*** Official 2020 Community Surf Journal ***

[PRCD]

Gromswarm II: the Quickening

I found the only makeable bar, paid a lot of money for parking, put my wetsuit on, and walked out past a flock of milfs eyeying me up like a leg of lamb. "This is a bad sign," I thought. I couldn't see out into the lineup because of the glare, but when I got out there were groms everywhere paddling over each other like a 4-sided waterpolo game. More groms kept coming and coming to the point it was hard to move. A manbunned guy in his late 40s started cursing at the sky. The beginner 50 something guy on the log wrinkled his face like a raisin. I got some good waves under the circumstances. The only upside is that the groms discourage the WaveStormers and tend to get out of the way because they are smaller.

 

[gbg]

pretty sure it’ll be victory at sea by Friday afternoon if the forecast holds up.

Fri morning looks clean.

 

[Aruka]

Kelpy reef wave. Super glassy and pretty. Some fun ones when the sets arrived but there were long lulls and it was more crowded than it has been. Rode the Insanity and had a good start to the session, getting a few waves in a row right when I paddled out. The board felt really good on the better set waves but it felt a little overkill on some of the mushier or smaller ones. Did pretty well ignoring the crowd and just paddling deep to take the waves I wanted. After an hour or so it lulled. Hard. The water has warmed up a degree or two but I would still guess it's sub 50F. Started to get cold and bored. A few more guys paddled out. Finally got a nice set wave and surfed it to the beach. Went in and drank some water, ate a bar. Saw more sets. The pack was sitting a little far outside for some of the good looking insiders so I decided to grab the groveler and try my luck with those. The JS PN felt a lot sparkier and more fun on the mushy insiders. Got into a good rhythm and got a bunch of fun waves while the pack sat a little too deep and outside. Eventually my buddy clued in and he joined me on the inside which I had mixed feelings about. The fog bank that had been slowly moving in all day finally engulfed us and the bright blue sky disappeared. So to did the waves. Another long lull. I took a crappy wave in which wasn't how I wanted to end things but I was truly cold by that point and just wanted some warm clothes and hot food.

 

[potato-nator]

paddling back out a big one came and i duck-dived it but got sucked backwards
into the violent zone.

Hello Turtle.

board hit my hip hard but kept going to the outside where I lay flat for a few mins to
let pain and nausea subside.

I have some bruise.

just found a 9" crack in my rail.
my hip did that.
sigh.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

picked off couple corners in a sea of closeouts. fuse felt good when it got to run

 

[enframed]

Malibu again yesterday and today. 1st point I think, judging by the banter in the line-up. Again 1-2ft with occasional set. Used the 8' twin and had a blast before it got really crowded. Some dude on a foil looked a lot like Dave Parmenter? Foils everywhere in the line-up. Felt kinda dangerous.

 

[Makule]

Anybody got nailed by stingrays in OC?

 

[oeste858]

Malibu again yesterday and today. 1st point I think, judging by the banter in the line-up. Again 1-2ft with occasional set. Used the 8' twin and had a blast before it got really crowded. Some dude on a foil looked a lot like Dave Parmenter? Foils everywhere in the line-up. Felt kinda dangerous.

I’m sure LA dudes can chime in but IIRC, First Point is closest to the pier, then 2nd and 3rd as you go north

 

[enframed]

Anybody got nailed by stingrays in OC?

I just heard they have in Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, too. Is this true?

 

[Brsnstein]

I just heard they have in Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, too. Is this true?

There were a bunch in Manhattan Saturday. Sister’s bf saw some in hermosa Sunday morning

 

[Havoc]

chit ton in hb. stepped on 3 in same sesh but didnt get hit luckily

 

[enframed]

There were a bunch in Manhattan Saturday. Sister’s bf saw some in hermosa Sunday morning

chit ton in hb. stepped on 3 in same sesh but didnt get hit luckily

Goddammit. Gotta do that shuffle I guess.

