*** Official 2020 Community Surf Journal ***

Aruka

Tom Curren status
Feb 23, 2010
11,990
22,531
113
PNW
my car was coated in ice this morning. that did not help my motivation. drove around and ended up at the kelpy reef. no where to park in the lot. didn't recognize half the guys. mostly california plates and one florida vanlifer. waves were nothing special but I got a few on the Lightbender. crowd wasn't much of a factor. a couple guys were going left so i just pretended that I thought everyone was going left. oops. didn't surf for too long. my body feels a bit wrecked and the waves were fairly weak. felt like too much work to get the most out of them. hung out with a buddy on the cliff and soaked up some sunshine post session which was much more enjoyable than groveling in cold water and thick rubber had been. i'm thankful for thanksgiving leftovers!
 

20W-50 and blood

Duke status
Feb 4, 2004
24,949
4,032
113
SOCAL
Visit site
@doc_flavonoid Sure. Tudor can rip a midlength, but as I said in another thread, 95% of these guys on new resin-tinted CI Mids are not Devon Howard either. Large majority of these are novice (just off wavestorm) to average surfers. My rant is not aimed at the 5% of surfers riding these re-branded funboards who know how to surf and yes, can surf them well. And for one individual surfer, yeah go ahead, ride what makes you happy... the best surfer is the one having the most fun, etc. But these guys don’t know the rules, meaning dropins every wave, can’t get out of the way when paddling out, nobody willing to split peaks, etc. The sheer number of these boards that have flooded SoCal lineups since the Spring when most office employees started working from home throughout this pandemic- combined with consistently small surf during the same time- has effectively ruined many lineups around here. That’s the reality of the current situation down south. Maybe it’s been different up north.
I’ve been surfing these reefs for 30+ years. The Akila AIPA contemporary fish I was riding was perfect for those conditions.
Edit: sorry Doc, got me ranting like @Havoc
Maybe I’ll take up foiling offshore like many other fed-up longtime surfers around town here... if only there was a forum for that!
for the overwhelming part...those guys should drown. a few are actualy skilled guys with actual brasins...but only a few...and most of us know them and have no problem with htem. the rest? hope eells swim up their arses and choke themfromt he insides out. jimmyjazz gave me some great nort county sd advice years ago....just go behind em and use their wake as a small lip to do what you can. i perfected it though...grabbed afew longboards out front under guys. pushed a few single fun guys over. even hopped onl thruster guys bord one he jumped after realizing a ight brown gorilla was chasing him....even made the section bfore his leash stopped me!
 

Senor Sopa

Billy Hamilton status
Mar 11, 2015
1,366
2,176
113
Ponto
for the overwhelming part...those guys should drown. a few are actualy skilled guys with actual brasins...but only a few...and most of us know them and have no problem with htem. the rest? hope eells swim up their arses and choke themfromt he insides out. jimmyjazz gave me some great nort county sd advice years ago....just go behind em and use their wake as a small lip to do what you can. i perfected it though...grabbed afew longboards out front under guys. pushed a few single fun guys over. even hopped onl thruster guys bord one he jumped after realizing a ight brown gorilla was chasing him....even made the section bfore his leash stopped me!
Had to read this three times to get full comprehension.
Arghh, waves have been so small for over a month in SoCal. I read all the reviews, blah, blah, blah. Point is the waves are still barely breaking, only thing making it surfable is the epic cleanness. Glassy for 3000 miles makes any wave look good.

On the midlengths, I guess PPP hasn't heard the news yet. It's still filled with guys that are lousy on shortboars. Oh, and shredders too...
 

Brsnstein

OTF status
Jul 28, 2018
250
479
63
SoCal
Thanksgiving morning In the South Bay was pretty good, but the crowd was nuts, which was to be expected. The kookery was much worse than anticipated. It really has gotten exponentially worse. Blindspot with jordys again and it didn’t seem to like the mushier waves.

