who is one of my StokeMaster Network member. This is about how I am avoiding getting my stuff from stinking up, especially booties.

In order to tackle this you need to be a bit of micro-biologist.

First off, you need to understand the fermentation process.

Fermentation process is very important for all of us. Without out it, we don't have bread, beer, sake, wine, cheese to just name a few all of which I like to enjoy. On the other end of the spectrum fermentation can occur in and around your body. Yeast infection, for example, is a fermentation go wild.

In my opinion, a good deal of the stinky stuff happens due to fermentation.

In order to fermentation to take place you need to have an environment

The presence of the seed organisms
The growing medium for the micro-organisms
The nutrient that feeds the organisms
The temperature
The time
The lack of infectious or anti-agent for the growth

Given all above factors to work out, the organisms take in the nutrient in the growing medium and covert the nutrients into bi-products. Some of which is CO2 and other are complex protein or gas like hydrogen sulfide etc.

First the ocean and your skin contains lots of different kinds of organisms. Probably in the order of hundreds if not thousands.

The sea water is very nutrient rich and especially these days with pollution, fertilizer leeching into the ocean and as your stuff drys the nutrient get more concentrated making easier for the organisms to find and go in production. You only need a few of these organisms but they multiply very fast especially in your warm house or inside a car.

Also no matter how hard your wash your body, you cannot get rid of the native organisms that are on your skin.... two bit strikes there.

In terms of the nutrients, you have some hope. Flushing and rinsing your wet stuff with clean water can remove quite a bit of the nutritious sea water. I'd do that vigorously and as soon as possible.

The temperature is actually important. If you leave the wet stuff in your hot car, it will simply help the organisms to multiply much faster and they can work even at 90 to 120 degrees. Note that the lack of oxygen does not matter and in fact, I believe that anaerobic fermentation can create a lot more different proteins than just aerobic one in which most of the stuff goes from O2 to CO2.

So I'd rinse and hang the stuff in colder place as soon as possible.

Next is the time. If you can prevent the fermentation process to stop sooner, the less bi-products that get generated. To this effect making sure that the stuff drys faster is important. You can notice a significant difference when you blow the fan on the stuff and have them dry. I personally throw all the stuff in the washer and not wash them but put them in a spin cycle to get most of the water out first. Washing will destroy the rubber stuff so don't machine wash your suits.

Finally it is possible to further reduce the growth by;

- Wash with light amount of dish soap, shampoo, Woolite etc. This will help remove various nutrients and organisms too from the cells of the neoprene.

- Applying a light coat of Lysol type stuff.

- Use Mirazyme from McNett and have it enzymatically break down the bi-products

- Use very weak solution of bleach, but this is not recommended for rubber materials

OK, now you can help by writing comments with what you know. Be sure also to tell me if I said something wrong.

Technical Update: Paddling Topic

2009-05-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Technical Update: Paddling Topic

In addition to trying to look good while I am up on the board, lately, I have been training myself to be a better paddler.

When I started surfing, I was so weak of a paddler that practically everyone passed by me. Older people, kids and women... I was so embarrassingly bad. Not only that paddling only for a few minutes caused so much pain in the muscles that I had to stop. I was just completely out of shape in terms of paddling.

As I surfed more I have been able to get to the average speed but it was still not good enough to be with a group of more experienced surfers. I was always left behind when they all moved from one peak to another.

Now I am at a level that I can keep up with others in most sessions.

But when I am in Santa Cruz or Trestles there always are people who are significantly more stronger than me, and many of these people look smaller and thinner than me and so I wonder where these muscle powers are stored. They take waves and while I am still paddling out they are already at the lineup. Amazing!

Without some power, it is difficult to hit the "outside." My experience with this is that there is some threshold of speed that you need to attain, and here is what I mean.

When paddling in the inside part of the ocean, there are more white water breaks, and the water seems to flow back towards the beach. I've seen some beginner surfers from the side that they are continuously paddling but they are staying basically at the same spot or gradually going backwards. I am sure that they do not realize that they are retreating instead of moving forward. I've seen this happen to me a lot at Montara or Ocean Beach, for example, when I am paddling for a while and when I look back I am basically at the shore! Nevertheless other and better people do make it to the outside. This is not to mention how far up and down to the side of the beach I have drifted.

So I must conclude that when you are a waker surfer, you cannot even overcome this initial part of the game of getting out. This is even without talking about turtling or duck diving. They do help but without some basic power to overcome the speed there is nothing you can do, but get back to the car and go get a cup of coffee or a glass of beer instead.

As far as the paddling technique goes, my experience with it is that it can be used to generate more efficient paddling but still without the muscles to support the power you cannot paddle fast enough. In addition, improved techniques will begin to utilize more and other parts of the muscles that you have not used much so far yet (unless you swim hard already.) Given the muscles though the "better" surfers palms are nearly closer to the center of the board under water, not directly under the rails. Watch some under water videos of pros paddling out. Another things you notice is that when you begin the stroke put the palm in the water from thumb first. This will get your hand and arm faster in the water at the point where your muscle power is the least from the leverage point.

Some additional findings are that smoother, slower and big stroke paddling gives much less fatigue and often I can move faster in the water. Especially I have been working so that the same amount of power is continuously applied while altering hands, this way I am preserving any gained momentum.

Also this is especially true with short boarding. Dragging the feet in the water can generate additional resistance. I try to make sure that my feet are out of the water. I use one of the legs to prop up other slightly. That's get tiring so I alternate the legs.

Watching strong and good surfers, they really look nice, natural and confident paddling and I am trying to get to that stage.

Would I Still Surf in the Rain?

2009-05-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Would I Still Surf in the Rain?

So this is mainly in the comment posted in response to my previous post from Gloria of Santa Cruz California. She does bring a good point, so I am going to put some positive spin on surfing in the rain stuff.

I had a fair share of nice rain surfing. Locally it seems to happen towards the end of the summer in Northern California as the autumn approaches. Some of the best ones goes like this.

A morning starts with mostly sunny with scattered clouds, and as the day goes by the clouds would move in. The sky is full of clouds of all different shapes, some were swept with a stroke of a brush and some look like growing monsters... The horizon starts to get a bit blue grayish, but still sunny here and there. The winds have not kicked up yet, and I have paddled out to some nice clean outside lineup and we could be chatting with our buddies in the lineup.

It then starts to sprinkle and it makes some nice sound and glistening splash pattern on the water with small circular wavelets. The rain is not cold and it is almost warm to the touch. It washes away some of the salt from my head.

Then with the darkened backdrop pop complete double rainbows from both ends touching the ocean, or perhaps, 1/4 of the circle looking like emanating from the horizon.

Then it stops completely and back to sunny again, and we'd catch the last wave of the morning and head our ways to for the "rest of the day" stuff all content and re-energized and somewhat sad that we all know the summer is ending, and somewhat happy to look forward to some bigger stuff coming in a few weeks down.

Now, that's surfing in the rain!

Not surfing in the rain any more?

2009-05-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

The Rain Topic. Rain in May?

Gosh, it is already May and it is rather strange to see the rain at this time of the year in Northern California, and also very unusual South wind pattern that goes with it. Typically around this time of the year, we start to get NW winds and fog developing. And I thought that it was going to be a short days of rain but it looks like it will continue for several more days.

It has been an on-going joke among us that if one of us would utter "I am not going surfing because it's rainy out." The usual response is that "why not, you are going to get wet anyway."

True, but I think that I am going to think about that for a moment.

The reasons why I'd not feel like going out in the rain.

It really still feel so much greater if it is nice, warm and sunny out.
It is really a hassle to change when it is raining, and when it is raining, it usually also is storming to some extent. It is nice to come back to dry and sunny situation, hang around in the parking for a while after surfing. When it is pouring, it is amazing how the towel soak up the water so fast. It is amazing to the extent to think of amout of the water that come down to a small square footage where I stand. Multiply this by the size under the rain cloud, that's a tremendous amount of water we are talking about.
We always worry about the run-off. Especially in San Mateo county, I am a bit worried about (but may be not 100% warranted) lots of horse ranches there and all of the stuff on their ground... At any rate, whenever it is rainy and stormy, the water looks murky and stirred up a bit.
If it is really pouring, we know that sewage plants might overflow....

So these are the reasons sometimes I do avoid water when it is rainy.

The "Confidence" Thing

2009-03-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

The "Confidence" Thing

I just got a comment from a surfer in Australia about thanking me writing about the fear. Funny because lately I have also been thinking about the confidence thing, which is either exactly or almost other side of the coin from the fear.

I would say so because as more we conquer the fear the more we become confident.

I am now remembering the first day out at Montara, and I paddled out and I thought that I could never be able to come back to the land. I paddled out with other better surfers when I only had just a few sessions under my belt. Quickly I was pulled away from the comfort of being able to sand on the shallow water, and the panic ensued. I was frantically trying to paddle back, but no matter how hard I tried to paddle I felt like I was getting away from the shore.

Remembering that day from where I am today, it was a sunny clean day without much wave action. But, I do remember that day clearly, and I did think that it would be a horrible day for me and my friend when they would have to call the Coast Guard or something to come rescue me.

Though the fear was mostly inside my brain. I did manage to paddle back to the shore. It was probably only the first 5 minutes that seemed like forever as the shore did not come closer, but once I saw the shore closing in, I felt much better.

At that time, I thought and admired many people having so much confidence in being able to paddle out much further out in the ocean.

Many years later in a local bigger break, a big wave was braking and it was too late to paddle to the outside. The only option was for me to bail (throw the board to the shore just in time -- normally we should not be doing this sort of things, but there was nobody around me so I felt that that was the best thing for me to do.) Instead of my leg being dragged under water, the board slipped away, the leash came undone and I could not find the board. This is probably one of the worst case scenario where it is bigger, stronger and I was already fairly way out. By this session though, I was confident enough that I can swim toward the "zone" so that I can take advantage of incoming wave and I can also take my time getting back there. Still a bit scary, I could keep my calm and slowly swam away from the rip current and toward the shore. Sure enough, in no time I was standing back on the beach and picking up the washed up board, and paddling back out after resting a bit from the swimming. This is where years of short boarding have been really helpful.

Should I have panicked at that moment the situation could have been worse, but I did feel a true sense of confidence.

Sizes of the wave is the same thing. I am now starting to look forward to the days when the swell period is more than 14 or 15 seconds and height can be more than 10 ft. Just a few years ago, I was hoping that it won't get that big. Of course, for many real surfers that probably would be on a smaller on scale, but I know where and when to hit breaks when the situation is like that and how to position myself to enjoy catching waves. The confidence in this area comes from a lot more experience in the wave. Frankly I have not changed too much physically in the past 2-3 years, but my minds are more set to deal with these types of situations, and as a result, I am not particularly struggling to "show off" how strong of a surfer I have gotten, but it is more like part of the environment, like a cat that can easily jump several times over their height, so as a result I am enjoying a wider variety of conditions.

The process was definitely not overnight type thing for me. I do say that I have been working on it on a very gradual basis, but I did identify the various causes of the fear along the way and worked specifically on them.

One of the worst fears that I had for the longest time was that I would get carried away by some strong current and swept away even on days when it is calm and clean, and the more I think about it the more fearful I have gotten. There are one or two news stories like those in a year that usually happen in Pacific Northwest on huge Alaskan swell days (I know enough about it that I won't go out on these types of conditions.) What actually helped me on these fears was that when my board came apart a few times and in all times, I was able to get to the shore in a short time and realized that these types of the fears are not really warranted under the situations I would go out. Also as I have been writing off and on, surfing with other stronger surfers provide additional opportunities to expose myself into the "next level" situations and once I do those a few times, my fear levels tend to go lower.

I know many of you are like me, but I think that with identifying your own fears and then work on them gradually would go a long way in overcoming the fear, and I am using this in my other real life scenarios outside of surfing.

Have fun!

Are You Dialed In?

2009-02-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Are You Dialed In?

There was a comment in my previous WavLOG post about the importance of being Dialed In. I have been thinking about this and how to be a totally "dialed in" surfer.

You might ask; Is it mportant to be "dialed in?" I would definitely think so because unlike most other sports, surfing is subject to continuous changes in the nature, and we are talking about a few hours of optimum window, and hitting the spot at right time period can make a significant difference in the surfing experience.

Through operating my StokeMaster.COM, I have realized that one of the things people wanted to know the most was when and where to hit the beach. This brings to the second reason why being "dialed in" is important. It has to do with your own surfing skill set. Through outing with many people at different skill levels, the perception of what an acceptable condition can vary greatly. I am fairly stupid in this aspect of it to the extent that if I see waves that look ridable, I'd go if it is not dangerous looking. But some people are very picky and others are totally clue-less. I cannot comment who would be the winner in these situations -- sometimes Ignorance is a Bliss... But nevertheless, if you are not willing to paddle out with me because you happened not to like what I like then there is nothing I can and will do. I do think though, I know anyone want to get their favorite conditions, so that means you ought to be dialed into the condition you like.

So what I think is helpful to become "dialed-in?"

First I think that you should start taking some notes. I have been blogging frequently so that's how I managed mine. In your case it can be a note in your calendar or Facbook post... whatever works. The idea here is it is documented and you can go back to these records in the future. They do not have to be detailed, but you'd want to write down things like where you went, the tide level, the direction, period and the height of the swell, and overall winds. If you have different boards, you may want to write down what you used then. The idea is that if these numbers match up in the future, it is likely that the you can have similar experience, though I can even say that they would not be identical, you will start making your own system of surf forecasting that is really customized for your own needs.

There are numerous surf forecasting sites too, but way I use them is to compare with what I have actually experienced and what they were saying. Their ideas of what's big can be impossibly huge for you. But given that if they say it is big, then next time you know they are going to be huge. While they may not be telling what you want to hear, most forecast sites are at least consistent based on the surf parameters.

As your surfing skills or styles change over time, especially if you are seriously into it, your own forecast will change over time too, and that's important. This is typically what old surfers call "Paying The Dues."

Where would you start?

I would skip all spoon-fed surf forecasts from commercial sites that tells you to "go" or "not to go", and try to understand the winds, swell and tide parameters, and if you are interested in a longer term forecast, I would go to more specialized site like StormSurf.COM and read the full ocean and weather analysis. First, it may not make much sense to you but as you do it for a while things start to come together and before you know it, you would be able to know up to a week ahead of time where and when you will want to go. This means that you won't be wasting a weekend driving around and not getting in the water several days before the weekend arrives. Your surf plan would become significantly more efficient. For me, it is essential because I allot a 45-minute window to surf every morning. Depending it is go or no-go for the next morning I schedule other works or appointments, and I can usually do this at least 3 days to a week ahead of time.

How To Get To Be a (Technically) Better Surfer

2009-02-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

How To Get To Be a (Technically) Better Surfer

We all make a few New Years resolution. On this post, I would like to share what were useful for my surfing skills improvements. You can write to me at Master(at)StokeMaster.COM for suggestions and I will share with our loyal WavLOG fans.

Surf with Better Surfers Once in a While

For the morale support getting out with people with similar level is important and that's my standard mode of operations in most sessions, but every once in a while a chance arises that someone better than you might ask you to come along. I'd ask to make sure that the condition and place is OK for you (and they can usually tell.) What this does is to add a bit of exposure for you to surf in a bit more difficult situations, for example, more powerful breaks or uncharted (in your map) locations. After successfully coming back (you do almost all the time) from these sessions, it boosts a level of confidence in your surfing abilities. I've "leaned" to go to OBs, Montara, and "outside peaks" in SC this way. And ask lots of questions how to surf in these areas.

