No whistling wind to frighten us city dwellers this morning on all hollows eve...
Nothing but an eery calm. A bewitching stillness that coaxed and lulled unsuspecting wave-riders out of their warm/comfy slumber. Dark, brooding cumulus-nimbus storm clouds threatened from above. I slithered into my wetsuit and scampered down to the beach. Robme and Lerm already down there suiting up. After a blustery evening i expected warbled, junky surf. I had mentally prepared myself to paddle out into just about any doom or gloom that might be gurgling.. but.. somehow the Wiccan goddesses of the oceanic netherworld gleefully conspired to cast a glassy spell on conditions this morning. Over the great highway an immediate thrill sparked down my spine as i gazed out on picturesque, head-high, semi-glassy peaks. Lots of them. Nobody out! A gut-wrenching coyote howl stopped us in our tracks on our way to the ocean's edge. We looked up to observe three ghostlike spirit-entities rise out of the water and approach us. What looked like robed/hooded skeletons soared through the air.. their vacuous faces turned toward us and their orange glowing eyes piercing right through our fragile psyches. At first we were frightened but slowly their grimaces morphed to smiles and they only wanted to welcome us into the realm of the sea. Sweet!! We acquiesced and were soon bobbing out in the lineup, waiting for waves. Almost immediately this overhead, lurching right reers up for me.. i spin, take-off.. and ride down the line for almost 50 yards or so.. mostly just pumping and trimming.. trying to milk it.. A super long ride.. but only the drop had that steep wall that's just so nice.. More waves kept coming in.. Robme caught a few, including a macker right that he rode almost all the way to the beach. Lerm kept catching good ones but was bumming on the huge rip in the shoulder of his wetsuit, causing dismal cold-water flushes with each duck-dive. After watching "Addicted - the Archy story" last night i was visualizing Archbald's super-aggressive backhand attack.. And it helped!! On this one lined-up left i took off with a little pig-dog on a steep drop.. then immediately let go of my rail.. did a little backside pump.. and then turned my upper body and just pivoted and tried to really turn up the face of the wave on my bottom turn.. and.. it actually worked!! I had a bunch of speed and enjoyed a progressive (for me) backside snap right off-the-lip on a steep, walled-up left.. then i kept back-side pumping and trimming, looking for the next section to hit.. visualizing Archy's backside attack the whole time.. The guy is just a mastermind on his backhand, imho.. on his forehand too.. but.. I don't know if any other pro surfer takes such an aggressive line coming off his backside bottom turn as the Arch.. He just fucking pivots and cranks off the bottom and then speeds (extra)vertically up the face of the wave and just fricken kills it! inspiring! Soo.. after about 1:15 of surfing we had drifted south 5 or 6 blocks.. Probably about 10 good rides for each of us. With the exception of this weekend i'd call it some of the best OB waves of the season.. which.. truth be told.. isn't saying much :( Not scandolously immaculate or anything.. but.. good..
Soo.. this evening... my pretties!! As Bacchanal warlocks unsheeth vile incantations.. as demonic sorcerers enchant unsuspecting maidens with their cloaks of mercurial moondust.. remember to throw all caution to the wind.. light the fire in your bellow.. and howl with gutteral vibrancy up at the cosmos, joining your earthen brethren as we cast aside the fetters of Puritanical rightiousness and reawaken the sensual, animalistic, pagan tendencies within...

Skeletor!!

This one goes out to all the surf addicts out there!!
Make some noise if ya with me!!

So throw your hands in the air.
And wave em' like you just don't care..
And if you want some pits, if you want some sauce, everybody say "Oh Yeah!"

"OH yeah!!"

Lookin' out the window, the onshores rushin' strong.
My brain is wantin' surf, my body wants it ON!
Strollin' down the hill, cross the great highway
I gaze upon the ocean, a tumultuous display.
Sheeot, says I, no surf for me today.
I guess i'll have to fantasize 'bout lips i'd like to slay

So my mind goes a-wanderin'
Toward some turquoise tropical reef-pass
Playful head-high rights a-crumblin'
I bash the lip and glide and rebound

But soon my fantasy ends, and i look upon OB
whitecaps toward the horizon, no playful lips for me.
But if you are a legend, a charger through and through
You might just find some waves out there, just for you and your crew.

shots from fluidzone... anybody know the wave?.. it's in Western Australia

a little geto boyz holloween jam to get you pumped for tomorrow night..

Verse Four: Bushwick Bill

This year Halloween fell on a weekend
Me and Geto Boyz are trick-or-treating
Robbing little kids for bags
Till a law man got behind our ass
So we speeded up the pace
Took a look back and he was right before our face
He'd be in for a squable no doubt
So I swung and hit the nigga in his mouth
He was going down, we figga'd
But this wasn?t no ordinary nigga
He stood about six or seven feet
Now, that's the nigga I'd been seeing in my sleep
So we triple-teamed on him
Dropping them motherfuckin beads on him
The more I swung the more blood flew
Then he disappeared and my boys disappeared, too
Then I felt just like a fiend
It wasn't even close to Halloween
It was dark as fuck on the streets
My hands were all bloody from punching on the concrete
God damn, homie
My mind is playing tricks on me

Woke up and felt the onshores.. walked outside of my house and saw the somewhat tossled sea-surface.. crept back into bed and read for an hour. But now that i'm sitting at work.. a quick look at the surfpulse cam has me questioning my possibly-rash decision not to surf. Anybody get out there?

After a sweaty, extendo band-practice last night i came home.. stretched for a while.. cooked up some leftovers and sat down to a viewing of 5th Symphony Document. Lately i've struggled with digging my inside rail on my backside bottom turns.. not all the time.. not usually ride-ending.. but occasionally, when my weight isn't distributed efficiently over my board... it happens like this: i'll take-off on a wave and drop down the face, then pivot my upper body to initiate my bottom turn, and i'll lose speed as i trace a slightly improper arc and hence dig rail, then as i approach the lip i'm not chattering with the translated speed of the drop.. but rather moving slower and unable to punch a resounding top-turn into the lip. Sometimes everything flows real nice, I come screaming off the drop.. pivot, crouch low and find myself exploding up the face and into the lip... arcing a tight turn no problem.. but.. my consistency is low and i muff too many nice sections because of my rail-bogging tendency.. Soo.. getting back to 5th Symphony Document.. i watched Conan Hayes, Dorian, Machado, etc. last night with a trained eye on their backside bottom turns. I noticed how most of their weight centered on their back foot at the outset of the turn. I noticed how they would often slightly reshuffle their footing on the deck of their board before digging into the turn. I noticed how they really project their line up the face of the wave via pivoting their upper bodies in the direction they want to go. i noticed had friggin hard they rip! I noticed how they tend toward roundhouse cutties when carrying a bucketload of speed into mushing-out sections. I noticed how unbelievably good the waves in the video looked! Fuuuck!!

