Daunting, overhead bombs could be seen cresting and feathering from 10 blocks away. I didn't check it so i don't know the real skinny. 11ft 17seconds at the SF buoy. Light wind. No doubt spots will be firing. Most of the long period swell is coming from around 286 degrees. Blakestah has his Rhino image up... soo... might be a day to bust out the 9'6" triple-stringer you have in the back of the shed.
Good luck out there.

I watched Broke Down Melody last night. Definitely one of my top three all-time. Heaps of unreal Slater and Machado footage. Maybe a bit too much body-surfing and mellow/folky acoustic songs. The scene where Slates tows into a massive, previously unsurfed right in Tahiti is seriously unsane. The wave just builds and morphs and collects-on-itself over the reef and it's hard not to get butterflies in your stomach just watching it.. then you see Slater just fading and fading and stuffing himself way the fuck back into the pocket and then just getting barrelled off his skull. It's impressive. He takes some diggers too. Slates basically rules the movie, imho. He surfs this one shallow, rifling lefthander in Indo so aggressively it boggles my mind. I watched the wave and thought about the line i'd take.. Probably pretty conservative.. trying to just make the wave and stay ahead of the gnarly-ass lip.. maybe even pigdogging and trying to get a brief cover up.. meanwhile Slater is thrusting vertically up through the pitching lip and launching fins-free off-the-top and then air-drop-freefalling down with the section.. then barely recovering and then accelerating like a maniac off the bottom and absolutely destroying the next lip... playing with it like a plinky little Jetty wave or something. Guy is incredible. Tons of slow-mo and grainy/stylized 16mil footage. Some good Curren. Some great CJ Hobgood cutting-edge stuff. Good-vibey Jamaican surfing scene. Gerry Lopez. Jack Johnson ripping in Chili. Jon-Jon Florence Backdoor drainer. great flick.

E's current Top-5 surf flicks (in no particular order):
5th Symphony Document
Searching for Tom Curren
A Broke Down Melody
September Sessions
Punk Rock Surfers

Found some uncrowded point-break surf over the weekend. Lots of driving but good times and mellow vibes. So fun to try-to dial-in a wave and then take-off as deep as possible. I kooked on so many but succeeded on a memorable few. One time i knew i was a little late with the spin-and-go but i went for it anyway.. got lip-launched superman style and then regurgitated with the crashing wave.. held-down pretty good.. then started swimming up as fast as possible.. only to bonk my head on the bottom of my board.. hard enough to draw some blood and leave me with a little swollen egg on my forehead.. d'oh. It's such an insult to injury to go through a bad wipeout and then konk your head on the board upon resurfacing.

George Burnes photos

Simba photo

Couple of Seth pics

Drove around for a while. Heard about Iraq elections and gnarly So-Cal train wreck. Switched to Sublime and Miles Davis. Sat and watched a potential surf situation. Nobody around. Nobody out. A little wave that farted up a section or two every few minutes... or so it seemed. Suited-up on my knees on the side of my car protected from the wind. Ran down to water's edge then paddled out. Brackish runoff flowing right into the lineup. Got into an immediate groove and caught a bunch of enjoyable, funky, multi-section rides. Cool drops. Lots of paddling. Eventually a random, low-key guy joined me. Just the two of us. He caught a few largish ones and i hooted 'em. Someone mentioned yesterday the pleasure of the moment when you *know* you've caught a wave. A few today like that. The pleasure of anticipation. Scooting under the ledge, then a split second where you knew you've caught the wave but it's too early to stand.. You're in there.. then a last-second ledge-drop as the bottom sucks out followed by meandering down-the-line. Some slow cutbacks but no resounding lip-smacks today. One super-kook move where my hand slipped on the take-off and i belly-rode the whole ride. Not the worst way to spend 15 seconds but i was bummed to barf the ride. Toward the end of the session the wind turned absolutely onshore and the hail showered down!! Hail-session! First one for me. It was awesome to change out of the wetty in the wind, rain and hail. Biblical style.

hope y'all got some.

yumiko kayukawa

A few technical glitches this morning. Hopefully they're smoothed out now.

