Sometimes i can be a bit indecisive.. For example.. this morning.. i checked sloat.. then second lot sloat.. pulled out to drive to pacifica.. then saw an attractive peak at the north end of fort fun-stoned.. right where it's too late to pull over.. turned around at Lake Merced.. parked at second lot and looked for a while.. thought about it.. hmm.. got back in the car and began to drive to lindy.. then again saw a nice wave as i was leaving the great highway.. drove to john daly blv.. turned around.. back to second lot.. out of the car and into wetty.. down to the beach.. stretching.. nobody out.. waves big and messy and disorganized.. where are those sections that i saw from the road?? dunno.. ran back to the car.. drove to lindy in my wetty! arggh... but.. my final decision was rewarded by the fact that Lindy proved significantly better than OB. On a lindy scale from 1 to 10 i'd place this morning at around a 7.. The sea-surface slightly warbled, but not too bad.. wind mellow with maybe a faint offshore. shoulder/head-high peaks cruising in with some consistency.. often closing but sometimes offering shreddable sections. surfed with Kaiser and the long-haired asian and about 8 others north of the showers. saw Stan in the parking lot.. Lefts and rights cruising in.. most rides simply drop and bottom turn.. but i scored about 3 or 4 legit, racy, down-the-line guys.. One left that i sortof cut Kaiser off on?? (i think that he was far enough back?).. found myself balanced low and pouncy.. so i whipped up into a fun/slappy backside off-the-top.. I also almost pulled a long floater on a right.. but.. just didn't push myself back down with the falls. this one longboarder was totally working it.. getting lengthy rides and looking real smooth in the process. he was fun to watch. Kaiser took off on some bombs..

it was fun out there.. probably still is right now.. thus concludes a week of Lindy sessions.

ian.. yeah.. pat bollinger.. that's the guy. sucks that he's a prick.. especially because he's easily one of the shreddiest surfers in the bay area. Have fun in SLO-town.. yeah.. i'm bummed i'm not headed down there.. but.. hopefully i'll score it next weekend.. i think i'm going to solo camp at montana de oro..

jake and tom and dano.. you heads are blessed to be able to surf santa cruz lately.. the west side unbelievably chock full of incredible waves. Jake.. nice work hittin' the lip.. that's what's up.. I saw Ratboy shredding Mitchell's cove a few months ago.. that wave is fun.. so is swift street and stockton and then Natty bridges.... total classic.

shout outs to the east coast gents.. Deni, Kus, Mark H! what's going down in the east?

lakey peak.. sumbawa.. site of my first ever in and out barrel.. (on the left)

brisk, sunny and windless this morning.. the makings for some good surf... potentially.. but.. the bay area beachbreaks weren't exactly cooperating.. SF buoy reading 9ft 17seconds.. Huge 6.2ft high tide a few minutes ago (9:40) then a deep low tide of less than zero at around 3. OB yet again large and in charge.. dumpy and disorganized with possibly some challenging, makeable faces.. 2nd lot Sloat actually looked to be within the range of surfability. but.. nobody out.. and no clear peaks..

Rockaway close to working.. the left at the south end flirted with peeling.. but instead toggled between mushing and racing along the rocks.. the little right on the other side of the channel witnessed a few fun sections.. but.. the sea surface was pretty funked and wild..

Lindy better than yesterday.. but.. not too many zippy/fun sections.. I surfed north of the showers and caught a few... but mostly had a frustrating session. Waves would attempt to break but instead remain unbroken until the last moment and then closeout.. or they would just reform and not break at all. The wind was nonexistent.. so the surface was OK.. but.. not really glassy. There was a little reform left sortof working just south of the showers on the inside.

i'm not sure what to say.. sounds like Tom scored in SC yesterday.. the tide will be low all friggin afternoon so.. pick your favorite low-tide wave and go hit it.. the wind is still mellow at 5mph out of the north (10:14)..

pavones

I liked this shot

C sent this in.. he never tells me the location, other than the general nor-cal region.. anyone care to guess?