Soo.. maybe a skate tonight to work on the new backside bottom turn ruminations..

also Wavefest is tonight.. 7:30 and 9:30 showings.. at the balboa theatre.. i think the main movie is a longboard flick??

the asp contest in brazil is on right now..

again with the warm, balmy weather... the dry, earthy offshore breeze... the smooth sea surface... the peaky swell. A beautiful California day! Lerm and i hit it around 6:20. Until around 7:15 the shape of the waves was the stuff of school-notebook doodlings. Not huge, but not a drop out of place. Head-high polished glass. Peaks breaking all over the beach.. a few "playground" barrels too! I mean.. it was glorious for the first 30 minutes.. Lerm and i were giggling to ourselves.. paradigm of oceanic aesthetics.. I caught a bunch of solid rides.. but the waves usually didn't line up perfectly for extendo, rampy, down-the-line voyages.. Those situations existed.. but you had to hunt for them or get lucky. As the session wore on conditions began to shift. The earlier outer-bar perfection morphed into outer-bar mush-burgers so we paddled to the inside and caught a few inside grinders that were still really fun but not the sparkling, idyllic sculptures of the early dawn.

Lerm and i were just floating there for a while at the end.. shooting the shit and waiting for waves.. suddenly this bobbing squadron of thin-necked seals approached us from the south. At first we dismissed them as your normal curious pennipeds but then we noticed what looked like reins attached to two of the bigger ones. As the seals rose further out of the water we watched as two delicate, exquisite mermaids held the reins and rode on the back of those two seals. We only caught a brief glimpse, but we saw enough to be stunned and awed by their riveting beauty and magical presence. Just before they dove back under the water they each turned to us and gave a little knowing wink followed by a small beckoning gesture with their heads.. as if to say.. "follow us." We paddled after them for a while.. but.. never saw them again..

hmmmm...

Justin sent me these pics yesterday... he had this to say about them:

"on my way up to crescent city a few weeks back, was taking my time to stop on the side of the road and check out the coastline as necessary. not the greatest photos/scan job - i have no idea if this place goes off often or what. should have seen the set before this one...."

I'll start with this morning.. 3knot NE offshore breeze scalloping the water surface. SF buoy at 3ft 19seconds.. Most of the long-period energy seems to be coming out of the south from around 200 degrees. Balmy, thickly-warm weather, even at 6:30am.

After a surf-drenched central coast weekend i was prepared to skip this morning, but somehow ended up in my wetsuit at the beach at around 6:30. The notion that i might voluntarily miss-out on epic conditions put a quick fire under my slumbering buttocks. But.. alas.. conditions were far from optimal out in the water.. The swell is there.. the offshores are nice.. but maybe the tide was wrong?? I don't know.. but... waves began to break on the outer sandbars but would quickly back-off.. then lumber toward the inside and finally close-out violently... or peel.. or dishevel.. depending on their mood.. but not following any consistent trend. I paddled out and caught a few steep left drops but didn't enjoy any glorious down-the-line scamperings.. I think that if you keep an eye on it you could score huge out there later on. I also think that today's the kind of day where all the random spots along the coast will be working.. Places like Gazos creek, Don't Eat Us Creek, Salmon, etc.. If you're not workin' take a drive..

Soo.. yeah.. yesterday I got up late with Seymore at our friend's place in SLO-town.. After a 3-hour marathon session on Saturday, and then a mildly debaucherous costume-party saturday night.. i wasn't exactly amping to get out in the water immediately.. plus i figured that the offshores would ensure an all-day surf-window. After copious amounts of pancakes, eggs, smoothie, lounging, chilling, conversing, watching naked people run around the house, more lounging.. Seymore and i left for the beach and hopefully what would prove a solid birthday wave-riding session. Being later in the day i figured the somewhat legendary, usually localized, secret but not so secret beautifully shaped Los Osos reef might not be so crowded. A short drive through a eucalyptus grove then an enchanted stroll through a fragrant forest had us gazing from atop a cliff out over the reef and then north toward the sentinal of morro rock. The tide was too low for the reef but the beachbreak just north was smokin'!!! Total, utter, offshore-groomed glassy sea-surface.. Headhigh+ juicy waves breaking/barrelling/peeling like mad on an outer sandbar.. about 10 people strewn between the 2 or 3 distinct peaks.. It looked fun but not immaculately glorious from the beach.. but upon paddling out it became obvious that the situation was *on fire* and that i was about to get some of my best waves of the year. Just as i reached the lineup a smooth slab of groundswell juice rolled in and rose up about 100 yards down-the line from me.. This central-coast ripper takes off deep and gets engulfed in this feathering, cracking, picturesque, almond-shaped barrel.. he proceedes to stall and work his way down the line, in the barrel the whole time!!! I would conservatively say he scored a 3 or 4 second tube ride!! Needless to say i was frothing and convulsing with anticipatory zeal!! Get me a mutha-fuckin' wave!! Sure enough about 2 minutes later a thicky rose up for me and i stroked into it.. savoring that brief moment before rising to my feet when you see a tapering, glassy wall about to open up for you and you know you're about to score. Drop down the face.. minutely reposition feet for balance.. pump a few times for speed and then unleash an arcing, thigh-burning rounded cutback back into the white-water.. bounce off whitewater and then do a few more pumps and another little cutty.. O shit!!! fuck yeah!!! A few minutes later another roping right reered up for me... I was actually able to gather speed and arc a few more turns.. in my mind i felt like tayler knox or some shit but in reality i probably looked pretty measly.. but.. anyway!! 10, 20 , maybe even 30 waves later.. no joke.. and probably over a three hour session.. i did about 20 or 25 solid, divot-scalping turns and snaps and such.. I'm not trying to toot my own horn.. the waves were just SOOO RIPPABLE and EASY!!!!! i kid you not! I felt like i was shredding.. but the serious central cal shredders out there were putting me to shame.. huge barrel into gaff into 180 airial (landed successfully).. giant, body-torquing cutbacks, etc.. it was impressive.. I heard it was great at OB yesterday as well so i'm sure that many of you know what i'm talking about.. I caught so many bomby rights with last-second, throw-yourself-over-the-ledge drops and then overhead, quarter-pipy, peeling, point-break-like sections that i just want to reflect right now for a moment, take some deep breaths and thank whatever cosmic forces, existential tendrils, gifts of fate, luck, timing ,karmic alignment or whatever led me to that sandbar on that day at that time. I've never really carved off the top of the lip like that! never really had the opportunity. It feels sooo unbelievable when you have a solid, glassy section in front of you and you KNOW you're going to get a chance to do something.. To add to the magic out there a pod of dolphins lept out of the water and rode waves all around us.. i pulled back on a wave one time because i noticed about 3 dolphins riding down the line toward me. i was amazed and dumbfounded! The dolphins give off such great vibes.. With a huge stretch of unpopulated beach to choose from i have to think that the dolphins purposefully chose to come hang with us surfers and maybe even show off some of their talented leaping and wave-riding abilities.. I know i was impressed! thanks dolphins!! Also the warm evening, vibrant sunset, and sliver-mood leant an ethereal feel to the evening.. plus when i came in, a little worried that Seymore might be bored after nearly 3 hours of beach-chilling, she was having a grand time with some SLO-town friends who just happened to be on the beach there.

