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 8036: Wind is what I dislike the most.

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 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 8030

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

WavLOG

Day 29

Session note from this morning.

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

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 8012, Cold Barren and No Catch Today

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 8008, 8009: Towards More Water Contact

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 8004: Better Quality

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!

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

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!

Session 7174: Christmas Day

WavLOG

Day 7174
Christmas at The Jetty

There are a few days out of the year when it is a holiday but not many people go out and surf. Super bowl Sunday is one of them (especially to avoid agro male surfers), Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving Day and a day after that and Christmas Eve and Christmas Days are usually less crowded and the lineup tends to be less aggressive. Last Christmas time, the condition and the weather was getting bad and for two weeks after that there was no surfable waves, but this Christmas we were presented with a fairly fun waves right in Half Moon Bay.

As usual, the picture cannot justify the types of the waves we had today (they almost always look slow and smaller), but with WNW hitting us up to 14 ft and 14 seconds type range, our local break was alive again, and without much winds, the paddle out was relatively smooth if you do nail a few duck-dives through the sets, which was also fairly well spaced out. Wish that I could get out on a bit lower tide as the Jetty was filled with water with a high tide and the water was bouncing back out a bit hard.

Thinking that I ought to attack the wave from the outside earlier, I first took out the 7'4 Egg but I had a hard time negotiating for the surface of the wave, so I got back and swapped with the 6'5 F4 and the rest of the session was much more fun. Also with a shorter and lighter board it was easier getting out. These days, the length of the board is no longer the main factor in my ability to paddle out, which is really great.

This, still is not the Trestles and so there are many more close out waves and such but among the sets there were some fun and over-head size waves that popped up. Some drop downs were fun a bit challenging but after making them, it was fun and was able to continue on to the doubled up sections for some time.

Session 7142 - First "Big" Day of The Season

The first "big" day of the season started today and looks like it will hang around with us for the next few days. This morning, it was a bit questionable whether I could surf locally. On a day like this the option can be limited since I do have to show up at work at a reasonable time, and I have a problem with my software at work that I could not figure out for the past few days, and I have been praying that this will be solved soon.

When I got to the Jetty, the waves looked a bit surfable, surprisingly on a "handleable" size; not even overhead. There was one guy out and another local person I know was also checking the surf. I told him, let's go!

So I did go in. Thanks to the calm wind, even though the waves were powerful, I was able to get out with only a duck through.

Well, everyone seemed to have had a lot of problem taking off, and the waves were just plain closing out quickly. I paddled around to see if I can find more defined peak, but just about every one of the swell line that came in ended up not breaking. As I try to take off, more water built up in front, go up then just crushed into a mess.

I was determined to catch one though, so I kept trying. You can underestimate the power of waves especially when it is a longer period one. I messed up one which was a huge close out. I had no option but just bail. I pushed my board as far aside as possible as I was starting to have this feeling of jacked up, then pounded under. And that's exactly how it happened. In addition to that I was treated to underwater tumble of spins... 1, 2, 3... it kept going. The best way for me to do now is to just hold my breath, completely relax all my limbs and wait until it stops... 4... 5... 6... now I am starting to worry... 7... 8. Finally the spinning stopped and the surrounding got a while lot brighter. I popped my head above the water and "Poooof!" exhaled some of the water I took in. And took a nice deep breath of fresh air.

This is a rude reminder that we are land animals, designed to breathe air.

I did not give up though. I paddled back out for some more. Possibly another tumbler. But the time was running out, I started to paddle back in, just then there was a small break that happened, and took that as the last and the only one ride of the session.

But...

When I got to work, I checked the build configurations, there was some errors, and the program ran without an error. That made me feel much better.

Oh, I also have decided to put my helmet back on when it can be dangerous for my taste.

Session 7136

The part that took this long to get to is to more consistently and quickly be up on the board. But, finally after close to 4 years of trial and error, things are coming together as one.

I am starting to enjoy the sport at a different level than before, that is to mean I actually enjoy the ride and not struggling so much with anything that happens before that point. Things are starting to work more consistently and cohesively, and as a result I feel like I can more confidently focus on the "job at hand."

I was, for a long time, wondering if this would ever happen.

But I think it is starting to.