Go To Surf Camp for a Week

There are instructor-lead adult surf camps all over the places. I would recommend actual tent-camping (not hotel kind) surf camps that would go to somewhat remote locations like Baja, let your cell phones die and be a 100% surfer for a week. I would not do one with your friends since getting instructions every day and meeting other better surfers is one of the most important thing.

Stick with One Board

Sure it is tempting to buy that quad, this fish and keep blaming on tools for our inability to surf well. We are taught from early on that we solve our life problems by consuming. I understand that we need to support our economy this way but for the art and surfing (and the art of surfing) exploring all possibilities within the limitation or confine of a medium is of key importance, I've realized.

So stick with one surf board for a while and really get familiar with it, explore everything about surfing that darn board. I am talking about doing this for one or two seasons. So pick one board this year and surf until you feel you have graduated from it.

Next time you see our friend Elizabeth or Jocelyn, ask for their stories on this.

Enter in A Contest or Two

One of my very close friend strongly disagree with me on this on the ground that any competing activity is bad, but depending on your personality, having a drop-dead goal date is a very strong motivator for getting things done. I fall into that category of people. Surf contests have a fixed date to go for, and of course we need to perform on the waves. I do often have to rely on something like this to set a goal. If you are more determined person, no, you can set a goal without such a thing, I agree.

So I enter the contest early and practice for it. Locally in this area there are "all levels" contest two or three times in Pacifica later in the summer and fall. They are really for the enjoyment of surfing by the community and your fees will support local beach cleanup programs too. I will guarantee you that you won't be on Surfer Magazine's cover for appearing or even coming to the first place on any of these contests. But I know I will be competing with my own limitations year to year.

Surf Regularly

This may be difficult for you but I'd set aside a block of time, declare that as "your time" with your family and friends and so long as it is safe to go, then go. If the condition is not safe I'd still do supplemental exercise like balance board, yoga, or even flick up practice on the floor. But as for the condition, I won't knit pick, don't be greedy and think only about riding, if anything build the paddling strength. I've realized that a good part of successful take-off is in paddling strength.

See you out there!

My Summer and Winter Surfing

2008-12-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

My Summer and Winter Surfing

I've skied a lot in my collage days, and while chasing for the best (powder) condition is something skiers do travel many miles for, surfing requires a lot more local traveling for the "acceptable" condition.

In the summer in Northern California, I tend to look for places where there is the least influence on the prevailing NW winds. The NW gusts often continues for days and weeks at a time. Avoiding the winds is on top of my list and it is often the case that in the early morning the winds are not as bad. Come to think of it, when I used to wind-sailing, we look for about 2 PM when the winds pick up the most. But now I am a surfer, I tend to get up early and go surf before the winds kick up.

The additional complication of course is to find the place where the waves are breaking. In the area where I live near Half Moon Bay, California, most places are open to W to NW waves, but also unfortunate fact of this is that NW winds blow straight on-shore, and that makes it quite difficult. This require me to explore many places. I tend to cover more beaches in the summer going Half Moon Bay to northern Santa Cruz county.

In the winter the situation is often completely different. The NW winds still blow more often than not, but not like days and weeks in the spring and the summer. There are few days, probably every other week or so, of impossibly huge swells. That will make it almost impossible for me to get out, so I substitute surfing with indoor balance-board exercise. As it turned out for me, that was actually quite helpful in short-boarding, so I would really recommend to anyone who is planning to transition from LB to SB or just to keep the hip and knee strength up. I think that the result is really noticeable and dramatic.

In between these big swells are really sweet periods, but unlike in the summer, as for the spot options are concerned, they become more limited. For example, going anywhere south of Half Moon Bay is generally not an option unless you go past the county line, and Montara is no longer an option either for me. But on the other hands places that are sleepy all through the summer (except for the south swell days) all wake up, and after a few big days, the sand-bar seems to form back again. When the buoy says it is at 8 ft or less and 12 seconds or less of the period and often the wind has stopped or slightly SE/SW then we are in a real treat in this area. With a few surf checks, we can tune in for a right spot for us and go in, have a good hour or two of a session on really shaped up waves and a lot more power than in the summer time.

Winter Surfing Safety Checkup

2008-12-27T21:56:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Winter Surfing Safety Checkup

How I Have Been Reducing Surfing Injuries

The winter surf season is upon us, California surfers like us as I remember our past, most surfing accidents did occur in fall and winter seasons. It is the time when the swells are more powerful, and also the wind speed and direction change frequently. Not being athletic, I had a lot of injuries at the beginning but I can say that the more I surfed, the more I got a skill to surf defensively and so I managed to significantly reduced the total number of injuries I get per year. I am surfing a lot too so this means that the overall statistical chance of getting a surf injury for me has gotten significantly smaller. Should the statistical rate of accidents remained the same from the start to now, I would be writing more WavLOGs dealing with injuries but that did not quite happen.

My Relationship With the Board

Surfboard, for me, is just a tool or means to surf and so I do not really have any personal love relationship with any of them. I don't go out of my way to protect it and if I am not on top of it, I will stay as far away from it as possible. For me getting the board dinged up is part of a business so unless it is functionally affecting the board (e.g., leaks) I won't even bother fixing it. And when I am just about to end a ride and I cannot cleanly turn the board back around, which is most of the time for me, I usually push the board as away from me using my knees. And after a major wipe out, especially with a long board, I will stay under the water for a while since I almost always know when the board has shot up in the air. Knowing whereabouts of the board at all times is a skill being gained as surfers mature in their art of wave riding.

What happens if a big set is coming at me and I have nowhere to run? I honestly say, I'd bail big time if it is safe to do so. It is safe if nobody is around and instead of paddling out frantically I would throw the board toward the shore as hard as I can just at the moment the wave is ready to crush over me then I'd dive under the water. Doing this, the board won't fly up in the sky and at the worst case, you'd be dragged under but it is otherwise safe.

Speaking of this, if it is crowded and if it is big, we should both know that it is way beyond you and my ability to safely surf. I won't even go in in the first place (and I now know that), paddle back if it is building up or find another less crowded and possibly smaller spot that suits my abilities. But, if there are people around, I will do my best to hang on to the board. When it comes to huring others, protect the others around you and you come the last.

Looking back, though, whenever I was injured, I was there in situation that were way over my limit. To be very very honest though the worst part of that is that I was not aware that it was way over my limit or I was acting unnecessarily cocky. The nature knows this very well and it will always teach you to be humble and make sure I know I was a bad boy. Especially the ocean is both gentle enough (will not likely to completely kill you) and harsh enough to demonstrate I was way over my limit (come back with shiners, broken bones, teeth etc.)

Keep Your Mouth Shut

I've been punished several times by keeping my mouth open while I am surfing that during any critical maneuvers, say paddling out, hitting the shore-breaks, and especially when taking off. I will keep my mouth and clenching jaw. This really helps save your teeth when the board comes up and hit your lower jaw. This actually happens more often at Half Moon Bay Jetty where the waves double up a lot. An open jaw can invite injuries from biting tongues to cracked teeth.

Wearing a Helmet

This is something I used to do a lot, but as dorky as it looks, it has really helped me from getting more injuries. I think of all other safety equipment, this is probably the one of the best investment a beginner can make. One time was when the board shot in the air and came straight down on top of my head with the tail edge down. Should I not have had a helmet on, I could possibly have been knocked unconscious. Helmet can also prevent your jaw bones which can be expensive and time-consuming to repair.
I will still wear it in crowded situations especially there are a lot of long-boarders around. I really don't trust other surfers.

Sanding the Fin Edges Down

Dulling the edge of the fins is a bit of good idea to prevent cuts from the fins and for most of us the performance difference is not noticeable.

The Mechanism of Accidents

There is a reason why things happen when you are least expecting, but as we all learn the surfing skills, we begin to have a bit more information processing power in our brains as to what to expect and become being able to know the surrounding and situations. Good people always are keenly aware of their surroundings whereas beginners are almost always oblivious to everything in surfing environment, not seeing the waves, constantly dropping in or being drooped in, colliding and such. I must admit I had to go though that phase but as I learned the skills, I had starting to acquire a lot more about how to understand the surroundings. This is actually difficult and does take time because we normally move in essentially a 2D world where everything is solid, and we are not so used to navigating in a 3D world where everything is rather soft (and turn nearly solid at times.) And the problem begins there. We try to apply our 2D experience into this soft 3D environment, and often it does not work at all.

Be Humble

One thing being in the ocean and outdoors taught me is that we have to approach the ocean with the humblest of the attitude every time. Many of seasoned expert surfer friends told me times and over that when they got some accident, they could only blame themselves for it.

Step Right Up Front Please!

2008-11-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

Step Right Up Front Please!

Every so often, I do get some candid advise from fellow surfers. I was surfing on a break near Ventura a few weeks ago, and this surfer told me that I need to be on the front of the board more. That's after I screwed up one of the take offs. I was actually having fairly good day, catching many waves and taking long rights. And one time I screwed up a take off, this guy was watching me. This was also a beginner break and people are very friendly along that line so that may be a part of the reason why.

At that moment, I said, "Thank you." and paddled back out.

But every time I get some comments like that, I should take it very seriously. Because whether the advise is really true or not, it does make me think like "Have I thought about that lately?"

The truth is that no I have not been thinking so much about that. I actually have been thinking about taking off more and more deeper into hollower waves and how some people can do it and cannot. That thought have been occupying me for quite some time.

But come to think of it, definitely, I do have to give another long thoughts about stepping into the front of the board. Lately I have been having some problems about the board slipping out of me again a lot. I know in theory that's because I am not stepping forward quick enough. But until I was told this, I totally forgot about the importance of it. What might sound funny though is that I was very consciously aware of putting the weight forward during paddling into the wave.

This is a bitter reminder that surfing requires a complete total execution of all the steps. While I do say that practicing each aspect of a take off or a ride is very important, unless all of them come together, I would not have a completely satisfying ride.

This, of course, is true in anything we do, and that surfing really does teach important life lessons.

Are You Planning 6 Seconds or 6 Days Ahead?

2008-10-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Are You Planning 6 Seconds or 6 Days Ahead?

I used to ride a Ninja sport bike and took it to race courses like Laguna Seca. One things I've learned from that experience is the importance of planning your ride several seconds ahead. You need to make a split second decision as to where you are going to be to maximize the speed of your ride, especially getting in and out of turns. It is also a good skill to have in driving regular streets both for safety and comfort, and to avoid hitting brakes, which affects the fuel economy.

When it comes to surfing planning ahead is just as important. The longer ahead you can plan your ride, your ride can be made better. Many beginner surfers do not have any clue about it. They are mostly trying to ride as things happen. This is one of the reasons why they look awkward on the wave, totally lost and even to the point of being dangerous by totally unaware of their surroundings, colliding or be collided.

I gave this a bit of thoughts and see what I do. I can say, my surfing starts looking 6 days ahead, along with planing just a few seconds ahead. Here is how it goes,

6 Days or More Ahead

I look at global weather and swell charts and see the swell, tide and wind trend. For Half Moon Bay area, I actually came up with my own tool called StokeConsole, and basically this is all I need to do this type of planning. With a bit of skills in reading the information that flow from public metric sites, I can usually pin-point whether any days 3 to 6 days ahead can be surf days and where it would be optimum. If you want to know more about it, you should come to my StokeFORUM and ask questions.

1 Day Ahead

The metric data will become very accurate within 1 to 3 days ahead of the surf day. So I do check my StokeConsole regularly to check the condition a day ahead to figure out what time to head out and where to check.

1 hour Ahead

I check to make sure that nothing has changed as planned before I head out.

15-30 Minutes Head

Now I am at the break, I will look at the breaking pattern and see where I should have the most fun for the next hour or so of my "daily" session. I pull up my cell phone and use my StokeMaster Mobile Console to check any surf parameter changes. Of the condition, the wind direction and speed can change by the minute, especially in the winter surfing.

2-5 Minutes or So Ahead

I am constantly checking every set that come and planning ahead now in real-time to adjust where to line myself up for the next take-off spot.

5 Seconds Ahead

Now the set is about to come, I will make the final correction to the lineup and start to paddle out.

2 Seconds Ahead

The wave is start to break as predicted, I am paddling as hard as I can to catch this wave "no matter what!" I am looking behind left and right, make sure that other surfers has not taken off on me, and which direction it is going to break and what angle I am going to inject myself.

From this point on I am making my surfing decisions 2-3 seconds ahead of myself as to the pattern, direction, shape and rate of the break to set the course, or make a decision whether to cut back. To total culmination of the decisions I made starting 6 days ago. I am not only looking ahead of me with my head up and but also checking my surrounding quickly to see for my safety and to see if totally cutting back will create a longer ride. I am a bit proud of my ability to execute long full-sweeping full cutbacks.

Minus 1 Minutes Ahead

After the ride ends and I paddle back out, I usually make a mental review of the last ride to see how I would have done differently if I caught the similar set again.

Why Is It So Darn Difficult To Find The Best Surf?!

2008-10-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Da WavLOG

Why Is It So Darn Difficult To Find The Best Surf?!

I am sure that we have been all frustrated here and there when we try to go out with friends and the surf condition do not meet everyone's taste. Also, how about when you get surf reports from your friends, and you go out and it is nothing like what your friend described.

I was thinking about this for the past few sessions, and basically I came to the conclusion that there simply is no really a perfect condition for everyone because there are just so many parameters affecting the surf. Even just for one person it is more like dozen times in a year or two everything would work out perfectly (given that you get out a lot!)

The basic ingredient is the swell, and it can come from all different directions, all different periods and heights. They almost never are the same.

Then the tide which will change on an hourly basis on top of a larger cycle that changes over about 28 days.

Then comes the winds. This one is probably simpler ones out of most of the parameters. I just tend to like "no or little winds." Too much offshore is just as bad as onshore, and sometimes I like onshore conditions. It just soften the things a bit especially then things get a bit bigger.

Around here, we need good sand bars and that just shifts all year around and in the summer and in the fall, we just lose them altogether until the next few big days happen.

Then there is the skill of a surfer. The biggest I am willing go for is about 10-12 ft face, and my comfort level is about 4-5 ft faces. Some people want even smaller and some people I only see them in the parking near the break when it is at least double their heights (But actually I do not know they actually surf these waves.)

If we were to wait for all of the above to be the best for you, then you need to not only wait but look for quite a while for all of these to line-up. And if you add something that would work for everyone in your surf group. Well, might as well forget it!

We often hear about "you have to be in the market to catch the upside." As someone who go out pretty much "no matter what the condition" I had quite a few great conditions I was in and nobody else was in the water!

The Fear Topic. Again?

2008-09-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

The Fear Topic. Again?

Well well well, my dear friend Ren has done an excellent article on on Surfing Injuries. As the mass media presents to us, the young surfers are continued to be depicted as "fearless" stupid people who are continuously under the "Darwinian Pressure" for the selection of our future generations (have we really gotten any smarter yet or are we still needing another 5 million years before we can laugh and say, we've leaned our lessons.) Then we also see bunch of old folks on Wall Street Journal ads about condos, retirement investments and such with photos of them clad in the black westuit with a shiny (short) boards. The picture here seems to me that "they've lived long enough, what the heck they can now be stupid." Do you agree with me or now?