niceness..

cold-water classic

Conditions looked daunting as the sun crept over the eastern horizon.. It looked like rows upon rows of white-water. I was not psyched for another million duckdive morning.. Waves on the outside looked relatively groomed and some of them even peeled along. The paddle out ended up being surprisingly easy. I guess sometimes there isn't an exponential increase in wave size between what it looks like from shore and what it actually is in the water. Mostly-mushy overhead waves lurched in and peeled/closed. I caught a few post haste, a right and a left. then basically paddled around aimlessly for 25 minutes trying to position myself for a good one... unsuccessfully.. Some folks were slinking into nice rides.. i saw a bunch of stylized turns and even a near-barrel. The sun shone brightly and the day awoke with beautiful alacrity. I finally caught a thick right and worked along the wall for a while.. then carved through two drawn-out turns. That felt good.. but.. since it didn't get light until about 7:10.. the eight-o-clock hour had drawn nigh and it was time to bid adios to the most pleasurable environ..

A whole squadron of niceness peeps could be seen as bobbing heads out in the lineup.. Lerm, Robme, Kaiser, Christian, Anastasia, Marco and a few other recognizable faces all kicked-it and exuded the chilly chill vibes in the water. werd!

soo.. Slates won the mundaka contest, beating Taj in the final. "the champ" is now back on top of the ratings lead.. They go to Brazil now.. and then hawaii for the final few events..

schweeeet..

good luck with waves this weekend.. looks to be shaping up nice for some mellow, glassy enjoyment..

whattup all y'all playaz! OB looking tame and smaller compared to the lofty precipi of this past week.. from the lot shit looked disheveled.. kinda tousled like a squinty-eyed, makeup-smeared coed doing the 6am walk-of-shame across campus from the delta chi house.. or something.. With moral encouragement from the Lerminator... who has been overwhelmed with that ailment we all know too well... "olas lackiosis." It's a chronic ailment only treatable by long, fast rides down the line or epic jam sessions that stave off the lust.... somewhat.. anyway.. we paddle out at VFers.. 200 annoying little duckdives later were out there.. or.. at least I'm out there.. turns out Schlerm got caught in some shoreward-moving rip and spent 15 minutes paddling on the OB treadmill.. d'oh.. anyway.. Kaiser's out there with us too.. and maybe 1 or 2 others spread across the whole of VFers. Kaiser takes off on a quickly pitching overhead bomb and eats it. I Take off on a barrelly left and face-plant.. Kaiser takes off again and yard-sales.. The waves were backing off.. the quickly pitching and screaming.. then backing off.. It was frustrating.. we were surfing shittily.. We slowly got sucked north and conditions kept shifting and altering ever so slightly.. we were out too far.. then too far inside.. then a weird inside warble fucked waves up.. then flatness.. everything and anything except smoothly tapering, rideable waves.. i finally (after about 30 minutes) schnagged a little left and worked a small turn. Kaiser nabbed a fun left.. Lerm still frothing and suffering acutely from his "olas lackiosis." He starts paddling into any little semi/maybe rideable blip that comes his way and manages to catch a few little nug-huffers. The three of us agree that conditions pretty much absolutely suck.. Kaiser cruises home.. I catch another left.. duckdive 380 times to get back out.. then catch a really fun right!! do a few snaps.. felt good.. i was smiling and all of a sudden my mood wasn't so dour and i didn't mind all the duckdiving... funny what one good ride will do!!... then lerm takes one in.. then a few moments later this walling, set-wave right marches in and i scramble to get over the ledge.. make the drop and just weave and pump along the quickly peeling wave.. maneuvering through and around disagreeable irregularities in the wave face but at the same time enjoying a long, fast, rippy ride.. PSYCHED!!! I came in after that one and Lerm is still suffering from his ailment, having scored minimal solid rides.. but i have trouble empathizing cause i lucked into two fun-lovin' OB walls...

soo.. in conclusion.. there are waves out there.. the sun is out.. the wind is offshore.. the duckdive/ride ratio stands at about 129/1.. even though it doesn't look like it from the lot.. if you're patient and willing to put yourself in harms way.. good rides await!

thanks for alll your point dume stoke.. i'm definitely gonna cruise down there soon and take my boy Fromo up on his offer to take me out there... but.. with no significant swell forcasted.. i think i'm gonna hang with the lady in slo-town.. dress up as the Tooth Fairy for the costume party.. and enjoy my birthday surfing clean waves in Los Osos..

mundaka... both slater and taj advance..

I didn't check it this morning.. cruised downtown a bit early to craft some code here at work.. anybody get some? maybe lindy..

daylight savings occurs this weekend so all you dawn-patrollers will be granted another hour each morning to frolic, search, glide, and flow.

I did 30 minutes of yoga last night before bed and my body feels noticeably less stiff and sore than in recent mornings. Might have to start a nightly regiment.. Just having the internal knowledge that i've been stretching gives me added confidence and gusto in the water. I suffer from some psychosamatic (sp?) headtrips... like.. if i haven't stretched in a few days.. i'll feel that i'm just asking for an injury or a pulled muscle.. and i'll consequently paddle and surf conservatively.. but if i've done heaps of yoga, eaten well, biked a bunch, called my mom, surfed 4 times already that week.. i'll be fucking amping in the water... all loosy goosy and easy.

I'm also in a state of indecision about what to do this weekend..

a) drive to LA with friends.. stay in brentwood. big party saturday night.. probably surf with a friend at pt. Dume on saturday (he has a key). driving all friday night and all day sunday.

b) SLO-town with Seymore.. huge costume party saturday night.. central coast surf sessions saturday morning and sunday morning/afternoon.

c) low-key camping near Santa Cruz on saturday night.. surf north of santa cruz saturday afternoon and sunday morning.. order board from ward coffey, chill in santa cruz.. surf random north-coast spots..

hmmm...

surfing haiku:
angry nor-pac juice
meets peaceful tropical isle
crystalline barrels

oahu barrel.. siiiick..