Good things about surfing:
Barrels
Being in the ocean
Seeing the land from the sea
Watching your friends take off deep
Watching your friends wipe out
Scoring uncrowded waves
Post-surf relaxation
Being there when it's going off
Carving
Taking off on a big steep one
Trimming
Surf vids
Pissing in your wetsuit
Going fast as hell
Glassiness
Small waves
Girl surfers
Dawn-patrol
Stony sessions
Road-tripping for waves
Travelling for waves
Scoring a spot when others aren't thinking it'll work
Recounting waves
Back/shoulder muscular development
pelicans
TSJ
bikinis
beaches
seals
Watching waves
Dreaming about waves
waves waves waves!

Shitty things about surfing:
8-billion duckdives!
Sore back
Missing Swells!!
Crowds
Surf-related car commercials
Hitting the reef
Flat spells
Getting pounded
onshores
localism
arseholes in the lineup
the landlord
pollution
Jeff Spicoli assumptions
surfing poorly
Driving and getting skunked
Getting addicted to surfing
Music in Taylor Steele flicks
Closeouts
8-trillion duckdives at OB

bruce photo

(photos from surfermag.com/photos)
J-Bay

Mundaka

nice beachie

Grovel-fest in the rain at poo point.
Surfed on Kaiser's new Surf Prescriptions retro-board... I like!

South winds. Hard.

We almost opted for donuts, glad we didn't.

Shout out to Tom! Where you been homie?
Shout out to the Wilmington Kleins! Keepin' it real in the first state.
Shout out to the Mavs Charging Charger! Charge those charging chargeables.
Shout out to Alex from Aqua.. chill guy, mellow vibes.
Shout out to Sharkbait - cool to read last week about someone with a Sharkbait crush. Sharkbait rules.
Shout out to all the humble rippers! You're an inspiration!
Shout out to Cole Xavier, a head in the making.

Shout out to CJ who Roxx! While wearing her Soxx of course!

Ana Paula snapped this photo - she says hi to all her pals in Brazil

North America sequence with committed booger (Elias' friend's photos)

Family, friends, travel, mirth.
Music, exploration, reading, growth.
Conversation, food, sport, beauty.
These are the things that sustain us.

On the hunt for softer sensations this morning i voyaged to neighboring P-town. Shin-high but smooth at everyone's favorite toxic runoff lagoon. Two helmeted 7 yr. olds ruled the peak on their little shortboards. Dad pushing them into many long, slow, well-ridden waves. That dad kicks ass! Those kids had skills too. A green-logger also scored some slank-time and styled it well, shuffling to the nose, then back to the tail for some fluid arcs. Great conditions for the beginner crew. I opted for donut but then saw a few attractive corners on my way back over the hill... too little too late. Now i'm regretting.

Surfable near home too.. bigger and burly. doable.

Mentally rehearsing rides of the last few days last night. Thinking about the steep drops. Suckout drops. Seeing the peak rise up. Excitement welling. Observing the bottom drop out and then taking off quick and tight. Trying to hold the line and stay balanced. Immediate speed rush and consequential dealings. Lots of mis-timed bottom-turn/top-turn combos for me but a few moments that stoke reflection. One drop yesterday on a thick suckout. Threw myself over the ledge and fins/rail barely caught as i felt my edge side-slipping down the face.. then engage and propel. pump along the smooth, vibrant profundity and carve a turn as the wave slows. Nice thick powerful wave. Also had one on Sunday morning where i took off backdoorish on a chunky, overhead inside-bar gulper, then raced and ducked and sped along the enveloping wall.. narrelled.. maybe briefly covered.. seeing potential barrel opportunities down the line but dodging around the lip like a pussy... but maybe the right move?? back around to a gulping/wedging end-section and diving over the back.. airing like a kook without my board but so fun anyway.. just to make that wave and see that vision of the conical power. Some serious wipeouts the last few days too.. One yesterday where i prepared for a steep backside drop but the whole thing just emptied from beneath me.. and i ditched board and just toppled end over-end with the lip.. then got sucked back and around and just hammered into the shallow sandbar.. sand and water all up my nose. Or a heavy wipeout last friday, took off on a large wave.. made the drop backside but then the whole wave closed out on me. big wave.. i jumped off and my shoulder smacked really hard against the water surface and my head whipped into my shoulder.. came out and my ear was bleeding and all cut and is still swollen and cut right now. Another good wipeout Sunday morning where i tried to spin-and-go on a beautiful right.. Spun and went and almost made it but pearled just as i started to set my line... got slingshot into a nasty rinse-cycle. came up choking and spitting water and then got creamed by the rest of the set. So many wipeouts.. oh yeah.. another one where i lip-dove and then smacked super hard into the water and my eye-lid got flipped inside out! that felt weird. Came up looking all mutated.