But if we all look at this, it is all about the "fear within us." Isn't it? Here are some thoughts that evnoks me when looking at these situations.

The basic scenario seems to be that surfing is a "stupid" sport because we paddle out, risking shark attacks, hypothermia, drawning and (fill in the blank _____________).

Justifiablly, yes, these are something that we could be accused of being stuipd. "Stupid" because we tend to do something the "regular" people won't do, like sitting in the office all day, steal hour or two just surfing the wave for stupid YouTube videos of stupid surfers.

Why is it so "stupid?"

I think because you could possibly lead a safe life if you did not do these things. You could just sit in front of a computer, a satellite TV etc., and enjouy just watching us doing things that you don't do while you just wait for your final day to come. And that's what your parents told you to do. "Don't get hurt!"

Why?

Because we are all being afraid of the real world.

I totally agree with you too.

Just about every time I get out, I am actually quite scared of lots of things. Sharks? For sure. I always think about which angle I am going to shove my board to these suckers.

And even when the waves are just about head high, I always think about. "OK, if I screw this one up, am I going to head down into the sand or some rock?" 99% of the times that is unwarranted worries.

But the thing is this. I did go down head in to the bottom, and my neck hurt of a couple of weeks after that. Thank god I did not break my neck. I did break the nose of the board a few times. I did hit the rock or came really really close to it... like this morning.

So I am afraid of a lot of that stuff, like you do when you watch that surf video on Fuel chanell, but somehow that won't stop me going back to the water, and I will continue to be fearful.

The challenge to me is to be how relaxed I can be under these situations.

The Personal and Progress Report

2008-09-04T23:11:00.001-07:00

WavLOG

The Personal and Progress Report

First, I must apologize for many WavLOG fans about my recent lack of posting. It is not that I was away from surfing but I had to allocate more time to other things that are happening. First, my real job has gotten really busy, but furthermore, I have been spending a considerably more time on my life long passion, which is music. I have been at music since as long as I remember. I will share that information a bit more later.

Back to surfing though. Have I been making a progress? Lately I am not so sure. It has been taking a lot more time to progress to what I consider to be the next step and this, I have also written a lot about in the past, and to some extent I do not want to repeat myself and bore all of you. I do think though the beginning stage of learning how to surf was much more interesting than I am going through today. There simply are more "drama" about bunch of failures, some successes and mostly mcuh struggle, and these stories are far more interesting than what I can write about these days. So if you are starting to learning how to surf now I highly recommend that you keep your journal or better yet, start a BLOG page like many of us have done.

If you have read this far though you might be curious how my progress has been.

First, if you have been following my progress, I have been focusing on the speed aspect of surfing. Although the speed is the key to surfing, this is also one of the ultimate goals to achieve by any surfer. After all these years I have finally come to understand, and to some extent, being able to execute this though on more consistent basis. Simply said, the key is to stay on the surface of the wave. This is very simple sounding but it has been so hard to do. First, I need to be able to take off on a wave that I can ride, and the more I need to get the speed, the more powerful wave I need to challenge talking off and then there are just a long process of getting ready for that moment.

I can take off on more types of waves than ever before, but typically I would go straight down and then stall. The reason I go straight down is because I still do not have the ability to negotiate the first turn higher up in the wave, and this is the area that I am very struggling at some of the latest sessions. There are a lot of parameters, like finding the right condition, finding the right spots in a session, and the strength and skill to negotiate the first critical moment.

So to a good extent, I continue to to be the beginner of the next big step to come and so the struggle continues.

Side Story: The Danger of Crowded Lineup

Yesterday, I was looking at the crowded lineup on the southern corner of a particular beach in our area. There was one long-boarder who was letting go of the board when the wave broke. It flew sky high. Glad I was not around there. Then later I heard from a buddy who happened to be at the same spot a bit later on that he collided with a surfer. No damages were done, but I was lined up at a spot breaking much bigger than there, and who is saying that bigger waves are dangerous. We should really be aware that more often than not, other surfers can pose more frequent and immediate danger than the waves.

Red Tides, Sinusitis, Nasonex and Astelin

2008-07-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Red Tides, Sinusitis, Nasonex and Astelin

NOTE: While this article deals with medical topic, I am not providing this as a medical advise to you. If you have a similar problem like I had, please consult your physician, an ENT or an Allergy specialist.

Last two years, I had a bit of struggle with Sinus infections. This all started when I went into the murky brown water in the middle of the summer in Manresa. Immediately after the session a runny nose did not stop for a day. A few weeks later my nose became really stuffy and for several months after that I could not smell a thing. For someone who like to drink wine that was a bit of problem.

Since that happening, even if there is a bit of a sign of red tides, my nose will get stuffy. This is even if I did the nasal rinse religiously. Not only my noses got stuffy, there was quite a bit of odorous discharge which did not go away. This is a standard symptom of infected sinus.

I consulted a doctor on this and I was prescribed Amoxicillin for two weeks. This actually did work. But after that treatment was done, the infection came back, of course I did not stop surfing (how could I). I also continued to do the nasal rinsing. I was also recommended that I use Nasonex in conjunction to reduce the swelling, and also to use Mucinex D to thin out discharges to help it drain. The Mucinex did work to temporarily relief the congestion and the sense of smell did come back while I was using it. But it had pseudo-ephedrine and I did not want to continue to use it too much.

As the condition came back I asked for the second dose of Amoxicillin for another couple of weeks, but at the same time the doctor advised to give Astelin a try, and for me that seemed to worked the best in preventing the onset of the reaction to the red tide component in the water.

This year I have been out in a condition several times where I was afraid of getting the infection back. But as soon as I have gotten a sign of runny or stuffy nose, I sprayed Astelin and it basically prevented from the nose from getting fully stuffy and then get into the infection mode.

I have spoken to several other surfers including many members of StokeMaster.COM and the symptoms are very very similar to mine.

What I think was going on my case is that going into red tide infested water causes an allergic reaction, which closed up the drainage, and caused secondary infections. Once the infections set in, it is very difficult to get rid of except using antibiotic. I am susceptible to many sort of nasal allergies since I was a very young child and also has a slightly deformed septum too (and on top of that I broke my nose a few years back right under my eyes from surfing [what else!]).

Nasonex in my case did not work well and requires a long-term use for it to be effective, but Astelin, being an antihistamine works very quickly, preventing the onset of a full blown inflammation of my nasal cavities and in my case, that really helped me because I don't know when the red tide strikes or attack me or accidentally paddling into floating pile of brown raw smelling foam.

Session 8098-8100: The Final Daily WavLOG

2008-07-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Final Daily WavLOG

Day 98 - 100

Well, I did 100 sessions this year so far, and I am pleased that this year I have made some key technical progress than the previous years. In a nutshell, the key progress was made in the area of taking-off, and it still continues to need further polishing up, not to mention a consistent keeping up so that I don't lose it.

In summarizing my progress so far, I have to say that if you have the will, you will get there though it can take a while depending your fitness and overall athletic abilities.

I had a really late start in this sport and there were quite a few times it was very discouraging, and it will continue to be more discouraging to some extent, but once I realized that it is a long journey I have undertaken, it no longer bother me. I was able to prove that I can take on the people who have been at it 30-40 years in my 4 years or so of gearing up.

So if you are thinking about picking up the sport, or want to start all over again, I think that perseverance and patience will really pay off a big time. And that's also goes for anything in life.

Thank you!

Session 8098 (Thursday): The swells from both N and S got so small but there was some potential of NW re-building. I want up north for a short session in the morning, and I did manage to catch a few.

Session 8099 (Friday): At a local "hard-core" spot. A buddy checked out the spot, thought it was junky and did not get in. I did get in a caught some decent size waves with some fun shapes. I had one really good wave which broke, cut back around, and caught another section breaking inside and continued on. When that happens I am so happy that I get more power paddling back out!

Session 8100 (Saturday): The same spot as the previous session. It was a bit more crowded as it was being a weekend and such, but I did basically the repeat of yesterday with some nice build up sections. On couple of waves were just strong and fast and could barely go straight down, but the speed and pressure on my knees were much higher than usual. Once I got a taste of it, I would want to get more to do better turns the next time!

This concludes my daily session log. I thank you for taking a surf journey with me, and I encourage you to keep your own surf log either online or a small diary book. It is always fun to look back a few years later!

The WavLOG on StokeMaster.COM will continue with less focus on daily sessions but more focus on surfing thoughts, ideas, tips and philosophy, hopefully at least on a weekly basis. Hope you come back and check, and write a comment or two, or write a personal email to me.

Session 8097: Why StokeMaster.COM is "Surfing For The Rest of Us?"

2008-07-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 97
Why StokeMaster.COM is All About "Surfing For The Rest of Us?"

You have seen our slogan. Our slogan is "Surfing For The Rest of Us." It has been approved by our "VP" Ren Volpe who contributes "Surfing Mana" articles (according to Google SurfingMama is more popular than StokeMaster.COM!, Perhaps she can write better than me!)

Why is it that us all surfers appears to be so defiant about everything else. And that's something I think about a lot while I am waiting for the next wave. Dammn it! I wish that all these distracting thoughts do not come to my mind so that I can really focus on just surf!

So, this morning, I go out to a bit more deserted, less often surfed beach. We know there is a tad more chance of us getting eatan by a bigger fish (Ren calles, a visitor in gray suits, or something to that effect.)

Perhaps, it could have been that I could have been bitten this morning, and I would have been back at the garney at Seaton Coastside emergencies. And the next thing I could imagine happening is the equivocal uttering of messages from my own mom and my mother in law -- "You should quit surfing!"

And even if I would be in a great pain and such, that would be the last thing I would want to hear about it.

I was actually trying to figure that out why it would be so. It now think I know the answer. It is because surfing gives me the true sense of freedom from the rest of the conventinonal world where we need to ovey the conventions. And that brings us to "Surfing for the Rest of Us."

What does it really mean to us?

It actually sounds contradictory, but being the "Rest of us" do not actually mean that we are actually part of the part of being like everyone else. The real "rest of us" are those who are in a continuoius quest as what is truly to be being the "rest of us."

OK, so I have confused you.

Look at current situation is surfing. There seems to be a great effort in homogenizing and defactoring the surfing public like anything else. I am talking about the "mass marketed version" of surfing. What is the idea of a being a typical "cool" surfer? Perhaps you are strugging to become one. You would get a short board, you would go to Huntington, The Trestles, or The Lane, and you follow the pro scene, buy magazines, get brand sunglasses, sandals, and get the pro brand surfboards, wetsuits, board shorts and I am fairly certain that that is considered by most as "surfing."

But the "rest of the surfers" are not quite like them. We really cannot surf the same kind of the boards, nor the waves you see on surf videos (even though we got thsese boards).

And if you are coming to realize that then I think we will begin to see what it really we man by being a "rest of the sufers."

It is really the time for all of us to realize what it really means to you as being a surfer, and that's far more important than to become a part of the mass.

Sessions 8093~96 Get Your Mind Some Excercise

2008-07-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Days 93~96

The primary reason why I surf is stay being healthy and that's the key importance for me. Whatever the means you got available to do so, I think you should do it. Surfing requires you to be fit, especially in paddling out and negotiating through waves, it requires quite a bit of muscle work.

But it is also often forgotten that your mental health is just as important, and surfing provides ample opportunities to both nature and challenge us mentally.

One of the things I have realized lately is facing the ocean and the wild nature in front of us. I was talking to a local buddy of mine a lineup this weekend about this, and how scared I was the first time I went out at the same spot, and gradually I have been able to build myself up to the challenge, and I am not as scared as used be, and I was thinking about how valuable that experience has been. It really gave me additional boost in confidence in other situations.

I think that it is important for most of us to experience this kind of a situation, as it will open up our minds a bit more to realize our very own existence with respect to the whole universe and also knowing how the very basic foundations of body and mind would react to it. In coming to terms with where the fear arise from and how we can be prepared to deal with them, I think we can provide ourselves a kind of mental exercise.

Day 93: Thursday was fun at LM with some nice right peaks perfect size and level of steepness for me to practice taking off and staying high on the wave right at the take-off.

Day 94: Friday, it got a bit smaller than thursday at LM, but continued to practice more take-offs and wave spotting. Ren has requested that I'd the party wave on the outside, so I took out my Walden Magic 9. I caught some fun waves until sets started come all in one big line and closed out the whole beach.

Day 95: Saturday the wave power continued to dwindle but the wind situation was quite good so more local spots opened up. I opened up the north-end of a local beach on Saturday. But as soon as people found out that I was "ripping" out there, dozen more showed up. I should pretend like I am having a bad time when people are on the cliff scoping things out :-) Continued to surf on Walden Magic

Day 96: Sunday was quite flat all in local HMB locations so I drove a bit further south. I was almost ready to give up and ready to head home and I noticed a local prominent surfer friend getting out. He told me that this is only the name of game today. Glad I want out with the Takayama 7'2 Egg and also I double boarded with my trusty JC Ugly Stick 6'4 (with 5 inch vector fins in the back!). The Egg worked out quite good, had some fun and a couple of significantly long rides on about chest high waves. I don't know what about it was today but we were all pig-dogging our boards to keep the board in a trim. I guess because it felt like these small beach breaks were going to close out behind us any moment. It was a kind of bit fun to paddle through fresh-water lagoon to get to the beach.

Excel Wetsuits Repair Update

2008-07-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

Excel Wetsuit Repair Update

I am happy to report to you that my suit is back like brand new. The repair job was so good that it does not look like someone actually fixed something. It was fixed under "warranty."

Basically the following is the timeline:

1 day for them to respond to my original request
1 day to fill out the form and send it.
1 day for them to get back with an RO number
2 days to send it over the UPS Ground
about 4 days to get it fixed
2 days for the shipment

So from the start to finish it is less than 2 weeks. I think that's quite good.

The quality of the fix is great and I am very happy with it as I can probably get another full year out of the suit.

Session 8092 Giving Up Donuts and Coffee After A Session

2008-07-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 92 (T-8) Giving Up Donuts and Coffee After A Session

First, the session this morning was on a fun side but I must say that I should have gotten out with a longboard. But that's life.

So today's topic is all about Google AdWords.

As you know I have put up some Google Ads to let people know about the StokeMaster.COM web site. I tend to do things for the "heck of it," and I almost always end up learning things or two after the fact. Right now, I am not so much interested in attracting the users to the site but what it tells me is that what people are interested in, and whatever the terms the people are interested in, Google would ask for more money per click. For example, if you were to use the keyword "soul surfing" that is a $5.00 keyword for a site which isn't much about Bethany Hamilton.

What about Bethany Hamilton got to do with a $5.00 click? Well, she "wrote" a book called "Soul Surfing." The book is a big seller and thus everyone wants a piece of action regarding her incident and the book and such. I happen to think that my web site has some element of "soul surfing" in it so I would very much like to "feel" that soul surfing is a relevant keyword to my site. But the real world is a much much tougher place than that. So right now, if I want people to click an and get to my site based on a search "soul surfing" I must pay $5.00 or more. I actually think that's quite fair, and it is interesting. It is even interesting to the point that what the general public think of "soul surfing" is about Bethany Hamilton, and I am not sure if I can agree with that or not.

