whaddup all y'all playaz!
Mysterious, fog-enshrouded lineups this morning at Ocean Beach.
I drove it from VFers to Sliz.. ended up at Pacheco.
Fucking serious, head-high groundswell juice cracking along shallow sandbars.
80% closeouts, 20% sickness
Throaty, dredging barrels.
death-knelling, gruesome poundings.
no wind.
smaller at Sloat and VFers, bigger and cleaner in the middle.
Spitting pits.
Weird, gurgling, boil-filled rips and currents.
Real OB.

This weekend i voyaged back to the friendly, sun-drenched climes of SLO-town..
Scored huge on Saturday at the Rock and then watched a peaceful Hazard Canyon peel gently as the sun set on sunday. SLO-town charger Jason Joyce took me out to the "Pit," just north of Morro Rock on Saturday.. We scored pretty huge as the mix of W groundswell and NW windswell filled the lineup with uber-fun, zippy shoulders and mini-bowls. It's basically a rivermouth setup just north of the rock. We surfed head-high, glassy rights for almost 3 hours. It felt soo fricken good to surf rippable, playful waves that weren't gonna kill you (ob), weren't going to violently closeout (lindy), weren't going to offer a steep drop and then a mushy shoulder (ob, lindy), weren't going to punish you unmercifully on the paddle-back-out for getting a long ride (ob, lindy). Morro Rock erupts out of the ocean like a prehistoric sentinel. It was deeply pleasurable to witness the contrast of gulls and other birds flying along the grey rock wall.. then pan down to see high-performance surfing on the wedgy left just north of the base of the rock. The sea-surface was glass and the waves just punchy and peeling and FUN!! I almost landed a bunch of big floaters but kept crashing as i came down from the top of the wave.. The sensation of getting air off the top of a wave and then falling down and landing into the white water is still new to me.. i kindof bail on the drop.. I need to just have confidence and stick those biatches..

any of you score big this weekend?? i'm sure it was killer up here..

shout out to Kus in Jersey! whattup homie!
shout out to the SLO-crew - thanks for the warm times and good vibes!

Time slipping away...
Checked OB at around 6:40 and shit was dramatic!
Violent NNW gusts raging and pummelling the tops off voluminous 8ft+ faces.
Radiant blue sky shimmering... contrasting aqua blue ocean and frothing white wind tendrils of spray. Fantasy surfing the electrified sections, I air-drop down into the angry pit, side-slipping my way down the face.. grapple the side of the wave and lock-D deeep in the tumultuous heart of the conflagratory monster. Spit scorching my back.. i see a huge slab of wind-blown lip launch out in front of me... a long, violently-calming liquid tube stretches out ahead.. a diminutive oval of sky waaayy out in front.. with room inside the cavern, i stand erect and spread my arms.. a melodious cacophony dominates sensation... blinding speed and crushing power.. I'm held on the fulcrum. A quick layback gauge inside the pit and i'm even deeper in there.. deeper than humanly possible.. defying the limits of inner-barrel existence. humming the celestial Ohm of eternity.. simply being... nothing and everything... then with a fluttering rush i'm spat out.. ejected onto the open section much like life's other most-pleasurable discharge. Board chattering on the glassy face, vibrating with kinetic energy.. I slowly, emotionally, gut-wrenchingly lay down the rail.. Upper body and leading arm inches from the water surface, turned inward, back toward the whitewater.. thighs quivering with outlayed force.. rooster tail of spray splattering the entire lineup.. rage back up into the tubular almond opening.. demonic, spine-crunching, lip-destroying round-house cutty that absolutely obliterates the thicky lip.. funnelling the amassed energy from the entire ride into that one moment of contact.. into one gutteral, primordial scream of passion.. written on the wave.. written to the universe..

e

surprised and pleased with the calm wind upon wakeup
I jettison down to Sloat.
Bestial, intimidating, double-overhead slabs of meat detonate on the outside.
Yikes! I'm Lindy bound.
Wind waxes as i round the bend into Pathetica
blowin' fierce out of the north..
head-high, frothy, wheels of confusion litter the lindy lineup..
Southward through the eucalyptus grove..
past the precipitous devil's slide.
awash in mountainous contrast and morning light.
Montara... fahgetaboutit..
past mysto moss beach reefs.. haunted distillery
Mavs looming large and gruesome... behind the satellite dish..
then.. bright and calm.. mellow and friendly.. glassy and squirty..
the Jetty!!
shoulder/head-high rampy glassy peelers breaking all over..
mellow crowd of 3
caught 4 memorable rights... plus about 8 randoms.. almost got completely covered on this inside double-up wedgy thing.. quietly hooted myself after cramming three off-the-tops onto one wave.. kinda struggled through a jetty beating at one point! great times all and all.. then sat in Pathetica traffic for 30 minutes.. grr.. surrounded by P-town faux red-necked conservatives with huge tired raised-trucks, don't mess with texas license plates and "if you don't speak the language, get out of the country" bumper stickers.. then a relaxing 10 minutes of cheerios, banana and OJ at my new place in the woods.. ahhh.. now at work.. shuffling to catch up..

