***Official 2021 Community Surf Journal***

Yewstreet

Legend (inyourownmind)
Nov 8, 2019
422
760
93
hit the low tide window in the middle of the beach. Still some juice leftover from Friday.

7'0 38L Lost retrogun w/ quads in was the weapon of choice. Snagged one really good right and a bunch of mediocre lefts/rights. As soon as the tide flipped there was a massive drift north. Don't really understand why the majority of people were riding undervolumed shortboards, but more waves for me I guess!
 

oeste858

Phil Edwards status
Sep 11, 2017
6,931
17,273
113
San Diego, CA
looked at 4 spots and closed out at all. ended up paddling at the last spot to get exercise. worthless sesh and this rando paddled on me.
Beautiful sunny day. Spent most of it at the beach with fam, kids had a blast. Then raced over towards SBD-desperation-zone to meet a buddy (who moved to E County last year) before sunset. Bottom 5 worst session. Crowded waist-chest high closeout BB. Seemed like everyone who learned to sarf the last two years was out. Yay.

First wave: had to angle takeoff to avoid clueless chick, weaved around another paddler in my line, and bottom turned around a third kook who managed to lose his board… heard his fin crunch through my rail as I went past. 4” gash on the rail of the Akila fish. FAAARK! The guy went right in otherwise I would’ve scolded him.

Was fuming and didn’t want to deal with the crowd. Let myself drift south. Surfed the middle of the long closeout by myself until dark. Just pulled in every drop, got hammered.

BB ’s a sh%tshow. Shoulda stayed at the reefs.
 

bluengreen

Michael Peterson status
Oct 22, 2018
1,763
4,641
113
SF x Encinitas
Don't really understand why the majority of people were riding undervolumed shortboards, but more waves for me I guess!
Do you even care about ripping, bro!?

Some swell finally showing in NCSD Friday. Thanks to Sopa for offering to loan me a longboard. Wasn't able to make it work, but I appreciated the generosity. Packed some shoulder high closeout barrels with my brother at D Street. One other guy out, so we took turns.

Happy to be back in the north where there are waves.
 

silentbutdeadly

Duke status
Sep 26, 2005
33,487
23,075
113
Tower 13
Beautiful sunny day. Spent most of it at the beach with fam, kids had a blast. Then raced over towards SBD-desperation-zone to meet a buddy (who moved to E County last year) before sunset. Bottom 5 worst session. Crowded waist-chest high closeout BB. Seemed like everyone who learned to sarf the last two years was out. Yay.

First wave: had to angle takeoff to avoid clueless chick, weaved around another paddler in my line, and bottom turned around a third kook who managed to lose his board… heard his fin crunch through my rail as I went past. 4” gash on the rail of the Akila fish. FAAARK! The guy went right in otherwise I would’ve scolded him.

Was fuming and didn’t want to deal with the crowd. Let myself drift south. Surfed the middle of the long closeout by myself until dark. Just pulled in every drop, got hammered.

BB ’s a sh%tshow. Shoulda stayed at the reefs.
I forgot to tell you when you texted me, you have to change your leash strings for beachbreaks
 

silentbutdeadly

Duke status
Sep 26, 2005
33,487
23,075
113
Tower 13
two spots looked exactly the same as yesterday. decided to swallow my pride and hit up one of SD's famous beach reefs with the masses of cooks.

found a peak just next to the main fvckery and got left alone for almost an hour before it got crowded. even then it was like taking candy from a baby. soft sort of weird rights and lefts but plenty of open face for some turns on the sparkplug. Pretty damn addicting riding that twin. I can't seem to get off of it.
 

MathDebater

Michael Peterson status
Apr 13, 2016
2,580
6,118
113
SD
Got a solid redemption session yesterday. I waited for the tide to start pushing up and headed to my usual zone to see what reefs were handling it. My first two choices looked okay but either tide wasn’t high enough or too crowded with known aggro duu’s. Third spot looked a bit lully but not crowded so I went for it. Beautiful conditions, surface glass with clear as it gets for this spot water, blazing sun. I got Into the rotation and got a number of fun sets. I almost went in as the crowd grew but waited for “one more” and a bunch of people went in. I ended up staying out almost three hours and having jello legs on my last one. On my best wave I got a lil shampoo, didn’t expect that for the conditions, stoked.
 

therarebirdshow

OTF status
Jan 28, 2013
295
390
63
www.amazon.com
hit the low tide window in the middle of the beach. Still some juice leftover from Friday.