To tell you the very honest truth, I don't know what "soul surfing" is, and I am sure that there will be many different ways of looking at it. To me, a true soul surfer won't be blogging like me. I think that someone like that won't even have an email address or an web access, and it is a rare occasion that I'd be even get a chance to be surfing with this person.

Then, I am also very confused now. My religious teaching tells me that I ought to basically document and share my experience with others, and that's how I can live forever. Then on the other hands, I should not really boost myself to the point to induce some form of envy or lust in other peoples minds.

What does it got to do with giving up my Donuts and Coffee after a session. Well my routine after a down patrol at Linda Mar is to go to Happy Donuts, get a coffee and donuts. That's usually about $3.00 a shot, plus some friendly grief I get from the owner couple. It usually got to do with my appearance like the length of my hair or what I am waring, or not buying enough donuts etc. Today my Google AdWords budget is 60 cents a day. Mind you, I have some very high quality keywords (over a year of hard work on it), I can get 2-3 clicks out of this meager budget, but if I were to give up my coffee and donuts after each DP session, I can have up to 10 or 20 clicks from users to come to my site, with that I can vector the users to visit my StokeStore and get them to buy $200 Nixon watch which I can get a handsome commission from Amazon! What's wrong with that?

Session 8091: The Retrospect

2008-07-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 91

I think I am going to stop logging "every session" when I hit the Day 100 on this year. It is a lot of work and I have gotten busy with my new job, and frankly, it is very very difficult to write something each time I get out. This blog will continue, though, at a more relaxed pace and I know there are many long time fans of this blog, so I will not disappoint you. My new posts will have more concentration.

This morning I want out in the morning at Linda Mar and there was this guy who was just standing in the inside trying to surf. This morning was not exactly a small kind of a day, and I did have some fun catching "just right" steepness of waves for me, and I did pack in quite a few rides in the limited-time morning session scenario. Back to this guy though. He was just standing, holding boards, not paddling in our out, in a waste high spot.

I remember, I used to do that. Back when I started, I did not have any ideas about how surfing worked let aloe having enough muscles to negotiate incoming waves to paddle out or to paddle into the wave. I do hope that this person would not get discouraged and some day would share waves with many others from the "outside."

From surfing, I got to got to various places in California, Mexico and Hawaii and really enjoyed the aspect of surf travels, and I am certain that my reach will be expanding even further. Just on the other day, I was talking about going to Nicaragua next spring and such.

I got to know a lot of great friends though my StokeMaster.COM web site as well as Surfrider foundation buddies. Got to meet some very famous surf figures live, and also through the sport it opened my mind up to the ocean and the environment.

I think I am also in a great shape physically and I can deal with fear a bit more than before, and even when facing the death, I am a bit less afraid these days.

So I would like to thank everyone who really have helped me to get here and I hope if you are starting out now, keep on stoking!

Session 8085-90

2008-07-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 85-87

Day 85 (Sunday): With the South swells arriving, I headed out much further to the spot that is in the slide show below. It was a bit of work, especially with the Walden Magic longboard to get down the cliff to get to the break, but it was certainly worth it. Not very many surfers and occasional breaks were fun. Note that last slide is a bit strange looking but it is due to some artifact of the camera and not actual waves.

Day 86 (Monday) and Day 87 (Tuesday):

Back to my home break with the south swells continuing. Smooth get-out and occasional breaks, typical of south swells situation, gave me a lot of time to practice.

Especially I had a few nice rides on Tuesday. However, also I cracked the nose of the board by trying too hard and surfing too close inside to the rocks. That's one problem with surfing. There is no break built into the board. You just cannot stop on a "dime."

Nevertheless, I am starting to get a hang of the "top turn" right after taking off and being able to do that really makes a difference in taking longer rides. But it definitely isn't easy, especially for me, and I cannot still be consistent in doing it like other good surfers who came today.

Day 88 Thursday:
Day 89 Friday July 4th:
Day 90 Sat July 5th:

Session 8082-84: You Got To Be "In" For the Upside!

2008-06-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 82-84

Perhaps you are all new to the stock markets, and if you have not been and if you ever will, you will hear from other colleagues telling you to the effect that "You have to be in it to catch the upside." I am now going to talk about the surfing, and surf condition and how well you do in them.

The key message here is that whether it is investing, your career or surfing if you are looking for the great opportunity, you have to always be in a lookout and the only way really you can do it is to be there all the time. For surfing, you do have to get out both on bad conditions and bad conditions, and even more bad condition days and then occasionally you run into a great condition day; all by yourself. You just cannot simply expect show up only on up days ignore all bad days. Even if you were able to, I think that the gain is probably modest.

I believe that this really goes for anything you are passionate about. You got to live through bad days and then you get to see and live the glorious days, of which, I also warn you that are very far and few in between.

So don't be so F greedy. Show up at the beach as many days as you can. Paddle out with me on poor days, fair days, and occasionally good days, and share every moment of it with me!

I will see you out there!

Day 83 (Friday): The wind has eased even more this morning and also the choppy waves. The overall swell size also has decreased a bit, making it smooth paddle out and nice rides especially for long boarders. I should have brought my Egg board! But I only loaded short boards as I had to put carry other loads a few days prior.

Day 84 (Saturday): The swell sizes were dwindling but the morning winds were small, and I enjoyed surfing at the "M" spot both with my Walden magic and also my Ugly Stik in the inside. It is always nice to have a long session where you can switch a board in the mid session and try them out!

Session 8079-81: Morning Surf Report + Surfwise

2008-06-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 79-82

The state parks do not open until 8 am, so this morning I had a bit of relaxed start and checked out the water from the Jetty down further south. I will let you decide which one I surfed at this morning. But I must say that the level of the people at this spot is usually pretty high and I was definitely at a lower end of the totem pole. Many people were older than me, but some were ripping quite nicely there. It was mostly small but lined-up all across the beach on bigger sets and so without shoulders and also them being shifty, it was hard to keep up with where to be. On days like this, the best option seems to be to stay put in one spot and wait for sets to come rather than moving all over. I have been burned quite a bit in the past by paddling over to where it broke last then quickly penalized by nice waves breaking at the spot I was just at. It is a bit frustrating you know.

At one point in the session though, there were two waves that came one after another that was at least double overhead in size and when we saw this coming, everyone started to get to the outside frantically. I was too late and too slow and at the worst spot to be. I was treated to a nice flight followed by the trip to the bottom. I hate it when that happens.

So in terms of the quality of the rides, it was not that great for me. Sure glad it was not a competition day... would have been a brutal defeat day.

This evening, we went to check out a "consolidated documentary movie" Surfwise, which is a documentary film of a Stanford graduated physician Dorian Paskowitz who set out to raise 9 of his children on a long surf-trip and a wife in a 24-foot camper van.

Among my close surfing friends, we often talk about quitting everything and surf for the rest of life. And this guy have actually done that. I am not going to spoil the movie for you, but boy, I am glad that I have not done that. It seemed to have a number of 9 kids, who could not get conventional education. The movie has quite a bit of surfing footage in it and it too. I think you will find his opinions about life and education very interesting, and especially in this day of us thinking and driving our lives more and more with greeds, it does give some interesting perspectives. I would not necessarily agree or disagree with, but it definitely worth seeing and hearing why he chose to do what he did and what he thinks about the current state of American culture. With most surf movies showing people "just surfing their brains out", this movie involves the persona of each family member, and so it is actually a bit of a departure from conventional surf related "documentaries." I would like to continue to see more surf film makers focus on the surfer aspect of it than just technical riding part of it. That's far more interesting in terms of the stories.

Day 80 (Sunday):

After being punished a bit on Saturday morning, I headed to a beach further north on Sunday morning. The NW winds definitely picked up quite a bit and as a result of it the water also became quite choppy already. There were some SW sets still coming in. I have not been riding my Walden Magic for a while so this time I took it out as it was on a small side.

Well, I did end up "catching" waves a lot but it was difficult to take off. The small ripples were substantial enough in size even under bigger "catchable" waves. On just about every wave I took off on, there was a stair-step effect, and so as I get up on the board, I would skip over a ripple and land on the wall that's ahead with a big bang. It's similar to getting a bit of air off a bump on snow. Sometimes I got knocked up in the air so hard that it was a bit scary and difficult to maintain the ride, especially when I get up, my knees are not unfolded yet, so there is not much room to absorb it.

The fog and NW returns to Northern California this week. It is going to be a bit tricky to find a good down patrol spots...

Day 81 (Tudesay): Pretty crappy at LM.

Session 8078: Reparing XCEL Infiniti

2008-06-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 78

I bought Xcel Inifniti suit with "standard" back-zip configuration a while back, and I really like the fit of the suit and also I like the rubber that is much gummier and stretch-er feeling than other make I have. It is holding up well, but one problem with all of the Xcel suits have in common is the overall weakness in the collar area. For one thing, the collar area usually does not have the finished look, instead it just look like someone took a pair of scissor and cut the opening. As a result, this is the area where it both tears and the cloth lining is coming off.

At any rate, I looked up in their web site and they had a repair order instruction. All you have to do basically is to write to them an email (or call too), and within a day or so someone from there will return you an email asking you with more details about the issue you are having. Then they will send you a PDF form with a return authorization number.

You box it, write the RA number outside of the box and send it either to their location in Hawaii or in Irvine, CA. (Note that it is a real waste of money to send your stuff anything but UPS ground if you are in California since within CA, UPS Ground will get there in 1-2 days, I know this because I use UPS a lot to ship stuff out of my office.)

So yesterday I sent my suit in for a repair. This story to be continued...

~ ~ ~
Speaking of wetsuits stuff, here is another little trick to keep your stuff last longer. Close all Velcro like leash cuffs and booties stuff before you throw them in your bag or tub when you are done. I previously wrote a tip about throwing them the last, but just closing the Velcro is much easier.

~ ~ ~

Half Moon Bay local surfing continues to be on a small but quality side. I really had a lot of fun this morning again! Thanks to the south swells that have been ON for quite some time now!

Session 8075-77

2008-06-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Days 75-77

Last few days at my home break were really fun. With some south swells hitting and no wind, the waves were on small side but there definitely were some fun peaks, lots of rights and some lefts too.

I am continuing to work on speed on the waves and I think I am making some more progress in the past few sessions. The most change, I think, is that the rides are becoming even more defined and also even more interactive with the wave.

I must say that it does take some effort to work with the waves, and I think that the primary difference between the people who "just surf" and "look good" are from this aspect of it. Every notch in the improvement gives a lot of excitement, but I feel like I am probably passing through one of the most exciting period of learning how to surf for me as the speed and the extra energy that comes with it support more "room" to maneuver given a situation, for example, it is now starting to be possible to think about "Should I go up next?" or "Should I shoot straight down for a bit, get more power and then go up?" etc.

Session 8077 (Tue, 6/18): Still the same spot. The waves are getting smaller a bit, but once in a great while a series of set kicked in. Some fun rights, and the usual moguls that form from backwash waves...

Session 8072-74: Importance of "Just Getting Out"

2008-06-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

WavLOG
Thoughts

Day 72-74

I have been guilty of this especially of late... some evil thoughts have been distracting me to shutdown StokeMaster.com**, stop writing WavLOG, and thinking that surf a few times a year in Hawaii or CR would be OK...

So this article is directed at me as a reminder, but hope you can also can relate to it too.

As people get "better at" surfing, I have seen them setting higher and higher expectations about the quality of the wave and such, and in some cases, their expectations get so high, they almost stop surfing altogether in search of the best condition or location that never come.

This morning after I got out of the water I had a bit of conversation about this with a local long-time surfer. He has been surfing for more than 40-years from OB to Ventura. We were at the same spot yesterday too. In fact, he is usually out when I am out too because he knows the best bet locally. He is so experienced that he can basically catch any types of wave - big, small, crappy... whatever, when, in front of him, I am still a struggling beginner surfer.

One important reminder that came up in our conversation is the word "life-style" and that is where we both agree strongly about surfing. I was then thinking more about that and I too have made a lifestyle decision to be a surfer and also this needs a constant reminder to myself that I have done that. Now here is no turning back.

An example of the difference between this and other sport I'd participate in is like this. I don't bowl much, but I do every so often, but my life will not revolve around bowling. I just go when, say, a friend would want to go. I rent everything and once I am done with it, it's all forgotten. I can hit strike sometimes and I can also thrown the ball in the gutter. But it's still fun.

Surfing is a kind of sport that require a life-style change decision because the depth of the sport is a life-time learning event. We need to be committed to it and so that requires that the sport have to be woven into your everyday life. It would take years of practice to hit an equivalent of a strike, that would be riding a nicely trimmed surf line for 10-20 seconds straight... not going up or down... just across the face.

And the point about setting high expectation is this. It is not a kind of a thing that you just only go when the condition is the best, rent some gear, get out and then forget about it afterwards. So as a part of this, we are always compelled to "get out as often as we can."

Another case in point. This past weekend, I was talking to a non-surfer person at a party, and he spoke of his surfing friends in terms of "Once he started it, he was hooked to it."

But more accurately, he made a life-style decision to surf, and once someone would do that they really can enjoy wider variety of conditions like the old buddy I was talking to this morning. It really takes an active and often pains taking efforts in "being hooked." The force affecting addiction is more of an external nature. You could give someone addicted to alcohol an expensive wine and he would be capable of enjoying it. You could give me double-overhead perfect wave today, and I may not be able to enjoy it immediately. I need to take a rain check, give me the same wave two years from now for me to enjoy it. But let me remind you, I am working on it and I think I can get there.

So today, you could be at the edge of making this commitment to your life and that could tip your life fully in one side. I think I have.

And it always feels better when I get out even when I did not feel like it when I get out of the house... and yes I am grateful to everyone that I can make this choice and I will continue to share my stoke with the world via the net.

Session 8073: Same spot as yesterday. Quite a bit smaller but clean and still fun. Not much in terms of longer rides but worked a lot on taking off and continue to work on making the turn #1 towards the top of the wave. I am not still there and some waves just closed out quickly.

Session 8074: The condition at Linda Mar was fair, but then this was probably the only ticket in town. But here is the deal. There were a few good surfers, both on long and short boards, that were managing the condition. I caught a few waves, but it really goes to say, if you are good, you'd get the most out of it.

**However I am thinking about re-doing the StokeMaster.com site on Google App Engine.

Session 8071: Squid Hood or Integrated Hood?

2008-06-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 71: Squid Hood or Integrated Hood?

Many people who are not familiar with the Eastern Pacific coasts, they would be puzzled if I tell them that the water can be coldest in the year in May and June. As it turns out that California coast side is one of more unique places in the world that upwelling can cause some havoc in late spring or early summer season.

Upwelling occurs when the wind blows hard, especially along the shore. Because our planet Earth is rotating at the same time as the wind blows in more or less N-S direction, it causes a "vortex" effect in that water swirls around and then after that it starts convectional current that moves up and down deep into the bottom of the sea floor. When 30+ knots winds blow for a week or two then the buoy water temperature reading start to go from our seasonal low 50's into even mid 40's sometime.

When we get out in this type of situation, it is like dipping my hands and head into ice water, and especially for me, I would have to think twice before I do my initial duck-dive though the water. Once I do this, no problem after that but the very first one is significantly uncomfortable, wake-up event especially on early morning sessions when I still have some afterthoughts about whether it would have been much more comfortable should I have decided to be in bed instead of in the Pacific.

