WED Surf Wrap Up: Stoke 7

My StokeCAST has been quite OK lately, the NW swells are still continuing and we are getting some good shoulder to OVH level sets. Days like this makes surfing at LM a lot of fun. Today, Ken and I stayed mostly in the center and the S sections as N sections were seemingly closing out and also the Shower got the set height allright but not breaking until further in. Days like this makes S end to break a bit better.

 

There were some phenomenally good rides today, and we both enjoyed it a lot. It was on the edge of closing out so it was a good practice to get a hold of the board control quicker, and that means that there is a crucial moment of strong paddling, and you are on.

 

The sky was sunny and we surfed just until the sun has gone down.

 

As for my progress,

 

- I feel that I am finally starting to get a hang of duck diving now. Success rate has gone up from 1 every 3 or 4 to about every other tries.  Even I screw up, I get out to the other side then fall off the board. The real key to this is not the sinking of the front (which most people can do), but how to push down the tail of the board. There are two hurdles surrounding this, first one is the timing on when to push in. The next is to keep the good balance on the board while pushing the tail of the board down hard with the toe (and not the knee).

 

- I am getting a bit better at taking off on faster closing waves, and get up on the board sooner. Key here seems to be that you need to paddle rather hard and continue to paddle a bit longer even after you think you have taken off. Then get up on the board really quickly, and low. Now, good people are already in steering, but I can still go straight down at this point, but can execute small bottom turn to keep going a bit longer. Here the INDO has been helping quite a bit as I can feel what board wants to do better than before, so I can react to it.

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon Surfing Wrap Up - Stoke = 7

I had a great Stoke 7 this late afternoon in LM. While the surf started to get junkier and toward 1930, earlier it was so great and everyone was having a lot of fun. It was one of the best days in a couple of months I can recall. At the spot I was in, the bigger sets were shoulder-head size, but were gentle.

 

Oh, and I managed to catch a good rip current going out here. It is so great, I felt like a champion paddler. It actually fell like being on one of those moving walk at airports. You are walking (paddling) but feels like going so much faster.

 

I think I finally understood why those fishing people tend to be standing right at the rip currents today. I saw one fishing person actually walking along the beach as his string was being pulled on side currents, then he stopped. The spot he stopped was where the rip was going out. Because of the way that the string is dragged with the beach current they tend to automatically find a spot where the water is going out. So next time you go out, find a standing (but not moving) fishing person, and that marks the outer rip spot!

 

Back to surfing, it was so much fun so I give a Stoke 7 today.

 

Again the spot that I go to usually gets head to double-over breaks on outer section then there is an inside section when you catch the outer one (if it does not break on the outside, it will not form the second break BTW, then you have a lot of fun riding great lefts and rights since it is a peak. These are often big and scarily and more powerful waves and if they eat you, you'd be tubing under for some time, so they are definitely for everyone but if you know how to deal with them they are so much fun! 

 

Today, I was able to practice a lot of bottom turns, but still I stall a bit so I cannot climb back up. But I had several "longer" rides that really were so stoking! I heard many other people screaming out with joy every time a big one came in and people catching, and so did I. This kind of day makes me feel something very wonderful about the gift of the nature. Outside of wearing man-made suite and riding chemical board, everything is pretty much my biological composition against the nature, and I get to fully engulfed and participate in it. There are only a few other sport you can be this close to being with the nature, and I appreciate it so much.

 

By 1930 the wind picked up and it was a good time to finish up the fun session.

 

Also I saw many girl surfers, I think they were all getting ready for the competition this weekend!

 

 

Saturday AM Suring Wrap Up. Wow! Stoked at 9!

Saturday 8:30 a.m. A northern Santa Cruz spot.

The sun was high up in the blue sky, the south swells are in full swing. SW
swells were going at 16.5 seconds with up to 6 ft. Glassy no wind condition.
Nearly perfect day to start.

I met up with Clio and surfed at a reefy N. SC spot. Nice 1.5 to 2 x
overhead lefts were coming in every 4-5 minutes, and everyone was very
stoked. The only problem at this spot was that this was an A-frame break
with a very small take-off spot so the competition was a bit high among 20
or so surfers. At one point there was a little fight over the wave but we
stayed by the shoulder and watched and surfed the inside section for a
while. This is kind of a dangerous spot and if you are not watching your
course or do not stall early a pile of rock is awaiting at the end. As we
entered the beach, we saw one guy just barely missed the rocks as he came
in.