OB glass (pic by brandon Haydon)

"Blurgle" Comin' atcha!

WSW wind blowing hard at OB.. making conditions junky and disorganized.. in hindsight some of the sections out there are probably better than Lindy, but Lindy showed a bit more cleanliness.
For some completely unknown and illogical reason, lindy was super crowded this morning. The weather grey and wet, with a slight rain. Wind on/sideshore out of the west.. swell small and weak, gutless and ugly.. Nevertheless close to 40 people decended on the one mediocre peak at the north end of the beach. Longboarders, blue crushers and beginners were loving the gentle conditions.. but anyone on the lookout for shacks had to placate themselves with little mini dribblers and such. In all fairness to the 'mar i caught one really fun right, where the wave walled up for 30 or 40 yards and allowed for some pumping and mellow carving. Also caught one or two fun lefts. but.. ya know.. it wasn't exactly raging disgusting outlays of penultimate conical perfection. still.. it's surfable.. it actually looked like the wind backed off a little as i drove away??

blakestah! thanks for posting the south swell info. right on!

sounds like Robme caught a few more heavy days up in PA
here's his report... (robme.. kick me an email if you don't exactly enjoy your words being reposted without asking!)
"Sat was blown out and basically whiteout conditions with wind and rain. Sunday howling north winds, but decent swell in the water. I did doughnuts *all* *day* *long*. Seriously! I think I made one drop, and that was cuz I got lucky. It was a screamer, so I was stoked. But otherwise I think I took off on 8 bombs and some smaller and everytime I got to me feet, there was no longer a wave under me, just air. I was the joke out there! I once repeated that kookout you witnessed on a macker (for that day), and when I got back to the line up, the other guys turned around and applauded! Ouch! Humiliating...

Anyway, the north winds there are offshore against that wave, and I don't know what was happening but I could not make it into the face. Other people could (but none of the goofy foots, not that that's a great excuse). Maybe that fade is too treacherous when there is a lot of wind, and you are backside. Anyway, I seriously wanted revenge, but it wasn't to be as it didn't break again after Sunday...

Next year, lots of PTA trips for me. I am gonna master that thing!"

In Robme's defense i have to say that the guy is often too humble for his own good.. during our session last friday i witnessed him nail a backside air-drop.. then regain his composure.. then out of nowhere change direction and crank *hard* off the top.. it was impressive. personally i think that some pre-seshy bong loads might thrust him to full ripper status :)

check it.. dolphins take part in the war effort..

virtually zero wind at the coast this morning.. 4.9ft 10sec windswell producing the occasional peeling nugget out at OB.. Many of the biggest waves closed out.. Sea-surface approaching glass. I found a few punchy sections, almost entered the green-room on a left and hit the lip kinda nicely one time on my frontside. Lerm said that he had fun.. Kaiser also represented for the niceness crew. Fun times.. however.. i learned an important lesson this morning.. My ass got humbled.. not my mother ocean, as often happens, but by another surfer. I guess that i've felt a marked improvement in my surfing over the last few weeks.. and without realizing it i think that i was beginning to fashion myself a ripper.. or.. at least on the way to ripping.. toward the end of my session this morning i managed to click off-the-top of a barrelly closeout and actually make the drop into the white-water.. i was feeling a'ight. then i notice this dude paddling confidently out toward me.. he quickly turned on a little inside wave and within milliseconds had carved a tight, uber-quick 360 then ripped around and kicked out.. damn! a few minutes later i guess i had my finger up my arse or something cause he sees a wave on the outside before i see it and before i collect myself he has paddled around me (without violating etiquette), stroked into the wave, and stalled himself deep in the barrel.. damn!! I notice that he's one of the guys in the "SanFranPsycho" movie. All of a sudden my confidence and lofty surf self-conception just totally deflate.. i take off on a little right and kook-out on the bottom turn, getting lodged in that squatty stance where you're not quite balanced.. I'm then standing on the inside, turn around, and there's that guy launching into this huge frontside layback snap off the top.. damn...

i suck..

but it's a great lesson..

anybody score?

e

OB... calm sea surface.. head-high++ waves at VFers and Sloat.. a few intriguing sections but mostly closeouts.. I'd say 90% closeouts, 10% rideable.. thick. good wind at 6:20am

Rockaway and Lindy - sea surface more hacked than OB.. closeouts at lindy.. ugly-looking closeouts.. nobody out. Saw some peaks at rockaway... but.. not very enticing..