Tkf yesterday for a good time racing and high lining closeouts.

Things were kinda coming to life a bit today after the tide dropped some. Tkf did ok, but should have been on the flat tracker, which will probably get used for whatever scraps are left tomorrow, if any. Weather has been perfect
 

silentbutdeadly

Duke status
Sep 26, 2005
33,499
23,099
113
Tower 13
spent the holiday on the central coast. visited frengs on way up then surfed a couple of days in rice land. pretty walled but pretty fun waves. rode my 6'2" scarecrow for teh first time in who knows how long with a hooded 4/3 and booties. Definitely needed a couple of waves to adjust. second day a touch smaller but better on the gx. nice to get some sort of real waves... it had been awhile.

couldn't link up with rice unfortunately since he just got back last night and was on somwhat of a late program today. We had to get out of the air bnb and I didn't want to keep the fam waiting.

until next time.
 

bluengreen

Michael Peterson status
Oct 22, 2018
1,763
4,641
113
SF x Encinitas
Swell dropped fast after a really big and rugged Thanksgiving. Didn't check it and rolled with a 7'6 quad expecting 8-10 feet. Turned out to be just overhead, lightly offshore, and crazy crowded. So I sat way outside and poached the biggest set waves along with a couple of others.

A little smaller today but more beautiful offshore conditions. Back feeling good, so I took out a goddamn shortboar.
Waves cresting on the outside bar and rolling into some bowly, racey insiders. Loggers and SUPers hogging it up. Didn't kook out as bad as I expected to. Shaka bra.
 

Mr J

Michael Peterson status
Aug 18, 2003
2,250
1,454
113
Regional Vic, Australia
I got curious and took my abandoned 1y old self build toy step up out twice last week after a long period of dis-use.

When it was first built I went through an initial period of denial before I came to accept it was a bad board. Some blame went on my choice of rear fin position. Because it was a round tail, I figured it could go up a bit extra from a squash tail. Then I thought I would add a little more because the tail was slightly narrower. Plus I thought my previous build was a little stiff. At 2 7/16" up from tail, I overdid the extra forward placement compensations was my feeling :(

There were other things that felt wrong too. On paper it had enough nose rocker when taking the tail rocker into account, but it felt like there wasn't enough at times. Also the front rails felt like they were too thin and on the verge of catching at times. It also didn't generate speed well in the sub step up waves I was trying it in. It wasn't intended for use in the lower end of the wave power/height range, but at that size and dimensions it should have been quite capable of generating speed decently particularly as it felt quite loose.

My choice of fins were AM small in FCS 2 box. AMs always work for me, my number 1 choice of fin, but not with this board. Further disappointment was that I had some fins custom ordered for this board. Greg Griffin fins and they did not help either and I put the AMs back in, gave it a few more goes then gave up on that board.

Fast forward to last week and some open ocean conditions with some grunt prompted me to give it another go. The Griffin fins went back in. One of the reasons why I thought the conditions were worth trying it again was that there was a light onshore wind which would mess it up a bit and there was a reasonable probability of getting it with few others out and not embarrass myself if I surfed terrible. I paddled out on my own into lefts breaking into a rip. First wave flattened out with a fast running bowly shoulder - this happens in the strong currents. I tried to generate speed and it outran me. Second wave I decided to put my foot right back and try and engage the Griffin fins a bit more seeing as my more forward easy speed position didn't work and the board really lit up :) I also had an awesome feeling of slashing the tops off the waves backhand, the best that I have done since .. I can't remember. Someone else I didn't recognise joined me after a while and I managed to repeat the feeling on a few more waves before coming out of the water feeling incredibly happy.

Next day, a little bigger and messier with the same lefts breaking into the rip. No one out and a repeat of the previous session except when I felt the lack of speed generation on my first wave I quickly moved my foot back and didn't lose the shoulder. That feeling of slashing the tops off the wave backhand again and with the foot right back a feeling of drive. Both sessions confirm that it needs a tad more nose rocker and a bit more volume in the rails up front - this was evident when running into steeper inside sections.