The window of niceness we experienced these last few days has been decidedly shut by the onshore flow this morning. OB tumbled and jumbled and dark and scary... Lindy cursed with 15mph strait onshore wind. If you haven't surfed in a while and you're chomping at the bit to catch some flow.. you could negotiate an acceptable session at Lindy.. but.. it's pretty ugly. I opted for the donut/OJ/banana/paper at Fog City Java, across from Son-light surfshop in Pacifica. The wind is blowing out the SW.. so.. that doesn't bode well for Santa Cruz spots either.. though.. the super-protected spots like Sharks might be ok?
maybe other spots will be working as the tide recedes.. in fact.. with the SF buoy at 9ft 20seconds and a little south in the wind.. i know where i'd be headed if i wasn't staring at the computer monitor all day.. grrr..

looks like there is quite of flurry of party-related events happening this weekend.. there is the gala Bojon mardi-gras shindig at Broadway studios on friday. Also Karsh Kale from Tabla beat science is playing at Club 6.. also the jam-band Particle is playing at the Great American Music hall.. soo.. go get your "on" on this weekend.. after hefty surf sessions of course. Another noteworthy weekend happening is the surfrider beach cleanup at Noriega on Sunday... They're doing good work! Many of you know that OB has been littered with trash and junk and refuse and old condoms and glass shards and other nasties.. go help clean up.. It'll be hard if the surf is firing though! ummm... also check out Dr. Deni Does the Dominican Republic...

bummed to not have surfed. sucks..

e

this central coast wave looks fun

lake superior

what up all y'all suckas! OB again large and menacing.. a tad smaller than yesterday but still chunky, disorganized and powerful. Lerm and I headed south. Distinct lines of cordoroy visable in the water.. stacked up toward the horizon.. warm, windless sunrise conditions as we checked a so-so Rockaway and then hit the 'mar. It looked flat at first but then a set cruised in and it was glassy head-high rights reeling and peeling along an obvious sandbar.. nobody out.. no wind... aww yeah!! i could barely contain myself as i suited up and sprinted down to the water and out into the lineup.. Lerm and i traded rights all morning.. just waiting for the crew of shredders to paddle out to our peak.. but.. they never came.. we really couldn't believe it as Lindy was firing at about 95%.. waves that would normally closeout held up along a channel and just lurched and raced and peeled nicely. there were about 20 guys out in front of the showers, but only the two of us to the north. I actually think that there were many peaks working at Lindy this morning.. i almost didn't want to write anything about it on the report fearing that it might draw a crowd tomorrow, but, knowing Lindy, it will return to it's normal sub-par glory for the dawnie tomorrow. I didn't really rip into any cutting edge moves or anything.. just a lot of racing and pumping and mellow carves and one backside off-the-top on a head-high closeout. I also had a pretty intense wipeout on this overhead wall that did closeout but i tried to take off anyway.. i basically air-dropped into a nosedive in the barrel of a big closeout.. I'm lucky i didn't get speared in the head with the nose of my board.. but.. no worries mate!

oh yeah.. a quick SLO-girl update, because some of you heads mentioned it.. We've been in contact.. she's cool... she has flavah... hmmmmm..

this is what lindy looked like this morning.... sorta..

C sent this in.. it looks like Sloat on Sunday but i'm not sure?? I think that he's more of a Santa Cruzian... so maybe somewhere down there? C?

hey all.. sorry if you checked the site over the weekend and there was nada.. usually i like to minimize my monitor-basking time over the weekend.. anyway.. there was some surf to be had in the bay area these last few days, including this morning.. Sloat looked wild and menacing at around 6:40am. Even though the winds cooperated nicely, with a faint SE breeze.. the waves looked raw and confrontational. they were breaking overhead on an outer sandbar, but not very consistently.. then they were sloshing and churning on the inside and finally erupting as violent shore-pound.. i didn't check the north part of the beach but i guess it's better than sloat because i think that Lerm surfed it?? Lerm? I high-tailed it down to Lindy and enjoyed a fun little sesh. things looked dismally flat at first but shoulder-high waves were cruising in and peeling along every now and again. I ended up trading waves (rights) north of the showers with the long-haired asian guy and another friendly shortboarder wearing a hood.. the three of us rotated around and took turns working the fun/measly/rippable/random/smooth waves cruising in.. nothing great out there.. but.. mellow.. Lindy loves the SE winds too.. soo.. it was pretty glassy.