 

[Aruka]

Kelpy reef again. Ominous clouds and some south winds on it but the kelp kept the chop within acceptable tolerances. More size and power today. Combo swell had the occasional double up standing up steep on the inside corner. Rode the SMTH Drive Thru w/ freshly purchased Dane L fins. It was the best this board has felt yet. For the first hour or so it was just non stop on the inside corner. Not many super long waves but usually enough for 2 or 3 turns. Just myself and the conspiracy theorist boogie boarder. He stayed out the back mostly, waiting for the occasional big set so I had my corner to myself. The clouds were doing some crazy stuff over the mountains to the North. Gray wave shapes lined up one after another in the sky, as in the ocean below. The good ocean waves would let you in early, behind the peak and allow for a couple highline pumps before bending towards you and offering up an overhead face on which to burn off the speed. Had some of my better turns in a long while and the board felt really good. Shortboardy but with some extra speed and spark. The only bummer was that my main surf buddy wasn't able to make it. He would have loved it out there.

 

[Makule]

Goddammit. Gotta do that shuffle I guess.

That is what I thought...….
I got nailed on Friday.
For 37 years.....0 gashes.
Nailed twice in the last 3 years.

 

[oeste858]

Surprisingly fun mini session on 5’10 minisim at reef#2 at low tide. 100 yds of reef dance before you could start paddling out, but at least no stingrays. 15 crowd (lotsa groms), 30 min, 12-15 clean little 3’ waves. Always have fun on this board and reminded how efficient the design is. Catches everything, flies down the line, can cruise or push it around pretty hard from tail. Mitsven’s quad setup really improves the design from the Hank Warner twin i used to have. Water still high 60s too!

 

[sdsrfr]

That is what I thought...….
I got nailed on Friday.
For 37 years.....0 gashes.
Nailed twice in the last 3 years.

My fear every time I shuffle out.

started paddling in shin deep bc i kicked something that moved. saw one shoot past on my way in.

long lulls, crowd sucks.

 

[MathDebater]

Surfed a b grade reef wave that can handle higher tides better than most of my other options, but something was off. Still got a few fun ones on the banjo and surfed by myself, can't complain! Got blown up by the backwash more than once.

 

[Kento]

So good to get in the water this morning at my usual. Generally pretty empty, clean, glassy, high tide, semi-lined up, and hollow. Chest - shoulder high. Got about 30 waves or so in the two hours I was out. Lots of pig dog barrels into closeouts or to floaters. Had a strained hamstring from moving/weeding activities from day before. Little bit of hangover too. Ocean helped cure that nicely.

But surrealness - a wavestormer and sponger paddled out in my area. Whatever. They really weren't taking anything so didn't pay them much attention. I drove down line and into closeout barrel on one but the sponger must have raced right towards me when I was in barrel instead of going towards whitewash. I asked him nicely (even said please!) to paddle towards the whitewash next time as we had popped up close to each other. I paddled up current and back to where I had been sitting the whole sesh and I guess guy went to the beach to fight me as I heard progressively more noise from that direction over next 45 minutes as he tried to get my attention. I gave him none and just kept getting barreled. Wind starts coming up and he ends up paddling right up to me, ranting and raving about how I was talking all this sh!t (I had paddled away), baiting the hell out of me to start a fight. Highly perplexing. I did think it was funny though how he claimed it was his beach (I have surfed there almost 20 years and never seen him before). After a while of this, he paddled down 200 yards to his buddy and that was that. So, so strange.

Not going to let that ruin my sesh at all, got several more waves, including a decent late drop to barrel to floater, and headed in shortly thereafter.

 

[MathDebater]

I feel like most of my encounters like that are with people I've never seen before at spots I usually surf during pretty consistent time windows.

 

[Woke AF]

Pulled my rail saver through the rail to the plug the other day on the Parmy, 4th time I have done that on this board. I haven't done it on any other board in 10 or so years. Even tried a different leash that uses a wider webbing, nope.

Today on the rounded pin twin overhead and consistently pumping. Crowd was not a factor with so many waves and occasional big clean-up sets. Long clean walls and not many closeouts, unlike the day before. One set wave with 4 solid hits to the lip makes for a very good session. Surfed out in 90 minutes.