At any rate, one key component of being a bit more comfortable in this situation is to wear a hood, and I have been wearing a 3-mm "Squid head" (I don't know why they call that though.) hood. This has been helpful, but last week I have noticed that my beloved hood has been showing a bit of wear and tear (though it lasted me at least 2+ seasons.) So I decided to give a try on an integrated hood with a rash guard, thinking that this might be a bit better in terms of water seeping duck dive situation. I actually hesitated getting it since I did once had a wetsuit with an integrated hood, and when I put that on I could not swing my head left to right freely, so I only used it a few times and gave up. This one is a 1.5 mm hood integrated with rash guard and it is a bit better in terms of head movement.

So here is the report from this morning.

Putting this on was a bit more awkward than the squid head model. I felt like whether which one of the holes will be the one to put my head though. But tucking the bottom of the hood was not so hard.

My first duck dive was definitely very comfortable, but I actually could not find a significant difference between the squid hood situation and with this. I would say it was noticeably more comfortable, but not super different.

While surfing, it was comfortable and I did not have problem swinging my head left and right.

So there. I think I will get a bit more hang on this and might end-up liking it a lot!

Oh by the way, I did have a good time this morning at the JTY!

Session 8069-70

2008-06-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 69,70

The nature conspired against me with gale-strength winds and non-surfable wind swells this past week, today, Saturday is the first time since last week to get back in the water. Actually today is also a gusty NW winds day, but I have just had enough of the wait, and I had to get in and keep my paddling in shape so I decided to get in the water "no matter what."

Luckily the winds died down a bit this morning, so I was a bit more hopeful. The Jetty was crowded a bit, and I did check points further south, but I came back to the Jetty thinking that the shape is a bit better there, and if not, I could "get out" a bit easier.

My guess was correct and I actually caught quite a bit of rights with a few lefts. You know I used to brag about the fact that I liked lefts but these days, the rights are working out much better to me. It is probably not really the left that has gotten worse, but the rights have gotten much better and that's the difference because turns are significantly more defined if I took of to the right.

Which brings to my current mission of improving the speed, and the distance. And I think I can feel some improvements especially in the area of turning faster and staying on top of the wave sooner after taking off. I am trying to make a concerted effort to do this, and just a thought of it can help quite a bit in understanding how it feels when I am doing a bit better or worse during each wave I am catching, and right now the biggest thing I am doing is to look at and look for the place I want to be; the top part of the wave. Each time I squeeze a bit more performance out of me, that makes me really stoked.

And when I can surf to the shore at the end of a session, that makes me even more satisfied, though, there always is hard to call a ride like that the last ride of a session!

Day 70: Drove from HMB to SC in search of non-windy waves, and ended up at Cowells, after remembering that that going to the East side would cost me parking fee. I am not against paying for it, but I have to pass though a specific place to buy the day permit. On the way there, there simply was not place for me to get into, it was too windy, big and messy.

Cowells was small and one thing I should always to remember, in the summer I should always bring a long board to SC! I could have had a lot more wave counts should I have taken my Walden Magic!

Session 8066-68: More on Speed

2008-06-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Days 66, 67

Friday was a small day again but I did get out at LM and caught some small waves. I actually do want small waves because that also help me really understand gaining the speed. I was often told from experts that bigger waves are actually easier to surf. I think I agree to an extent that if the waves are bigger but come in nice shapes, they are definitely fun and easier to catch. Small waves, on the other hands require a lot of paddling, quick flick up with not much room for errors and immediate top turn in many cases to make the wave and stay on top of it.

Saturday the shapes has gotten a bit better and I continued to work on the top turn. I must say though I do cheat a bit in this regards by actually steering while I am paddling into the waves. This gets remarkably easier if I can read where the shoulder would pop and I would be at the right place and the right time. Negotiating the top turn upon flicking up is also very very tricky for me right now since I need to execute the rail-in motion very quickly especially when there is not much speed yet developed, thus I have to get on the wave when I am least stable on the board. Looks like it will take a bit of time yet for me to get this mastered.

Sunday the hefty NW winds returned and basically I could no find a surf locally from HMB to northern SC spots. We skipped surfing and went onto the Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Festival events instead.

Session 8063-65: Technical Notes on Speed

2008-05-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 63, 65

This past week was so windy that it was not really possible to surf locally in Half Moon Bay, at least that was my decision. Actually even under these circumstances it looked somewhat surfable at the the Jetty especially at the tail end of the wind-spell on THU and FRI. Nonetheless, I decided not go get out.

Last week I was at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Saratoga and bought a book with a DVD entitled "Surfin' Speed-Up Bible for Shortboarder." This book is in Japanese and so is the video so if you don't read Japanese and then I'd say don't rush and get it (instead come to my StokeMaster Core Meetings and I can narrate as we share watching this video) As you may know one of the things that I feel keenly about polishing is the speed aspect of my surfing technique. Now that I have more paddling power and more consistent flick-up, it is time for me to seriously work on the speed technique.

Anyhow, there were a few points out of the video I found that was very useful in my situation.

The most painfully felt aspect is executing the turn #1 as the top turn, stay on the top part of the wave and continue on.
The importance of using the rails and bottom of the board for the glide.

I've touched off and on about on contest day, the waves look so much better no matter which location we go to. This is mainly because people who know how to really surf know how to catch waves. Again, I must stress this important fact. It is really not your surfboards that do this, but it really is the technical skills and strength of the surfer.

One of the things they know how to do well is to stay on top part of the wave especially on mushy small waves; and that's more than 80% of the waves I (like to) surf. This I actually knew it all along but somehow it did not sink in to my head until now after watching the slow-mo analysis of the steps.

Another approach is to take more of a straight down then bottom turn approach. That was basically the mode I was using and polishing most of the time, and I can usually have significantly longer rides than most people in an weekend lineups, but I could not make them consistently because I still do not have the skill to stay on top of the wave.

After that it is standard ups and downs with rail switch-backs to gain more speed.

Well that's all right now, but be aware that I will gain more speed this year and write about it as I find out some fine points in doing so.

See you out there everyone and say hi if you see me!

Session 63 (Sunday): With the remaining NW swells, I headed to LM in the afternoon when the tide was coming in. It was a good call. I caught a great deal of waves even among long boarders and bunch of other short boarders in the mix. It was definitely a fun day. Started to work on the top turn, but sure it is not easy. After the session a Stokemaster member Bernie was out in the parking and recognized me from the fins of the Takayama board I posted. It is always great to see the people who hang around on the StokeMaster.COM site!

Session 64 (Monday): Back to the same spot. There was a one good surfer who was nailing lot of waves and he had the speed and staying on top of the wave. I watched him for a while and it was quite educational to get a demonstration of how to get the speed.

Session 65 (Thursday): There was no wave but as a part of trying to become a stronger surfer, we have decided to paddle for an hour. I always wondered about the buoy that is floating just about in front direction of the Milamar beach, and we paddled out there from the Jetty. It was a long paddle but game me enough excercise to go there and back. It was a yellow buoy made of mainly foams with PP2 written on it.

Session 8059-62: StokeLAB Report - Added Baby Fins on my Takayama Egg

2008-05-17T20:10:00.001-07:00

WavLOG

Day 59 Added Side Baby Fins on My
7'2 Egg

When I broke my leash on Wednesday session, I stopped by at Sonlight Surfshop in Pacifica and did two things. I did buy the new FCS leash (since Da Kine is the one that snapped) and also a set of fibrefglass FCS fins. You can see in the picture in this post how they look like. They are all fiberglass fins. Actually I tried this on Friday and so here is the report.

After adding these fins, the performance of the board changed significantly. Now it rides really more like a short board than a long board. This board is 7'2 and not a long board, but it is still long enough to walk on the deck and I can really ride on the front tip of the board once I got a speed on it when the board is moving at a good rate. So I have not given up on keeping the big center fin.

But for the "heck of it" I have added small side fins on the board and I've given it a try. As a beginner surfer I have not really believed anyone saying that the fins can make a world of difference before, but I now can see and feel the difference.

The part that was surprisingly turned out to be good was that the turns can be made more snappier than with just a single fin. This was especially true when I execute a turn toward back to the top of the wave and then I hit towards the upper end of the wave, and where I want to make a quick turn back down up there. This could had been done with with the single fin, but what made the difference is that the board seemed to have gotten more response to the change. Previously the motion had to be noticeably more intentional and also response from the time I was commanding my body to make turn to actually when the turn has happened was slower.

I do still like the way how the single fin worked out. It really made me do things more smoothly and in contact with the water more in terms of actual feel (and may not actually been that way.)

I will continue to ride the board this way for a bit and write some more about it.

Day 60 (Sat): Back to the same spot but this time it has gotten significantly more closed out. Caught just a few waves. Then some local powerful surfing figure appears and asked to paddle back out again. It was sort of hard to say no, so I did go out. Switched the board to the quad and I had one ride among close-outs. The trick for days like this is to sit patiently inside, look for either reforms or smaller sets and ride. {D, R}

Day 61 (Sun): The Jetty was small when I got there, but then there were some really fun rights that were just the right size. I was catching a lot of waves and someone asked about if I had an epoxy board. Yes, indeed. The board does help a bit but I think, honestly, in the end what really matters is the correct lining up and stronger paddling power.

Day 62 (Mon): Checked out a local spot. It was breaking but was doing the bouncy number. Determined that it won't be too much fun even if I caught waves. Headed to LM. It was puny as it was drained out a bit also, but I had some fun small lefts. Again, faster take-offs and lot of paddling will definitely pay off on days like this {LM}.

Session 8056-58: StokeLAB Leash Snap and Failure Analysis

2008-05-14T19:31:00.001-07:00

WavLOG

Day 56, 57: Leash Snap and Failure StokeLAB Analysis

This morning, I went in the water, paddled out and tried to catch a shoulder level wave. I paddled into the wave and the wave closed out on me, and I got off the board. Next thing the normal tugging feeling of the board was gone. I had this bad feeling another time, and sure enough the board and myself got separated. I must say though this time, I was further out and I had to swim for a bit to get to the board.

Photo 1

Photo 1 shows that this time the leash did not snap nor broke from the joint. Previously I have known several people where the leash did become disjointed from the ball-joint and came apart. In my case it was the plastic base where the leash connected to the base of the ball joint assembly. Photo 2 shows how the leash and the cuff came apart. Again, note that the leash came out from the cuff and not from the joint. The root cause of the failure was the fatigue in the plastic base that was woven into the cuff.

Photo 2

Photo 3 below shows how cleanly it broke off from the base of the cuff. The plastic ripped right out.

Photo 3

The root cause of this is the plastic stress and fatigue. I actually should have replaced this leash at least 6 months ago because I have been using it for more than a year, which meant that it has gone through at least 100 sessions or more.

Everyone, be careful, and do replace your leash at least once a year!

Day 57 THU: After yesterday's mishap, I got a got an FCS leash which is not the same brand that broke. This morning was strangely warm, and offshore winds and no crowd but a lot of backwash that made it very difficult to ride even I caught waves (M)

Day 58 FRI: Owning the whole beach by myself and had some really fun long waves with the building W swells. I've added baby side-fins on my 7'2 Egg. (D)

Day 59 SAT: The same spot gotten closed out with more direct hit of the W swells. Should have gone to "R." (D)

Session 8053-55: Sack or Tub? + San-O Surfing

2008-05-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 53, 54, 55

I have been using a plastic storage tub for quite some time to store wet stuff without an incident, except one time. The one time I was changing inside of it, but a rock cracked the bottom through and it would have leaked. Fortunately I had a plastic bag so I made home safely without making the rest of the truck all wet.

This week, I am on a surf trip away from the cold water of Half Moon Bay, and I have found that carting the tub in and out of hotel rooms is a bit of nuisance. A long while ago I did buy a water-proof sack and I have not used it except for stuffing in extra wet suits stuff during a trip.

Whatever the reasons, I finally realized that I can use the sack instead of a tub to transport my wet stuff to and from the rooms. Oh, actually what made me realize is that most surfers that go to the Trestles use backpacks and bring a towel, suits and water and stuff with them. Me, being on a geeky side of things, I walk with the suits and booties on, but I must say I was glad I was not the only one who do that. But I realized that I did have a sack with a shoulder strap and I could do like they do. A habit is often difficult to throw away.

Anyhow, I did the sacking stuff today, and it was significantly easier. I also remember some outfit selling a change mat that converts into a sack and I think that's an excellent idea. I think I will look that up later on and perhaps add the picture here.

So if you have not tried using a sack, it can be very helpful in various situations, especially if you need to also bring other stuff like a board, another bag etc. from your own place of sleep to your car etc.

Surf Report

Back to San Onofore this morning, and I had quite a bit of fun. Except that a very huge alarm sound started to go off at the nuclear plant. I have had in the back of my minds about all sorts of "Catching the Last Wave" scenario, this being one of them. There were a bunch of surfers out there continue to catch waves as if a car alarm has gone off. I was quite relieved that a few minutes later the loud speaker announced that it was only a drill. But it looked like a full drill, since after getting out of the water, there were cops and state park officials blocking the roads and the whole number.

Now enjoy a few shots I took this morning.

Day 54: Oceanside

The swells in southern California is dwindling further this week and while the water temperature is very warm (for me) the sky has been cloudy all week due to a thick marine layer developing. So in order to get out of this weather a bit, this morning we drove from OC to Temecula for wine tasting trip first and then on the way back decided to swing by Oceanside piers to check out the surf. As for Temecula, it resembles Livermore wine country a bit as there are a lot of new big homes and the wineries are all clustered in about 5 to 10 mile circle. Surprisingly a lot of wineries operate restaurants, as that's kind of still unusual in Napa or Sonoma.

There is one thing in common between wine and surfing. That's the notion of appreciating the location. For wine we compare where it came from in terms of the taste and senses. I think of surf trip and trying out all different spots similarly. Each spot seems to have its own way of curving the water, and when we paddle out, we get experience a new place from all the senses we have, and I think that's the part of enjoyment in going on a surf trip.

Back to Oceanside, one of the claims to fame of this spot is that this is the home of Takayama surfboards. This is a beach community with a standard long pier with Ruby's and such, and even has a McDonald's stand at the beach (closed at the moment.)

Overall, the experience was similar to surfing at Huntington. It is a beach break and it is shallow for quite further out that I can almost stand on the sand at the lineup. Because the wave quality was low, and typical of jumbled wind waves, I cannot really comment overall about the waves here. But definitely there is nothing compares to here in NorCal. Just about the only thing I can say is that the waves of Manresa in Santa Cruz is sort of similar to these beach breaks.

Here are some pictures I have taken. Hope you get some feel from the place!

Day 55: Back to Manhattan, A Short 45-Min Session
Friday May 9

We wanted to visit some places in north LA proper this afternoon. So I had a quick stop-by at Manhattan. The condition continued to be not so great, but I did catch a few waves in this short session. It is always nice to get back to this spot, and also nice to surf with a couple of Dolphins. They seem to be here all the time. Sorry I have a couple of friends here but due to the short nature of the session I did not set up a session. We will be back in the area early October, and I will keep you posted.

