***Official 2022 Community Surf Journal***

[Sam_K]

Weird swell angle today got a wave breaking in a way that you don't typically see. I kept trying to ride it and I ended up doing more face plants in one session than the rest of the year combined. I think the side of my face is bruised.

Chest high wave that was soft, soft, soft and then in the space of about 6 feet, where you had to catch it, the water went from a gentle hill to insanely hollow. I never did get it quite figured out, I was misjudging where the wave was transitioning from rolling hill to double black diamond. Riding my flat rockered twin fin didn't help.

Blame it on the board right, it's not just that I suck?

 

[Oceanslide]

Had a really fun session on the 9'3" HPTC. Quite a few long rights and (mostly) lefts, just trimming
in the pocket down the beach. Beautiful morning. I'll take it!

 

[Sam_K]

Ulu was going off and I was lucky enough to have my longest hold down of the year so far. It was a strange one in that it wasn't violent. I wasn't getting thrashed, instead it's like I was stuck in an underwater current. Getting dragged along beneath the surface at a nice little clip, wondering how long it would go on.

When I finally surfaced I had time for one breath before the next one hit me on the head. If I'd been underwater for another two seconds it would have ended up being a two wave hold down. Wish it would have happened. I would've been proud to get my first one, I was feeling pretty comfortable down there.

 

[oeste858]

Weird swell angle today got a wave breaking in a way that you don't typically see. I kept trying to ride it and I ended up doing more face plants in one session than the rest of the year combined. I think the side of my face is bruised.

Chest high wave that was soft, soft, soft and then in the space of about 6 feet, where you had to catch it, the water went from a gentle hill to insanely hollow. I never did get it quite figured out, I was misjudging where the wave was transitioning from rolling hill to double black diamond. Riding my flat rockered twin fin didn't help.

Blame it on the board right, it's not just that I suck?

Nah, you can also blame the fins!

 

[Sam_K]

Nah, you can also blame the fins!

Yeah good point. If I had different fins I definitely woulda made all those waves

 

[bluengreen]

I will blame the fins! Rode my 6'8 Blackbird as a thruster today on the rising tide and kooked it up. Waves were overhead but too flat for the board. I'm having a harder and harder time making this board work. Wants a really bowly overhead wave. Paddling, I always want to scoot forward, and then when I get to my feet, I'm too far forward. Could this be the last straw for my one remaining narrow-nosed surfboard? Possibly. Went home and Contacted Danny Hess today about a twin or quad in the 6'8-7'2 range.

 

[Sam_K]

I will blame the fins! Rode my 6'8 Blackbird as a thruster today on the rising tide and kooked it up. Waves were overhead but too flat for the board. I'm having a harder and harder time making this board work. Wants a really bowly overhead wave. Paddling, I always want to scoot forward, and then when I get to my feet, I'm too far forward. Could this be the last straw for my one remaining narrow-nosed surfboard? Possibly. Went home and Contacted Danny Hess today about a twin or quad in the 6'8-7'2 range.

I gotta say, I know that the Blackbird is a crowd favorite here but it didn't work for me at all. It felt unstable and slow. Much prefer a Ghost.

 

[teeroi]

Dawned the NS regular on my 6’1M7. Haven’t ridden that boar in a few weeks and haven’t surfed NS in over a month. Waves were overhead on the sets with some wash-thrus.

Got some fun ones and didn’t fall because of pop-up issues all sesh. Had a wave break on me so I body boar rolled in and was going to pull over the top but it lined up so I stood up and got a long one. Wanted to go in cause the wash thrus were sapping my energy but waited for lined up double up. Dave called me into a medium one that stood up all the way to the channel. Got a vert smash and a wrap and hit it vert at the end. Should’ve went in after that one. But got greedy and paddled back out. Got mowed by a close out and when I went for an inside double up I finally fell. Haha.

 

[oeste858]

Yay, @teeroi sessions are back!

 

[Havoc]

Yay, @teeroi sessions are back!

yup and the stories are fun to hear.

 

[j_mac]

Friday morning - thought it was going to be bigger, I had the wrong boards in the truck. Surfed the 5' 9" Insanity, quad set-up with NVS albums. I like these fins in the Insanity. I had Futures quads in before these, and they worked okay. The NVS fins match the board better. I really like the Insanity, though I do wish it was a tad smaller. A couple-hour session - beautiful morning, crowds not too bad, and the folks in the water were easy-going, sharing waves, whooting for each other. Lots of water rats, I mean sea otters swimming around the lineup.