Jetty... great, smooth sea surface.. perfect tidal level.. not enough swell.. maybe one rideable wave every 10 minutes.. barely..

0 low tide at 11am today.. SF buoy still up at 8ft 14seconds, but falling fast.. today might be the last day for your fave low-tide, big-swell locations..

I have to say that last week ended up being one of the best surf weeks i've ever experienced.. Through a combination of luck, persistency, conditions-monitoring and more luck i ended up with 4 days of point-break surfing at 3 different point breaks, with no more than 4 other people in the water with me. I've described the two FPers sessions and the DMers session already.. but the highlight of the week came as i skipped work on friday to head up to Mendo to stay with our boy Robme at his little light-house retreat in beautiful point arena. The ever-studious, gentle-souled Robme is spending his 40th birthday week in an old coast-guard house atop these huge bluffs overlooking the ocean. Seals barking and cavorting below, a radiant, turquoise expanse of ocean stretching toward the horizon, robme sits and crafts his first book.. We wake up at first light friday morning and head down to the wave.. the wave at PA sits inside a rounded cove, protected from the daunting and oft-gruesome NW gales.. there is a right and a left. The right generally considered "the wave".. On this day is was working.. working well.. the short-lived groundswell, ruined at Bay Area beach-breaks by the NW wind, was meandering in and rifling along the rock-reef of PA. The wave at PA can peak-up and break along a long stretch of reef. It reminded me of Swift Street in Santa Cruz only much thicker and juicier and more prone to barrelling. Almost all the locals surfed guns. They did this with good reason as the wave usually denied entry until the very last, perilous second... forcing a stomach-rising hell-drop into the energized/screaming pit.. Most of my drops were just hang-on-by-a-thread prayers followed by thigh-screaming bottom-turns to get back to the face. Once past the drop and bottom turn.. you'd be laughin!! as a walled, rippable extended spoke of mature groundswell energy peeled perfectly along the point/reef. I managed a bunch of high-speed top-turns as well as one the deepest, fullest frontside gauges i've ever performed.. It was kinda like one of those rail-grabbing, drawn-out frontside cutbacks that gavin and those cats do.. 'cept without the railgrab and without the style and without the sickness... but fun nonetheless.. Robme caught some nice ones, as well as suffering probably the hairy-est wipeout of the day.. overhead++ wave sucking and lurching and rising and menacing.. robme scratching and preying.. but also maybe a bit hesitant.. suddenly the wave starts pitching and robme isn't standing... instead he's floating and falling and leaving us into the dark dark otherworldly depths of the foaming void.. then i see his body spit out the back of the wave.. then crunched down again.. oooohh.. d'oh.. i promised Robme i'd never reveal what i had seen but i'm sure he won't mind :)

On a good swell.. the wave there is serious.. thick.. i noticed that the wave kinda collected on itself in Teahupoo fashion.. obviously not like Teahupoo but that same idea.. where a wave gets thicker instead of taller.. it was cold there too.. and the locals were older.. with quite a few lady-chargers in the lineup too!! which was great..

I also got to meet Blakestah and Jake and Caveman this weekend!! all three proved to be chilly-chill individuals with great vibes!!

anyway.. i better get to work..

shout out to Jamie E - big smooch to you, girl..
shout out to pops and moms.. keepin' it real in Ivyburg..
shout out to Dr Deni.. the man, the myth, the legend
shout out to 1950 22nd ave.. it's been real..

dano sent these pics in of El Capitan

nisi sent me this pic of a mendocino magnolia

Hey everybody! First off.. thanks a bunch for your support in regards to my run-in with the law yesterday. It's disheartening to feel that my/our quality of life is being directly affected by the tragic, misguided, maverick decisions made by our "elected" officials. it's really sad..