Session 8052: The Trestles, Remakable Even For Me

2008-05-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 52

We all know about the Trestles. We've heard all about it. This is where the world-class competitions are being held regularly (as a matter of fact last weekend!). We know that it is being threatened from a plan of toll-road being planned. I'd even wonder if what if Richard Nixon would have commented about the toll-road. It almost seems like everyone is trying to claim a piece of their own interest at this very spot.

And for me, it is still a privilege to go and being able to surf this spot. It definitely worth the 20-minute hike to the spot. Most people do it with backpacks, me, being a surf geek, I do this with with wet suits on and with booties on. Somehow, bothering with bringing down a backpack and sandals and towel to me is more of an over-kill, especially for just a shy-of 2 hour session.

At any rate, whatever and however you get there and if you see me how I handle the situation is all your biz, and I don't care what you think. My goal is to get there with the least amount of luggage, the least amount of worries and maximize the water time.

Again, like yesterday at lower T, it was just so much fun even when the waves are probably on the "mushy" side to experts, I had a great time, and even though this place is one of the most popular spot, I only had to share the break with only two other surfers. Especially for me, I don't have to be on the biggest peak, I am just content with some inside spill-overs which are just much better quality than most days we have in my neighborhood breaks.

TECHNICAL UPDATE

It has been many years since I've paddled out in the water for the first time, I thought that I'd share with you what I still don't know about surfing. Especially at a place like I was last two days, people can give me a "painful" demonstration of many aspects of what I still cannot do (and probably never will.).

How to be best positioned to catch more waves.
Why there are other surfers that are always at the right place at the right time.
How to do "off the lip" (I sort of know why this is, I really should be more bold on every turn I make, so that I have more power in my surfing. I look smooth all right, but I got to be a bit more aggressive to extract more power, so that I can really hit the top the wave as though I mean it.)
How to go backward on my surfboard
How to get an air intentionally.

Session 8051

2008-05-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 51

Lower T today, I almost did not go out but I did have a late late start and really glad I want. Only 4 of us out there at this world-class break. Tomorrow I will try the upper T.

Session 8049,50: In So Cal This Week

2008-05-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 49, 50

Day 50: Surf Tip - Dragging Your Feet Under Water?

Second Day at C. St, and it was small but fun again. Rides are always significantly longer here, and that means that after I take a ride, I need to paddle back out for significantly longer.

So I decided to experiment a bit while paddling out on my Takayama 7'2 Egg board (should have taken out the Walden Magic board but I did not bring it this time.)

When you paddle out on a short board, we often do not realize that we are dragging out feet in the water. I was playing with two modes. One time with feet just dangling in the water and another time with toes tied together and out of the water.

For short-hauls they don't make a difference but for longer paddles (say 40 strokes or more), it does make quite a noticeable difference to me. I did feel that I could get to the spot a bit easier and less tired when I get there.

If you are following good surfers, you can tell that most of them are doing just that usually crossing their feet at their ankles or toes.

You may want to check how you are doing in this department next time you are out.

Day 49:

If you have been around some number of surfers, you will find out that many people who have really been doing this for a while have incorporated the sport as their lifestyle, and I must say that I have basically done that too. I now go back to So Cal at least two weeks out a year and it got to the point that I have set it up so that I will go back to the southern Orange county spots, and if you have been surfing a lot, you know where I go. In addition on the way to there from my NorCAL home, I make a point of stopping by in Santa Barbara and Ventura county spots too.

I am presently in Ventura and I had some great fun waves. They really have it good here as I drove between Santa Barbara and Ventura there are spots after spots of places I could paddle out. I must say that that is usually not the case up in San Mateo county spots. For us, it is more like finding the least worst condition spots in most of the times.

Here are two pictures from this morning.

I will be in LA for Saturday, but in OC starting Sunday and more session notes will continue.

Session 8047-48: Technical Update, Pushing or Pulling The Board During Take-Off

2008-04-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 47-48
Technical Note: Pushing or Pulling the Board While Taking Off

OK... for those who are bored with my philosophical logs, let's get back to some technical note right here and right now!

Learning a skill set is an iterative process, and surfing especially is. I must have written about this some time ago, but every once in a while I notice that a certain aspect of surfing get more refinements and realizing I am revisiting many aspects of the technique.

On this log, I am going to talk about "Pushing or Pulling The Board Ahead During Take-Off." I have found that being conscious to this shift is very useful in getting up on the board at different wave forms.

Here is my description of what happens.

I see a wave starting to come. I turn around, paddle in the direction where the break is about to occur. This means that I look back left and right and actually paddle a bit to the left or right and adjusting the pace of paddling so that by the time the wave hits the board, I will be in the right place to give the last few strokes before getting up on the board.
At the starting point of when the wave starts to lift up, I would paddle with my body more towards the back of the board. This is so that if the wave jacks up faster than I thought, I can still salvage the wave.
As the wave lifts up the tail end of the board, I would feel how fast it is coming up, and I will adjust the paddling power accordingly. In general when the tail lifts up fast, I need to also paddle very strongly and leaving the weight more neutral (and not too forward) with respect to the board. If this happens I also try to get up fast and towards the back of the board. If I mistakenly get up too far forward, pearling is the inevitable result. In this case, I will push the board under me forward a bit just before I get up. This seems to accomplish two things. First while doing this, the board does not bear my body weight so it also feel less effect from the wave. Secondly, by doing this, I can stand way back part of the board. The steeper the wave builds up, I try to do this faster.
If the wave is not building up as fast then I will still need to paddle hard in long big strokes because I could be left behind. In this case, I will also start to move my body forward in sync with the slowly building wave and try to apply my body weight and pressure more in the front of the board. This works especially well with longer and long boards when the board starts to glide down. If that happens, I know I caught the wave, and I can gently get up on the board and carefully execute the first turn and get back up on the wave.
In reality many waves are mixture of slow and fast parts, and also depends on at which part of the wave you are trying to catch. In fact, in order to get into some faster waves, the success seems to come from paddling early, faster (like slow waves) and adjusting the weight back and forth in rapidly changing situation.

One thing for sure, one paddling position is not the "catch-all" solution. On short boards, adjusting the weight shift can accomplished by simply a lift of a head or the chest away or towards the board.

Well, I could be doing something wrong, but there is a comment section on this blog and you can fire off your comments back to me, that will help me learn even more. So don't be bashful!

This morning's surf note: JT was flat but I surfed further north this morning, and I had another high-stoke session on my Walden Magic. I love the board!

Day 48: Microwave Surfing at JT. Tons of puny waves. Great take-off practice on my Egg board with Nick!

Session 8046 Surfing with Legendary Locals

2008-04-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 46
Surfing with Legendary Locals

Another interesting aspect of surfing is that you get to do this with some legendary people. A couple of years ago, I wrote about competing in a local competition and regardless of your skill level you get to share the same wave with people who would be on a cover of a national surfing magazine.

Or like this morning, I know this surfer who has been at it for more than 40 years and he is surfing just like any other people in the lineup. Of course, he's got a style that you know its his... Seemingly (tell me about it) effortless take off and riding like a dancer on a stage, again with a style that's his own.

May be there are other sports. You could appear in a marathon, you could be on a bike race, but I would say that you'd not in the same pack as the top people. In surfing, that's not the case, you will have to share the same heat, basically the same waves with even the best local legendary surfers.

Sure, back in my ski days, I have been to a mountain in Utah where we "shared" the same slope with a very famous movie star, but he is not a pro skier, right?

What does it do for me?

First, it is a really inspirational experience, but a lot of us also take this more or less granted, and so we don't often realize this, and so sometimes, I hear about I was surfing right next to someone who is a real pro. That's also kind of nice because in surfing, to a great extent, "who cares about the fame." From other perspective of it, I also surf with other people who are not pro surfers but they are multi-millionaires, doctors and such. But on the wave, we tend to be rather equal, leaving all these bad things beyond the line on the sand. So what it does to me is, basically nothing. It is nothing to the point that whole thing is enjoyable without really requiring to be thinking about the fame, money and so forth.

I think from that stand-point surfing really brings a level of lifestyle that's not like most, and I'd dare to say almost all other sports.

Session 8045

2008-04-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 45

Should have gone to the Jetty and fought the crowd today.

Session 8043-8044

2008-04-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 43,44 My Take on Why People Are Inconsiderate or Selfish

I actually had a very invigorating session this morning with a clear sky, no winds and crisply cold thick water to duck through and a bit of punishing going down the falls. But rather than bore you with the same old "I had fun" or "I had not fun" type surf report. I am going to get a bit philosophical today.

I meant to write about this for a while, but today when I was getting out of one beach road-way, the traffic was jammed all the way, but it took 2 or 3 cars before they let me in, and that reminded me to write about this.

Whenever we encounter a situation like this, a standard reaction is along the line of "That person is a jerk." But I started to observe about this, and surfing, especially the lineup psychology, as well as being worked in Surfrider Foundation has really helped me to understand this a bit better.

First thing I have observed is that I personally know and met a lot of people who will act like inconsiderate people. Perhaps you might even think I am one of them too. But actually they are all nice people. They are helpful and they are fun to be with often. Or they related by blood to me in one way or another, and they are originally citizens, not engaged in criminal stuff or anything like that. Basically most are "regular" people you'd meet in any situations. They even complain about other people doing jerky things to them too.

The conclusion that I came with is that most people cannot think beyond their own worlds, and that manifests as jerky behavior. And I think that's actually pretty normal, and there probably are only a handful of people who have really and completely gotten out of that mode, Dali Lama and Mother Theresa come to my mind in that class of people.

I think that it is really difficult to really think and live beyond thinking our very own world all the time, and it really need a lot of self discipline and training. The pressure from our external world is also very high to prevent that. First we got to worry about our own jobs, then family, kids and bills to pay, and before you know it, we are all out of time to give thoughts.

So in a nutshell, if you I encounter a situation like this morning or some jerky surfer in a city break in SC, I think about that, and whether if these people have any other room in their mind to do otherwise. But I also think that it is a default behavior in all of us, and it does take a bit of effort to get out of these modes.

Next time when someone would give you a jerky treatment, perhaps you may want to remember this post. At least it makes my rest of the time more relaxed and focus on my own thing!

Have fun out there!

Over and out.

Session 8044: Nice, a bit mushy day this morning at "D" with only three other surfers. Wish I had a long board.

Session 8042

2008-04-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 42

Definitely I am not putting as many surf days as I have been in prior years, but nevertheless, I do go out than most other people. Thanks to living closer to "this side of the hill."

Compared to Sunday, the high fog started to roll in and the NW winds started to blow. There was a chance of not going to be a good time, but I paddled out at the Jetty "anyway" since my primary goal is to get some exercises before work. From this respect, it is more like my daily jogging routine than anything else and catching waves is a bonus for getting out.

Remarkably, I caught more waves on this session than on both of the weekend sessions and some of them were long rides and definitely some fun cutback actions too. My recent improvements in take-off technique is really paying off. The key part is to paddle hard, paddle longer and don't give it up until the wave has gone past completely. Other details include tuning the weight point as I take off. On a slower take off (slower relative to the wave that is forming that is) I will really try to move the weight to the front of the board, whereas if it is jacking up faster I shift the weight back, and in that case the board is basically sticking out in the air, not contacting the water almost perpendicular to the face of the wave that is forming. And one another thing is paddling just one moment longer before getting up on the board. These are definitely very trickily moves that I could not do until very recently and there are bunch of other surfers who do this a whole lot better than me too!

I was thinking about writing a poetry type thing for this log, but then when I got back, I forgot what I was thinking about. I will try soon though.

Session 8040-8041

2008-04-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 40 & 41

Session 8039: This IS Evening Glass Off

2008-04-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 39

Day like this make me so happy to feel that I am living in Califonia!

Sessions 8037-8038

2008-04-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 37 & 38

Day 37: Friday Morning: Small surf, tide all filled up at a local beach.
Day 38: Sunday Morning: Relaxing long boarding. Had a few really fun rides.

More coming... Just ran out of time this weekend!

Session 8036: Wind is what I dislike the most.

2008-04-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 36

Sorry no pictures today.

Wish the tide was a bit lower this morning, but the south swells were definitely being felt this morning at the Jetty, and so I went in. Very very long waits between the sets and most of them backed off and bounced back to create not so optimum condition. After the first two people left, I was there by myself. Further south was a bit smoother and better. But there was no wind and so it was really smooth to get out and relaxing.

Over the years, I have surfed all sorts of conditions, but I am learning to really dislike blown-out condition the most. When the wind gusts, the waves get really crappy and not fun. Beside it brings a lot of chill while waiting. I don't even like offshore conditions much. When offshore is blowing too much, the splash of the wave just gets in my face when taking off, and worse yet, I cannot get into the wave as the board catches the wind.

The best days are glassy days even without much waves, it is just so much easier to get out and enjoy being in the water. Surfing as a part of my exercise regimen, I don't even care if I catch a single wave, so long as I get in the water, paddle for good solid hour then I really feel invigorated for the rest of the day.

Session 8035: Strange Day!

2008-04-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 35
Strange Day!

A beautiful but a rather flat morning. The only spot that seemed to have been breaking was the north corner of the beach if any. So I hurried down the path and then walked back up all the way to the corner of the beach, from where I paddled further to the corner.

Sets were really very far in between and when they came it was hard to catch as the waves either backed off and did not break at all.

Two unusual things happened this morning that would be worthy of reporting. The first was that while I was waiting for a wave someone popped up from nowhere and asked me what time it was. I then asked him where he came from, and he was at another beach further north and paddled there and all the way back. That's quite a bit of distance still since there is another cove in between!

We shared the lineup for a bit, but he took off. I waited for more waves but nothing came. I decided to paddle back to the path, instead of walking back, in order to burn today's quota's worth of calories.

But suddenly there was a huge "Whoosh...." sound just about 10 ft length away from me, and two huge black shadow came up the water. I thought for a moment, "Oh shit. Finally it is my turn!" And when they surfaced completely they were a pair of whales, and the sound was them blowing the water.

I have surfed closer to whales before but this was really close. Basically this was happening in the same space of my bedroom. I turned the camera on right away, but they did not come back or re-surface.

Any time I go out I am always mentally prepared for the last session of my life, so it was not so heart pumping event but I would also say that I was relieved and also really happy to see this special event!

Session 8034

2008-04-01T18:21:00.001-07:00

WavLOG

Day 34

Finally back in the water this PM at the place in the photo album. Small, but there were some fun little waves. Hooked up with a local buddy "G" and it is too bad that he collided with one of the kids and got a hole poked on his board!

I may get back in there tomorrow DP!

Session 8033

2008-03-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 33
Where Are The Good Waves?

Still the low tide conspiring on me. I felt some south swells hitting on my head though.

Session 8032 - Never on a zero tide!

2008-03-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 32

This week the tide and the time has been conspiring against me. This morning I had to go out while at zero tide time, and it was just really bad. I did not catch a wave. About the only thing I got out of this morning was duck diving practice.

This is a kind of a day that when you paddle out for a bit, the tail fin starts to scrape the sand and you know you hit the sand bar, and when you stand, it is only ankle deep, and you are several hundred yards away from the shore!

Under this situation the waves would not take shape, all close out and that's about it.

I am still thankful that I got today's exercise, but it is always nice to catch at least a couple of waves.