Bernie Baker interview from surfermag.com

Sub-zero Jersey Juice... is it worth it?

whack!

yup

heavy

reeling

After a massive infusion of stellar waves this weekend, Lerm and i made the rash decision this morning to suit-up and surf without first checking the conditions. Bodies bruised and battered from 8-billion-trillion duckdives over the last three days, we were hoping for waist-high, mellow, glassy, inner-bar uber-chilled-out wee-bitty dinkers. umm... nope. Gnarlacious heaving suckouts bashed and thumped on both the inner and outer bars. Fuuuuck! We looked at each other and expressed displeasure at not being back in bed at that moment. 40 duckdives later we were out. Exciting, blasting, cavernous, out-of-control barrels wedged and unloaded. Absolutely critical drops when you could find them. Backless waves. Airdrops. Sailing over-the-falls wipeouts. River-esque northbound current. Solid, heavyweight grumpy power-waves. Messy. Lerm left after a ride or two so i floated and tried to pick the winners from the hellacious destructos as best i could. Caught a few. Had fun trying to make the right decisions and find the available sections. Watched some massive barrels spit and growl.

Yesterday morning went off. Cool to share a few with Marcus S. Many narrels and barrels and poundings and wedgy sickies. I'm starting to be able to take off deep and explore barrelesque situations. sometimes. A few rippers spelunked deep within the green room inner recesses. Friend of white-helmeted cop scored a thick, deep screamer. Good vibes as plenty of waves streamed in and strangers hooted other strangers. 3 hours session. Eagles victory!! Back out for a arvo sesh with Jocular. JOC woke up at 9am after all-nighter with a squandron of lassies.. guy's a pimp. Well-shaped, muscular glassy peaks on the outside.. till we almost got sucked around seal rock. Random lady sticking her forehead in the waves on the inside. fully clothed and soaking wet. Guy lost his board and i snagged it and brought it in for him... he made it in out of breath and a bit shocked and laid down on the sand for a while. D'oh. Cool graffiti on the sea wall.

peace.

So Cal (cube1 photo)

hossegor

portugal

south africa

ireland

Kinda like the Junior Varsity squad of waves out there this morning, compared to the last two days. Still some solid beat-downs and punishment.. but maybe 15 or 20 people out there as opposed to the 4 or 5 hell-chargers of days past. Even my whimpy, small-sacked, mini-wave-liking self made it out there. Right around 7:15 Kaiser and i watched a remarkable ride where some shredder linked 3 or 4 top to bottom turns on an impressive DOH wave. Fuck yeah! Heaps of wipe-outs too as i noticed that the skill-level wasn't necessarily that high. For every shredder there was someone bobbling their way over the falls on a brand-new gun. I watched one hilarious sequence where a nice peak rose up amidst a little crowd of 5 or 6 guys.. One guy was in position but you could tell he was a little hesitant.. but then he called another guy off and then started to commit himself but at the very last second pulled back.. but way too late and he ended up going over the falls big time. I actually saw him careening down down down inside this huge, churning, gnarly barrel. The guy that got called off was bumming because the wave was beautiful.

Thanks again goodmorning for hooking that 7'6" board. that thing ruled today. I caught 5 or 6 and then called it a sesh. Had a few kooky ones where i wasn't quite balanced but also had some memorable drops and carves. Surrrfff!

good to meet Kdalle! Charging it on his 10ft Coffey with the inch-wide stringer. beauty board.

