Session 8079-81: Morning Surf Report + Surfwise

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

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 8040-8041

WavLOG

Day 40 & 41

Sessions 8037-8038

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 8031 "Glass Off"

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 8026

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 8020

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 8016

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 8014 More Mess!

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 8001

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 7173 Back at Home Break

WavLOG

Day 173
Back at Home Break

I was back on Friday so yesterday, I could have gone out. In fact, I should have as my friend "E" told me that yesterday at this home break below was just great. But after a week of SoCAL surfing, I was a bit hesitant to go into cold water. Today also there was a small high school meet there so I got to surf with a bunch of local surf kids as well as some of their parents.

I watched and shot several pictures (below) and as you can see the condition was really fun and the high school kids were having a lot of fun competing.

As for my own surfing, I had a few nice deep drop and of course the speed here is something that there is a plenty of here in these breaks. The Takayama Egg 7'2 has performed well when the size goes up a bit as some of the breaks were clearly above my 5'5 stature and gaining a speed with this board is quite a bit of fun and thrill too.

The buoy water temp was reading 51 degrees F today, but with a 3 mm hood, 1.5 mm gloves and Mysterioso rush guard, I was completely warm and comfortable throughout the session with a 4/3 mm suit.

Session 7137 ~ 7138 Towards More Hollower Waves

In my past WavLOGs, I have written about some of the changes that are starting to happen with my surfing. Please bare in mind that my progresses are very very slow and often inconsistent so by reading this, do not think that I am surfing significantly better than most of you. All of my stuff is being described relative to my own progress.

Having said that though, some of the significant ride quality changes stem from the fact that I am going for more difficult types of waves than before; namely the hollower waves, and by this what I try to mean is the one looks like the Surfirder logo from the side, that forms a bit of tube in the end before the wave completely crush.

There are two things that I am starting to understand better to take advantage of these types of waves.

One is lining up. I am much more careful in choosing where I am going to be and then sit tight and wait for the wave I want to happen, or correct positions. Either ways, I am string to make my position more accurate than before. Another thing about this is to position carefully to where the ridable shoulder would form. It is especially useful on beach breaks around here where a few feet in positioning can make it or break it.

Second is the selection of the wave. I am starting to become more keen on when the wave will totally close out or would form a ridable shoulder.

Third element is the paddling power. Then forcing myself getting myself in the direction of the break early and higher in the wave.

Finally, doing the take-off with much less fear, and more confidence.

When all these elements come together, the type of the ride is dramatically different from what I have been doing. Rides are much faster, and also the power and force of the wave against my knees are significantly more, and by making turns appropriately, the power can be maintained or even more power can be drawn from the wave.

Sesssion 7122, How Local Female and Male Surfers Do Sessions

This morning I have finally figured out the long unsolved mystery.

The mystery is about local women surfers. When it comes to seeing them, it is often feast or famine. There are lots of them in a line up or none of them.

I did figure this out though.

I was the first to arrive at the beach, suiting up and this local female surfer showed up. We then went in . But after that one by one over the course of the session more and more local women surfers showed up and that ended up to be about 6. That's usually a lot in local standards.

I now know that women surfers have a strong network. They call each other and they also call others. They are organized and mobilized so when they come to surf, they are going to be all there.

They are having a lot of fun talking on the water, in and out of the beach. It just brighten up this local beach, which is usually barren, drab, foggy and often intimidating with big close out waves. (This morning was sunny.)

In a nutshell, our local female surfers are like me dropping a piece of chocloate on the ground. Before you know there are lots of them.

Then I thought about local male surfers.

Male surfers have networks too, but it tends to be smaller. It is more like a small pack of wolves or something. In some ways, these packs move from one place to another in hunt of waves, and if we run into other packs in the process, we'd make sure that we allow enough room so that we don't be on the same territory. Male surfers tend to be more friendly out of the water, but once in the water it can get tense and territorial to some extent.

Surf Progress Report

It was mostly closed out this morning with occasional ridable shoulder, very very typical of our local beach break situation.

Lately my area of focus are the following;

• Work on finding out the ridable spot(s), lining up properly, and if necessary paddle there as the set comes in. This is a very important competition skill set. It requires keen eyes, sense, and observing the previous break pattern during the session.
• Continue to work on take-offs. I am continuing to get incremental improvement in this area into more steeper, faster, and into hollower situations. This requires a lot of commitment, overcoming the fears, and a lot more paddling spurt power.
• Speed = Longer Ride at All Conditions! More aggressive board interactions for speed; applying more body weight effectively through turns, and working on improved line selection and composition for more consistent power.