I caught a nice one with the power of the wave so much that I was going so
fast! The break was further out so there was a plenty of distance to surf.

By 1000 the sets were starting to fizzle out and started to only break
insides. We drove up to Scotts Creek then seeing no good breaking went to
Waddell Creek, as the wind started to pick up we were doing some shoulder
high rough stuff there for an hour.

All in all, this was a perfect day for surfing, and should my skill be
better, I'd have had a lot of good surfing.

That's all for my surfing in August. Be back from our trip in Japan on the
5th. Everyone have a good surfing. I will check back once I get to Osaka. If
you are a new user and posted a message in our Yahoo groups, please wait
until then to activate your account.

StokeCAST for Friday: Stokes Dwindles to 3-4, Time for INDO board

Surfing today has shown that the situation is getting very low all across
the town. There is no longer any short-board waves and only thing left are
mushy long board waves in N SMC beaches. There is nothing much predicted in
terms of long distance (ground) swells nor local wind swells.

So, for Friday, I suggest you do something else... Perhaps you can still go
out to the beach with your friends and clean up the beach, and/or go see
Step Into Liquid. Go to the Minna Street Gallery in the city at night and
join the final SurfStyle party etc.

Tomorrow through the weekend we will be stoked at Level 4 at best.

PM Surfing Wrap Up

This morning, there was a company all-hands meeting at 9 a.m. so this
pre-empted my usual morning session. Instead, I showed up early at work, set
up for web-casting.

The meeting went OK with a few glitches, and if you are on my private e-mail
list there will be a list of complaints but, hey, this is a public board, so
let's just say that the meeting did finish without a major issue.

This is a kind of a day, that I just look forward to the reasonable end so
that I can drive out to the ocean. Imagine this, as I drive out, I throw
each piece of cloth into the air, as I am by the beach, you see myself on
board shorts and a rash guard (note that this is a movie scene, so there is
no logic what-so-ever).

The water was sparkling in the sun that was low in the west, and almost
blinding to see the next set coming in. The set were in a good size from
chest to head, and the tide was low so they were coming down quickly. In the
water, I forget about all of the frustrating things at work and just keep
focusing on getting out, anticipating the next good set, and then try to
catch.

I was padding out through lots of soups and then a shoulder high wave was
just about to crash on me in a few seconds. I pushed the front of the board
down the water as I put my right toe on to the tail edge of the pad. The
wave started to crumble. Great! The nose is under the water, now I quickly
move my knee back to the toe, and as I felt like being pounded from the top
the board shot up into the sky! The board bounces back on the surface of
calm water.. My belly is still on the exact same spot as before the wave
started to crumble on me. Yeah! I did it, finally, my first perfect duck
dive!

Well, catching those fast closing curtain was another story. I did not catch
a wave this evening. I take off then as soon as I do it, I got eaten up by
the waves, instead I was falling down in front of the letter C, and the next
thing, I was tumbling several times in the water. I used to think that this
is the start of my death, but now I just relax. Richard Schmidt told me that
don't pop up right away, stay under until it is safe. Quite true, one
morning early in the spring, I did an immediate pop up to get a gasp of air,
and the next thing, a huge "thonk" sound on top of my head. Glad I had my
Gath helmet on.

So that's all for this evening. Hope you will all have fun day tomorrow.
Stay tuned, my StokeCAST for THU coming next!

Re: [surfinghmb] Reflections: Surfing Is A Form Of Dancing

the first time i went surfing with a teacher,
he said "you have been a dancer, haven't you"
i was amazed that he could tell!
because i wasn't even standing up all that much then!
but he said he could tell that i had done ballet
because i have an awareness of my center of gravity
i feels like dance in how it involves every muscle of your body
if any part of your body doesn't feel "in the zone" with the rest of you
then it comes off as awkward.
the most creative dancer i have seen on a surfboard is
Taj B. in the movie Step into Liquid

gotta go!
clio

> I am just passing on what Steve Pezman told us about Surfing in the
> tour/speech I attended at the Surf Culture exhibit at the San Jose Museum
> this weekend.
>
> This is not exactly verbatim, but you will get the idea.
>
> ---
> Surfing is like a form of dancing.
> A surfer is a dancer and the wave is the stage.
> Each dancer has a dancing style of own and you can pretty much tell the
> personality of the person by looking at how the person dances in just a few
> second. Aggressive people dance aggressively and mellow people dance
> mellow....
> ----
>
> Everytime I go see surfers, I always thought that surfers were doing their
> performance before the beach audience, and I am happy that someone else
> thought the same thing!