Well.. i got up super early.. feelin' sore and stiff from hours and hours of surfing and driving over the weekend.. i wanted a mellow, fun-lovin' surf to re-initiate myself into nor-cal waters.. My plan was to get down to the Jetty before 7am and enjoy some shoulder-high, glassy peelers before work.. I didn't feel like battling legions of OB demon-spawn minions... i just felt like going for a leisurely surf.. maybe whipping off a few turns... well.. that plan didn't exactly pan out.. The swell actually looked ok at the Jetty.. glassy lines rolling in and eventually peeling.. but.. the tide was too high and waves were breaking up near the breakwall.. Soo... back up north.. pull into a san mateo county spot.. and... from atop the cliff conditions look surprisingly mellow.. i had just talked to Christian on the phone and he was telling me that the buoys were down to 4ft 11seconds or something.. soo.. i figure.. wtf.. Lindy's probably shit.. might as well paddle out right here.. Lerm cruises into the lot a few moments later and the two of us paddle out by our lonesome at Mon-beware-a... Once down at the beach we recognize that the waves are, in fact, considerably larger than they looked from the cliff.. and the shore-pound takes a bit of puzzle-decoding to slip past.. but.. once past the shore-pound it was a relatively mellow paddle to the outside.. until... a set catches us inside and 5 shockingly cold duckdives later i'm about 4 ft from the beach again.. fuck.. My head feels like it might pop off it's so icy and throbbing from the crippling ice-cream heacache.. worst i've felt for years.. anyway... we finally make it back out.. i take off on an overhead right.. slip on the takeoff but recover.. pump down the line.. and kick-out.. pretty fun ride.. but of course i immediately get assaulted by another set of mammoth, sub-zero, fuck-you-laced buildings of white-water.. nearly throwing up from the extreme ice-cream headache.. thoughts of paddling in cross my mind.. but the ocean mischievously lets up just as i'm about to quit and i paddle out.. Lerm still hasn't caught one and he's frothing.. then he catches a nice left and nearly?? gets a cover-up.. he's psyched.. a few minutes later a nice big set cruises in.. i take the first one.. a ledging, pitching, walling, glassy right.. make the air-drop and then fire down the line for a few moments before the wave closes and sucks me down.. come back up to see Lerm paddling into a well-overhead, about-to-pitch right.. he makes the drop but then just barely loses his balance and wipes it.. we get a few more waves and call it a sesh.. i nearly die on the shorepound coming in..

i'm still internally cold 3 hours later..

welcome back to bay area surfing!! fuck.. not to be a downer... but.. get me back to the central coast!! but call me when it's fun and offshore at OB.. hee hee..

Jack posted this yesterday.. pretty cosmic!

What is Happening Here?

The past couple of weeks have been some of the most surreal in my 25+ years of surfing. Last weekend at BoBo Land porpoises were in the water, coming right up to me and letting me pet them. This weekend surfing well overhead surf at Dillon I dropped in on several seals surfing a big left. Yeah, I know, some of you are saying "Mike's always dropping in on somebody."
Well this was just a killer left! Anywho, I'm standing as a seal jumps out of the water behind me, and to onlookers, it appeared he was trying to kick me off. I have not surfed with a orpoise
or a seal on the wave since my grom days in Florida. It really makes you wonder what is going on out there. Are the other mammals getting friendlier or are we seeing an increase
in aggro behavior? All I know is i have really been digging the new locals!

Hey tubes,
OK – Now this is freaking me out. I surfed ______ Sunday morning (for the first time in my the 9-yrs I've live up here), and there was a dolphin there doing exactly the same thing. I mean he let us reach out and touch him. It was like a playful kitten scampering around me, then the best part: I took off on these hammering glassy lefts (well overhead), and each time he would follow me on the roller coaster ride down-the-line. I didn’t know this was happening but the guys in the line-up could see through the back of the wave what was happing. Then, I’d kick-out and start to paddle back (which was usually a pretty long paddle ;} ) and he/she would be follow me back frolicking and jumping the whole way back to do it again with the next guy to take off. I am not exaggerating, but I saw this dolphin actually leap out and over my friend drew as he was paddling back from a wave, just like some Marine World show.

This couldn’t be the same dolphin that you were mentioning,….could it? Anyway, this dolphin was playing, not trying to kick us out. It was like he was trying to play the same way we were playing,….or teach us the way he plays. Awesome, just thought I’d share that.

Jack

ireland - pic by marcus sanders

it looks pretty good out there this morning.. The wind is basically non-existent.. the swell seems to be lessening.. although it's still L.A.I.C. (large and in charge)... I didn't surf so i don't have the first-hand knowledge. I just watched Blakestah's vid of OB from saturday and it looks like conditions were macking through the weekend up here. nice. also sounds like santa cruz was awash in swell.. word.. I enjoyed watching the huge, crumbly, meaty OB waves on the vid, but i have to admit i was much happier surfing the little protected reefs down south than the expansive, open beach break up here.

Over the weekend i probably caught almost 100 waves and i did about 10 duckdives! that's it!!!! that's how much of the surfing universe outside of SF lives!!! minimal duckdiving!! Seymore and i stayed with some friends on friday night in Avila.. The guy we stayed with happens to be one of the best surfers on the central coast and saturday morning he took me to a relatively random little reef-break with only one other guy out. The three of us surfed the growing swell for almost 4 hours. Condions were utter, total, complete, absolute plate glass the whole time.. flat when no pulses of swell came in, and nirvana when the sets marched along. The wave is a little left that actually reminded me of Bingin on bali. The takeoff was steep and immediate, breaking over a shallow rock shelf. My friend stuffed himself back into a handful of barrels while i managed a few rickety mouth-of-the-barrel experiences. Then the wave would open up and allow for a turn or two before closing out on the inside. Not an amazing, forever-peeling wave.. but a wave rich in character.. with a barrely takeoff and a short steep wall for maneuvers. My friend did more roundhouse cutbacks in the three+ hours we surfed than i've done in my entire life. impressive. My best wave was a thick, double-up set wave where i barely scratched over the edge.. then free-fell/pig-dogged/butt-slided down the face into a cauldron of seething beautiful destruction. I was in the bowels of the beast and everything was churning around me... then the wave opened up for me.. if i were a good surfer.. i would have slashed a violent gash into the lip.. but.. as it stands... i just kind-of kookily lost my balance and dove into the wall of water. Surfing all morning with my ripper friend made me realize how unstylized and weak my down-the-line surfing is. Seymore was also watching us for a while from atop the cliff and she commented afterwards, "how come you never stood up? you were always in the crouch."... meaning.. "why are you always in the pig-dog, stand up and surf like a man.. you lamo!" Granted she only watched about 3 of the 30 waves i caught that morning... but.. it was humbling...

