***Official 2021 Community Surf Journal***

[Mr Doof]

Christmas morning, surfed junky chocolate-milk colored waves.

Hard offshore, spritzing rains, wrong tide, lots of water flowing out the creek (saw a Blue Heron in the rushes). There were 4 others. Mushy at the better spot but sectiony in front of the creek. Short session with nothing good to brag about and yet, nothing so horrible I could brag about surviving that either. So much 'meh'.

48 hrs later, no sign of contracting anything, so win!

 

[Maz]

Went on a mission yesterday. Bonafide 1 mile paddle, to give you a sense of scale.

 

[Mr Doof]

Visited the in laws on the east coast, overlooking the most fickle rivermouth ever. The area has some world class rivermouths, and some are reasonably consistent. Not this one; I've frothed going there after a big rain, but the bar disappeared in a few hours.

Waiapu River?

 

[Maz]

Waiapu River?

Esk River.

 

[Mr J]

2 days of flatness in the gulf of Thailand and a move a few kms up the beach into another hotel and we are back on again with 5 second interval swell which could be seen to hit the beach at an angle from the north east. Waist high again

Mr Zogs tropical wax is perfect and no sea lice rash yet although I only left the water a couple of hours ago so too early to know whether I will be needing the peppermint oil.

Had a private tour in a long tail boat with my wife on a flat day. All wooden construction, butted longitudinal planking, no chines or clinkers. Isuzu 3L diesel truck engine with a long propeller shaft driven straight from the crank without gearing. The whole engine can swivel from side to side to steer and up and down to raise the propeller up out of the water. It looked efficient to me, observing other long tails there was minimal suction in the stern as indicated by the absence of a rooster tail. Having the propeller submerged well aft of stern seems effective. Some rooster tail from the propeller which suggests it was moving a fair bill of water. A very modest whisker spray up front.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

windswell on the sparkplug this morning with the modified EN's. Not very good but a couple.

 

[vanrysss]

Took my RCP out for some dawn patrol action. Chill little session, occasional shoulder high sets as this nw swell we had dies off. Only me and one other dude out, as I'm looking for one to take in spot a fin pop out of oncoming set and then big ol' tail. Made the hand signal and yelled 'shark' at dude as I scrambled toward shore. If I had to guess maybe 10ft long? Dunno if I overreacted but I'm hardwired to think a shark is an 18ft long seal-munching white from living in Oregon.

 

[Aruka]

Havent been exactly scoring but been getting some fun beach break morning sessions on the Hydra. Came back to a spot that I havent surfed since I was like 13. I got so many urchins in my feet back then that I still have ptsd. This morning was my first immersion therapy session. Dropping tide. Im delighted to report that the urchin population has not declined in the 25 years since I was last here. Managed to make it in and out without incident though and even caught some fun waves. Lefts. Water was super warm and clear and there were baitfish jumping all over. Almost got taken out by a flying mullet!

 

[Mr J]

Fully stockerizing monsoon conditions this morning. Shoulder height and clean. The peaks were folding over very quickly, not easy to surf, but packing a fair bit of punch. Needed to bail backwards behind the wave on a couple and watch my board go over the falls.

One other person in on a mid sized slater design. We waved to each other, he looked Thai. Later the sky went from overcast to a dark smoky grey, with the water taking on an almost black appearance. The other surfer paddled in. Then the wind went nuclear onshore. the monsoon rain started to bucket down and seemed to allow the waves to hold their shape without turning into slop. One more wave then in I said to myself. A defined peak with wind and rain disturbed surface reared up. I made the steep drop and on the end section remembered what my surf instructor had been drilling into me - “tiger-superman” off the top combo. Oh yes! Super stocked

 

[Senor Sopa]

Hard to get stocked. December has not been great...
We all know about the port backups, usually you can see one or two ships on this cam, they are all over the place.

 

[ChaseTMP]

It was pretty fun in the South Bay this afternoon. Really inconsistent on the ones approaching chest high, but those were hollow and spitting on a few. I surfed from about 2:30 - 4:45 and got three clean in-and-out’s. Tough to make-out the good ones with my sh*tty eyesight in addition to the flat light and moderate rain, but glad I paddled out.

 

[oeste858]

Fully stockerizing monsoon conditions this morning. Shoulder height and clean. The peaks were folding over very quickly, not easy to surf, but packing a fair bit of punch. Needed to bail backwards behind the wave on a couple and watch my board go over the falls.

One other person in on a mid sized slater design. We waved to each other, he looked Thai. Later the sky went from overcast to a dark smoky grey, with the water taking on an almost black appearance. The other surfer paddled in. Then the wind went nuclear onshore. the monsoon rain started to bucket down and seemed to allow the waves to hold their shape without turning into slop. One more wave then in I said to myself. A defined peak with wind and rain disturbed surface reared up. I made the steep drop and on the end section remembered what my surf instructor had been drilling into me - “tiger-superman” off the top combo. Oh yes! Super stocked

you should really change your handle to "TigerSuperman" now

 

[MathDebater]

you should really change your handle to "TigerSuperman" now

Or... "THE Waitress"

 

[Tarab_ish]

Drove from the Bay to Ventura county the day before Christmas Eve, drove back up today. Looked terrible on my drive down, but I had a groveler with me and a longboard down there. I wasn't really looking too hard, but it seemed like there was zero anything while I was down there. Gorged myself and drank beers and hung out with my siblings and their kids, had a very lovely time.