but.. on a lighter note.. i actually found waves this morning that succeeded in somewhat placating my wounded spirit. Only four people out. Thick, head-high set waves every 10 minutes or so. Little, squirty tweener' waves to occupy the rests between sets. Beautiful, crisp, sunny morning. I took off on one set-wave... pig-dogging and backhand pumping like mad to stay in front of the section.. then enjoyed a brief glimpse of the crystalline/translucent lip cascade over my head.. micro-barrelage... then more backhand pumps.. bottom turn.. pivot my upper body up the face of the wave.. rotate with all my strenth and *bash* off-the-top.. come back to the bottom.. pig-dog again as the inside barrel section approaches.. scream scream scream as i get jettisoned through the speedy part (no barrel).. then kick-out.. FUUCKK yyeeaaeaahhh!! that felt great.. long paddle back out.. the best surfer out paddles by and says, "You were completely slotted on that one!" I was like, "Thanks brotha!!" That set up good vibes for the rest of the sesh and i hooted him a few times as he got shacked or exploded off the lip. Later on a huge set cruises in (maybe foreshadowing the swell that's supposed to hit tonight?) .. I'm second in line.. yellow-board dude takes the first macker.. then it's all me.. and you know that feeling when there are people behind you in the lineup.. a huge wave is approaching.. and you have to go?? well.. that's the feeling i got.. but... i finally feel comfy enough on my backhand that i'll pretty much take off on anything.. so i scratch and scratch and the wave is just sucking and grimacing.. but i know it's going to be sick if i can get in.. yes.. i get over the ledge.. bounce and pig-dog my way down the face.. stear and hold-on through the foam-ball.. make it to the face.. and just kinda cruise and speed along.. i probably could have cranked off the top or done some sort of maneuvering but instead i just kinda trimmed along, just enjoying the power and perfection of this large set-wave that i made it into.. rode it almost to the beach.. soo friggin stoked..

but.. to put things in perspective.. there were a lot of lulls out there.. and the surface a bit sloppy/junky.. also this seal scared the living shit out of me.. i had just paddled out and sat-up on my board in the lineup.. i noticed a slight icyness to the vibe.. nothing major.. but i was still playing it mellow and not paddling right to the peak.. anyway.. i hear this HUGE, violent splash RIGHT behind me.. i was like, "what the fuck!!".. turned around and just saw a swirling of white-water behind me.. FUuUuckK.. this guy paddling back out was smiling and laughing.. he said a huge seal totally lept out of the water right behind me.. man.. i was shaking!!

anyhoo.. off to POInt arena with Robme tonight.. hopefully we'll score this swell coming in! good luck out there headies!!

well.. i finally have something somewhat interesting to report on this here surf site.. Cruised down to FPers this morning.. saw the road was closed but drove down anyway.. parked in front of the warming hut and walked down to the pier to check it.. empty glassy head-high waves wrapping in and peeling along.. nobody out.. walked back to my car and three police officers are standing there, writing down my plate number, etc.. they ask for my ID and say the road is closed and they have to check to see if there is a warrent out for my arrest.. waiting.. waiting.. one cop asks the typical questions, " You're a surfer huh? Isn't it cold out there? Those waves don't look that big. I want to surf someday. etc.. " Finally they're convinced that i'm not an escaped ax murderer and the guy says that i can park in the little lot behind the warming hut.. huh!!! i thought for sure that they would kick me out.. but.. hmm.. soo.. I parked over behind crissy fields and put my wetty on.. slanked all ninja like down to the beach and paddled out just to the west of the pier.. Giggling with stoke at the empty waves ahead but also from excitement at my commando mission.. Get out to the lineup and nobody bothers me.. Bunch of Marine dudes in fatiques, sporting machine guns on land but they don't say anything. Surf FPers for 90 minutes.. catch a bunch of fun, racy, classic Fort Point rides.. Got clamped shut into one barrel. Suffered a bunch of ugly wipeouts. Executed a few snappy off-the-tops.. The swell is still in the water, though noticeably diminished from yesterday morning. Soo.. then.. i hear this person scream at me through a megaphone, "SURFER, GET OUT OF THE WATER!! NOW!!".. Turns out it was the 5.0.. the man.. the pigs.. the powers that be, demanding that i desist from peacefully recreating in mom ocean. I learned from yesterday (yeah.. that mysto spot i surfed was really FPers.. tee hee.. sorry guys) that i wasn't allowed to get out of the water anywhere near the Fort.. soo.. i paddled all the way back to the pier.. the cop slowly following me in his car the whole way.. i took a few looks back over my shoulder to watch unridden, glassy set waves break smoothly along the point.. grrr!!! I get out of the water and the cop yells at me, "PUT DOWN YOUR BOARD!!! NOW!!!".. umm.. shit.. ok.. soo i put down my board on the rocks.. "PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND SLOWLY COME HERE!!!".. So i climb up the rocks and he proceeds to grill me about surfing in a restricted, closed area.. then he makes me go to my car to get my ID.. then he runs the same check that the other cop did.. i'm waiting and waiting.. then he gives me a fucking $50 ticket!!!! yup!!! that little biatch-cop gave me a $50 ticket for surfing! He wasn't really the type of cop you argue with.. so i just shut my mouth and got out of there.. I'm going to fight the ticket, however, because the other cop let me park in the crissy field lot, and there were no posted signs saying that the ocean was off-limits..