ANYWAY!!! soo.. heavy scorage, wave-wise on saturday morning.. then i drove down to Santa Barbara for a party/bbq on saturday afternoon and observed, with much disappointment, that the entire coast south of jalama was, for the most part, flat! The sweetest of sweet NW swells that had been hammering OB, juicing santa cruz, massaging the central coast, was miniscule in SB.. must be TOUGH to be a santa Barbara surfer!!!! But.. on sunday morning i got up determined to catch some rides at one of the legendary santa barbara right points.. i was staying in orcutt on the central coast so i got up at 6am and started driving south.. I got past gaviota and pulled off to the side of the road at this little beachie.. The swell had filled in a little and now there were waist/shoulder high SQUEAKY-clean beach-break peaks all over the place.. nobody out.. UTTER, TOTAL, ABSOLUTE, PLATE-GLASS!! i sat there, salivating for a while.. but decided to keep driving.. the point break at Rufugio flat.. i got out of the car at El Cap just to check it.. the set-up and shape of the point in general is unbelievable.. and there were waves rising, peeling and running along.. but.. the tide wasn't low enough so it was breaking right along the rocks.. there were some loggers catching infrequent rides on the inside. I was prepared to drive down to Hammonds or Rincon, but the swell was so small in SB that i decided to head out to IV.. site of UCSB (UC Smoke Bowls)... i pulled up to Campus Point and watched as 50 or so moms, kids, dads, grandma, old carps and everyone else caught fun, well-shaped shoulder-high, glassy point-break waves. Campus point is pretty rad. it's a huge point break, with many sections to spread out the crowd.. the vibe is so mellow and fun-loving and loose that it made me smile and nearly weep.. Our point-breaks here in the bay area are usually so tense, hard-core, menacing and generally bad-viby that surfing in the campus point atmosphere made me feel all warm and squishy inside.. kinda like how surfing can be.. family style! it was refreshing... The waves weren't that amazing... but i ended up catching about 15 peeling, pointbreak sections in about 2 hours time.. soo.. i definitely can't complain..

On the way back to SF on sunday afternoon Seymore was nice enough to let me stop at a little central coast reef for some more wave-riding.. Pretty crowded.. with about 10 guys going right and left on this nicely shaped, A-frame reef.. and then about 20 guys strewn along the line of the this point-breaky reef next-door.. Total glass as this area faces south.. I jumped in at the higher-performance A-frame reef. The left was going bananas.. as the swell was maxing and faint lines of cordoroy could be seen stretching out toward the horizon. Remembering my over-tendency to pig-dog when i don't need to i started taking off on the steep left with just a momentary pig-dog to make the drop and then forcing myself to let go so that i could do a real bottom turn and try to push-up and hit the lip.. my first attempt was embarrassingly unsuccessful as i dug my inside rail on the bottom turn and barely made the wave.. but on the second try i powered into a nice wave (overhead, barrely, glassy, fast).. kinda backdooring the takoff.. to the chagrin of a few surfers who thought i was heading right.. then i stayed low but no pig-dog.. turned off the bottom.. and then pivoted up and banked off the top.. going fast.. felt good! people were shredding very hard out there and cameras were strewn along the cliff-edge snapping the action.. airs, barrels, gaffs, wipes.. were all in order.. i tried to take-off on a small one and missed and actually wiped onto the reef.. d'oh.. but.. no damage except for a cut hand..

sooo.. to wrap it up.. the central coast came through huge for me.. while santa barbara wasn't feelin' this swell.. If you like longboarding, santa barbara seems to be the best.. but for shortboarders, it seems you really need to wait and wait and wait for the correctly angled swell to get in and light up the wonderfully gifted coastline..

also.. i got out of the car on saturday morning with my camera... only to realize the batteries were dead.. d'oh..

soo.. damn.. if you're still reading.. schweeet.. thanks.. this was a bit of a blabbermouthed swilling..

e

Heavy metal out there this morning.
Imagine cacophonous, gigantic, evil power chords being played in some grandiose open-air arena.. Stacks upon stacks of Marshall amps... huge PA system amplifying the sound out toward the outer reaches of the cosmos.. Some pissed-off speed-metal virtuoso hammering out gut-wrenching, maniacal, twisted-but-strangely-attractive psychadelic jazz chords.... well.. OB was not fucking around this morning.. it isn't huge.. it's not DOH breaking on the outer bars.. but.. it's thick.. it's not to be trifled with. Robme, Lerm and i paddled out at VFers around 7:10. A particularly unusual amount of surfers were cruising and looking for waves this morning. not sure why.. There is a slight offshore breeze out of the NE.. the SF buoy only reads 6.2ft 11seconds.. but the cali buoys is at 11.4ft 14seconds and the papa buoys is at 18ft 14seconds!!! soo.. it's only gonna get bigger.. There also will be no real daytime lowtide today or this weekend so you're typical big-swell/low-tide spots won't be an option. maybe head up to Marin or down to the cruz.. or elsewhere.. anyway.. paddling out this morning i took this sucking, barrelling bitch/beast of a wave square on the noggin'.. it ripped me clean away from my board and ragdolled my weak, scrawny little human arse all over the place.. i started to panic but then remembered the Robme counting technique and mellowed my shit out. i finally came up, collected my board.. and sprinted toward the outside.. turns out that same wave wrecked Lerm too, snapping his leash right in half. He paddled in to get his board and then came back out and surfed leashless, though we never saw him again because we were getting sucked south. The bombs were rolling in out there.. i caught a thick, fun left for my first ride and then paddled into a large, set-wave right. I had to paddle down the face to get into the behemoth.. then i was up and cruising along at a brisk gate.. the wave started to bowl somethin' fierce and i was headed strait for this menacing, gurgling, threatening force of nature.. where much of the ocean seemed about to rise up, barrel and then destroy.. luckily i softly pulled off the back before that happened.. and then.. another 30 minutes of sitting.. waiting.. avoiding closeouts... waiting.. avoiding more closeouts.. getting sucked down to almost Judah.. i ended up paddling in as i couldn't snake another ride.. dunno?? i think the bars are better around VFers than in the lincoln/judah area..

last night was really good!! hope that some of you braved the fog and hit it.. as the fog actually lifted for the sunset and the uber-enjoyable, head-high niceness lolled in and peeled here, there and everywhere..

i'm off to santa barbara tonight.. thanks everyone for the advice!!

john sent me this email last night..

hello e. i'm emailing you because i visit the niceness surf report all
the time and just wanted to contribute for the first time. surfed * today and
it was plenty surfable. my friend bought a disposable water camera and
he was able to snap a few photos of some of the many barrels that came
through. that's me by the way in the greenroom. got a little deeper a
second later he snapped it. stoked! heh.
also, i was wondering if you could post an ad on your site about our
fundraiser event this Saturday (Oct 18) at the Pacifica Community
Center at 540 Crespi Drive, Pacifica. the show's purpose is to raise
funds for our upcoming documentary film about two Filipino-American
surfers that want to reconnect their American upbringing with their
Filipino ancestry. Dan Moreno, owner of SonLight Surf Shop in Pacifica
is one of the two that are going. anyway, we'll have live bands, food,
short surf films, possibly a stand up comedian, a short drama film and
the trailer of the movie, The Gift of Barong: A Surfing and Cultural
Odyssey. first show starts at 5:30pm and second show starts at 8pm.
tickets are $10.

a second show is schedule for the Oct 25th at 1808 Fifth St. in
Berkeley at a place called Pusod. same line up but the first show
starts at 6pm and the second show is at 8pm. tickets for that show is
$12.
thanks a lot e! and thanks for the site. it always gets me stoked
especially when i'm at school and i need it. hope you can check out the
show.

local waves..

john in the slot

taking a little break after 13 surf days in a row.. soo... i dunno whass happenin' out there.. There were a few takers yesterday afternoon up at Kelly's.. i watched one or two little "drop and done" rides.. then i drove up to Fairfax for band practice.. But.. blakestah and everyone else is psyching for long-fetched swell coming our way this weekend... soo.. "something wicked this way comes!"..