Looking at the NOAA WaveWatch forecasts, there will be some south swells hitting us soon. I hope they will bring back some fun this weekend.

Session 8031 "Glass Off"

2008-03-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 31

Today was one of the first "glass off" sessions of this year... At least I would consider this as the official one. I've checked the beach after work a few times, but today I did do just about an hour session at one of my home breaks.

I am happy to say that I did get one really satisfactory ride today, but unfortunately that's about the only one I got.

You might ask, what is a satisfactory ride?

Obviously that's really subjective and it is even subject to change depending on the condition. For example, if a condition is great and I got a ton of waves, I may come back and write here "I did not have a satisfactory ride." What could have happened there? Well, under such circumstance, the bar gets really high. So even if I had several 10-second rides, and if I almost had one ride I thought I could do significantly better than others, but screwed up somehow then I would be totally disappointed.

This afternoon, however, the condition was not all that great. But in spite of that I had a great one ride that I could continue to ride for some time. That's satisfactory because of all of the adverse condition, I was able to make a wave.

This is actually important to me because this could have been one of a contest day and that kind of a ride could have made me to score higher than the others (though, if this was a contest day, I will guarantee you that there are bunch of surfers that would magically make all these waves and look like they are having a real fun! And that makes going to see contests on worst days a more interesting experience.)

You think that contest is a full of B.? I will have to tell you this. Every one of you have successfully out-paddled other s****ms at your very very early ages. Or you would not be here reading this. You should be thankful that you did win that contest of life-time in that regards. Ar least I am thankful that you are reading this, have met many of you, and I thank you!

Now go surf!

Session 8030

2008-03-19T10:05:00.001-07:00

WavLOG

Day 30

It is already mid March and this year I have only surfed for a "month." I was taking a bath on another day and looking as my tummy, I remembered the reason why I have to surf as often as possible. It is the only form of exercise I get I like to get.

This is kind of typical waves this morning when I was "too far out." Waves did not quite break.

At least it was fairly easy to get out as you can see. Not much roughness.

This would have been a ridable wave.
Already it is doubling up.

This is typically where I line up. Not by the walls because there were already a few people on it. And this spot was breaking.

Session 8029

2008-03-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 29

Session note from this morning.

Session 8028: Waxing

2008-03-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 28

Waxing Issue

The strong winds going for the past few days have caused the water temperture to drop close to 50F measured at local buoys. 50F is definitely on the cold side. The coldest I have surfed was at 48F, and 48 is significantly colder feeling with my toes and finger tips starting to tignle.

Another thing I have been noticing is that the when I was taking off on past few sessions there were some times the board slipped under myself and missed on otherwise ridable waves. That was what happend in the pervious session a lot.

So from now on, I will comb the surface well and another things I am going to do is to switch to SexWax Purple instead of Green, and this morning I actually had a couple of really great long rights on my 7'2 Egg. Wish you were there to see me do that. Even the condition was still a bit on a messy side there really were some nice waves that came through a few times.

Session 8027

2008-03-16T11:34:00.001-07:00

WavLOG

Day 27

This morning at the Jetty was almost there condition wise. Could have used a less winds out in the ocean. Nice sunny day. Wish the condition held up a bit better.

Session 8026

2008-03-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 26

Caught in a bit of rip, easy to get out, but it was a hell to get back. A few really fun rides, but the condition changed quickly.

Session 8025: DST Kicks In

2008-03-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

WavLOG

Day 25

DST Kicks in, nice mellow morning with friends at the home break.

JT 3/9/08 10:00 AM

Session 8024: Just enjoy the pics

2008-03-06T10:20:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 24

Another nice low wind spring morning. Same spot as yesterday. We will be there again tomorrow morning. I got some pictures that I am happy with. Enjoy!

Session 8023: The First Day of Spring Surfing (for me)

2008-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 23

This morning was definitely Spring like in terms of the weather, the temperture in the air, and the return of the sight of "regular, familiar" local faces at the beach. From this time of the year on until late October is going to like this as the day getting longer, more variety of people out in the water. This morning was suffring from a bit of mess from the prevailing winds out in the ocean, and getting out at the "northern" part of the beach was a bit tough, unless you ride the rip out, in which case it was just easy.

With not having been out for a while, I can feel that my paddling strength is starting to suffer and probably supplementing that with in-house excercise is starting to be a daily legimen.

You can see that it is a bit of mess to get out there.

I don't know why this picture looks a bit distorted, but hey it is taken on a cheap wrist cam. What can you expect?

I always see one or two people cleaning up this beach every time I am there regardless of the weather. I always give a bit of hand to pick up some stuff near myself. When days gets nicer, unfortunately, there will be more trash. When the fog will return in no time and we will begin to have relatively cleaner beach again!

Session 8022: More on taking off

2008-02-29T10:07:00.000-08:00

WavLOG
Day 22

The Half Moon Bay area has been plagued with poor conditions plus an outbreak of bad flu for the past few weeks that prevented me from thinking about getting the water. So I have been out of the water since last weekend. But finally I got a time this morning to get into my home break here in Half Moon Bay, and while the breaks were on a very mushy side, I got two really nice long rights that were really fun.

One thing that is making quite a bit of difference lately is really some refinements in taking off. I must stress this to anyone who is learning how to surf. When I was starting out, I could not even believe how someone would even just get up on the board, let alone controlling the initial part of the take off, but that's exactly the type of trick that I am starting to get. Now I have a better control at the start of the take off that I even can control the take-off line to get the best performance out of that phase of surfing. Turns out that doing this right can make a difference between riding a long ride or just the wave catches up and then don't go anywhere.

Now a couple of pictures from this morning's session. The second picture shows the traffic on highway, and this is what I usually observe until it dies down then I get out of the water and head to work. Also you see that the entire surface of the water is white in the second picture, this is because it is just after a big set came.

Session 8021: The Ideal Local Surfing Day

2008-02-19T08:25:00.001-08:00

WavLOG

Day 21

Every once in a while there is such an ideal local surfing day. Yesterday was one of them. To me the ideal means;

Smooth paddle out, No winds
Big enough waves. Shoulder to overhead is ideal.
Not too hollow and hard crashing.
Just enough time to paddle to the outside.
Nobody else around, except for a few of my close buddies

It is like a perfect Mix of all the Pods and EQs and Effects all coming together with an even tempered limiter on without too much of a punch, and in this case the nature has provided such a mix for us to have fun with!

Such magic combo happened yesterday on the way to Santa Cruz. I was checking a break somewhere in between and there was only two surfers out. Then another StokeMaster buddy just happened to show up. What a timing!

The waves were delicious and I was able to indulge myself chopping up the waves in all 3 dimensions + time. Waves were not so fast and also allowed me to practice getting in to the wave by paddling super extra hard and then pushing the front of the board down. When that works, and my board and myself takes off as if get attracted into the sweet and almost magical force field of gravity and the fluid motion energy... almost feels like getting sucked into the field, quietly and smoothly but fast. Only when this happens, I am in the early part of the wave, the bottom works right, the top works right, and the ride can be very very long!

This is a type of a day that I look forward to and surfing in shitty conditions is something that is the due that I pay for. And believe me, just the previous session together with this buddy, we had the worst condition at Linda Mar.

Session 8020

2008-02-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 20

Double session this morning at one undisclosable location and also at the Jetty. The first spot had some size on it, but due to an extreme high tide condition, the waves were not breaking. After my buddy arrived at the beach he said he wanted to go to the Jetty.

One surf tip. These days, many people have cars with leather seats in them. Obviously you don't (and should not) want to sit on those with your salty wetsuit. Even it is vinyl or cloth, soaking salt water means a long-term damage to underneath spring and metal works! So one thing I do is to use the board bag and line the seat.

Session 8019: Surfing as a Part of Life

2008-02-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 19
Surfing as a Part of Life

I did get out this morning and shoot over 13 images but all of them turned out a dud so no pictures today. The condition was just really poor and we could not even get to the outside due to so much oncoming white water, so today I am going to write a short essay on surfing lifestyle.

In 2008, I can really feel that surfing has rooted as a part of my daily life. Surfing used to not be that way. Let's say that this is similar to, say, a child visiting Disneyland from Ohio and then later the child would become an employee of the Disney corporation and assigned to work at the park every day. Surfing used to be special in the way of something I did occasionally. That has changed from 1-2 days a month to every weekend, then to basically an every-day endeavor.

Making this into an every-day endeavor creates a different set of demands. This is starting to approach to the same level of activities as eating, showering and such. The requirements change, for example, it is now so routine that I will automatically check the condition, plan, budget the time, forecast, and money to do it, and to some extent I will now feel that this activity is my daily requirement rather than occasional work out. I even know that I can wear wetsuits for about 2 seasons and need a replacement. Speaking of equipment, I now only routinely carry and surf two boards, it would not be surprising then that I may start shedding some extra stuff that I have collected over the years, and the moment I would do that, I would go and get some new stuff seeing the empty garage space!

I know that there are many others who has crossed this boundary, made necessary changes in their lifestyles. I've seen many of my friends move to Santa Cruz, or other locals. Some have taken different jobs closer to the ocean, or even some people have gone into career that are more involved in the sport or support of the sport, for example, working full-time in non-profit organizations, or working in touring or event organizations.

What compels us to do this may be different for everyone, and if you ask me deeply why, I could not answer, but there still is one common element that binds us, we are all stoked to get out in the water, surf and get our desires satisfied.

Session 8018, Foggy and Sucky

2008-02-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 18

It was foggy, super low tide and small. But I did get out and got some excercise, which is all that really counts for me. The was dense then cleared for a bit then came right back.

Session 8017

2008-02-06T19:43:00.001-08:00

WavLOG

Day 17

I was not expecting much this morning, but it turned out to be fun. It was also a bit warmer this morning and even the water did not feel icy like in the past few sessions. One thing that is really helpful is that I lightly jog to the spot and that will get my warm blood circulating to the skin. I will definitely try this again tomorrow as the condition would be similar as this morning (hopefully, that is).

Session 8016

2008-02-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 16

Not much to report, other than the fact I went out, caught 1 wave, and that was about the extent of it.

This is a typical scene. There is a guy standing and looking. Probably
thinking... "What a fool guy out there."
I would say to him. "Why did you even bother checking."

You can see the messy condition. This is my Takayama 7'2 Egg board.
Pretty all around board. If the condition gets bad or really big
this is the one I take out. Pretty much substitutes a long board and
it fits between my car seats. Very very important for an "surf everyday"
person like myself.

I usually throw away more than 70% of the shots.
I am sharing this. I think is a bit calming down effect to it.
Someone could do an oil painting of this one.

Session 8015, Frustration Gets Bigger, Not The Waves...

2008-01-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 15
Frustration Gets Bigger

The poor condition continues today, though we were relieved on two stuff this morning. As it turned out that the oil balls are from natural causes, some seepage from a natural source of oil. I used to surf in Santa Barbara and that area is notorious for the natural tar-balls. We are kind of lucky we don't routinely have that type of issue. It does a number on the wet suits, booties and the board.

This morning looked a bit better than yesterday, less windy and sunny, so I proceeded further south than the spot we surfed yesterday. As usual with my surf estimation skills, it looked quite "doable" from the shore, so I was all stoked and went in (please continue after the photo).

Have you seen the gateway to the hell?
I have... Many times!

Yeah, but once I started to get in, the swell started to get messier again, started to produce big shore breaks, and then lots of white water. I was basically caught inside and did not get out. I got kind of tired and ran out of time. Luckily there was one break that I caught which ended up in an OK ride.

You can see the continuous incoming white stuff in the picture below.

But I cannot really complain, how often other people get to stop by at this beautiful scenery before they get to work? The movement of the sand throughout the year is something that is really interesting to me. Sometimes, they are pushed up like this, and sometimes, we almost do not have any beach.

Session 8014 More Mess!

2008-01-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 14

We have not had much good luck in terms of surfing in the Northern San Mateo county of Califonia this past few weeks. We just had a raw sewage spill this past weekend, and this morning I made a point of hooking up with a buddy of mine at 7:15 in the morning in Pacifica, and here is what happened.

When I got there there were 3 TV vans with satellite uplinks. I though that there was some time of accident so I tried to surf. Soon I found out that all parking lots were roped off.

So I had to get to the shopping center lot, where the TV vans were, and I spoke to one of the staff and she told me that they were covering an Oil Spill issue. Oh, gosh, another oil crap again? I thought, but then I thought that this is probably some old stuff resurfacing as we had quite a stormy surf for the past several days.

We then decided to head back south to find a wave. First we checked out Montara which I though was OK, but as we tried to get to the beach, the wave started to crank up and become quite a bit of a huge mess. I thought that it would be doable, but then it will require a much patience and a lot of biceps "burn." So we continued on south at the Jetty which was dismal.

Another beach a bit further south. (Please scroll down to the next set of photos.)

When we arrived at the next break, we took a look and thought that it was crappy, but then after investing this amount of time and we are getting in a danger of abusing our flex-time privildeges, we decided to get in "anyway" and paddled out. (Please continue after the next photo.)

In my StokeCAST I often talk about the "Washing Machine" condition, and here is a good example of what I often mean by this. You can see the suds, and ripples typical of what would be inside of my Miele... OK... Kenmore.

It took a while to get out of these inside mess.

And when we catch waves, it also closed quickly and our total ride was probably about the same as a round-trip packet time from here to New York.

Session 8013: Still Zero Catch Today, How To Use the Wrist Cam

2008-01-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 13
Learning How To Use The Wrist Cam

NOTE: Click the picture to see the enlarged photos. You get a lot more out of them.

I am a bit embarrassed to tell you that for two sessions in a row I have not caught a wave. Nevertheless, I was glad I played in the water for an hour or so before work (well, I had to work this morning to do some IT issues.)

I have been practicing how best to get the shots with my submersible wrist cam. So let me talk about this a bit more in detail. The first picture you see here, which I highly recommend you click and see the higher-res version, you can see a rainbow out in the ocean. Picture like this is much easier to take because I can shoot just before I get in the water up close from the water. Otherwise I have to take them after I am done or before I do get in the water with a separate camera.

Again, this one is from the shore but it is now so easy to capture that.

This is kind of a picture I get a lot. I intended to take some other picture but ended up pushing a button just when the wave knocks me over. I have fond out that it is better to take pictures with me off the board, propping the camera and my arm on the board.

And that brings me to this picture. It is nice to take picture of waves from behind as well as from the front. You can see that this was a good offshore day as the good thick spinnaker cloud is flying behind the wave. What you are seeing is the infamous shore break that is about to happen.

Session 8012, Cold Barren and No Catch Today

2008-01-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 12
Cold, Barren and No Catch Today

Another small day this morning at local beaches. The swell lines were clearly visible on the ocean surface but wave never really broke at a few spots I checked. This is the last stop I made, as you can see, at this spot there was basically the only one peak that was doable. But it was a bit difficult for me to catch as the take off spot was very tiny and another surfer was already on it.

I paddled around a bit more and got out. While I was in the water I was not that cold but once I got out the E winds were blowing a bit and I got chilled quite quickly. It was certainly a good exercise but this morning that was the only extent of being in the water. With surfing we sometimes catch a lot and sometimes none!

Session 8011: Are We Not All Beginners After All?