Organic photos of Southern Cali beachbreak
Judith?

booger mega-spray

Roarghhh!!!

So Cal

Seth photo of Daily Dale Wavestar

Flags cracking viciously in the stiff offshores.
Loping, sizeable NorPac chunk-o-waves pulsing and pumping.
Not as large as yesterday, or so it seemed.
Deceptively attractive conditions.
No surfers within my purview.
Outer bar eruptions.
Mountainous white-water cacophony.
Mind-surfing the wind-whipped monsters:
Take off super-deep on the largest of large-ass outer-outer-bar set wave mackers.
9ft rhino-chaser pointed strait down into the banshee-shrieking infinite abyss.
Eyes watering while speeding down mammoth wall.
Reach the bottom and gast gaze back up onto ginormous, critical, feathering creature from the deep.
Long, drawn-out, mach-speed, board-chattering, rounded bottom turn up into the pit.
20 feet above, a huge, meaty slab careens overhead.
Tubulation!
Gigantor, vaulted, cathedral barrel.
Time stands still as I stand tall and exist in the thundering now.
Pinprick exit of daylight at the distant end of the green room.
A dolphin leaps out ahead and guides the way.
A giggling leprechaun rides the back of the dolphin.
The leprechaun leaps from the dolphin's back onto me and it’s giggle turns to a snarl.
Tiny, lustful leprechaun fangs snap and chomp down on my arm.
Fucking rabid leprechaun trying to ruin my master-barrel.
The leprechaun continues to chomp away but I follow the dolphin toward the light.
Spit triumphantly out of the barrel’s bowels I grab the leprechaun by the throat and toss him aside.
I cast my arms up in a full claim!!

A few dope Stinkeye photos (tuffproductions.com)

check out cliffhouseproject.com

A dark, menacing rumble disturbed the otherwise tranquil sleeping patterns of Sunset denizens last night.
The ocean is angry.
Non-stop DOH spine-crackers streamed toward shore this morning.
Head-crunching, pile-driving aquatic explosions.
Take Sunday’s conditions and multiply the size by three or four.
Soaring, outer-bar oceanic heavings. Way out there.
If the sets let up a bit a puny, twig-like surfer might make it out.
But…
Ha ha ha!
Watched 4 hapless, well-intentioned die-hards get rejected for 40 minutes.
Floating southbound. Getting pounded. Flirting with success.
Maybe they eventually made it? Probably.
Kudos to those charging chargers who charge chargeable charge cards.

I can only imagine what California’s points and reefs will look like later today. (Lunch-break teleport please!!!)
The Ranch overhead and firing on all cylinders. Wave after wave feathering and rifling down the points.
Lunada Bay big wave perfection. Mother Nature beat-downs.
Supertubes?
Nor-Cal secret coves.
Salsipuedes high-performance ledging barrelfest?
West Side Santa Cruz.. oh my bejebus..

All you flexible-work/work-at-home/no-work-at-all surf-saturated lucky bastards! Enjoy it today. Find your spot, know your limits, take off deep, stoke people out, pull in, smile, enjoy the pleasurable, soul-gratifying recreation that is surfing.

We’re in the thick of it. Give a moment of consideration to mid-July. Onshores every day for months in the past and months in the future. Dribble-like, nothing windswell. Grey and foggy. Ugly.

be like taj

Martin Luther King was the man!
New swell bombies available for those so inclined.
Rincon, County Line, Mitchell's Cove, Seaside Point as the tide goes out.
This weekend was the shit!
Barrels and barrels and more barrels.
Zippy quick air-droppy suckouts.
Board-breaking, inner-bar mayhem.
Drop down - glassy face - bottom turn - off-the top - pump down the line.
Rippers ripping.
afternoon glass-offs.
Shoulder-high schlanking.
Jazz on Balboa street last night.
10ft at Kirkwood.
However, the playfulness is over.
Daunting, beautiful, impossible bombs out the back.
Watched for 35 minutes and didn't see one ride.
People are scoring up and down the West Coast as you read this.