I'll be in santa Barbara friday night through sunday... anybody have spot recommendations for this big NW swell.. I'll actually be in Goleta.. soo.. i was hoping that maybe rufugio or el cap might be working?? though.. i really don't know much about the santa barbara scene..

Ten Great Things About Surfing:
- anticipation when you know the waves are good
- banking off the lip and feeling some solid groundswell power
- that refreshed feeling you get after a sesh
- Butterflies in your stomach when the swell is big
- surf trips!!
- post-sesh chow-down
- pumping down the line
- barrels
- interacting with the seals
- just you and your friends and some good waves

Ten Shitty Things About Surfing:
- putting on your cold, wet wetsuit
- taking off your wetty
- getting drilled
- 100/1 duck-dive/ride ratio
- losing your mojo at a crowded spot
- sand in your bed
- onshores
- angry, aggro, violence-prone surfers
- Pollutica
- Seeing yourself on video!

yup.. the swell quickly diminished yesterday, leaving OB ripe for the plucking as the day waned toward night. I surfed Kelly's with Sam C. last night and had a blast.. Some chunky, grumbling thickies coming through.

This morning the swell was noticeably smaller than last night.. The biggest waves maybe head-high. Occasionally a solid set would cruise in and offer up some double-up ledges. Lerm and i watched in awe as oval-shaped barrels cracked and peeled along. It was real fun out there. only one other surfer within sight. Slight offshore creating a smooth sea-surface. Quite a few close-outs but also a fair share of peeling sweetness.. Lerm grooved through one particularly styly cutty on his frontside. I caught a fun, racy, suck-out, overhead left. I also did a semi-powerful snap-off-the-top on a big right... and then pumped and dug into another carving turn at the end.. that felt good.. Umm.. what else? the water was frickin freezing! The waves are more powerful than they look from shore. We found some old socks on the beach near Judah.. anybody lose em? also a used condom.. anybody want it? Lerm almost stepped on some broken glass.. ahh.. the joys of urban surfing!

in WCT news.. andy irons lost in the first round of the mundaka event.. There is no losers round for some reason in this one.. so he's eliminated! Kelly advanced.. soo.. if kelly (or Taj!) can get through a few heats at mundaka they'll likely catch up to Andy..

mundaka

Wow.. a healthy weekend of hearty waves!
The beach has been hammering-out phat wads of maladjusted devilry all weekend long. Saturday it was huge (but not super huge) and i didn't see anyone out. Yesterday was bordering on "full-on huge" and to my surprise and amazement, there were 10 or 15 surfers braving the perilous onslaught of pitching/snarling/raucous liquid behemoths lumbering toward shore and breaking on the outer-outer sandbars. I really couldn't believe people were willingly paddling out!! It was fucking totally out of control out there.. and there were about 8 rows of massive white-water to contend with.. I didn't see any rides but i watched countless displays of gruesome, sickening destruction-of-surfer-by-wave. I guess those guys simply love to spend their sunday afternoon paddling forever into a field of land-mine-like groundswell explosions.. But.. there were a few glorious, massive, racing walls out there that might have made it worth it?? Anyway.. good on ya if you were one of the blokes to paddle out!! A little bit of the crazy-gene in ya'!!

For my part i did some driving and found a protected point break to surf throughout the weekend.. Yesterday, as the swell picked up, the crowds grew to ludicrous proportions.. But on saturday Lerm and i road-tripped and then lucked into a veritable surfer's dream! We pull up to the break and walk down the trail to have a look.. Fully expecting hordes of frothing wave-riders to be jockeying, yelling and jostling for any speck of a wave to come through.. but.. to our shocked amusement.. only 4 people bobbed out in the lineup and stroked into the semi-consistent, shoulder-high, peeling pointbreak niceness. We nearly tripped over ourselves getting into our wetties and running down the path to the ocean.. literally giggling at the good-fortune bestowed on us. Out in the lineup we each caught some solid, pitching enjoyment.. I caught one set-wave as the sky grew dark... i barely made the drop.. and then just hung on as the barrel wrapped over my head.. not quite a full-on, telescoping "barrel".. but a "mouth of the barrel" experience.. A few people hooted, which is always a treat.

yesterday people were making huge air-drops into gaping, foamy pits of doom.. only to emerge 30 yards down the line and unleash hell-bent slashing cutbacks. damn.. tough to get waves out there though.. ya had to put yourself in harms way deep in the inside as well as deal with a stinkeye or two or twenty.. geez..

Papa and California buoys are down.. SF is still up at 10ft 15seconds.. Hopefully the beach will start to show itself as this week progresses. fingers crossed.. the wind was super gentle all night.. with a hint of offshore this morning.. the sea-surface looked good!! big waves though.. big..

e

Andy Irons won the WCT in hossegor.. kelly finished third.. they almost met in the final but Kelly barely lost in the semi's to aussie phil mac. soo.. it might be tough for kelly to catch andy now.. sucks!
hosseger

mundaka

more santa cruz pics from stinkeye (taken this weekend) from stockton ave.

hints of offshore this morning at the beach. California buoy is still up there at 14.8ft 14seconds. The winds are out of the north.. but pretty light. A huge high tide around noon today but then it goes out pretty quickly and is low again around 6.

Found some waves this morning with just about everybody else who lives in SF/Marin. Some fun ones coming through but some serious obstacles in the form of fellow wave-riding enthusiasts.. I kept trying to dodge the crowd and set up in random spots.. and that worked for a wave here and a wave there. it also made it fun to kinda do the stealth, "mission impossible," invisible-ninja-surfer thing. I took off on this outside bombie that ended up hucking me into the air for a free-fall, pig-dog, psycho-air-drop attempt but resulted in a serious smooshing and crunching and wiping-out... oh well.. i managed a few bottom-turn, top-turn combos.. soo.. i'm semi-satisfied.. I'm sure i speak for all of us when i say, "I'M READY FOR THE BEACH TO START WORKING!!!!!" Give us some space and anonimity and grandiosity and we'll all be smilin' big fat tooth-glittering grins. but.. i'm not complainin'

Kaiser took off on a beautiful wave this morning... a bowling, barreling beauty.. he lost his balance a bit on the takeoff and *just* missed tucking under the lip into the green room.. but.. a glorious wave none-the-less.