Drove back up today with some windswell and E wind everywhere. Stopped at the break that has "F Perry Gershkow!!!" waxed in front of it. Was clean but was kinda uninspiring looking. Drove home and surfed the beachbreak near me. Felt fat as hell, like suddenly I was teetering on my belly as I paddled. Had a shocker of a surf where I convinced myself I couldn't even stand up anymore. It wasn't until the wind had shifted and it blew out that I did a couple ok pumps down the line on awful waves -- at least I was moving again. Hopefully I just needed to get that surf out of the way, there'll be more.

 

[Mr J]

Bigger today. Same surfer who I waved to yesterday was going through an elaborate stretching routine as I arrived on the beach for the dawn session. He looked fit and it became apparent that his Slater design was not mid-length, it just looked it because he was the same size as me. He told me that he was Japanese living in Thailand before we paddled out. I saw him have one good ride to the beach, I am not sure if he had any yesterday. These short interval waves form some nice looking peaks, but they break fast and are not easy.

Due to the jump in the monsoon energy I put the AM thruster fin in yesterday. All I can say is that it had just as much speed and drive as the quads, the waves offering a good kick and rides to the beach, obut doing funky things so hard to assess subtleties in performance.

This arvo substantial overhead chunks coming in, could easily have just justified using my HP shorty if I had it with me. The 5’ 4” New Flyer was still an excellent choice for quick reactions and throwing in some Huntington Hops.

on my second wave after reaching the hop section I could see a smartly dressed man and my wife waving me in . The man was waving frantically. Shark?! My wife was looking much more relaxed and just using her normal “over here” arm extended fingers pointing down gesture, so I relaxed. Someone has just died in the strong currents it was explained to me and I could see some sort of gathering down the beach and the New Year’s eve music had stopped. I said there were some currents but it really was no problem, but didn’t argue about going back in. We chatted and apparently it was a “big Farang” who died. Big as in overweight. The term Farang is not derogatory, just means someone of European appearance. Then some bathers returned to the water and apparently the police had opened the beach again so I went back in for a couple more waves

 

[Aruka]

Fun sized left runners on the Plasmic. Ran the JS fins which felt noticeably more pivotal. Felt a little twitchy at first but once I adjusted to the quicker response I was digging it. Fairly crowded but pretty scattered and low skill. I restrained myself and didnt take all the waves I could have which seemed to work out okay as I found myself the only one in position for quite a few good ones. Once a light breeze started up everyone went in and we had a nice 4 person rotation going for another hour or so. Super clear water over shallow cobble reef. It wasnt quite firing but it was super fun and I think I finally got a little taste of what this spot can do. Supposed to rain tomorrow and then hopefully there will be a few waves this weekend before we head back North.

 

[j_mac]

Waves were mixed lately.

Wednesday - inconsistent, but fun, clean shoulder high waves. It was beautiful day, no winds, glassy, easy paddles, this turned into a 4 hour session. Perfect day for the 5' 4" Plasmic.
Yesterday - waves were supposed to be 2 ft higher, but there was an unexpected bump in wave height, and were 6 feet higher when heading out. It got big. Swapped fins on the Insanity to the 5.8 Asher Paceys with trailer, and the board held well for the size. I got some juicy ones....until my buddy snapped his board in half. After that, we went to another location but its was blah only few waves and called it a day.
Today - expected onshore winds, so got going early. Winds never materialized. Started with the Plasmic, but the waves had some size and pitch with overlying background windswell chop. My success was 50/50 on the Plasmic. Swapped boards to the 5' 10" Disorder, the additional length made that same waves very easy and fun.

 

[Mr J]

you should really change your handle to "TigerSuperman" now

It’s a nice thought, but I am not able to live up to such a macho name

 

[Mr J]

Or... "THE Waitress"

I like that username, I am at least a waitress in training. This was the day before yesterday. I have my left arm extended carrying the invisible tray and placing it rear of my shoulder. Palm should be facing up. as in a tray carry - this is what I have been taught. I am not sure if it is- my left arm is a bit crooked at the elbow from when I busted it as a child.

 

[Mr J]

Taking a much needed rest today. Surf has dropped a bit from yesterday and similar size to the day before. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but it is New Year’s Day and a good day for just relaxing. Did a tour of the east side of the island this morning. The driver told us that only about 10% of business were currently operating.

Just walking around the town in recent days has been like walking around a ghost town. It always has a slightly run down look, but normally this would be peak time for European tourists. Only a small amount had negotiated the Covid restrictions mine field. I needed a fully vaccinated certificate, travel insurance which covers Covid-19, a booking in a quarantine hotel and negative pre-flight PCR test to get here. If I tested positive on arrival an ambulance would take me to a hospital for quarantine because the hotels are not for infected people. I tested negative, so was let out after one day on the “test and go” scheme designed to get the tourist economy going again.