*** Official 2020 Community Surf Journal ***

[000]

dipshit follower from saturday was back following me again today, as he will now do every morning for the rest of his life. surf was bigger but not better. windswell made it more confusing and more flat sections, still a few good ones but i expected more. got 2hrs in.

 

[oeste858]

Friday: Got (most of) my work done and snuck out for late afternoon low tide at a South SD reef. Low expectations with a west wind going all day. S peak looked bigger but mobbed with 25 dudes, and my buddy was already out at N peak so I paddled out, right as a beautiful 4' set stood up outside and peeled right down the line. Should've gotten suited up a couple min faster! An 11' SUP got the cleanest one from way outside; most of the pack of 10 mids/LBs was sitting at the normal peak but was too deep today and way behind the first section. So I sat a bit south of them but the rights had a bit of crumble and I still had trouble making it around the next section. The 5'6" Mandala (the shortest board out there by 2-3') is a good one for this spot: caught a bunch of waves, and was fast enough to cover a lot of ground, but it was tough today to pick out the cleaner ones that would line up more.
Should've gone left on the biggest set, but swung late to try to backdoor the longer right, and was achingly close... but couldn't quite catch up to the open face after the late drop. Watched helplessly as an older dude in booties+springsuit dropped in and got a few whacks in. The. Worst. No sets really came through as open-faced & clean as the first one I saw, but got a few decent ones with some racy sections. Board felt spicy, but I did feel like it could've used a bit more fin on 1-2 of the carves (first criticism of this board). Finally went in on a clean smaller one with a good shoulder that let me hit it a few times. Went in with a smile. Great way to end a hectic work week.

Sunday: Spent the morning at Crown Point playing in the sand with the kids and the wife was out on her SUP paddling Mission Bay. So I qualified for some rare weekend surf time. Of course the wind came up pretty strong while we were at the bay, but there was still some swell, so when kids went down for midday naptime, I paddled out to the closest reef. There was 4 guys out and looked like there might something to ride on the sets. But once out there, it wasn't quite happening and really pretty ragged. I mostly just got a good workout, paddled around the lineup constantly, hunting for some sloppy corners. A game of whack-a-mole, never quite breaking in the same spot twice in a row. I think I got 3 ragged peaks with semi-exciting drops, 1 closeout floater, 0 snaps/carves. Oh well. Good exercise but not much more. At least the water has warmed back up!

 

[obslop]

OH, shifty wind swell with a nuking north-south current at 1st light on the negative tide. Some solid, quality shoulders with power and a metric crap ton of paddling. Not ideal conditions for my grovel shortboard but it got it done.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

unruly overhead windswell. My second wave on the scarecrow I turn to grab my board and I see this overhead lip coming right at my head so I just let the board go. Pulled hard and snapped back with the rear of my fin striking my palm. Blood everywhere. Going to urgent care this morning. fvck

 

[obslop]

unruly overhead windswell. My second wave on the scarecrow I turn to grab my board and I see this overhead lip coming right at my head so I just let the board go. Pulled hard and snapped back with the rear of my fin striking my palm. Blood everywhere. Going to urgent care this morning. fvck

better palm than your face; heal up

 

[Kento]

From yesterday's session, full redemption from the previous shitshow. Makes a big difference when it is a 14 second period instead of 18+ seconds. I don't even know why I bother with the latter, ends up overwhelming the sandbar and it's so hard to get into them (whether you actually want to is a different story) with the currents swirling. Oh I know masochism and paying dues. Well, got rewarded from those dues a bit yesterday. There was a little bit of south wind (~3-5 kts) but with that minus tide, south swell with west windswell, it was plenty hollow. No one out for a while and I got a ton of waves to my lonesome most of the early morning.

It was about shoulder to head high with the bigger sets a couple feet overhead. Nice to be able to walk out most the way with the low tide, extend the hair dry paddle out streak to 3. I predict doom next session for claiming that. There were one or two waves I got eaten on and bounced off the bottom for my troubles but other than that, a solid 3 hour session with no major scathings and a whole heap of good waves, getting spit out of more than a few.

Only disconcerting thing was, and it happened not once but twice, my left (front) ankle absolutely folded as I was dropping in late on a couple lefts. Ended up with my front knee on the deck, like a reverse pig dog. I have no idea what that was about, my foot was still on the board too. No pain but feels like no structural strength in it either, feels like it will roll over the top with no effort. Well, even in that position, still made both waves so I guess I can't really complain.

South wind got on it pretty hard after a couple hours. Got one left where I tried to stall into the barrel, whole thing chandeliered on me, held it together blinded, and all of a sudden flew out of that with a ton of speed and just cruised up and out over the top with casual ease. Not bad to close things out. Got out shortly after that before it completely deteriorated. Still plenty of peaks but current and rips with incoming tide were tearing it up.


sbd, sucks about the wound. Hope it's a fast healer.