Some new Mexisurf shots

Christian

Lima, Peru

from fluidzone (tyrez found)

Good day for the Radio-Controlled surfer… or for east-coast wankers like me who remember teeny Jersey summer days and love it. Cold. Nobody around. Offshores grooming. Lake waves. Boat wake.

Improvisation. What is it? How is it manifested? It gets articulated in many walks of life. Financial analysts study economic trends and improvise modeling schemas based on myriad factors. Teachers learn the traits of each of their students and improvise the most effective methods of instructing them. Programmers improvise elegant solutions to complex logical dilemmas. On the fly, as time unfolds. Actors, Surgeons, Mechanics, Farmers, Architects all utilize the spirit of improvisation in their work.

The spirit of improvisation particularly shines in art, music and athletics. Maybe nowhere more than in jazz music. Jazz musicians cultivate their chops, over time, by learning the fundamentals of music theory and the rudiments of their particular instrument. An untrained grom might be able to pick up a guitar and improvise a melody but it’s unlikely that that kid will have much flexibility and scope in the melodies he/she creates. Hours, days, weeks and years of studying scales, chords, modes, altered scales, altered tunings and the compositions of the masters will begin to develop a foundation of musical knowledge from which elevated improvised creations can occur. Beautiful musical improvisation, while on one hand relying on the spontaneous and unplanned, also relies on a foundation of practiced discipline and knowledge.

The best surfers improvise elegant, radical lines along uncompromising, dangerous waves. They make it look easy. They flow and style and express themselves in an spur-of-the-moment, unrehearsed, dance of athleticism and power. Their bodies and minds are only able to do this because of years and years of hard-won development. Practice.

Accomplished improvisational expression floats at the top of a deep foundation of cultured development. High-level improvisers spend lifetimes honing their respective tools. The creative outlays that follow represent some of the greatest artistic and athletic achievements of mankind. The pursuit of mastery. Unravelling the unkown. Exploring outer limits of personal stylistic ideals.

footbag world record holders

An arctic, offshore NE wind whipped down from the snowy Sierras this morning… or at least seemed to. Fingers numb before even entering the aqua. Lerm and I suited up and decided to surf site unseen. Up over the highway and onto the beach and a glassy, peeling, resweetulous head-high set funneled and beckoned! WTF!! Into the water and we never saw waves like that again the entire session. Ghost set I guess. Nevertheless fun times in the waist/shoulder-high windswell nothings. East-coast style. Nobody around. No noticeable bovine sharkbait. Small wave revelry. Micro-surfing. Chilling. No consequences. No duckdives. Most injuries supposedly occur on the smaller days, in shallow water. We found a quasi-sandbar that offered some peaky lefts. Lerm trimmed down the line on some long slow ones. I found some blippy little pockets and kookishly attempted to get up to the lip. Surfing is fun.

Exploration… North-of-the-gate hikes… Newfoundland Sea-Plane… North of Gnaraloo wombat cookoff… Seychelles on the right swell… “I’d like to spend some time in Mozambique… the sunny skies are aqua blue.. and all the couples dancing cheek to cheek”… Cape Verde desert island… Viking Faroe islands in a dry suit… Columbia… Grenada or St Lucia on the right hurricane… Falkland Island penguin jaunt… outer Hawaiian reef reconnaissance. Sitka… Glacier Bay National Park… Halifax Nova Scotia Lobster Lounge.. Tunisia… Oman Oh Man..

It’s out there..

Lindy this morning

a betty wears no wetty at the jetty

from fluidzone.com

photos from kirikou.com

What up everyone? Your substitute is in today as E has some business to take care of and asked me to fill in today. So, let me start with a little round up of the morning out there:

Swell: SF bouy at 7.2 @ 9 sec
Wind: 5-10 mph out of the E to ESE
Overall: Clear as can be with a nice winter chill
Water Quality: All beaches look to be open (SM County is delayed from 1/6 AS USUAL...)