a sidenote on the weekend.. yesterday i checked Sloat at 8:30 and it was on fire.. glassy and large, chunky and unpopulated.. i thought about it.. but then reasoned that the whole coast was probably going off.. i drove all the way down to Davenport.. then turned around and drove all the way back to sloat and surfed there!! crazy eh? but nothing along the coast looked even close to as good as OB.

tom.. that's great that you had a 4-mile psycho siting.. ha! not sure about the carbon-fiber fins vs. too-wide tail.. i don't know squat about fins.

big mig - glad to have a Marin County charger chiming in.. hopefully you scored Stin-stoned yesterday. i've had some fantastic sessions there.. as well as at random spots to the north..

jim.. not sure about the william henry contact.. though.. that picture of giant OB is one of my favorite alltime surf photographs.. along with that crazy one of Teahupoo that i posted on friday.. I think that those two are my current faves... neither one of surfing.. both of incredible displays of oceanic energy..

is this your scene?

shark island

thick

a mellow right

this is just weird.. and kinda funny

not great.. but... not horrible.. The whole beach is surfable this morning. The wind quieted last night and now it's actually blowing offshore at 3mph. Conditions are funky, warbled and disorganized, but a workable section will present itself here and there. Biggest waves probably 1ft overhead. Only 4 or 5 surfers out along the whole stretch.. I surfed VFW from 7 to 8.. caught only 4 or 5 rides... Caught one solid, walled right that ended in a closeout barrel. Other than that the session was pretty crappy.. The weather is absolutlely, stunningly gorgeous out there though. soo.. if you're not working.. you probably should be surfing.

i fricken forgot my booties this morning!! which really sucks for me as i'm an utterly "booty-dependent" surfer. All you other heads might be booty-dependent in a different way, and i feel that too.. but mine arse needs rubber under my feet to surf well. I don't need them for warmth really, more for grip and touch and feel. My front foot slipped EVERY TIME this morning, without my trusty booties.. i don't know if it's a mental thing or what, but my surfing goes down about 3 knotches without adequate bootyage. I'm the guy surfing tropical places with boardshorts and 3mil booties!

"mama say mama sa ma ma cooson" (Michael Jackson)

best surfing picture ever?

hatteras last week

ahhh.. mentawais perfection..

another good morning for sleepin' in. Lerm checked OB around 6:45, with the full intention of surfing whatever was out there.. but.. didn't surf.. He reported a total lack of anything conceivably surfable. the swell period is still under 10 seconds.. soo.. the points probably aren't even worth a check.. though?? maybe right now (9:45) they'll be going for a few minutes? The wind was blowing at 20mph strait onshore last night.. just tearing and shredding any semblance of organized swell in the water. but now it's at 9mph out of the SW.

The new Surfer's Journal has arrived. Some amazing pics and stories by Ted Grambeau. A few images of spectacular green norwegian mountainscapes with waves reeling off where the valleys meet the ocean. Some cool words about exploring the extreme NW coast of australia. There is also an article about the waves and surf scene in the Mediterranean Sea. Seems that 4 or 5 times a year, a semi-legit southwest groundswell marches across the mediterranean from the strait of gibralter and lights up points/reefs/beaches in southeastern france and italy. crazy.. anyway.. great magazine.