anyway.. that's the scoop!

anybody else score?

woke up early and drove north..
beginning pricks of dawn play over hills to the east
assume my stealth, ninja-surfer persona
park so as not to be seen
don the wetty and slip down rocks to the water's edge..
mysto-spot lefts peeling and beckoning... nobody out.
solo mission.. ease my way into the lineup..
first wave... mis-timed drop.. soar over the falls..
second wave... hell-drop, grab-rail.. hold-on.. make it! gauge a turn..
silence as i sit.. boils gurgle and frighten.. whitey lives here.
the round of a seal's back break's the water surface..
A lumpy set-wave appears.. scratch to get in.. face sucks out.. steep drop.. sudden mini-barrel.. out into the flats.. lean into the rail.. damn.. felt good..
more waves...
sun now shining and warming.. wind remains calm.. glassy spokes round the little headland.. nobody out.
i sorrowfully paddle in for work..
Will i experience this again?
Solace, comfort, humor, amazement.
Personal dance with mother ocean.

e

"lop" posted this poem.. i liked it..

Big blue nuggets coming in
din
take off
get off
bust a fin
again
thin lip spraying
playing and slaying
laying it down
on a rail
sliceing like a fish scale
turning
burning
on the edge
the ledge
about to dredge
pitching
I'm itching
for another bitching
cave
a slave
can't behave
trying to save
one more time
in my mind
picture of a pit
with a spit
catching dem all with a baseball mit
lit
can't sit
by and watch
sasquatch
looking biotch
outta controllatch
snaking
faking
for goodness saken

buoys still way up.. California buoy reading 17ft 14seconds! damn! I'm reading conflicting wind reports.. pwizardry.com says it's blowing at 15mph out of the south while surflink.com reports a west wind.. either way OB and Lindy probably not really surfable.. though i didn't check this morning.. There is a 6ft high tide today at around 11.. and then a -1 low at 5pm..

I surfed FPers yesterday afternoon for a few hours. Took off on a few bombies right near the one main exposed rock out from the jump-off point. People were spread all the way around the corner, past the western side of the bridge. It was large, and scary, and wild and tumultuous and frothy and generally 'un'sane. We shared the lineup with a windsurfer for a while.. who zipped down the line a few times but then suffered a gnar-gnar wipe resulting in his board and sail getting washed in toward the rocks. There were some ugly/bestial/mutant/sucking wrappers that just lurched up and unloaded with no mercy on that one exposed rock.. serious power.. I actually sat to the inside of a few of them and looked through the barrel window as they pitched and threw out. crazy! DMers looked ridiculously crowded when i checked around 4pm.. It appeared that the strong NW wind caused most of the waves to section... but i saw from a distance what looked like a few barrelly takeoffs??... soo.. maybe sicky rides were procured??

good luck and be safe out there. know your limits..

e

Cardiff Reef

Kassia

Puerto barrel

Vibrant storm energy fills the air and heightens senses.
Dark, brooding cumulus clouds hang over the Pacifica mountains.
The rag-like coastal flags along sharp park whip angrily with the south wind
Off/sideshores at our favorite little nor-cal hamlet..
... our cozy little cove of surf miasma..
... our luke-warm little arc of slurfing mediocrity..

yes.. raging off/sideshores and head-high "rollers" marching in to the 'mar.
Not exactly magically peeling.. but not exactly death-knelling close-out annihilation either. Some relatively high-performance sections on offer if you could get them.. the wind succeeded in either hollowing out a nuggetty little corner, or in hollowing out a massive close-out wall.. right on your head.. I caught one really enjoyable left.. steep drop.. let go of rail.. backside pump.. then high-speed semi-turn along the top... then bottom turn and then another top turn.. then out the back.. felt good.. then about 15 waves on the head.. had to float south to the "channel" to get back out.. do the classic "fuck you lindy" curse under my breath.. but i didn't really mean it because the ride had me stoked..

Kaiser and long-haired, great-vibed Asian guy out there catching good ones.. black jeep driving asian girl scoring as well..

i'd say a killah session overall.. challenging conditions, bigger waves.. lots of them.. good workout..

TW surf had a great "Bro-ism" in it's latest mag..
Brozilians - Brazilian bros.
Example: "Christian's such a bro, he's brozilian."

Photos in honor of the wahine!

girl in the curl

10 year old girl!