Seesion 7092 Two Seals - Better Get Out Of There

Normally I won't be spooked, but when two seals showed up and I was all by myself out there, well, I'd rather not want to be on tomorrow's newspaper. I am not so scared of getting eaten up. Today is just as good of day for me to die than tomorrow. But I really am more spooked of the idea that the the papers, web sites and TVs can sell more ads because of my death. I consider myself much more expensive and precious for that!

Session 7090

This morning, thinking like it would still be a repeat of Sunday, I went back to the same spot. As I was pulling in, another local guy we know just pulled out, and there were no other cars, so I have guessed that the condition was not going to be that great.

These days, I know enough faces and their cars that the moment I pull in to the spot, I know it is going to be good or bad.

I would have paddled out even if it was all by myself, but sure enough the waves were just a mess and a lot of backwash waves were already causing the area bouncy in the inside. Sometimes these backwashes can be horrible as the bouncing reflected waves collide with incoming waves and make a huge splash.

I gave up on the spot and I drove up a further north. By then I only had 50 minutes to go, so I went ahead and went in. Paddled out no problem but could not catch a wave. They were either too closed out or backing off.

But water was exceptionally warm, and I was hot in my 4/3. Good paddling exercise as the current was, as usual, very strong there and if I stop paddling, I would be washed way outside and way to the south. It still scares me a bit when that happens, especially when I was all by myself.

Sessions 7079 A and B

This weekend surfing was quite challenging. The prevailing NW local swells has gotten quite powerful, unusual for this time of the year. Of course, this local wind situation has gotten a bit out of control this year, and "upwelling" has been talk of the town. Even Half Moon Bay review has run a special article with Mark Sponsler being interviewed. Apparently, though, last year we did not have enough wind and hence the upwelling activity so that ended up not supplying birds and so a lot of them died.

In Buddhism we talk a lot about karma and that's kind of a situation when one thing causes (or not causes) another and eventually much further down the line something is affected. This is why we should not take our environmental issue so lightly. Eventually it will come and get all of us if we don't watch the whole of what is happening.

Back to local wind swells, it has gotten a bit powerful to the extent that it woke up the bay as well as in the north part of the county. I made a previous commitment to surf with my friend in Moss Beach and he came over to a spot in the bay in the morning. It looked surfable to me but once we got in there it was just a bunch of close-outs, and I did catch a few but basically it ended up not as much fun. He got out in half an hour. I got out with him, but then I went back in and caught a few waves that was actually not too bad. These conditions can change by the minute especially when the tide swings much.

I thought that that was the Sunday session, but later on I got a call from him again and he was going to do another spot. I said I had a lot to do and hang up the phone, but then I thought after a moment. What the heck, let's get out again. This is a weekend after all.

So I went out.

When I got there two other locals I know were just watching and hesitating to get in. There was only one body-boarder out at the spot I was interested in. The waves were much bigger than the spot in the morning, and I too was a bit hesitant because it sure looked like my upper limit when bigger sets came in.

But I sort of bluffed at them that I am going so they should come. It took me about a good 10 minutes worth of begging to get them going. Eventually they went back to their cars to suit up. I hopped down from the rock I was sitting on while I was talking to them, and run to the spot where there is a constant rip out.

I kept my calm and paddled out. Just in about 10 strokes I was carried easy to the outside to where this body boarder was. I don't remember if I had to duck through or not now. I sat inside a bit to see where the break is happening.

A bigger set rolled in and I gave it a try but I pearled and as a result I was held down for a bit. This basically repeated throughout the session and so I did not actually got a ride that I can say I did. But I kept trying and kept paddled back for more.

By the time I got out though there were just three of them out.

Session 7075: South Got Stronger...

Today, the south got stronger and I did not have a whole lot of time so I headed out to a beach near-by knowing that it won't be that great. When I got there, it was standard "mostly close-outs" situation. I was pretty much the second person out.

Practiced mainly on getting up faster and nailing the turn #1. I know some people can still ride these waves. I need to get there, since if I do, I know I can enjoy a lot more with these breaks we get around here.