A lonely surfer stands atop the cliff, looking out to sea
A crisp offshore breeze chills his neck, but warms his stoke.
Double overhead bombs ignite way outside, booming and grinding.
A slow, meditative donning of the wetsuit,
a tranquil, reflective application of wax.
A lightfooted stroll down the cliffside trail,
A perilous, gruesome paddle-out,
A life-affirming, momentary joust with nirvana
A soul-cleansed moment of clarity, in the womb of creation.

some good mexico pics

woke up at 6:30 and saw the trees around my house whipping all over the place. I noticed that the wind wasn't howling against my window (offshore). I knew it was blowing hard onshore.. i went back to bed.. Looks like it's junky and stormy out there. The wind had some south in it this morning.. so.. maybe linda mar will be a little tastier than OB? i thought about hitting it but the tide was so low at 7am i figured it would be dumping and closing out.. anybody check it this morning?

man.. i'm feelin' the post-vegas party tax right about now.

nice central coast barrel

dolphins rippin' it

beautiful sunset shot with dolphin leaping

vegas baby, vegas!!

damn.. vegas kinda kicked my ass. 6 of us rented a van in SF and drove 10 hours to the "city of consumption"... arriving at 5:30 saturday morning.. immediately the partying began and we were down at the blackjack table at 7:30.. then a bit of sleep.. then full-on show-preparation partying.. then we rented this huge "party-van/stretch-limo" and rocked it to the Phish show. 20+ people in the van.. getting psyched.. Lionel Richie, "All night long... all night... all night long.. all night" rocking through the speakers.. show rocked.. long extendo jams, etc.. then a debaucherous evening/morning of wandering around the strip.. partying and hanging in people's rooms, playing footbag in hallways, snuggling, some craps, giggling, some guitar and vocal harmonizing, deep lounging.. then some sleep?.. then again with the debaucherous night of show-watching/gambling/hanging/consuming/cruising.. Our friend Seth's dad owns the Bellagio.. seriously! soo.. we styled with him for a while.. it was crazy times indeed..

then 12 hours back to SF yesterday.. umm.. i'm a bit frazzled..

sounds like surf is shitty this morning.. which is music to my ears cause i bailed on getting up.

any of you other vegas heads have stories?

any good surf this weekend around here?

we're supposed to get a swell later this week (friday).. but it looks like there will be onshore flow for the next 3 or 4 days.. grr!!

e

wind blowing due onshore, out of the west at 10mph.. the swell chunky and consequencial.. OB looking decidedly unfriendly.. I didn't even hesitate before careening down to Pacifica.. but.. even uglier down there.. and i was salivating for waves after not surfing yesterday.. soo.. i high-tailed it back to Santiago st., pulled over and suited up without even giving the conditions a second look.. I surfed it solo for about 50 minutes. It was big and mean and junky and wild.. but.. as usual with junky OB.. sections were presenting themselves.. cavernous lefts and rights would jack up and roar along. I kinda tweaked my neck a little while getting snapped back during a last-second duckdive, but otherwise i enjoyed about 7 or 8 high-speed, racy wall-rides. It was great surfing OB totally alone.. just you and mother ocean out there.. no spectators, no hecklers, no fellow surfers, no beach walkers.. Just you and the waves.. if you pull back on one.. nobody is going to say anything except your own conscious... speaking of which.. i could have taken off on this one overhead, hollowing left.. i was paddling into it and then just pulled back.. thinking the whole monster was going to slam shut.. but.. ya know.. i should have gone..

anyway.. i'll be out of town until monday night.. soo.. have fun slurfin' or snowboardin' or lovin' or kickin' it or whatever it is that makes you happy!

note to dudes.. the ladies start FEELIN IT come valentines day.. it was in the air yesterday for the ladies around me. I don't want to get into details, but let's just say that the chill/funky/cuties were expressing more curiosity yesterday than is normal.. hmmm... and i'm not complainin'!!

once again fellas.. treat your ladies right... spoil your ladies. give them love!

this is a wave i surfed in indo... i need to go back!!!