No way! there's Lerm! :)

this morning marks the official, annual return of a thoroughly white-capped ocean.. disorganized mayhem at our beloved Ocean Beach.. Maybe a random section or two for the die-hard down at sloat but prepare yourself for that face-plastering, eye-tearing sting of the tenacious onshore wind. Lindy and Rockaway handling the SW wind MUCH better than the west-facing OB. The sea-surface at Lindy looking especially scalloped and groomed.. but.. just puny little driblets out there to ride... up at the north end a few loggers enjoyed some knee-waist high, slow-moving pulses.. but.. if you ride a shortboard it would be pretty tough.. maybe if the wind remains out of the south and the swell that's reading 16ft 12seconds on the California buoy makes it's way in, Rockaway could start to shape up with the outgoing tide? keep an eye out.

maybe lindy tomorrow morning?

Last night i enjoyed a powerful, full-tilt, explorative musical jam with my DJ friend Colin.. We settled into this vibrant state of sensitive reactivity.. each trying to open mental decision making to the whim of the collective sound.. trying to be a blade of grass blowing and moving with the wind of the moment. I received a beautiful email from a friend last night that poetically describes the essence of improvisation.. "uninhibited stark naked manifestation of thoughts and emotions. "... Feeling your base creative state to be "stark naked." Then pushing and allowing your raw emotional expressions to manifest outward into existence.. ahh.. improvisation! so central to the intrigue of surfing! Each person with his/her own, unique style and manner of moving on a wave. A celebration of human individualism. A celebration of the body poetic.

C sent this in..

another submission by C.. looks fun

icelandic right

bulbous grey clouds weigh down on the atmosphere
seasick, churned ocean-surface...
as if yesterday's morning glass never existed.
windswell waves break steep on the inside.
Oooo.. but there's a rampy attractive little corner..
Oohhh.. but observe those five sucking closeouts in a row
hmmm.. but at least the wind isn't howling..
yeah.. but feel the slight onshore tickle your ear..

Drivin' down the great highway.. ladda yadda..
Sloat lookin' better than V.F. 'ers..
I think i'll suit up and see what happens..
don't feel like joggin' so might as well slurf..

It's pretty shitty out here.. oh yay!
takin' off on closeouts all damn day!
Got the rip currents flowin'.. right through the lineup..
Can't i just get a section.. then i'll shut the hell up..

o please.. mother ocean.. just give me a wave!
I'm sittin' and i'm freezin' and i'm hopin' and i'm pleadin'
just give me one little lip that i might flip a little trick
that i might have it in my head as i grind away my time.

e

wow!! if it had been a little bigger... i'd go so far as to say this morning offered some of my favorite surfing conditions out at OB. 5ft 12sec at the SF buoy.. chunky windswell basically.. The ocean surface at 6:20 am was absolute plate glass. Mesmerizingly placid.. The texture of the peeling sections looked like the smooth, delicate skin on the small of a women's back... right as her lower-back meets the top of her tush.. that silky, succulent, mouth-watering area.. right were the little back dimples are.. umm.. wait.. what was i talking about? um.. yeah.. the waves.. ha! so.. waves about head-high.. fun racy little sections.. a few barrels on offer if your barrel-sniffing was acute.. the windswell-nature of the swell hooking it with wave after wave after wave.. i seriously probably caught over 30 waves during my two hour session.. I managed to stuff myself into two little barrels.. both on my backside (lefts).. One barrel particularly memorable.. I scratched and powered and freaked myself into the wave.. then watched as the bottom sucked out.. it was pretty thick and sizeable and i thought for sure i was going over the falls.. i couldn't really see that good either because the offshores were blowing spray in my face.. but.. i grabbed my rail.. leaned back and into the wall.. and somehow tracked my way down the face and to the bottom.. then enjoyed the vision of visions... the moment where all other sensations or thoughts or emotions evaporate from consciousness.. the moment when the barrel throws over your head and engulfes you in its violent radiance.. the quiet roar.. the laughably potent outlay of energy.. I enjoyed a few seconds, maybe even just one second.. and then exited onto the shoulder..

our man christian was out there shredding.. i witnessed a bunch of styly rides by him.. one left in particular where he took off.. bottom turned.. nice full snap off the top.. then instead of coming down to the bottom again he held up high for a little floater/lip-dance before the wave ended.. That guy is just super quick and agile on his board.. a pleasure to watch..

Kaiser took off on this sucking/obnoxious/beastial wave early in the sesh and almost held on for what could have been a gaping close-out barrel.. but.. crunch..

for anyone contemplating OB right now.. the winds were definitely on the up-and-up as i got out of the water.. looks like they're blowing onshore out of the WSW at 5knots right now.. probably still fun for a few more hours.. but not the glass anymore..

it's surfable at around 6:12 now.. soo.. you can get on that shit early..

word..

snapper rocks

Neco Padaratz

An oil-like reflective veneer sheaths the ocean surface..
Seductive, tubular head-high dollops peel throughout.
I pump my fist as a fellow wave-rider gets pitted
I hold on tight as i race down the line
VFers crowded but good vibes fill the ethos
can't beat the morning glass!
can't beat the gentle paddle-out!
can't beat the monday morning seshy!!