2008-01-22T20:22:00.001-08:00

WavLOG

Day 11

This morning, I surfed alone at the Jetty, my home break only a walks away from my home. I strapped on my submersible wrist cam so these pictures are not stock photos but from my session this morning! Look at the beautiful convective cloud out in the ocean, and the dawn sky in the west.

I had to wait and wait and wait, and also paddled, paddled and paddled around for an wave I could catch, but every 10 minutes or so the break woke up and start to break some fun waves. I only had two waves that were really fun, but I had to chase for them, and paddled at a full power and pushing the board down with my chin hard down so that I can get in the wave, but once I caught the waves, I got really some fun waves going down and up all the way to the lip and down. Read on after two pictures I have taken!

Oh, by the way, you can see the edge of my Takayama 7'2 Egg board in the picture two, and the look at the wave on the second picture. This is one of the wave I had to miss so that I can share the wave with you, but yes, won't you paddle of it? I would have if it was not for you, my friend.

~ ~ ~

This morning, I was thinking that why many people don't want to be considered themselves as beginners. For me I am a perpetual beginner because every time I seemed to have advanced to the next level, I am back to the beginner of the next level. As soon as I get cocky, there would be accidents, dings and just bad things that are waiting. The ocean and the nature really teaches us to be humble and be observant.

The StokeMaster project is basically to wake up the Zero starting point in all of us. No matter how good you think you are, we should always go back to that day 1 when we first handed a board, and put on the wetsuit for the first time, and splashed into the cold water.

While I do get cocky often enough, I always try to remember that each time I get out, I try it to be the Day 1 of my surfing.

Session 8010: Home Break, Being Cold? Some Insight.

2008-01-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 10

This morning, I almost did not go. I went to check out another spot, but the cold air was blowing rather strong, and it was not enticing. A bit fortunate news is that the Jetty is a bit more NW winds protected, and there were occasional fun looking waves. I also put on the HERO camera on my wrist and paddled out. The resulting pictures are below. As with any in-water surfing photography, it is difficult to hold steady, so these are the best I can do today. I want to talk a bit about the cold, so check out the photos and read on. (Also, if you click on the pics on the blogger post itself, you can see them a bit larger http://WavLog.StokeMaster.com)

Being Cold is Half The State of Yourself

There are Buddhist priests in Japan who would stand under a small water-fall in the winter to train themselves. I too was amazed by people getting into the water this time of the year. With the invention of the wetsuits, it has significantly improved the situation, but we still all tend to complain.

What I have found out though, is like anything, if you keep doing it, your body and mind will start to learn to cope with it. For me the first 5 minutes or so of surfing is the hardest, and especially the first duck dive is something I really don't look forward to, but once I'm done with all that the rest of the session is not cold. I paddle around a lot to keep myself warm, and I can actually get quite toasty inside a 4/3 suit, especially around the chest and the tummy area. Even on a windy day like this, I am perfectly fine. One blessing is that in the winter, the water temp does not go much below 50 F even when it is 32 F in the morning.

So get in the water, it is wamer there!

Session 8008, 8009: Towards More Water Contact

2008-01-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

WavLOG
Day 8 and 9

First the surf report. Day 8 was at Pacifica and it was really fun with the waves up to my head height. Today, Saturday, my 9th session of this year was at a location below. Sorry I won't tell you exactly where, but it should be obvious if you've been there. Also, and by the way, I stopped by at Half Moon Bay Board Shop and got the HERO 3 wrist cam so there will be more in-water reporting coming soon. Please look forward to it. On this WavLOG I am going to give you some technical update.

Technical Update

I am a bit over-due in this department, mainly because there has not been a significant technical progress that I could articulate. Surfing is really difficult because no matter how much I practice, there always are much better surfers than I. The number of people that I "aspire" to in any break is getting smaller, each season goes by. But on my very first few seasons, just about everyone was someone I'd aspire to.

I was actually thinking about the times when I took bigger and hollower waves earlier on and what used to happen. Here is what used to happen. The board would skip over the water and I am going left and right without much control.

Lately I have noticed that that type of issue is happening much less, but when this happened a few times in the past sessions, I have finally realized what has changed or improved in that department.

What has really improved is the more effective use of the board, especially the front part of the board. Before, with being scared and such, I did not commit my full body weight to the front of the board enough that I was just skimming and skipping over the waves especially when I was going faster... Being scared is a detriment to short-board surfing, but then I have injured several times, so I have been conditioned to be more conservative; that often work against surfing. I must remind myself that I need that steep drop off and I should paddle super hard and keep the nose of the board down as I commit to the take-off. Surf boards, especially the short ones are designed to handle situations like this.

With more confidence building up, I have been able to really distribute the weight more evenly on the board and also responding to changing situations faster. Actually I am no longer making conscious decisions about this, instead I am now being able to feel the waves and also read the waves better now and my body will more or less naturally distribute the weight to get the most power and stability out of the situation. With the weight fully distributed, the rails are fully engaged in the wave, the water is in good contact throughout the ride, the turning action has become more fun, full and dynamic, and gaining the speed is finally starting to happen too.

Last summer, there was a period of time when I long-boarded a lot, and also I am using the 7'2 Egg a lot since as a substitute for a long-board. Having learned how to step forward into the board has significantly helped me understand the weight distribution issue on a surfboard.

I will have to continue building upon this skill set over much wider range of conditions, but since this is starting to become natural, I am really stoked about challenging more situations that I'd avoided for a long time.

Session 8007: More "Just a Fair" Day

2008-01-15T09:32:00.001-08:00

Day 7
More "Just a Fair" Day

The waves were in a bit better shape when I arrived at the beach. They looked more surfable than yesterday. With the period hitting 19 seconds from WNW, I picked the spot that's more protected from the direct hit. I was hoping that there would be some fun ridable waves, and looked like there would be.

But it is often the case, what you see is not always what you get. The paddle out was hard enough, already with prevailing wind chops from the results of the winds out in the ocean, though the winds did not hit the beach yet.

After a bit of effort to get to the outside, I hunted around for any ridable breaks, but when large sets came, they crumbled, and when small sets came, they crumbled too. I tried for a few waves but without much luck, and of course, nobody else were getting much of a ride either.

Frustrated, I paddled in and was ready to get to work, I waited for the next white water to take me to the shore. Then I realized that I was being sucked into fairly fast rip currents. I decided to experiment; I just decided to just float and see how far it will take me. Remarkably without almost any paddling at all, I was back at the outside. For me it was fun, but I would imagine it will be a really scary experience if someone was caught in this as a victim. It was relatively going fast today.

So I decided to wait for another wave to ride, but waves were not shaping up still yet.

Another mode change I have decided to paddle further south just so that I get enough exercise for today, and finally I found a spot that was breaking a bit mellower, and took a ride. That was short but sweet that let me score a couple of turns. I paddled back for the next but no good wave came and the I ran out of time.

Session 8006: Why I Continue To Surf

2008-01-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 6
Why I Continue to Surf?

From an epic day to a paddle out hell... it just goes to say, we really have very marginal surf spots near my home. Yesterday was just about the perfect condition for me in Santa Cruz, but today in Half Moon Bay, it is just a jumble of disorganized mess, and when paddling out there is no forward momentum towards the direction of Hawaii; sometimes the ocean closes the gate and push us right back to the shore.

Why would I keep going like a fool then?

Well, I really have made a sort of commitment to myself, to you and to the nature a while back:

I committed that this is my (only) daily exercise. So catching a wave is more or less a bonus for me. Even if I get one satisfactory ride out of a session, that's more than a nice reward. So if the condition is safe enough for me, I will go and paddle hard for 30-45 minutes if nothing else. Yes, that was me in the Jetty when it looked all flat and that was also me when Montara looked like going through a rinse cycle.
It is also my commitment to you that I go surf as much as possible so I have something to write about this surfing adventure of mine, no matter what it is shaping up to. I know many of you have been a loyal reader of this blog and the StokeMaster.com web site.
Outside of the the annual state park fees, I am considering that my gym is the Pacific ocean and it is basically free of membership fees. But I do commit part of my time/income as the "environmental tax" by serving the Surfrider Foundation as a volunteer, and give back what I make to the "nature." and help repair or prevent the however damages I make to the nature while I am on this planet, and I always pick up any pieces of trash when I get out.

As I started to build the web site and surfing community I have found out that I was not alone. And that keeps me going even more!

Session 8005,Still Big Day But Pretty Epic at Capitola

2008-01-13T19:41:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 5
Stoke 10 At Capitola

I am really glad we decided to go to Capitola this afternoon. On the drive from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz, the waves were huge all over. When I came to the Jade Cove, I had to stop the car and take the shot. The waves here were at least 20 ft on a bigger set, and crushing really hard onto the rocks on the left.

I was a bit worried about if this situation would be everywhere all the way to SC, but when I arrived at Capitola, I was really relieved to find that the area was much better protected, and while it was still taller than myself on bigger sets, they were manageable.

It was definitely a long board scene, but I took out my trusty Takayama 7'2 Egg board, sat a bit further inside, and I really had a lot of fun. Some rides were really long and was able to do a lot of ups and downs.

Observations on Some Surfers: Going Straight Is An Option

Surfing on waves in one thing, but you can also get a lot out of just observing. On this session, I saw several people who were otherwise on good waves but eaten up by the waves too soon. The main problem I saw looking from the side line was that they seemed to be determined to stay on the trim and totally oblivious about other cards they could draw to stay on the waves. Should they cut down to a straight down line, they could have regained the speed, get ahead of the wave, and with a mighty sweeping bottom turn back up to the wave, they can stay on a ride.

Session 8004: Better Quality

2008-01-08T18:43:00.001-08:00

WavLOG

Day 4
Better Quality Yet!

Yesterday I wrote about the rapidly changing weather and conditions. This morning is a perfect example that demonstrates that point. Winter brings some frequent offshore conditions as low pressure systems pass by in the ocean. Typically in the summer, a high pressure system sits right in the Pacific and with the inland heating up, it will move a lot of air onshore. We usually need to wait until the winter season to see frequent offshore conditions. To be honest with you though I don't like any wind on the surf. Offshore condition is "text book" recommended situation as we know, but sometimes, the winds are so strong that the waves simply do not break easily so we often need to paddle like hell to catch waves. And also if I am on a bigger longer board, the wind just blows the board upwards and that makes it even worse.

Of course, that's coming from a unskilled surfer like myself. There were a plenty of surfers who can pull off great rides at any imaginable conditions. My goal, of course, is to become one of them.

Well, so here is a picture of what it looked like this morning. Sometimes fairly large sets came through that was definitely taller than myself, and when that happens it just keep happening for 3 or 4 waves.

Lately I have been having a bit of problems after the flick up. That is the board is slipping away from me. I don't know what has changed. I did not have this when I was in So Cal mid December. I really had a blast and very long satisfying rides on my quad at the Trestles. So

I think I know the cause which is that I am not committing my weight forward fast enough. But I don't know the root cause of this. One thing is that I am definitely trying harder than ever to catch waves, and as a result this could be the start of being able to go a bit deeper in take off. I surely hope so.

I have uploaded more pictures in today's forum entry of January 08 Journal at the StokeFORUM Members section (link). You got to be logged in as a StokeMaster member to see it, but hope you join the StokeMaster and continue further discussions and get out together sometime!

LM This Morning

2008-01-08T09:31:00.001-08:00

Nic and I had a fun DP. Better pics later on in the stkeforum

Session 8003: The After Mass of The Storm at Linda Mar

2008-01-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

The WavLOG
Day 3
The After Mass of The Storm at Linda Mar

Winter surfing in Northern California often is a fight with the rapidly changing nature. With the weather system moving fast, often 35-45 mph plus, these systems can move close to 1000 miles a day that can dump record rain and wind gusts one day and move on, giving a nice, clear and calm day after.

We just had a record breaking storm on Friday last week, that knocked down power lines in many of our communities. In Half Moon Bay area, where I live, the power was down for 7-8 hours on Friday in the whole town. The whole town outage is actually a good news. If this was a tree-down in a neighbor, and only a dozen homes were to be affected, it could be a low-priority fix taking 2-3 days to get the power restored. Power loss is one thing but it would be a pisser when we start to spoil food in the fridge. We suffer this just about every single year. Thank god, we have gas cooking, we were able to continue cooking.

With the strong winds almost anything that could be knocked down went down. Just about every big wide road signs were down on the highway, and we witnessed a Wells Fargo sign tipped over too at Half Moon Bay branch. This storm was especially worse because the winds were southerly most of the time and most of our roads run N-S direction so the signs were hit direct by the winds.

Back to surfing though, finally the storm has left us and we had a small window of opportunity today to get out with the 11 ft 12 sec WNW swells and practically no winds. Looks like in just a few days we will be back to raw messy huge waves and winds again!

This picture is our famous "world's most beautiful Taco Bell" in Linda Mar, Pacifica. You can see the only remaining part of the signage is the word Bell.

Look at the amount of debris on the parking lot. It is showing the dramatic spill of the water into the lot. The lot was muddy all over.

However, the waves were back to "normal" with up to my shoulder level, on a very mushy side and many long boarders were having fun. I had a couple of rides on that's on a "Fun" scale this morning on my quad short board.

See You Out There!

Huge Mess

2008-01-03T12:31:00.001-08:00

Gusty winds are making unsurfable condition.

Session 8002: Crappy? But I Still Will Catch Waves!

2008-01-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 2
Crappy? But I Still Catch Waves!

With the condition being predicted to be stormy and big, I decided to cut the work a bit early today and got a short session before the sun went down. I checked two spots and actually the first spot was more decent than the Jetty, but with the time running out I decided to paddle out at the Jetty.

The condition was just about the crappiest it can get. A lot of rough chops of the size up to my hip, with not much waves breaking. I paddled around and finally closer to the rocks there was a where some sign of the swells breaking.

The first one was a decent size and shaping up. I got up on the wave but the chop ahead was so much that the front of the board stuck through the water and buried the board. I was immediately catapulted and that was it. I had to wait for several more minutes for the next set, and this one was a decent take-off, and the wall was starting to form but that did not materialize.

Now it was starting to get dark, and I know there will be some submerged rocks so I caught one and tried to ride straight back to the shore.

Was it worthwhile? Of course it was. There were couple of other people out there and they were not catching much at all. Being able to surf on crappy condition is a competitive edge, and I have to cover that too as a part of the skill!

Session 8001

2008-01-01T21:45:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Day 1

The first surf of 2008 started out on a good note, though a bit too strong offshore wind . Not very crowded at all and the air was on a balmy side (high 50's) for this time of the year. With the prevailing offshore winds, we had to paddle like a hell to get in the wave as the wave did not break at the spots they usually do with onshore days.

I am really having a good wave when I can stick my hand in the wall of the wave and keep going.

Session 7176

2007-12-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

WavLOG

Final Day
Surfed 176 Days in 2007

The final surf day this year was back at the my home break of Half Moon Bay Jetty, and the condition was poor. Just myself and another woman surfer for about an hour. I must say though 07 was a good surf year for me and made a lot of advances and also some stupid stuff like going home when I was qualified for the next heat in a surf competition.

Thank you for taking a surf journey with me for 2007.

The journey continues in 2008. And that's less than 24 hours from now! May your surfing life filled with a full of Stoke.

Happy New Year!

Jetty this morning

2007-12-28T09:13:00.001-08:00

Quite junky. DRIVE STRAIGT TO WORK...