braden dias at pipe

lowers

C submitted this mystery nor-cal wave

i pulled up to Sloat at 6:45... checked for a while.. conditions a bit more rumble/tumble than it's been the last few days.. the sea surface still groomed by the offshores but the waves not really blessed with good shape. It looks like the swell has picked up a few feet from yesterday, but it's not a tremendously significant increase. I started to get my wetsuit ready a few times but then stopped as i continued to see 90% of the sections close-out.. the corners would almost peel for a bit, but then instead tumble over and close. hmm.. so i drove up to VFWs, where the situation was even less inviting.. Noticeably smaller at VFers, but still mostly crumbly and devoid of attractive sections.. then i cruised... scoping the middle of the beach for a peak.. ehh.. a few spots like Rivera and Taraval hinted at fun.. but.. not really.. there were a few takers around Rivera, though i didn't see them ride any..

if you're jonesing for waves, or it's your birthday, it's within "surfable" range.. it's just not that great.. i would recommend heading south to Pomponio or Waddell.. the swell is small enough for those beach-breaks.. it's just not working quite right at OB.. In fact, i was damn near driving south, but i didn't want to surf dirty lindy and i felt the guilt-ridden tug of *must go to work* preventing me from voyaging south of Pacifica at 7:20..

soo.. here's a little list of some of my personal favorite surf-related things:
best surf vid - 5th Symphony Document
best surf mag - Water
best surf book - In Search of Captain Zero
best surf guidebook - Stormriders Guide to North America
best bay area wave - *e*****s
best surf song - Goin' to Rehab
best post-sesh activity - bong rip and jam
best pre-surf breaky - cheerios, banana and OJ
best random bay-area wave - Tunitas Creek (Don't eat us Creek)
best bay area surfer - Alex Martin
best nor-cal surf town - Point Arena
best SF surfshop - SF surf shop
best pacifica coffeeshop - Fog City
best SF burrito - L'Avenida Taqueria (6th and irving)
best situation - deep in the barrel

alex martin

Diana Mattison

Top o' the mornin' to ya! Kaiser and I surfed Sloat this morning for about an hour. Very much like yesterday with waist/chest high, immaculately clean waves.. It seemed that a distant south swell produced the waves this morning, as they approached from a southerly direction... Mostly lefts out there, with a few rights too.. A set of 4 or 5 waves came in every 5 minutes or so, with some microscopic "tweeners".. I actually managed to lodge myself into a few barrel-ettes.. When you looked south down the beach, you would invariably watch a chest-high, glassy, grinding tube churn along in about 2 feet of water.. In order to benefit from the tight, enjoyable sections your really had to hold a high line on the take off and project yourself down the line.. no time for bottom turns or elongated take-offs.. just a quick POP-UP, GRAB-RAIL, LEAN_IN... HOLD... HOLD... TUCK INTO THE BARREL... HOLD.... RACE... ahhh.... I have to admit that even though the situation looked humorously miniature from the parking lot.. the waves offered up some crispy lips and glassy, tubular walls.

also this inquisitive seal swam by Kaiser and I about 3 feet from us.. just staring us down.. but giving great, non-aggressive vibes. He reminded me so much of a dog that i caught myself using my "talking to dogs" voice to say, "What's up buddy!" That reminds me that i also saw a pod of dolphins out there yesterday.. always a treat.

this rain might make things a bit dirty this afternoon and tomorrow.. it's supposed to rain on and off until saturday..

also.. thanks everybody for keeping and sharing the stoke on the message board! so sick!

this is a great pic from the legendary 60's era surf-art maestro Rick Griffen

yup.. barely surfable this morning.. but geometric perfection out there.. if you like your waves waist high and ruler-edged.. go get some right now. I checked the beach around 6:45.. nothing over shoulder high.. granted my surf check coincided with the 5ft high tide.. things might improve as the day wears on and the tide recedes.. Tom described some stellar afternoon conditions near Kelly's yesterday.. soo.. if you're not working.. you might want to wait for your session.. it also seems that Jake scored some "tasty" waves yesterday at an undisclosed San Mateao County mysto spot... he had this to say, "Not exactly hollow, but sick broad faces, huge for cutbacks and gauges and all sorts of stylish surfing. fairytale!!"... wow.. soo.. be on the lookout..