It was a beautiful morning this morning, first one in while! I checked the beach pre-light and was amazed at how crappy it looked. Seriously, it looked really crappy. I bumped into several of the morning crew but no one was heading out. I decided to take a dip and get wet as I haven't DP'd for a few weeks now. Paddled out and sat by myself for about 40 minutes. The waves were neither here nor there as the tide gave it the "inbetween" feeling. Unloading the inner bar, not really doing the thing on the middle bar. I floated around and snagged a few quick rights that were basically really soft rides. There was just enough size/steepness to get up and get a bit of speed to race the mushburger. All in all, it was worth for the mere fact that I surfed alone and got a nice sunrise to boot. Usually there are 100's of people at the spot I surfed when the weather is the way it is today. But......Not today! Completely empty.

Maybe later today things will clean up a bit on either the extreme high tide or the extreme low tide.

Check out some pics from the Inlet, pretty sick moves on such small waves!

Hard onshores and throbbing, spitting storms have shut down surf opportunities for all but the massively adventurous. Maybe some protected spots will be holding if you’re willing to withstand the scum-laden fecal matter. Tasty!

Lerm has two empty weeks in the middle of the summer for a surf trip and he wants to know where to go. Somewhere tropical, warm, off-the-beaten-path, with solid waves. He was thinking maybe the south pacific or back down to central America. Every time I look at a map of the south pacific I get lost in rapturous ruminations about all the friggin islands that are rarely discussed and surely hold vacant, world-class churning reef-passes. Ya hear about Samoa and Fiji and Tahiti and Hawaii but you never hear about Nauru or Henderson Island or the Cook Islands. How about a 6 month trip on a 50-foot yacht all through the south pacific! Anchoring in palm-fringed lagoons, exploring remote reef passes. Charting swells and then using maps to make predictions of what reef pass or islands will produce waves. Finding a dream wave and just anchoring there for a week and trading barrels with your lady and a few bros. Eating fresh fish every day. Playing shuffleboard on deck. Going ashore and checking out different polynesian cultures. People are doing that right now. We’re here on the computer, pumping through code or excel-spreadsheeting and they’re out in the south pacific catching tuna and getting shacked.

Good on em.

tom servais photos

Some semi-attractive, uncrowded conditions on offer this morning. Chest-high, inner-bar opportunities. Nobody out at 7am. Small and dumpy for the most-part but a few peeling niceties kept things humming. Slight offshore wind. Crisp, cool coastal temps. Some inside racetracks and ramps. Monday morning lack of crowds. Get on it if you’re deliberating.

Yesterday afternoon witnessed some low-tide thumpies out the back. Lerm and I sloshed through the poo-water and found glimpses of the promised land as the sun waned toward Hawaii. Shifty, peaky, A-framed suckouts munched and marched up and down the beach. I got slammed by one wave and tweaked my back pretty good.. might be out of commission for a day or two. But.. a few fast, pump-laden, high-line speed-explosions will keep my daydreams fueled these next few days. Surf. Also some moments of “why the hell do I continue to do this activity!?” as lip upon heaving freezing lip crunched on my head and injected silty salt-water storm runoff up my nostrils and into my brain! The ocean is fucking relentless!!! Fuck!

Reading an awesome book right now.. “Collapsed” by Jared Diamond. He wrote “Guns Germs and Steel.” The chapter I just finished was all about Easter Island. Diamond reconstructs the history of how the Polynesian settlers churned through the fragile ecosystem of the island, felling trees for canoes, houses and tools for their huge monument projects. Environmental destruction led to warfare, cannibalism, starvation and depopulation. Fucking gnarly story. Now the book is talking about the Pitcairn islands. If you’re interested in the history of the south pacific, or about environmentalism and sustainability, check this book out. Diamond is also speaking at the Herbst theatre on January 26th. I’m super psyched!

Some paintings from our main home-dude Bagel that appeared in the last BASEmag.