7'0 38L Lost retrogun w/ quads in was the weapon of choice. Snagged one really good right and a bunch of mediocre lefts/rights. As soon as the tide flipped there was a massive drift north. Don't really understand why the majority of people were riding undervolumed shortboards, but more waves for me I guess!

That was me on Friday :foreheadslap:

Up visiting the in-laws. Forecast didn't look like it'd be that big and didn't want to deal with transporting and storing a board that couldn't fit in the back of the truck.

6'4" Stamps semi step-up was enough to get into all but the biggest sets, but would've been really nice to get in earlier on a couple of the better ones.
 

need 4 speed

Phil Edwards status
Nov 1, 2003
6,676
3,579
113
SoCal
a few make-able amongst the West walls, waist to chest(handful) on the 6-2 four channel twinzer, managed a couple good turns. Clean with light relatively light crowd, wind on it about 10:00
 
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oeste858

Phil Edwards status
Sep 11, 2017
6,931
17,273
113
San Diego, CA
F-k yesterday's closeout beachbreak kook circus... Back to the structure and order of reef #2 at noon. 10-15 guys out. waist to chest-high soft runners in both directions. But most of the sets snagged by guys riding 7’-8' crutch boars- hard to compete with the arms race on a 5’10. They were riding so far out in front of the pocket it was practically a waste of the best parts of the wave. Seriously considered dropping in behind on a couple. Would they even notice? They could barely turn, but guarantee all of ‘em thought they were ripping their ML like DevonHoward. LOL

Anyway, I kept busy on the soft but clean rights that swung wide of the main peak. I had finally given up saving Duffy's AO for the perfect conditions, and took it out on it's maiden voyage today. Boar is faaaassstt. My best wave I came from way too deep and made it around 2 long sections (that most boars this size wouldn't have) to crank FS carves that felt good. Slashes in the pocket were sharp, but cutbacks out on the flats were little skittery- probably had my back foot too far in front of the fins after leaning on the front foot gas pedal for speed down the line. Felt looser than most twins I've ridden last couple years. Look forward to getting more reps on it. Surfed about 10 rights in 30 min before the wind came up and I had to get back to daddy duty anyway.

Felt like I redeemed myself a bit from yesterday's beachbreak shocker. I wouldn't say I was the hammer, but at least I wasn't the nail today!

Dank chit: I did see a RasTrent white bro with long dreads on a rasta wavestorm. So. you know, that was cool.
 

Senor Sopa

Billy Hamilton status
Mar 11, 2015
1,366
2,176
113
Ponto
Some swell finally showing in NCSD Friday. Thanks to Sopa for offering to loan me a longboard. Wasn't able to make it work, but I appreciated the generosity. Packed some shoulder high closeout barrels with my brother at D Street. One other guy out, so we took turns.

Happy to be back in the north where there are waves.
LOL, This was bluengreens quote from perhaps the flattest day ever. "The infant is hogging the peak, the 3yr old is backpaddling for every wave, and mom is outside on the SUP just catching everything. Nothing for me but scrAps."

I tried to surf a couple of times over the four day holiday, but FTG'd due to uninspiring size and full house at every spot. At least the fog came in last night...
 

Kento

Duke status
Jan 11, 2002
68,679
20,891
113
The Bar
Rough day yesterday. Good times down in SoCal visiting relatives over the holiday (didn't bother bringing a board) but very glad to be back up north. Pretty grueling drive back north and got back pretty late Saturday night, didn't get down to sleep until past 1 AM. Still wanted to surf Sunday, though. Semi-dead big toenail, after months, decided to work itself loose, hanging on by a 1-cm wide strip of live toenail. Probably should have ripped it off before the sesh but having it bleed in the water seemed unwise. Every motion that put pressure on that big toe hurt as I jammed it repeatedly during the session.