i surfed Sloat for an hour this morning and scored some fun, squirty little rights.. I squeezed some pumps and a cutty or two into the uber-glassy mini-waves. Conditions were absolutely squeaky clean.. wind blowin' offshore out of the east, waves breaking mellowly (but not gutlessly) in about 3 feet of water. Pretty fun..

here are some pics that my friend Dan took of the surf in Big Sur last week
andrew molera

willow creek

Here's our boy Lerm's band "the Nevermores" playing a show in Hayward last night.. they seriously rocked the house.. playing at such volumes that everybody except us die-hards left the building at waited outside till they finished!! they were tight though.. classic punk rock.

e

pretty fun this morning.. offshore winds blowing nicely.. small groundswell sets of 4 or 5 waves arriving every 5 minutes or so.. The waves were unusual for OB in that they were often long, unbroken bands of mature wave-energy.. looking a bit like the beach-wide closeout walls of Linda Mar. They did offer a few punchy, groomed shoulders, however.. I caught about 7 rides in 60 minutes.. nothing amazing. I almost completed a long, drawn-out floater but instead wimped out at the end and just slowed and sank on the top of the wave instead of leaping back down with the falls and trying to land the floater. I felt the sensation of ripping down the line, then steering up and on top of the lip.. floating on top of the wave with a bunch of speed.. but.. i didn't really pull it out.
chilly but beautiful out at the beach..

this weekend saw some good surf in the mornings.. but blown-out conditions in the afternoons. i surfed all day on saturday.. 2.5 hour morning sesh and then a stony hour long arvo sesh in some seriously compromised conditions.. big/thick/chunked/blown/cavernous/ugly walls of mayhem.. I had been feeling kinda lonely the last few days.. soo.. i wanted to surf anyway and just headed out.. I was all bumming because i basically haven't interacted with an intelligent/styly/cute/single girly in about 3 months or more.. starting to get me down.. soo.. i come out of the water as the sun is setting.. parking lot is packed with saturday sunset-watchers, etc.. i start to put my board on my car.. and this car full of ladies is kind-of looking and snickering at me.. umm.. ok.. start to get out of my wetty.. and.. huh.. they're basically waving at me.. hmm.. soo.. i walk over to see what's up and they just want to say hi, blah blah.. they're from San Luis Obispo.. yadda yadda.. they want to know what's going on tonight.. hmm.. dunno.. they kick me their number and tell me to call em' in a few hours.. ok.. one of them is really bold and extroverted and friendly, she's the main instigater and flirter.. then her friend is super cute and stylized and cool.. hmm..
so.. cruise home and play some music.. then give them a call and head over to their friend's house in the sunset.. about 6 people there, artists and musicians, etc.. pretty cool scene.. both of the girls are there.. now it's obvious that the extroverted/obviously-flirty girl likes me.. but she keeps it kinda mellow.. but.. her friend is borderline heart-stopping.. and she's demurely flirting with me as well.. but there is also this other guy who i can sense has a crush on this girl... soo.. all of a sudden it's a bit of a complicated multi-sided flirtation circle.. and i'm this random-ass newcomer who these girls picked up at the beach.. things go well, though, good vibes all around.. we go out.. the extroverted girl doesn't get up in my face or anything and leaves me with this girl that i'm crushing on.. so.. we chat it up for a while.. but... i'm not sure what the deal is with this other guy so i stay super mellow.. But at this point it's just me and her chilling and talking and sharing space.. she gives me a few long, deep eye-contact looks.. i hint that i might come down to SLO soon to surf Hazards and camp at Montana de Oro.. she says cool and that i should stop by and say hi to her when i'm down there.. and that she's moving to SF in 6 months.. she was going to give me her number but we had no pen.. then the rest of the posse returns to the table and everyone interacting instead of just me and her.. end of the night comes and i never had a chance to get her digies, because it would have been weird in front of other peeps (or so i thought).. and then i went home.. huh.. soo.. at least vibing with an attractive/intelligent/stylish girl pulled me out of my spat of feeling-sorry-for-myself/heartbreak/love-dispair. but.. now what should i do?? i can get her number by calling her where she works.. hmmmm...

