Grant Washburn - Mavericks Season Worst Ever

daave

Gerry Lopez status
Dec 28, 2002
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There a non-paywalled version? NS had a pretty terrible season in terms of consistency, lotta days where wind was onshore or swell came from a weird direction.
when you're hit with one of those, switch your browser to reader mode or equivalent.
 
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gbg

Miki Dora status
Jan 22, 2006
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I get better waves in the summer.
DMJ. Mugu. IB. Trifecta.
 

Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
26,270
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Jacksonville Beach
The new normal is the old normal - people always think the waves were better back when they were a kid.

It's called being jaded.
Last Winter was very fun with consistent cold/overcast/grey chest-head Northerly chunks, a weekend Palm Beach event, and a strong one-and-done comboing a good groundswell and that was seriously firing. Summer 2020 through about Thanksgiving was definitely above average. Summer 2021 was fun for Summer as well.

The sandbars where I grew up were in hilariously better shape in from the late 80s to the late 90s. First Peak went from being an extremely fun spot that served up a gajillion wedgey ramps to being a closeout wobbly enough to be a Vero shorebreak. The other South Brevard spots are much more walled out than years of yore.

And the crowds. Mother of God, the crowds. Full Spanish House lot = weekend hurricane swell with offshores. Now it's basically any decent weekend day. Even 15 years ago, I regularly surfed at the Pier on weekdays in wetsuit season. I haven't been there in like two years.
Mayport dawn patrol used to be like 6 people if it wasn't at least chest high and offshore or a named storm.

I don't think the sand situation at Smyrna is as good as it used to be either. A hair more fickle and a bit more prone to over-wedging.

If anything I'd expect more warming to be more storm events, but maybe something about the homes and sh!t staying in place but the sand wanting to move around, in general the setup at spots is worse more than better in North/Central Florida.

And Mother of God the crowds.
 

Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
26,270
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Jacksonville Beach
One other bummer about the last couple weeks.

The windows have been kind of lame for the weekday worker. It seems like the days with dawn/noon/dusk tides are always weekends, and during the work week, the favorable tide windows are 9:30-11 and 3-4:30.

Wednesday I think it was there were murderable wedgelets everywhere with the new moon high tide, but the window was like 9-10:45.
 
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r32

Administrator
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Apr 1, 2005
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In my area, been shittiest winter. Most days are total garbage. And the small pockets of clean wind we've had have been mostly flat with none of the deep water reefs going. But I've seen so many pics this winter of down south and that was def the place to be.

I wonder how has Santa Cruz faired this winter?
 

mundus

Duke status
Feb 26, 2018
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What about Baja? Far enough south to dodge the weather, well-exposed to the energy?
Northern Peru/Ecuador/Galapagos?
Possible, just go by what I see online. Ecuador in the Norh Hemi winter always intrigued me.
 
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Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
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Possible, just go but what I see online. Ecuador in the Norh Hemi winter always intrigued me.
I just find it hard to believe the reservoirs are filling in one season, Mammoth is basically under 30 feet of snow, 100 year old sh!t in Capitola has copped multiple cleanup sets over the top, and noooooooooooobody had a good Winter on the West Coast.

Everything from Jalama North being too stormy sounds plausible, although I wonder if a certain Sliver of zone waaaaay up North was good. But I'm glad the internet ain't saying sh!t about it.

But nobody got nothing? The closest place to California that scored is Utah? Sounds fishy.
 
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SeaFoamGreen

Gerry Lopez status
Apr 10, 2009
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NorOR
Not enough swell for Baja to pump after early Jan. Lots of storms in the north, but just not a ton of associated LP swell from the gulf. Kind of a good thing here, but its been like really small mostly unsurfable wind swell with a bump or two for a month now albeit great conditions last week. Jan had some solid LP W pulses with most of the weather going to the south and was consistently OH and some windows on the back end of the storms in early to mid Feb, but was pretty north 300ish and stupid cold with snow on the beach once or twice. Big 8' tide swings made windows small or waves wonky. Got skunked a few time and opted for white waves which were way more epic IME. Caught a 10-13 at 11ish N wind swell in the islands, but was only for a few days. Fun enough tradewind swell to keep it surfable otherwise, but I'm not picky esp in boardies. Def lack of classic west swells there.
 