A few of my mom's creations
Embroideries

Painting from the 80's... My junior high friends used to freak at the nude artwork in my house

Spanish Galleon invades Santa Cruz

I stayed under the warm fluffy covers this morning so can’t provide any first-hand knowledge of surf conditions. The rain and wind were blowing resolutely offshore at the beach so… that’s promising.

In an ideal fantasy universe I would’ve awoken this morning to a phalanx of attractive, nubile, soft, cooing suicide-girl vixens massaging my back and legs and preparing a fresh smoothie and bagel with whitefish salad. They would also fire up the piping-hot Jacuzzi in the indoor-outdoor garden. 20 minutes of jacuzzi time while one of the ladies strums some flamenco guitar and the NYT Tuesday crossword gets done. Then it’s down to the private, glassy pointbreak for an hour session with the fellas (and ladies if they’re looking to surf). 3 to 5 sets of 7 waves every 30 minutes keeps everybody happy. 5 of us rotating through. 100 yard slightly overhead glassy rippy walls with a few non-confrontational barrel sections on offer. No wind. No crowd. 75 degree water even though it’s norcal. I get my first switchfoot barrel. Then it’s post-surf snugglefest and nap time. Then wake up, grind on fresh veggie burrito. Cruise to the indoor/outdoor studio for a monster jam. Today it’s Cranial Bulge practice with guest appearance Brain on drums. I plug into my new 100 watt Bogner amp (with no buzz on A#!!!! grrr!!!) . Lerm and I snake through hyper-complex, composed, bad-ass, edge-defining cadences. Soon a largish crew of 30 or 40 heads are there dancing and rocking. Brain is fucking wailing on the drums. ROCK! Scarick from Critters Buggin hops on stage and begins some futuristic, alien saxophone ripping. Everybody is raging and the vibe is thick. Out of nowhere Bob Marley materializes with this gigantor 15 paper joint of the uber-chronic Skunk #5 from beyond the grave.. That gets passed around and everybody is now lounging in the pillow cloud room while Bob croons through his acoustic melody singing “You Can’t Blame the Youth.” And “Lick Samba.” Then it’s back down to the pointbreak for a sunset session. The swell has chilled out and we bust out the fishes and longboards for some shoulder-high glassy peelfest cross-stepping and tandem antics. Rell Sun shows up. Curren carves some arcs on his Skip Frye. Post-sesh bonfire on the beach. Ukulele’s, drums and ghost-stories.. then it’s bed-time..

pointbreak niceness

Pre-dawn reveille.
Chat with the lady and give a little back massage.
Suit up, trot down.
Lerm only head bobbing.
Crystalline sheen glitters on smooth water surface.
Waves come.
Trade rides.
Discuss Spoonbender show.
Appreciate offshore-whipped spindrift.
Lerm takes off, ducks under, gets creamed.
I see the lip careen over his noggin.
Cold and refreshing.
Dark, brooding sky over the city.
Waiting for waves.
Clean ocean, I can see my feet!
Lucky to be young, healthy and in the drink.
Fantastic session
surfing rules.

A few photos from mandalacustomshapes.com

waves. I basically got skunked again. Lewis and others found a few kernals of decency. I sat and watched people get rides while twiddling my thumbs or sticking my thumb up my arse or thumbing convention or thumb thumb thumbthing (some dumb something). A smattering of solidity for the skilled and patient. Cool to meet sideburned self-shaper who i previously met in Capitola. I saw you get some nice ones on your yellow board.

surfing is frustrating.. but fun.. but frustrating.

It's humbling to realize that i'll never be a ripper.

Rip
Shred
Careen
Vault
Smear
Launch
Gauge
Whack
Burn
Crush
Divot
Vex
Blush

meeting now.. peace out.

Goodmorning's top ten sessions of 2004
I was asked to write a ten best of '04 thing for a friend's magazine/ website and thought athat you all would appreciate it more than any who read H2so4. If it is too long, get rid of it. If not, enjoy.

Top ten surfs- 2004

1. Coal Oil Point, first winter swell in Ventura county's '04-'05 season. Overhead lined up point break with ultimately unmakeable tube sections. For a while I was the only one at the pier on a longboard. Like everyone, I was obliterated trying to hang on in the barrel longer than I ought. As someone paddling out said as I collected my board (and lumps) after a longish barrel, "Piping!"