anyhoo.. then i climbed up Mt. Diablo yesterday... so beautiful up there.. especially during the golden hour when the sun was setting.. really beautiful..

peace.. e

umm.. can you say... ON FIRE!.. many of the e's surf report cronies ripped shit up this morning at VFWs. I saw Kaiser pull into a sizeable closeout barrel on one left as i was leaving.. Lerm watched as Christian got deeply slotted on a "cherry" left barrel, then watched as the Brazzo Bomber exited triumphantly way down the line from where he entered... A big, long, deep shack for our boy Christian.. I also witnessed Christian take off an a steep, racy left.. he did a few mellow turns.. and then launched this sweet floater/turn/re-entry maneuver over the 6 foot closeout wall! I was getting mashed on the inside but was like, "that was sick homie!" .. he just shrugged it off like it was lame.. Lerm summoned his "sack" and took off on a chunky, barrelly left. It was soo good out there. ya had to pick the right waves though.. lots of closeouts... but a barrelfest it was! These two wave-ski (kayak) guys were scoring tons of rides and weren't afraid to pull in.. i saw one of them pull into a deep pit and just get completely obliterated.. it was cool! I caught a bunch of really fun, racy rides but just couldn't stuff myself into the green room at all this morning.. oh well.. it was still sickness out there. Most of my good rides were lefts.. just ledgy, pitching, "sack-up" drops followed by accelerated down-the-line voyages.. sooo fun.. i REALLY REALLY didn't want to get out of the water and come to work.. but.. ya gotta do it.. then i'm late for work and i slide into my desk and people are bugging about some error in a script i wrote yesterday... Fark!! soo.. i just spent the last 40 minutes frantically debugging that shit.. anyway.. now i can finally sit back for second and reflect on that stellar session. This one hooded surfer that was out when i first paddled out got three DEEEEP barrels and exited all of them in about 8 minutes around 7am. I was like, "fuck yeah my brother!"

offshores were borderline raging.. set waves were a few feet overhead.. It wasn't "kill you" serious but it's more serious than it's been all week.

anyway.. i could go on and on..

bbr, tom, robme... where were you heads?

here are some pics of shackage at OB yesterday (photos by Nep)

deep pit

backdoorin' the box

curren off the top... yup!

man.. so fun this morning at VFers! getting lighter earlier too! i was in the water at 6:42 this morning and i probably could have jumped in a few minutes earlier. Not much in the way of swell, but enough to sate my frothing jones. Chest-high sets every 7 minutes, peeking on definite sandbars (one just south of the beach chalet, one in front of the south windmill). The offshores flowing brisk and crisp, throwing spray and hollowing waves. Probably 20 rides this morning, in about 1.5 hours. Four or five memorable ones.. The waves were small but extremely "rampy" and "quarter-pipey". They broke in about 3 feet of water. I sat and tucked and hedged and micro-positioned in the mouth of one little barrel on a right.. better stalling knowledge would have got me pitted deep.. but it still felt good.. i also caught one of the biggest waves of the morning.. i was sitting outside hoping for a big set, and.. sure enough.. dark blips on the horizon.. stroke and dig and then track down and into an offshore-licked, snarling, racy left.. grab rail and hold on.. tuck into the face and steer high along the wall.. barrel behind me.. throwing over my head a little.. speed.. speed.. race... let go of outside rail and ride up along the lip.. back down.. bottom turn.. back up to the lip... then pig-dog again.. race race race.. barrel?? ahh?? no.. close-out on my head.. but.. really fun wave for me.. probably still going right now... if you're sitting at home on the computer contemplating your daily plan.. go get some.

ok. shit.. i should get to work over here..

truck driver drives off cliff along devil's slide! - thanks lerm for the link.