Wave Log. Tuesday AM, A N San Mateo County Spot

I had another fun session this morning.

The north end of the beach were getting up to shoulder high with various
degrees of steepness. It was a bit mushy on many sets but occasionally a
more stronger and higher ones to come that broke perfectly well.

A new discovery almost every time I go out!

I found out what was my latest problem was. I was getting too greedy to get
to bigger waves and forgetting about the importance of catching waves. In
fact, one of the competitors at the classic advised me the importance of
catching more waves than scoring a big wave. So going back to the familiar
and a bit gentle spot was a big treat and very rewarding. I caught more
waves in all the waves I caught in the last month. This is an important
balance to strike as if you don't challenge yourself, there is no progress
and if you challenge too much there are more failures preventing progress.

Also this morning is the first time I felt that I am starting to feel more
intimate with the 7'6 board I am using. I really feel that I can command the
board to do what I want to do a bit better and also more importantly I can
sense the board providing feeding back as to the condition of the wave
running through my lower body giving little hints where to go next. After
realizing the feel, I have also realized that I was just letting the board
carry me and not participating in the full potential of the ride. This is
very encouraging! I think that the practice on the Indo Board has been very
helpful.

I hope you will make good progress this week!

Reflections: Surfing Is A Form Of Dancing

I am just passing on what Steve Pezman told us about Surfing in the
tour/speech I attended at the Surf Culture exhibit at the San Jose Museum
this weekend.

This is not exactly verbatim, but you will get the idea.

---
Surfing is like a form of dancing.
A surfer is a dancer and the wave is the stage.
Each dancer has a dancing style of own and you can pretty much tell the
personality of the person by looking at how the person dances in just a few
second. Aggressive people dance aggressively and mellow people dance
mellow....
----

Everytime I go see surfers, I always thought that surfers were doing their
performance before the beach audience, and I am happy that someone else
thought the same thing!

Surf Log. Linda Mar This Evening

The magical North end returns to LM and it was so much fun being there this
evening. We got lots of gentle chest to shoulder high lefts (my favorite
level) with reforms to top off. Once you get in the pocket you can cost
along with a bit of cutting back, no much effort is needed once you take
off. My buddy Nick came out after his shift ended at 6:00.

Compared to Montara on Sunday with 1.0 to 1.5 head dumper after hard paddle
out, it was a very nice treat and remember about actually taking off on
waves and standing up.

Still though, I don't stand up quick enough to get a hold of the control of
the board. A good portion of the ride is wasted belly boarding on the
surface. I promise I will work on getting up on the board sooner. But to my
credit I can take off when I think I can, so I am onto the next step!

Ducking still sucks with about a success rate of only 10% to 15% at the
best, the 7'6 is still too floaty for it, but I am going to keep practicing
on it until I get it. If I get this right, I can probably start sinking my
8'6 with some success that will be awesome and pretty interesting! Sinking
of the tail part of the board is really really difficult.

Sunday AM StokeCAST 6 to 7 on NW Facing Locations & SC Locations

The swells that we have been waiting for has arrived overnight, and now the
HMB is reading 6 ft level swells at 11 seconds period. My guess is that this
will produce fairly fun waves today on NW facing beaches. There is some
potential of close outs at wide open locations. We shall see.

Also don't forget, I will be at the Surfrider Foundation table at the SJ
Museum of Art "Surf Style Shindig" starting 11 this morning. We will be
there unit 5 p.m.

NW Swells Will Pick Up Probably Starting Next 6 to 12 Hours

The SE PAPA (600 NM W of Eureka) buoy is reporting up to 6 ft of utility
class swells. This will likely to arrive to us later on this afternoon.

Friday AM SotkeCAST Level 5 on W to NW 5 ft, 8 sec local wind swells

The NW swell height is dwindling gradually throughout the day. This pattern
should continue through Friday and by the afternoon, the regular thermal on
shore wind will kick back up to provide blown-out condition. Still there is
really no sign of the S swells so, the best bets are well protected NW open
locations.