2. Maria's, Puerto Rico. Second week of Feb. What more might be said of head and a half reef break in warm water on a new board made just for the trip? Oh yeah, baby. Baby! Ahhhh.

3. Unnamed point break, Puerto Rico. Pre "Swell of the Trip" and a harbinger. Only one out, trunks, so what if it lasted only a half hour before the tide wrecked it? So what if the reef was full of vana on the inside? So what if it was cloudy? Score!

4. Unnamed reef break, Puerto Rico. Again alone, entering the water by light of the setting full moon to find the ocean warmer than the already balmy air. The paddle to the break was maybe three-quarters of a mile and the view to the shore was of empty tropical coastline, no buildings, the road kept close by foliage. The surf a powerful seven foot, lefts and rights, glassy as an oil spill. So what if I had to answer the call of the "traveler’s malady" in the line up? The tide was outbound and there were more waves on the way for me!

5. Little Maria's, Puerto Rico. Tiny surf, no one out but me and the lady half, essentially alone. She didn't stand but bounced in prone on quite a few. Until I hit her board on a "family wave" on the way in, a perfect session.

6. Montara, San Mateo County. Out on a day at Montara's maximum ridable height with Pete. Just like we were in high school again except cold and grey. The fist day that justified breaking out the short board in some time- I had forgotten how fun the chip is. Then that damned shark investigated us- so we took off. But not as fast as you would think, close-out barrels are magnetic to human flesh....

7. Pescadero, San Mateo County, two and a half hour bodysurfing session with Pete. I had forgotten how much fun bodysurfing was! I had forgotten how much salt water a sinus cavity holds! So much fun, reminiscent of Sandy Beach with close-out tubes that kept open inside for a while, taking drops that were obviously going to be Phyrric in their accomplishment as sand and kelp shreds forced their way into facial orifices with the force of suburban rioters at the Gotcha Pro. Yes!

8. Ocean Beach, fist swell of the '04-'05 season. New mini-gun, fast as hell. Easy paddle out. Pushing double overhead on sets. Met someone in the line up who had long been a familiar face. Stayed out long past the conditions' deterioration just because.

9. & 10. Ocean Beach October & November madness. Surfed a couple strings of day after day and just beat. Exceptionally fun and hollow head high surf, off shore winds, relatively light crowds and one wave that stands out in memory; it sucked up and went perfectly vertical while the shoulder ahead of me suddenly went perpendicular to the wave face!? I ended on a flying kick out, landing flat on my back from such a height that I wondered as I fell why I hadn't hit the water yet. Subsequently I was recognized in the parking lot as the flying guy by a nice older gentleman watching the wave orgy. Go figure. Surfed many days alone and with Pete, Jeff, Dave and Peter.

11. Impossibly long longboard left-hand barrel (squatting, all 6'2"), San Mateo County. Sometimes local spots surprise even after years of a relationship that might generously be called "codependent". Leashless trim, glassy, barefeet, if only the rest of the damned rubber could be taken from the equation.

MARS art show on January 8th.. check out fecal face.com for details

still alive in 05.

hope everybody enjoyed a refreshing holiday. It looks like a huge deluge of rain fell on the bay area these last few days.

A few largish waves this morning. Spaced out and sporatic. Blakestah convinced me to paddle out and i proceeded to nab 0 waves during the 40 minute session. Total skunkage. Blake dropped into a nice left and i watched a few other surfers score some nice rides. If you're smart and/or wily enough to sniff out the right lineup spot you could score some drops and carves. It's out there.

Yesterday some big, well-shaped gropers. Supposedly some deep barrels from the local Brazzo bombers. Felt good to get back in the drink.

Thanks to Papa Kaiser for keeping the report going.

Thoughts go out to all the suffering people around the Indian Ocean.

Rob Born crafted an awesome trip report from Western Australia

bruce at pipe

slappy at backdoor

Dredging keg

surfinsoljah pics from a North American Beach in December