 

[gbg]

unruly overhead windswell. My second wave on the scarecrow I turn to grab my board and I see this overhead lip coming right at my head so I just let the board go. Pulled hard and snapped back with the rear of my fin striking my palm. Blood everywhere. Going to urgent care this morning. fvck

Sucks. Stitches?

 

[silentbutdeadly]

3 stitches. sucks cause once it heals I basically go out of town for a week and a half.

 

[retodd]

Nuclear windswell at hipster meca

Plenty of HH lefts and only a few wasted one's . couple amazing FS carves where I felt like I actually new how to surf . few nice rights. Lots of pretty smiling faces

Winning

Sucks to hear about the hand SBD

 

[oeste858]

You look at it from shore and think you spot some workable corners... Another “challenging” day. Shoulder-high crossed-up wind-torn high-tide peaks, with churning whitewater takeoffs and steps +lumps on the faces. Hardly worth it, but had a couple buckin’ bronco drops that got the adrenaline pumping. Didn’t ask the 5’6 Mitsven twin keel fish to do much more than navigate the bumps- a bit like snowboarding through moguls that pop up out of nowhere. 4 guys out, 40 min, maybe 7 rides. Beachbreak would’ve been cleaner but I didn’t have time to spend 10 min looking for parking.

Bummer about the hand tear, SBD. Heal up soon.

 

[teeroi]

Dawned Bowls. It was the smallest it’s been in a month. Shoulder high but perfect conditions. Waves were fun, mostly just the regular dawn patrol.

This guy that surfs my NS regular came out. No good morning guys just sits right on top of us. Paddled for a nice runner. I burned him. Wave ran and I had to pump thru a couple of sections. Did a layback hack at the end. A good one, not just dragging the arm but body in water. I was pretty pumped on that turn. Still no what’s up guys. He got burned a couple more times by the other regulars out.

Watched a Julian Wilson clip of him blowing tail. So it’s been in my mind. Hit the lip and kick the board over with my back leg. A friend got in my way on a little nugget so I had to go around her. I wasn’t going too fast but I squared up and did the leg kick and blew tail over. Felt good. Just gotta do it on a bigger wave at speed. My magic fins will have me on tour in no time. Haha.

 

[Muscles]

Paddle out to some fun wind swell yesterday. I took my keel fish out and had fun. Keels feel so weird after surfing a CI Fever for the last month.

Ran into three regulars that I know. All from the East Coast. Not one greeted me in a normal way. All of them in a cringe fake pigeon accent they somehow picked up in the last few years here. "Ho, howzit braddah?". Makes me cringe inside when I hear it. Just don't understand people that need to force their accent. Has nothing to do with surfing, but it is hilarious.

 

[need 4 speed]

Still a few fun sections North of the Pier
20w with the wave count

 

[Aruka]

Looked a little underwhelming at our left bar. Nice conditions though. Calm and warm. Headed south in search of bluer oceans and bigger swells. Checked a bunch of spots and finally found a peak that seemed to be making the most of the leftover crap swell. Looked like the rights had potential but the lefts ended up being better. Tide was a little flooded to start but as it moved out the waves started standing up nicely. Got a couple fun ones. Nothing special just quick little corners that rarely allowed for more than one turn before jacking up onto nearly dry sand.

I've been having a little pain in my left ear when duckdiving. As the tide dropped a couple sets broke out the back and on one of the duckdives the pain was pretty strong. I took the next wave in. Ended up being my best wave. The ear feels pretty fine now but I'm worried I may have to take a break for a while, maybe go see a doc. Shoot.

 

[bluemarlin04]

I’m stuck on the east coast and just learned you have to pay for parking at the beach. 140 bucks for the summer.

Surf sucks too.

 

[retodd]

Do you use earplugs Aruka?

 

[jkb]

Attempted to surf yesterday.

Upon arrival, the state park official told me there was a white shark encounter with 4 surfers a couple of hours earlier. Shark got close enough for one guy to push it away. Then everyone promptly paddled in.

So I just stood on the beach and watched some fun little peelers.

 

[obslop]

combo santa ana action

south sets really good but unfortunately infrequent; got one OH drainer with a nice view but it ate me and made two small barrels.

 

[Aruka]

Do you use earplugs Aruka?

Yeah religiously.

I had an ear issue like 10 years ago from diving too deep while swimming up the river. I can't remember which ear it was but guessing it might be the same one. It doesn't feel infected, just like it won't pressurize when I go under water.

 

[MathDebater]

Which plugs do you use?