Waves were about chest to head high and glassy but warbly with random rip wash/chop. Pretty crowded too. I got a few good waves that I surfed relatively decently but was otherwise dragging ass out in the water and every frontside bottom turn or backside cutback was painful. Frustrating session in a lot of ways but it felt good to get in the water and it was a beautiful day. Surfed the Senate and had a chuckle when one of the older locals commented on my "SoCal Board". Guess I'm marked in that sense; board seems to be a conversation starter.

Anyways, surfed for a couple hours and then called it. Pulled the rest of the toenail off, including part of the live section of it, and it was indeed a bleeder. So that was probably a good idea to save that fun for after the session.

But the best would be organizing the garage as it's been a dumping ground since moving. Missed a step on the ladder coming down from it, fell, planted my ass right onto an upturned barstool and I hit it hard. I can't even begin to describe how painful that was, add in a bruised tailbone on top of it. Funny as hell in hindsight but not while writhing in agony on the garage floor. But many jokes were cracked (no pun intended) after that. Although I could do without adding that to the laundry list of minor, nagging injuries.

Just one of those days.
 

sdsrfr

Phil Edwards status
Jul 13, 2020
5,856
11,262
113
San Diego
??
Did you get banned for life from the old regular? LOL
LOL. no, just moved a smidge down the road and thus no longer walking distance to the old one but still make apperances when I know it will be working.

ill admit, now that I’m the the well mannered ”new guy” as opposed to the salty regular chafing about how much better things used to be, I’m having a lot more fun.

covid kooks invaded my local is the theme song of 2021.
 

Mr Doof

Duke status
Jan 23, 2002
24,852
7,750
113
San Francisco, CA
Thursday - Short period paddlefest with stacks of small waves. Short period stuff in the offshore winds at sun-up proved to be fun but Cthulhu help you you you didn't power-paddle right back out immediately after the ride, though I found if you blew it on wave selection, you were gonna pay extra calories to get back out. Nothing remarkable stands out except that some people seemed awfully cranky or upset. 2 hrs later, homeward bound for a cleaning and off to Petaluma to the in-law's.

Friday - Rising swell (6 at 17 seconds) showing with single bigger peak showing randomly. Timing was a little off for me on half my attempts and flailed mightily. Paddled away from good peak to lick my wounds only to find myself right in the impact zone of that bigger peak thing I mentioned earlier, except it was a legit set 5 wave set. Lands about 10 ft in front of me, I bail, get picked up, over the falls, toes brush something, board/sand/fish/back of my head/something, start wondering when buoyancy will overcome the decreased density of bubble filled water, start to climb leash, and turns out I was not that deep after all, just sort of sloshing sideways thinking I was deep. Next few waves more insult to injury but was panting pretty hard when it was over. Made it back out for the redemption attempt and found the thrashing had messed up my psyche a little so when the redemption set came, shoulder hopped it and rode it too far in to get back out easily so then just went for an insider. That was a poor idea as it was a doubled up mess, but after a while, lucked out with a small gut high one. At the car found out 3 hours had passed since I suited up. Seemed like only 1 hr.

Saturday - 8 at 14 seconds. Arranged to meet Friend #1. He said he couldn't wait and would be on the 8' Bonzer (new). Got there, suited up, went out and surprised myself with a two duck-dive paddle out, and then the long slog to the outside. Most forgiving rip ever. Proceed to have much better time. Being on a 7'6" helped greatly. That board is like 15 yrs old ; I thank the double 6 oz deck and single 6oz bottom for the longevity. Sun-damaged pigment has change the green at the nose slightly blue, while the red half looks fine. More consistent sets make lining up easier, less people means I can be choosier too, which in turn makes paddling back out after rides so much easier. Am noticing some fatigue from day before, and decide to not fight current so much, saving muscles for the waves. Best ride was one of those where you paddle a whole bunch from too far out where you have to angle in from the shoulder, and you think, "Why am I bothering, not on the peak, shoulder hopping it, and f*ck, am I using a lot of energy to catch this." Then feel the lift, the glide, dip the head to move the weight over the nose ever so slightly, quick pop up, offshores puff you back but not enough to stall, the peak then begins to wall up and bowl as the swell feels the sand, then down, and, no curl, just wall, and going left with right hand on the rail almost needing to grab it and effortless zinging down the line. The lip is ever so close to pitching out in front of me, and I want to look back but fear my coordination would fail, so future looking only. When I kick out, rest of the set had gone south, so easy paddle back out. Worst wave was getting pitched in the middle of the pack. So much for any imagined cred I had. Never found Friend #1. No crowd at all...at first I was thinking, "where is everyone? Do the wave suck and I just don't realize it?" Find out at the car, 3.5 hours have gone by. Guy walking by confirmed that the waves did not suck at all.