You can feel the switch of the pressure-systems.. it's sunny at the coast and peacefully still. there aren't daunting white-caps in the outer waters of OB like there have been the last few days. Lerm called in sick today and i think it might be a great day to do so. I saw some pics of santa cruz from yesterday and this shit was hitting the proverbial fan.. spitting out sticky globules of scatological sweetness all over town.. soo.. if you're not working.. maybe chill out for the next few hours.. then when the tide starts going out.. head down there.. all the north-county points and reefs should be en fuego..

I also want to give a shoutout to all the ladies! Where would we be in this world without the soft, comforting, loving smoothness of the ladies in this world!!!! Whether it be your pillow-talking lover, your funky little sister, your hilarious, cranky ol' grandma, Jenny-Sue from 5th grade who cornered you at recess and gave you your first kiss, Sadie from your sophomore year in college in whom you saw the divine. Jasmine from New Orleans who sent you that fabulous poem. All the ladies downtown who bring style, funk and beauty to this wonderful city. Your moms who is your biggest fan. All the ladies who balance the testosterone-driven insanity of their men with peace, calm and resolve. All the ladies on this board who ALWAYS bring the chillest, kindest vibes.. Seymore Sassafrass who hooks a brotha up day in and day out. all the ladies.. thank you!!!

now.. go find some waves..

kinda like this morning.

Large, rough and crazed out at the beach. Beautiful, daunting, blood-orange full moon looming over the ocean. I drove for a while and found some semi-protected waves. Big, lurching, untamed brutes that rarely offered palpable sections tumbled in.. I caught a few fun ones but overall had a dissapointing session... just couldn't find the flow, suffered a head-over-heels humbling wipe-out, and stood up on my leash on one of my better waves, causing some traction weirdness. Tom and i watched Christian, fresh off the plane from Brazil, bash the lip with authority on one wave. One other guy (really short Al Merrick board) caught a few nice ones and worked em' tenderly. There was also a squadron of seals catching waves. I did, however, enjoy one full-bodied cutty where i took off with good balance, went strait for a spell and let the speed build up, then crouched and leaned into my bottom turn, opening my shoulders to the face of the wave and pushing hard off my back foot.. then just unleashed everything i could into a full-bore cutback. In reality it probably looked like some weak dainty mini-turn but to me it felt like a monster power gauge.. soo.. that was nice..

by the looks of it, and via blakestah's report, it appears that we're in for a long stretch of macking swell.. killah!!

e

portugal

Pitch-dark as i grope out of bed
Delicately pad across the floor, so as not to wake Seymore.
Infinite, somber, total darkness as i begin my drive along the beach.
Open my window and pick up sounds of booming surf.
Thievery Corp takes over sonic atmosphere as visions of potential rides swim through my head.
Reach my destination.. sunlight just trickling over the horizon.
Conditions look questionable.. but.. might as well paddle out..
Wetsuit cold and damp.
Wax up the green lantern
Paddle out to an empty lineup.
Let a few questionable waves pass me by..
A thick wall suddenly appears on the horizon.
Heart begins to flutter and body goes into auto-pilot, positioning and anticipating trajectory of inoming wave..
Fade into the takeoff..
Stroke with authority over the ledge. Just.. barely... get... over.. the.. ledge..
Air-droppy, pig-dog, hold-on takeoff..
Thick, throaty wall jettisoning me forward..
Let go of rail and enjoy the pure speed.
Subtle repositioning of feet.
A few moments of bottom turning.. and then power into a full-speed cutback back into the whitewater, carving through the meat of the wave.
Turn back away from the white-water, out into the open face..
Wait for the wave to reform a bit and project me forward..
another little off-the-top as the wave peters out.
Huge, raw, primal smile across my face!
A few more drops and turns during the rest of the seshy.. but that first ride in semi-darkness, with nobody else in the lineup.. made the sesh and inspires me into the morning..

"Oil" from England chimed in yesterday.. cheers mate! hope you score some wave in Cornwall!! Let us know how it goes and maybe take some pics!!

"Hiya!!! I can't say I'm impressed with the election result!!! On a lighter note!!! I live inland and rarely get to surf let alone decent waves, however I have a holiday in cornwall planned this weekend. It's been flat for the last 3 weeks or so and I've been getting a bit worried that the autum surf would never get there before I left!! I checked the forcast again for the millionth time and out of no-where their perdiction has gone from pretty poor to: wait for it...

6ft+++++++++++ and clean!!!!!!!!!! and growing at the begininng of the week!!

MAN I AM SOOOOOOOO STOKED!!!!

Guys you've kept me happy hearing your stories for the last few months I would like to give you some back when I get back!!

By the way that pic (I think of OB) where you can see down the street then on to the ocean (the last one posted) those waves look HUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEE!!!!!! how big were the faces???? And did anyone surf them????? Any stories????

OK keep it cool and share the stoke!!

Posted by: Oli U.K. on October 8, 2003 07:55 AM "

sorry for the late report.. just discussing ways to "stop bush" in the 2004 election on our sierraclub.org website. I'm a web developer for the sierra club and our whole organization is trying to mobilize to educate the public about the environmental raping and pillaging currently going down by our "elected" officials in washington.. it's scary. Some of the more gross examples include relaxing the enforcement of clean air and clean water laws, denial that global warming exists, not signing the Kyoto agreement, refusal to encourage more fuel efficient vehicles, opening thousands of acres of our national forests and parks to logging, lifting bans on the sale of PCB-contaminated property, blocking lands from being giving wilderness designation, loosening enforcement of the endangered species act, attempting again and again to drill in the arctic national wildlife refuge, attempting to open more of the pacific coast to offshore oil exploration, inviting only "industry" participants (oil, coal, gas, auto) to help craft the energy bill (Cheney)... etc... And the scary thing is that the media has largely chosen ignore these egregious infractions of our environmental health and well-being, our quality of life. The administation just keeps ducking behind 9/11, using it as a scare-tactic to justify it's neo-conservative agenda.... more strident american hedgemony abroad, beefed up military spending, less taxes for the rich... "keep em' scared and we'll stay on top." anyway.. i actually am a bit scared at this point.. scared that the Bushies are walking us into a death-trap in more ways than one. but.. that's just my humble opinion.. also don't forget to vote today.

the surf!! OB disheveled, warbled and fugly... except for second lot sloat, which looked very approachable.. I sat and watched for a good 10 minutes and almost hit it.. but.. wimped out and sailed down to the 'mar for the third time this week. Not as large as yesterday, the north-end experiencing some rips and gargling.. middle and south end throwing up some glassy, quick, waist/shoulder-high little blips and sections. Tom, Loon, CK, Paul B and a squadron of others catching a little pre-work seshy.. The wind blew out of the SW and remained pretty favorable for most of Lindy (side/offshore).. it's surfable out there.. maybe a drive down the coast would be more fruitful??

siiiick..

e

salt creek (tyrez posted these)

so glassy!

shipsterns (also from tyrez via fluidzone)

those with scruples may shuck the Lindy option..
but this morning it shined like a smeared, overlooked basement lamp..
It wasn't pretty, it wasn't vibrantly illuminating.. but.. it got the job done.
OB looking decidedly pissed off. Like it had gotten really drunk last night and now it was grumpy and angry that the sun was coming up, waking it's raucous evening slumber. Sections that looked like they might peel ended up lurching and crushing and munching and closing out. We watched a few optimistic souls don the wetty but i didn't notice anybody out in the water.