I now want to make a version 2 for the Griffin fins. I spent this morning fixing up the flaws described in Shape3d. When I look at the board it seems to have too much concave in the fin area - more than any of my other boards anyway. I can't say I noticed any effects which could be attributed to that - board not skipping out or anything, but maybe it is the reason for its lack of easy speed - I don't know, I have taken a bit of concave out anyway and decided to move the double inside a single a bit further up the board. More mildly concaved too. Don't know when I will build it yet. Pictured below after last second session, prior to board swap with an Exile EX1 size medium.

Open ocean too big and blown out today, so going to take my regional custom HPSB out in sheltered cove.

MJ238.jpg
 

rice

Duke status
Jul 2, 2002
24,304
1,801
113
CA
couldn't link up with rice unfortunately since he just got back last night and was on somwhat of a late program today. We had to get out of the air bnb and I didn't want to keep the fam waiting.

until next time.
I was on somewhat of a late program, sorry. Hiking Nevada Falls in Yosemite straight into the drive home, made for a lazy the next morning.

Glad you got some here, and you didn't miss much yesterday. Rode the 9'6" and 10' and had fun in the clean, small offshores.

Next time!
 

Kento

Duke status
Jan 11, 2002
68,691
20,903
113
The Bar
Surfed what I guess is becoming my go-to spot up here. Dawn patrolled and it was chilly! 30s with howling offshores. Water was pretty warm, though, around 56, which felt nice by comparison. Was shoulder to head high with a couple overhead sets. Paddled out at main part of beach but it got crowded fast so found a peak elsewhere to myself, which was working for a while, mostly enough for a couple of turns before it backed off; just a little too much tide for it to connect all the way through. Tide came up a bit more and I spent the last 30 minutes or so out the back in denial. Finally a set came in that looked like it would unload on outside, which it did - 10 feet in front of me. Alas. Figured that was enough of that and paddled into inside, caught a shorebreak wave that held up enough not to ruin me and called it a day after that.
 

oeste858

Phil Edwards status
Sep 11, 2017
6,931
17,276
113
San Diego, CA
@Toobz Wow that looks nice.

Midday sesh at reef #1. Waist-high+ waves were better than I expected, and there were shockingly only 4 guys out, so I raced out to the lineup. 3 guys on the inside, 1 guy way outside. I caught an inside runner as I was paddling out, then saw a 2-wave set break outside- so that's why he was so far out there. Me and him traded CH sets for the next 20min. Fun workable rights with a cutback to set up the bonus 30-yd racetrack inside. a bunch more guys paddled out. I caught one more in, but then it lined up for me to do a 5-6 snaps n wraps, then a quick clean barrel on the inside. Stocked. So, of course I had to paddle back out to try to get a couple more. No luck. long lull plus 20 dudes conspired against me for the next 20 min. Finally poached one on the inside off the groms, but the tide had dropped enough that I dodged a couple bits of reef then kicked out and paddled the last 20 yds in. Beautiful sunny SoCal Fall conditions.
3rd time riding Akila contemporary fish I scored new on CL last month (my custom order is still on deck but not started yet, so I grabbed this. sigh). It's 5'11x21.5x2.75 (36L): 3" and 3L too big for me, but man this design is fun. Best groveler I've tried in years. Handled steeper sections too. Akila fins are perfect and zero need to try a training wheel. Will surf this one for a couple months until mine comes in (hopefully?), then sell this one. Think my 5'8" will be perfect dims for me.
 

silentbutdeadly

Duke status
Sep 26, 2005
33,499
23,099
113
Tower 13
Nice! I took the day off due to lack of swell and it looked liked surflie lied. I randomly checked the cam and it looked like there was a bit of a bump out there.