THU AM StokeCAST 5 to 6 on NW facing locations and SC

>From the experience this morning at the LM, we will continue to have fair
but ridable condition tomorrow. The 5 ft NW swell is starting to subside a
bit at the moment and by tomorrow morning, it will be 3-4 ft level with 8 or
more seconds of period. This might cause a bit more "cleaner" condition,
let's hope. Beaches open to NW should produce ridable waves up to shoulder
high. Low incoming tide seemed to work a bit of magic this morning so
hopeful it will tomorrow as well. I will estimate our stoke level will be 5
to 6 tomorrow. Bring your biceps though. Good luck and have fun!

WED AM StokeCAST STOKE Estimate is 4 to 5

>From the looks of the buoy readings, we are going to have lots chops and
small wind-swells mixed in with fairly good quality 3.0 ft 16 - 17 sec
swells right now. Conditions will be poor to only fair at most locations.
So tomorrow morning in N SMC beaches will be good biceps work out to get out
followed by mogul style surfing, I hope we can at least get those, they can
get fun sometimes! No guarantees. Good luck and enjoy!

Step Into Liquid: Web Site URL is http://stepintoliquid.com/

You can also find previews and more info about the movie here:
http://stepintoliquid.com/

Dana Brown's "Step Into Liquid" Is A Must See Movie STOKE=10

I had a chance to see Step Into Liquid tonight before San Francisco area
general showing and I must say that if you surf or interested in surfing
this is a "must see" movie just like his father's "The Endless Summer"
series.

Just like his father's movie Dana takes you to all around the world from
California to stoked lake surfers in Wisconsin, professional women surfers
in Tahiti, Ireland, Vietnam, and even oil tanker wake surfing. Yes, Half
Moon Bay is one of his stops.

This is a movie about love of surfing, why surfers are stoked. I am not
going to write a lot about it, because you just stop reading this, get out
to the closest theater that is showing it, and just go see it.

You will come out of the theater with a Stoke of 10 out of 10!

I would like to thank Live 105 for the invitation and putting this preview
event together. In San Francisco it starts to showing at Embarcadero theatre
starting this Friday.

Re: [surfinghmb] Surfing Back at Cowells

i love the image of cooking an egg on your board
clio

> The weather was so hot and nice. If it was not the wind picking up, we did
> not need a wetsuit. This is the first time I surfed without booties or
> gloves and was totally comfortable! The wax on my board was melting like
> butter. Could have cooked an egg on my board!

Surfing Back at Cowells

We have a couple of Japanese exchange high school students every other
summer in Half Moon Bay, and we usually volunteer to do something fun. We
got two girls coming this year, and so I decided to take them out on a real
California summer experience at Boardwalk and then surfing. Everything
worked out, the girls stood on the board and had a lot of fun memory to take
home.

I have not been back surfing at Cowells for a while but, it is always
interesting to go there and surf. First the waves are almost always very
gentle and easy to catch, sets are mellow and people are too. But the place
was so crowded even on Monday afternoon, I guess it is because the schools
are still out. I would imagine at least there were 80 people out there in
the water and the lineup was rather small due to the size of the swells.
Sometimes, I was completely surrounded and it was like 4 p.m. on the 6th
street in San Francisco. It is almost totally a different surfing
experience, it is very friendly and fun kind of a place. There were a few
"advanced" surfers there who zoomed among people trying hard to take off,
but somehow we can all co-exist.

The weather was so hot and nice. If it was not the wind picking up, we did
not need a wetsuit. This is the first time I surfed without booties or
gloves and was totally comfortable! The wax on my board was melting like
butter. Could have cooked an egg on my board!

TUE StokeCAST. Strong on shore (wind) condition to return. Stoke Estimate is 3 to 4

The strong thermal gradient is back in our cost and that means a lot of
local chops in the next few days (and even longer). Breeze of 10 to 15 mph
are possible. We will most likely to have blown out conditions that will
overpower both any remnant of surfable swells. After this, no swells are in
sight. Only hope is that new movie Stepping Into Liquid is coming out this
weekend! So far this has gotten a very good review.

MONDAY StokeCast 4 to 5 out of 10

Based on the Point Reyes buoys The S swells are starting to roll in and also
there is some increase in NW local wind swells of 4 ft range at 8 seconds,
so some fun is back on our shores if you pick the right places. Again, south
areas of San Mateo county would be a better bet than the north side, I would
imagine. If you pick the right place(s), you'd be treated with a stoke of 4
to 5, and that's my guess based on surfing at Pescadero.

Other experts are saying that there is nothing after these for a while, so
have fun while you can!