Kaiser sent in some nice pics of Lindy..
Feb 5 at the Mar

Lindy sunrise in January

e

generally, as you may have gathered, i'm an optimist when it comes to conditions. If it's jumbled and onshore, i might say, "challenging with sections".. or if it's really small and cold i might say, "you can find little lines out there, bring your hood."... but today.. err.. let's see.. It's Sunny! ummm.. it's blowin' offshore.. but the reality is that it's just not working this morning at good ol' OB. NE wind gusts up to 25mph in the early morning.. making the surf check frigid and menacing. waist-high waves would either close-out or back-off on the inner sandbar. i saw a *few* promising sections in the middle of the beach but wouldn't deem it especially worthy. maybe if the wind calmed down a bit it would be fun to just paddle around and ride little corners.. keep an eye on this site. soo.. that's the "real deal glockenspiel"..

Bagel was kind enough to send me pics of some of his incredible artwork..

Smallest day in months here in SF. Waves still coming through though. Biggest waves maybe head-high?.. but most waves in the shoulder-high range. I surfed the middle of the beach and enjoyed a suprisingly fun session. Conditions looked really small and dumpy from across the great highway, but i noticed a few glassy sections peeling along so i suited up and paddled out. It took me a few minutes to realize that you really needed to sit on the inside to catch any waves.. and the offshores/current? kept pulling me out to sea.. soo.. i repositioned accordingly then started to get into a rhythmic flow.. I caught a bunch (15?) of racy, defined rights and was able to snap off the top a few times.. on one wave i actually angled up and smacked the lip three separate times.. I'd never really done that before. It felt good to link together a bunch of turns on the same wave.. I think that my surfing is fiiinnnaallyy starting to progress into the realm of moves and tricks. It has taken a long time. The waves really walled up on the inside, so, if you're out there, remember that and don't be drawn to the outside for that occasional rogue, outer-bar wave that comes in every 30 minutes.

5ft high tide at 1:30, then a 0 low at 7pm. All the local buoys are really down.
Blakestah predicts growing swell through the week.. small again tomorrow morning but then growing into Thursday.. bigger on friday.. hmm..

anyway.. i'm ready to take some lessons from Christian or Alex or any of the other rippers out there who really know how to harness their energy into powering off the top. how do you guys do that?

Phil Young asked about duckdiving a bigger board.. Phil, it's definitely doable.. One thing that helps is to start your duckdive a little earlier than you would on a shortboard, another technique that may be helpful is to angle your board to one side, then push the front of your board underwater.. rather than your board being horizontal. put it on a slight angle, allowing it to cut into the water more easily.. i used to duckdive Lerm's 7'6" funboard.. once you get used to it it's not really a big deal.

ahh.. monday morning.. a full five days of work before the next block of uninterupted freedom... but also a good time to score uncrowded surf! VFWs didn't look that appetizing from the lot.. looked smallish and sectiony.. but the sea-surface looked great and there were waves to be had so i headed out. As usual, what looked small from the parking lot ended up being head-high+ out in the lineup. Short-period groundswell/long-period windswell broke with authority on a distinct sandbar south of the beach chalet. The waves were fun and "rippy". Pretty easy to get into and then offering nice long rights.. This one guy was on fire.. i paddled by as he took off on an 8 foot face.. bottom turned, then literally stalled his board back into the barrel. He looked like a skateboarder breaking by pressing down on the tail of his board.. Impressive. I enjoyed some nice cutbacks and an off-the-top or two. The sections were mostly rights.. I took off on one left and got barrelled for a millisecond before the whole wall crashed down on me, sucked me backwards, then back up and down with the falls.. i actually slammed, resoundingly, into the sand.
The weather is crisp and beautiful at the beach, and there were only about 3 other surfers out.. not bad!

sounds like most of you had a killah weekend! niceness! thanks for keepin' the stoke fresh on e's surf report!

bagel.. how did the art show go?.. i wanted to check it out but ended up anchored to my friend's couch watching south park episodes! raging saturday night for me!

video of Robme's favorite Mendo wave

two dimwits accused of taking 100 tons of Hawaiian coral

Smiley sent in some pics of sloat from friday afternoon..