Sunday - Decayed swell makes it unreasonably tough to get out. Well that and overall fatigue from previous days....ok, mostly fatigue and what happened to the nice rip? Friend #1 is absent. (Later find out he tweaked his back paddling out on Saturday and didn't get out because of said tweakage, now taking more days off). Smaller waves coupled with occasional leftover, dropping tide, lots of current, much more people has me being more particular about what I go for. I don't get stuck inside at all, even with the shallow bar, which could mean I wasn't pushing myself, wasn't going for much, was getting good rides, being lucky, wasn't choosing close-outs, not as tired as I though, had the right board, etc. Knowing the shoe will drop eventually, I don't look too hard at the whys. Best rides turned out to be the weirdo double up that started with me going right, then seeing it double up and come towards me, so hard carve to go left, pump and go around the section, bobble a little in the flats, wave stalls a tad giving me time to get to green water on the other side, then off to the races again. Luck is with me! Worst wave was second to last wave. Nice on the peak take off, kinda too deep, but I figure there is 33% I can get it and the a drop-in makes than 100% negatory. Am tempted to kick board at back of his head for a moment and impulse is forgotten when I realize my leash isn't long enough and I am way too slow...that kind of utter dickishness needs instant commitment. So a split second later, just straighten out and then watch the wave munch him.....I was being way too optimistic with the 33% and glad I have a modicum of self-restraint. Catch insider, shortly plopping to belly board it in, nearly getting tangled in fishing line. 2.5 hr surf.

Monday - Took day off. I tell myself it is good to recover more and mitigate possible harm to self by being too fatigued to surf well. Am expecting any moment to hear from Friend #1 as tide drops: Where are you? You're blowing it!

Anyways, surfed for a couple hours and then called it. Pulled the rest of the toenail off, including part of the live section of it, and it was indeed a bleeder. So that was probably a good idea to save that fun for after the session.
Read this, looked up how best to treat this sort of thing now-a-days, found my way to You Tube, and holy hell, there are people pulling off perfectly good toenails for whatever reason they want to rationalize. So went from curious-maybe-I-can-help to cringing pretty quick, and then there was the ladder fall. Double ouch! Heal up quick Kento.
 
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Kento

Duke status
Jan 11, 2002
68,679
20,891
113
The Bar
Read this, looked up how best to treat this sort of thing now-a-days, found my way to You Tube, and holy hell, there are people pulling off perfectly good toenails for whatever reason they want to rationalize. So went from curious-maybe-I-can-help to cringing pretty quick, and then there was the ladder fall. Double ouch! Heal up quick Kento.
Thanks! Between snowboarding and basketball, jammed them many times over the years, probably somewhere close to 100 replaced toenails; kind of amazing how the body regenerates them (seems to go slower these days; I must be getting old). This time it was carrying stuff up the stairs a few months back when I jammed it into the top stair, "killing" the nail. Been waiting a long time for it to get ready to fall off on its own but did so in a way that it stayed semi-connected. You want to pull them off on your own terms, not violently. It's never pretty. The right big toenail is about a month or two behind. I'm predicting mid to late January but we'll see. And then the cycle will begin anew like any good spring rebirth! :roflmao:

Envious about Saturday. I knew it was good and it hurt to be stuck down in SoCal, where I think a spot or two might have reached thigh high. Was good to get back in the water up here, even though I could have surfed a lot better. At least there were a few closeout barrels with a decent but fleeting view and a few decent turns. Hoping I can be healed up enough by this weekend. Sitting on a donut right now. :roflmao:
 
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