south swell
Certain places focused the south swell over the weekend.
Twenty rubber-clad surfers bobbed in tightly-packed pods, waiting for the sets.
The same 3 or 4 dudes nabbed each of the picturesque long-period waves.
Multiple turns on glassy faces. A few cover-ups.
The other folks just sat there, yearning, chomping and getting frustrated.
Uggg..
Other places also received the south swell with open arms.
These spots weren't as obvious.
A bit of a hike to access.
Sharky.
Inconsistent.
Empty.
A small crew of free-thinking surfers scored succulent solitude.
Still other places witnessed sparse south-swell lines, interspersed with measly windswell somethings.
Fun, wedgy pockets.
Brief glimpses of a consistent sandbar.
Funky Chunkies.
Occasional lined-up left with the thick character of long-period groundswell.
Stuff on tap for the wily, observant, quick-witted surfer.
jack be nimble, jack be quick.
Shirking and jiving to find the open face.
Get in early.
Smooth and quick to your feet.
Barely ahead of the breaking lip.
Racing along the unbroken face.
Bottom turn then snap up into the energized blip.
Reacting and dancing to the wave's personal tempo.
Shred.
photos from surfermag.com
Michael Kew recently went to Indo on a TWsurf trip with some of the best female surfers on the planet. Here are a few of his photos.
Made the drive south on saturday - early, arriving in Sin City at 6:30 AM. One side was uber glassy but barely enough juice to float a longboard. The other side was jammed into a corner (see above remarks). Drove a bit north tho find windblown meagerness. Back south to the glassiness and a lower tide provided chest high fun waves. Scored 4 really nice waves without competition by sitting outside before a few others joined me. Then the huddled masses appeared. I disappeared. A nice day out overall.
Posted by: Dennissweet. i can't wait to check out that kew story, although i haven't been blown away by the other stuff i have read, honestly. sorry. but, it's missing some element of detail sometimes for me. and i don't mean detailed directions to the spots he's describing. i mean that there's just a little something too cursory sometimes in his narratives. that photo of sofia (is that right?) is amazing anyway. tells a full story right there.
as for me this weekend, i didn't get any of what's described in sections 1 or 2 above, but was pleasantly surprised to get a fair amount of 3 on saturday at the beach after my soccer game (minus the shredding). i literally crawled up the stairs to bed on saturday night and not from intoxication.
Posted by: steamwandGot the annual spring sinus/lung infection. Yeah. When allergies clog up my sinuses and prevent the ocean water from draining properly, utter phlegm mayhem ensues. Waiting for the trolley this AM, I hacked a loogie so large, green and nasty it dwarfed the pile of dog shit it landed next to on the sidewalk. Gagged just looking at it. Felt like an a-hole spitting in a city gutter but I figured it beats the floor of a crowded MUNI. And I wasn’t going to swallow it.
Went down south on fri and sat and although the swell was showing good, yet inconsistent size, was kinda skunked by the winds and ultra low tides. I thought there were some damn powerful sets on fri afternoon though. Sun at the peach was pleasant.
If I may ask, what soccer league are you apart of? I feel like I’ve been looking for a soccer league to join since I’ve lived in the city, posting my name on BS bulletin boards for “players needed” without ever getting a response. Haven’t played in so long, just looking for a fun coed league at this point. Anybody have any luck in this regard?
Posted by: obroHad some pleasant sessions at the home break this weekend. Easy paddle outs, lots of playful seals and I need these small days to build up my confidence.
Posted by: toooshyunfortunately, obbro, you must have a vagina to play in my league: golden gate women's soccer league.
Posted by: steamwandsurprised to hear that it is so hard to find co-ed though. if you are willing to travel to the east bay for indoor, there's a pretty sweet facility out on alameda, the baladium, you might want to check out. seen some really good men's games going down there and i have some guy friends on teams i might be able to hook you up with. steamwand89 at yahoo.
I rode a fish for the first time on Sunday. Thanks to my friend - you know who you are. Fish = fun. The thing is fast and turns on a dime. Gonna get me one someday.
Posted by: Dennisvaginas rule.
Posted by: eyeah they do.
Posted by: steamwandis that sofia, e? it looks like her knee tuck, but i can't see her face and her body looks taller than i thought she was.
anybody know if that documentary about her is going to get a distribution deal. i'd like to see it.
I'm not sure who the sistah in the pit is steamwand.. here's the list of surfer's that kew mentioned in his email. I'm not sure if the "shown here" refers to the bottom-turn photo or the barrel shot?
Sofia Mulanovich (shown here), Chelsea Georgeson, Silvana Lima, Alana
Posted by: eBlanchard, Melanie Bartels, and Rebecca Woods
good lord. what a trip. kew has definitely fallen into the honey pit.
Posted by: steamwandi think the top bottom turning might be lima, but i don't really know. what a world they live in.
but i wouldn't trade my life right now...my kid smells like heaven...shoved his first handful of sand into his mouth while we watched his mom stand up on her first waves since his birth at the mar on sunday...back to work, argghhh.
Trey interview on high times - at the end he talks about a few acid trips.
Posted by: escored last week south of the south border..best week long surf trip ever..6 days of hardcore ASL. surfed out. good to be back..ill post a photo later..dont worry, no distiguishing landmarks..sounds like i missed a few fun days up here. right on, summer time..
Posted by: bajel
Posted by: ehmmh, i am hoping for an evening glass off tonight. What are the chances it will be hard onshores all day? The surfline cam does not look too bad.
Posted by: toooshyNew York Times article
Posted by: joe o'malleyEvening glass-off currently looking highly unlikely. Good times if you kite I bet.
Saw a guy grab a little leopard shark out of the water this weekend. Literally plucked it out of the shallows. Cool looking creature, maybe 3 feet long max. This other woman and I honestly thought he was putting it back so we grabbed it by the tail and dragged it to the water line. Turns out that wasn't his intention and so we were obliged to drop it. Asked around and apparantly it's legal to take leopard sharks, but only within a certain limit. So I hope the little bugger was the wrong size and returned. fyi dude was not one of those fisherman. Oh well at least now I can claim shark wrestling rights
Posted by: s.s. sharkbaitanyone have any comments about the water temp today? I think that is the warmest I've felt it inside the bay...
Posted by: ankorsout by myself at my fave south spot - a few shoulder (maybe) high rollers. looking forward to the sun dropping into the fog all alone.
and then my peaceful reverie is interrupted by, yes, one of the frickin' stand-up paddle people!! what IS that about? is it fun? anybody tried it? it just looks frickin' dorky. and the boards are loonnngg - 11 feet, so if a paddle-person decides he wants a wave (and can actually stand up, which the ones I've encountered dont seem able to) he's (or she's, although this seems a male affliction so far) gonna get it... grrr. peace, everybody should follow their bliss etc, but, grrr anyway...
Posted by: reefboyOh, and it's only gonna get worse. A couple of months ago "The G-Spot" and I were down south and Jenny spent the afternoon at Cowell’s with Bob Pearson and former Raider bad boy Bill Romanowski. Both were paddle surfing Bob’s newest best seller, “The Romo.” Thank goodness I was around the corner and out of sight until the tide came up and spoiled their “fun.”
Posted by: Spidermantesting first post in new comments section...was in south pacific last week had 1 unbelievable session and 3 other fun ones.
paddle surfers and kayakers should yield to surfers.
Posted by: vons