Surfers Against War! Osama don't surf!"

over the weekend surfed some small/mellow waves at shell beach, near SLO.. nothing special.. felt a bit the kook in my wetty as EVERYONE else surfed with no wetty!!! even this bikinied mom on a longboard who was rippin it! it was crazy! but.. the air was super warm and the sun beaming.. water temp not too bad.. i love it down there in slo-town.. flowers bloomin, mountains providing richness and drama to the eye.. town filled with funkadelic houses... heeps of little secluded reefs and beaches.. not too developed.. purdy girlies.. makes this city-boy a little sentimental..

e

checked VFers.. waist/chest-high and messy.. small waves closing out and crumbling.. 2 guys out on longboards getting nothing.. the wind is blowing onshore out of the northeast... pretty hard. I checked Sloat and conditions were a little better.. there actually was a peak semi-working right in front of the showers.. I sat and thought about it for a while.. it was basically an almost-decent A-frame peeling mushily every few minutes.. nothing was really working to the north or south of this peak.. but for some reason (sandbar formation) the sea-surface remained relatively clean in this 100yard area. No takers except this one older longboard fellow getting pounded on the inside and not making it out.. i felt bad for the guy.. he was walking in shallow water with his big 9ft log.. every once in a while he'd make some progress and get ready to hop on his board to start paddling.. then a wall of whitewater would completely knock him down and send him back 20 feet.. i watched this happen to him about 5 times.. I felt like screaming to him, "just swim out for a while without your board.. then jump on your board outside the shorepound!"... but.. i instead rolled home and got back into bed.. which felt great.. Of course now i'm bemoaning the fact that i didn't hop in at sloat for a little sesh, and keep that older feller company.. but.. truth is that conditions were narsty and the onshores were blowin.. ahh..

looks like small, gutless waves through the weekend.. sucks.. I'll probably get skunked at the central coast reefs i wanted to check.. oh well..

peace out y'all..

believe it or not the first ASP event of the year is underway at Snapper Rocks..

I'm pretty sure this is cloudbreak..

skindog in monterey bay

goofy-footers take note of this off-the-top.... damn!

Kaiser Lerm and I surfed VFWs this morning for about 1.5 hours.. The south part of OB (South of Noriega) witnessed action on the outer bars, with a garbled, messy inside section to contend with.. North of Noriega the waves mostly broke on the inner bar, in shallow water. The swell noticeably diminished from yesterday.. biggest waves maybe a few feet overhead. The waves at VFers were punchy and racy.. breaking in about 4 feet of water.. barrels happening all over the place, but ya had to choose wisely among the ubiquitous close-outs to score the peeling nuggets. I enjoyed one fleeting moment of barrellage on a head-high right. It let me in at the last second and then briefly threw a conical curtain over my head as i weaseled down the face. I had a chance to pull into a bunch of closeout barrels today but decided against it every time.. One noteable wipeout on my part too.. one of the bigger set waves came through and started breaking on the outside.. i tried to paddle and pop up on the shoulder but the thing just kept sucking and rising and foamballing and not letting me in.. finally let me in but it was just a sheer 6ft wall and i tried to set my rail but failed and then felt myself skidding down the line for a second before being drilled to the bottom.. then sucked back up and thrown to the bottom again.. a little dizzy upon resurfacing.. I watched one hilarious wipeout where a dude dropped in too late and then just freefell, spinning and flailing arms and legs.. INSIDE A HUGE BARREL.. and then just got pulverized by a detonating explosion of whitewater. I could actually see his body falling and flailing inside the barrel from my perspective in the lineup.. i chuckled at that one.. I watched Kaiser catch a really nice left.. took off strong from the outside in the middle of the pack and just worked the wave all the way to the inside.. that kid isn't afraid to Go! nice work K..

cool.. it's going out there..