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Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
26,270
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Jacksonville Beach
Not enough swell for Baja to pump after early Jan. Lots of storms in the north, but just not a ton of associated LP swell from the gulf. Kind of a good thing here, but its been like really small mostly unsurfable wind swell with a bump or two for a month now. Jan had some solid LP W pulses and was consistently OH and some windows on the back end of the storms in early to mid Feb, but was pretty north 300ish and stupid cold with snow on the beach once or twice. Opted for white waves. Caught a 10-13 at 11ish N wind swell in the islands, but was only for a few days. Fun enough tradewind swell to keep it surfable otherwise, but I'm not picky. Def lack of classic west swells there.
Very solid explanation. 300 = vast majority of SoCal is fucked, storm on top of swell = up North is unmanageable, not enough long period and west for Baja.

We East Coasters are very close to giving the West Coast's surfers permission to feel sorry for themselves.
 

Clayster

Miki Dora status
Oct 26, 2005
5,646
1,241
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Every time a big swell rolls through sb it removes most or all of the sand from the beaches. Every time this happens people go down to the beach, see the sand is gone and immediately think thee things…

1. This has never happened before.

2. This is permanent.

3. Globalwarmism caused it.

Fuckking stupids.

Why do they remove the sand? I don't understand.
 

Clayster

Miki Dora status
Oct 26, 2005
5,646
1,241
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Last Winter was very fun with consistent cold/overcast/grey chest-head Northerly chunks, a weekend Palm Beach event, and a strong one-and-done comboing a good groundswell and that was seriously firing. Summer 2020 through about Thanksgiving was definitely above average. Summer 2021 was fun for Summer as well.

The sandbars where I grew up were in hilariously better shape in from the late 80s to the late 90s. First Peak went from being an extremely fun spot that served up a gajillion wedgey ramps to being a closeout wobbly enough to be a Vero shorebreak. The other South Brevard spots are much more walled out than years of yore.

And the crowds. Mother of God, the crowds. Full Spanish House lot = weekend hurricane swell with offshores. Now it's basically any decent weekend day. Even 15 years ago, I regularly surfed at the Pier on weekdays in wetsuit season. I haven't been there in like two years.
Mayport dawn patrol used to be like 6 people if it wasn't at least chest high and offshore or a named storm.

I don't think the sand situation at Smyrna is as good as it used to be either. A hair more fickle and a bit more prone to over-wedging.

If anything I'd expect more warming to be more storm events, but maybe something about the homes and sh!t staying in place but the sand wanting to move around, in general the setup at spots is worse more than better in North/Central Florida.

And Mother of God the crowds.

The sand on Florida east coast beaches is not particularly good anywhere now. Cocoa (south of the pier), Jax beach and MIami have plenty of sand, but that's about it. Cocoa surf is not nearly as good as Satellite due to bathymetric conditions, Jax is ok, Miami only rarely has surf. Satellite Beach is one hurricane away from being gone. I grew up surfing Ormond, and at that time (60's, 70's), Ormond beach had giant drifts of red, crushed up coquina sand along with many coquina rocks. Great sandbars. Not anymore. St. Augustine beach had good sand a half mile south of the pier, until the latest hurricanes took it away. New Smyrna is a shadow of its former self, as are many of the beaches in South Brevard. Those beaches are not even half as wide as they used to be.
 
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Duffy LaCoronilla

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Apr 27, 2016
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People in Santa Barbara hate sand/dirt. It’s a clean well lit place and they keep it that way no matter who or what brings it.
duffmans list omitted this.
They used to rake (bulldoze) the kelp off of Ledbetter beach but thanks to my wife and the marine biology professor at SBCC show the city dopes just how much wildlife depends on that kelp they stopped some years ago.

Beaches here are all natty.
 

r32

Administrator
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Apr 1, 2005
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Cambria
They used to rake (bulldoze) the kelp off of Ledbetter beach but thanks to my wife and the marine biology professor at SBCC show the city dopes just how much wildlife depends on that kelp they stopped some years ago.

Beaches here are all natty.
I remember my teen years seeing those kelp cutter ships off Pleasure Point. Not sure if they were harvesting, or just cutting to clear the area. Such an endless supply of seaweed, I assumed it was for food production.