Session 8098-8100: The Final Daily WavLOG

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 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 8043-8044

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 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 7148 Girl Section!

So, I have this super-surfer woman, and on the other day, she was talking about surfing with other girls at "girl section."

I was thinking about it, whether there really is such a thing, and come to think about it there really are such sections, and the reason I did not really realize this until now is because that's usually where I hang around.

This does not mean that girls only surf at the "girl" section. I also surf at all over the places and there are women surfers all over the breaks.

What I admire about the "girl" section is that are that they;

• Selected nicer and cleaner breaks when "men" surfers goes to places that are impossible to catch waves; they are just bigger and that's it. From this respect women surfers actually know more about the "good" waves than some "stupid men" surfers who only see "bigger the better."
• Tend to be friendly and share the waves.
• Are actually really technically super surfers found in these breaks, it is really a joy to see them catch waves with really great effortless forms.

As I have been writing many times over, women surfers tend to progress significantly better than men because they really tend to approach the sport more organically, going with the flow, than men who try to work it out more defeat it mechanically when I think that waves tend to be better handled organically a lot of times.

Session 7126: Single Toy or Multiple Toys

I've met people from two school of thoughts,

• School A: You should become good at only one type of board.
• School B: You should try different kinds of board.

Yeah, both do make really good sense. As a Jazz musician, I have not really touched any other instruments other than a keyboard. Even then I think I am too wide spread, I am into Hammond B3 style organ playing, but I also touch Piano styles too. Yet, I just must say that there is just a lifetime learning for the mastery of piano playing that even if I practice every day all day, it would be a very little hope that I would ever hit the Bill Evans nor Bill Charlap level.

For surfing too. There is just a life-long learning to get the mastery of long boarding, or short boarding. If I am switching back and forth between boards, let alone various types of short boards, I totally agree that I won't ever become better than Wingnut, let alone one of the top winner at a local surf contest in Linda Mar (I am getting there though... hehehe).

But wait a minute...

My purpose of playing Jazz is not become Bill Evans, and my purpose of surfing is not become the next Wingnut or Machado.

I am "the rest of the Jazz Musicians" and I am the "rest of the surfers."

What's wrong with that notion? I say, "there is nothing wrong with that."

My main reasons for doing any of them is to just relax, have fun doing something other than I do at work. Frankly I don't care how much I suck at both music and surfing. It is definitely fun to switch between long and short boards. It is definitely fun trying to do Jimmy Smith riff on the B3 patch on my Korg as well as trying some slow ballad with the piano patch. It sucks big time, if you heard it, but I am having a lot of fun.
I am not here to collect bucks from anyone.

You might ask, then why do I compete?

I compete because it is like my annual piano recital from my local piano teacher. It is an opportunity for myself to compare how much progress I am making (against myself), and a bit of pressure and a sense of urgency gives me an incentive to try a bit harder. I sometimes need a bit of a kick in the butt.

So what you should do.

Don't listen to anyone, especially my Jazz and this blog. Listen to your own very heart.
Unless you are going for a pro, in that case, the whole different set of rule applies, stop reading my stuff now, you should just strive to have fun!

Surf Report

Stopped by at K Ave on the way back from work. The waves were not taking much shape, and once I got in, there is the infamous backwash this spot is famous for. I take off and the waves clogged up, splash back at me. It almost got dangerous to the point... would have knocked my teeth or broken my jaw if I kept at it too much.

But why does it matter to you? You should just go out and experience your own fun waves!

Session 7091 Why Is It So Hard To Get Out?

Finally things are becoming usual and typical of the area... It definitely looked doable from the shore, there were some sand-bars, and I go to the outside in one shot the first time, but after that getting back to the outside got so difficult. Every time I end up in the impact zone and cannot paddle away from it.

Finally I gave up, paddled back to the shore, got out and looked at the situation.

I walked down the beach for good 2-3 minutes and got in. The first part was still difficult, then suddenly it got quiet. Looked back I was both carried down further south and also to the outside.

Session 7084: Summer Wind Swell

After all of learn a bit about the swells and such, a lot of us tend to ignore the summer local swells, or consider them as something bad or to avoid.

This morning was a perfect example of this. There was nobody out, but I did venture out on the local 7-8 second WNW swells, plus a super low tide, and the fact is that I did have some fun rides.

These summer local swells on beach breaks are actually fun. They don't come all in one big huge wall that cover the whole California State Park, instead they pop up here and there. I used to be a bit more desperate and paddled to the direction each time one broke. I've learned a lesson, and now if I see one I paddle out there and just sit tight and wait. It seems to come in sequence, one further left, another closer to my left then at where I sit. Sometimes, it does not come but I just relax and wait for one. Eventually sets start right where I sit.

So that's what I surf in the summer and many of Half Moon Bay locals are really pro at this. They would come out, ride them really well doing things like "off the lips" and such, and before I know they are all gone.

This morning, none of the locals pick the spot where I was, but I did have some good waves. The problem is that nobody saw me, so I could not prove I was there!

Session 7074: Start of the South Swells

Finally the south swells hit the area, while the onshore blew from the west, the waves were decent and so we hit the spot on the picture. The tide was too low in the morning. Wish that was not the case, but otherwise I got a few really satisfying rides.

Session 7008, Punishing Session

With the swell and wind getting little less than yesterday, I opted to go to a "bit more expert" spot this morning. When this spot fires, it can be really big, but fun, especially when I was getting a bit more confident, I was eager to try.

Well that confidence crumbled and in less than 45 minutes I had to curl my tail between the legs and get out.

Punishment number 1: It looked small and easy enough from the shore, but once I got in the water, I was not making great progress to the outside. Every time I looked back, the person standing at the beach was basically the same size as before, even though I thought I paddled good couple of minutes.

Punishment number 2: The current. This spot always has some strong side currents, it usually goes down south. I could not find a channel either. Knowing that there is some current I started at the camp site, then I was paddling out towards a person at the peak. When I thought I was nearing the edge of the inside white wash section, I did not see the person. I thought he got out. Then I looked back and I was already at the south edge of the park! I decided to catch the white water, made the shore, and walked back for the attempt #2, which resulted in the same story. So just in two paddle out attempts, I decided to end the session.

Punishment number 3: The cold gust. Now, it was completely sunny alright, but by the time I got back to the car the wind started to howl, and I am not talking about some nice summer breeze, but is is a 48 degrees F. The wind evaporated a lot of water on the wetsuit and I was already cold. When I took the wetsuit off, the wet rush guard started to become really cold. It was the coldest change of cloths I have ever experienced in any recent memory.

So did I have fun? Of course, I did. I did get out, I did get wet, I did paddle out and came back,and the nature taught me, I still need to be better and stronger surfer. Never a dull moment in surfing.