Jake sent me a few delectable images from santa cruz.. He also promised that he'll continue radiating the feel-good vibe in the waters down there.. soo.. we have jake on our side!! might come in handy when the 4-mile psycho or someone like him is harshing your steez..
check out the guy inside the barrel, about to get shutdown

coming around at the slot

natural bridges.. stacked up

Kaiser and i surfed Sloat this morning, pretty much by ourselves.. Bombies breaking on an outer sandbar... sunny skies with mellow offshore breeze.. Only a smattering of folk out in the water at OB.. even though there were some firing peaks.. I think that the larger size and the washing-machine inside section acted as deterents.. I have to thank Kaiser for convincing me to paddle out. I was tempted to hide behind my evaporating flu and give the surf a miss this morning.. But paddle out we did.. through the gruesome shore-pound that veritably raped and bitch-slapped me all around.. then out in the clear.. The waves didn't exactly have exemplary shape, but were thick and powerful, oozing with groundswell juice. From the beach it looked as if the outer bar waves would rise up and peel gently, then back off.. In reality the outer bar waves were well overhead and often threw out chunkified lips of destruction. I caught a few fun ones.. nothing amazing.. but then paddled into to this overhead beast of a right.. A huge, racy, big-wave drop and then a full-speed cutty.. i was STOKED!! couldn't help but to give myself a little claim..

anyway.. more in a minute.. i have a meeting..

argh.. i'm bumming that i'm not out there this morning.. wind is blowing offshore at 3mph out of the NE.. the sea surface looks clean, maybe slightly warbled. Waves are peeling and inviting at OB. Looks like a go.. I feel like an invalid not surfing.. I'm feelin' better but still have the slight fever (weird, loopy state-of-mind, pressure on back of eyelids, chilly, etc). I guess i'll just have to rely on all y'all for the first-hand scoop. I expect nothing short of, "E, not to be 'that guy', but.. you missed the most epic barrelfest this morning." Or something like, "E, Lindy was firing on all cylinders. 200 yard, tapering, knife-edged perfection at a new channel on the north end, too bad the sand started shifting and it won't be there tomorrow." Or maybe, "E, Ortega was insane. just big, glassy walls of scrumptious niceness, nobody out. This random head from Arcata was on the beach with this huge glass bong, offerin' up bongloads of his wicked hydro skunk #5. too bad you missed that shit E.. oh yeah.. and then this pack of bikinied hard-bodied triathalete girls cruised by, looking for surfer guys.. i guess they were feeling randy and just wanted to snuggle with some boys before work.. too bad you weren't there E".. Man.. i'm sure all that and more went down this morning while i sat here jonesin for surf on my computer. that's always the way isn't it.. argghgh!!

JDZ - SUCKY news about your ears! argh!! Steve Hawk (former editor of surfer) has had to have that inner ear drilling operation a few times already.. sucks! Man.. i have earplugs sitting in my car and i never wear them.. i think i'm going to start busting them.. how often do you surf? over how many years?

dano/kaiser/et. al.. nice work getting pounding out of the water at one spot but then just continuing on to the next spot.. that's what's up..

jake.. i was reading an interview with Trey the other day and he mentioned that the inspiration for first tube and last tube was surfing.. and getting barrelled in particular! crazy eh! I guess that Trey tried surfing on Hawaii and loved it and wrote some songs about it!
very cool that you're jammin' down.. if you live in the city and want to jam kick me an email... we could get together with caveman too..

time for my arse to get to work..

i think that i already mentioned this.. but.. i'm looking for a 1bedroom or studio or chilly-chill roomate situation in the sunset.. anybody have info?

siick..

e

flea

flea's brother troy

fred P at Rocky point

OB looks junky and large this morning.. but.. i'm out-of the loop anyway with a nasty sore-throat and nagging fever.. SUCKS!!!! Friday afternoon came last week, bringing promise of a adventure-filled weekend.. Post-work happy-hour-session with coworkers turned into a party at House of Nanking.. turned into drinking at friends place.. turned into, "damn, my throat hurts.." turned into waking on saturday morning hurting.. then sleeping all weekend.. trying to recover.. feeling that frustrating internal sickness and uneasiness.

Saturday cleaned up at the beach at around 1. I watched many a snap, gouge and cuttie from the wall at VFWs. but then the wind picked back in the afternoon and junked it up again.. SF buoy at 7ft 17seconds right now.. 0ft low tide at 6pm... wind annoyingly coming from the west.. probably surf somewhere.. but.. most likely not at the bay area beachbreaks..

wish i had some lubricious tales from the weekend.. but.. the only scintillating experiences i enjoyed where either imaginary or culled from the words of other minds.... well... i did spend about 30 minutes in the presence of about 20+ freshly stylized, funkadelic, beautiful women.. yesterday i went to a "sample sale" near the civic center, where 15 or so local clothing designers set up booths with their clothing, also had dj playing and free organic/shade-grown/fair-trade/etc. food. The exterior me kind-of poked around looking at the clothing while the interior me marvelled, slack-jawwed and stunned, at the style, beauty and charisma of these women.. damn.. then i went outside and coughed up this huge, fever-induced loogy that felt soo good! then home to bed..

Kaiser sent these pics in..

a nice left at lindy

another attractive lindy left

heads

ahh.. wish i was this guy..