The south end of lindy very small.. good for beginners or those just looking to float and chill in the ocean on their fiberglass vessel of choice. Towards the north end (crespi) things got a little more serious. Thick, walling groundswell mounds marched in and lumpily caved-out and peeled/closed... usually closing.. Robme, Kaiser, Lerm, Loon and some others all nabbed a few. Lerm dropped into a head-high right (his backside).. did a few pumping ticks.. and then initiated a swooping backside cutty. Robme forgot that he had to drive his kid to kindergarden so we retreated from the lindy battle-ground after about 45 minutes of surf. Robme then called his wifey from the parking lot, ascertained that Silus had a fever and wouldn't be going to school.. and then proceeded to buy Lerm and I donuts for forcing us out of the water early... then the N-judah broke down and i got to enjoy a quality 30 minutes of Neal Stephenson's new tome, "Quicksilver".. If you like Neal, you should be all over this new one.. first in a trilogy.. siiick..

California buoy 9.5ft 17seconds!! damn!!

motorized surfboard

Soo.. yesterday i was blabbing that the surf has sucked around here.. we haven't enjoyed any swell, blah blah blah, whine.. .. and i strait-forwardly requested King Neptune, Huey, Elvira of the Sea or whoever, to kindly "bring it".. Well.. "it" is here in the form of a somewhat impressive medium-period swell. Middle of OB looking large, tumultuous and scary.. with action happening on the outer bars and then on random bars all over the place. not very organized but pretty exilarating to behold. Then down at Sloat things looked slightly more manageable. Again the outer bars catalyzed lurching mushy monsters to groan and break on the outside.. waves would then reform and smash/break/explode somewhere between the outer and inner bars.. or just about anywhere within 300 yards of the beach. It looked chaotic out there. but once in a while a serious, legit, roping section would present itself.. Conditions aren't totally crazy/psycho/death-knelling wintertime legions of doom.. during the lulls the paddle-out even looked relatively sane. sort of. maybe 3 or 4 rows of whitewater.. but no angry walls of barrelling insanity about to crush you into oblivion.. or at least not that many of those.. two guys decided to give it a go and were still paddling 10 minutes later when i decided to drive south. My first sesh at Lindy in months and months.. it was actually fun down there. i found a nugget here and a pitching closout slab there and generally enjoyed myself.. call me a wimp for not paddling out on the first bigger day at the beach.. but.. the big, rough, crazy, body-whoomping, disorganized mayhem today just isn't my cup of tea.. all you OB chargers might be singin' a different tune.. anybody score at OB today??

schweet..

pipe

looks fun

slow and steady...

the view

tropical storm ana

Even though it's only been a few days of relentless, session-killing onshore wind it feels like months! My window-panes weren't totally, utterly rattling this morning so i decided to give it a look.. Sloppy. Ugly. Upchucky. Dismal. Nauseous. The wind blew cold and raw over the small, hopeful windswell meandering into the beach. All night the onshores blew, disturbing what would otherwise be zesty little peeling pockets. I saw two takers suiting up at Pacheco and one lone warrior at Sloat. I got out of my car for a few moments at Sliz but was slapped immediately back into the warming comfy warmth of my car by the mischievous, sinister onshore. geez.. I'm feeling a bit despondent. Yesterday i voiced excitement about the start of the fall season, groomed waves reaching in, yadda yadda.. but it was actually a bit of a mask for the dark, sneering despondency i've been feeling about the surf around here over the last two or three months. We've had a few intervals of energized brilliance.. a morning here.. a wave or two there. a quick cover-up over here.. but.. all in all we've been skunked. let's just admit it.. That one good south didn't even reach up to us. Soo.. I'm feeling the pangs.. as i'm sure many of you are too.. Two years ago i spent the entire summer in Hawaii and Indo.. I came back at the end of september ready to fucking charge whatever SF had to offer, wavewise. My skills had been chiseled and refined over nearly 3 months of southern hemi reef-break experimentation. I had the good fortune to enjoy hundreds of carvable, undulating lines and was forced to consistently deal with reef-sucking, consequence-bearing takeoffs.. There was no break or lapse in my personal surfing development that year.. solid wintertime OB.. to indian ocean niceness.. right back to autumn/winter SF. THis year, however!! i feel like we haven't had waves (other than a day here or there) to consistently challenge or build our surfing vocabulary. I mean.. you're always learning.. that's a given.. but if you're at a stage in your surfing development where you're working on your roundhouses, or fading your takeoffs to get more barrels, or whatever.. Bay area waves over the last few months just haven't cut the mustard. Maybe i'm just surly and jonesing my face off.. but.. when was the last time you looked out over the great highway are were so psyched that you tripped over yourself running back to the car to get into your wetty? When was the last time people posted sick, mouth-watering pics of OB? exactly..

WE'RE FRICKIN DUE!!

bring it!

thanks for all the historical banter yesterday! so fun to read..

i'm really, someday, going to collect subject-oriented posts from all y'all and organize them into permanent sections (ding-repair, history, shapers, etc.). that would be cool.

kelly's

Welll... it's here.
Rocktober 1rst!!
we made it!
Now... let's get it on!!!
According to 'Stah there is a whole army of waves coming our way.
The high pressure hasn't formed inland... yet... so we'll have to wait for the offshore perfection.. but.. it will come..
This morning looked bleak and wind-razzled from my cottage window.. but i didn't really go check the conditions first-hand..
the cam actually looks halfway decent.
probably surfable somewhere in the bay area
7knot wind out of the WSW.
SF buoy 4.3ft 13seconds
3ft low-tide at 10am
6ft high-tide around 5:30
maybe lindy early this afternoon?

I have to admit that i'm very psyched for the upcoming season!
Last night i was doing some errands in my car, listening to some groove-infused blues jams.. mentally imagining autumn's forthcoming bounty of waves! It's been SOOOO LOONNGG since we've enjoyed long, tapering lines at OB. We're due. The seasonal shift is upon us and is reflected in the heightened nor pac storm activity and lessening southern pac storm activity. Remember last November? Those 3 weeks of continual offshore flow and solid NW swell? picture that in your mind. groomed, seductive, offshore-licked OB A-frames. Sunny skies. Taking off on overhead waves and having unblemished liquid canvas' to work with! I just want to come off the bottom of a thick groundswell A-frame with a bucket-load of speed and unleash months of pent-up wave-riding enthusiasm into the unsuspecting but overtly flirtatious lip.

skimboardin'