Saturday morning - one of those mornings where you drive to different breaks, wasting more time in the vehicle and patience wears thin cursing all cars on the road to get to the next spot only to drive again. Forced to surf a more crowded, but it wasn't too bad. Surfed the 5' 6" Twinsman - fun inside waves for about 1.5 hrs - my emotional state was back in check after getting some waves - haha.

Sunday morning - in the water @ 615am - solo for over an hour - 3.5-hour session. Waves started off softer, surfed the 5' 7" Plasmic EAST. The first wave was like a rocket - this board zooms, a bit too fast at times. It was fun to get way behind the wave and let the board zoom back to the pocket again. With the conditions, I was liking my choice of surfing the Plasmic EAST until I swapped boards to the 5' 6" Twinsman, waves picked up around this time, Twinsman is so much more maneuverable. It was a very cold morning, kept going until couldn't move my hands and my movements became very slow. I could barely open the key lock let alone hit unlock vehicle button - haha. Truck heat on high, immediate stop for hot coffee.

 

[Kento]

Yesterday morning's sesh. It was a great day. A little smaller than Friday but was on it earlier so still got it at low to medium tide. Long lulls again but there were a lot more inside inbetweeners. Slept funny the night before and had that tight strip of muscle right under my left shoulderblade all twingy. Painful to turn my head to the left, making backside surfing a little tricky. Actually, it was funny, on one right I accidentally did a layback cutback since my body absolutely refused to turn all the way left back into the wave (and the roundpin cooperated with my failure; always the arrow). Something accidental that probably ended up looking at least a little better than it felt. Well, maybe. That was actually worse than anything going left although I know subconsciously I was not really opening up my lead shoulder as well I should have, kinda limited a couple things. Case in point was one of the better lefts that I happened to be sitting deepest on, almost ate it on the bottom turn as ankles/shoulder did not cooperate, could only do more of a swoop than hack on first turn but made up for it further down the line by going into the teeth of oncoming section and stomping it clean into the flats with an easy paddle out the back. For once. You almost always pay dearly for that last turn.

Anyways, mostly head high again to a couple feet overhead. A little softer but some really fun lefts rearing out a rip that at least was not as hard to fight as day before. True start to the weekend so unsurprisingly, it got a little crowded. Probably 10-15 of us sitting in a semi-tight pack. One thing I find nice is that everyone pretty much knows everyone so it is rarely antagonistic. To the point that hardly ever hear a raised voice towards anyone else (cussing out the current and relentless sets is fair game), virtually no drop ins, hell, no one even paddles for a wave someone else is going for. Not even a rotation really - it comes to you, it's yours. But also more than enough waves to go around. Which is how surfing should be. And even as a recent new face, nice to be able to slide into that vibe. Kind of the exact opposite of, say, The Hook. My god, the one time I surfed there was a shitfest. And that was 20 years ago.

But yeah, got a few dozen waves in the 2 hours I was out. Some sets but a lot of inbetweeners that were really fun, stood up for a bit so you could give section a good whack and then kind of skate through the flat sections and not have a truly horrible paddle out most of the time. Even the sets I wore on the head were pretty playful - no problem getting under even if they broke 5-10 feet in front. I mean you get turbulently dragged a bit but still nothing like the horrible drubbing I took last winter by trying to duckdive a solid DOH set wave that broke 15 feet or so in front and sent me backwards underwater over 50 yards, violently ripping my board out of my hands and that almost never happens - the thumb pressure dings next to the rails tell that story well. Climb your leash? What good is that going to do? Your board is 5 feet BELOW you.

Tide came in strong and waves turned to junk, got a inbetweener right that went through a long decision process whether to keep breaking or not. Worked it well, connecting with the unbroken sections that had just enough push to keep me going through, kinda fun working that in for 100 yards or so before it died completely. No regret looking back as tide was killing it - but bet it was good on the tide drop later on too. Great day.

 

[Tarab_ish]

This was back on friday but:
long distance drive to visit some family for the weekend. Stopped at a place I used to live near. Haven't lived there in years but still knew and said hi to 8/12ish ppl out. But it was just little too pleasant and clean, but inconsistent, and the size/angle meant that had a really small takeoff zone. There just weren't many with my name on them -- It was about as locked-down a peak as any little reef peak anywhere. Caught a few, and the boys were plenty friendly to me, but I was feeling impatient; I remembered why I try to only stop by there when it's a little too big, or mixed up and weird. Caught a couple little sucky doubled up ones right as the tide got too low and it started getting too shallow. Enough to remember what the experience was like -- that was pleasant enough, I'll take it.

 

[Aruka]

Got a couple fun days to end the trip on. Rode the 7-2 twin on a wild, overpowered day and had a lot of luck. The crowd was a little thick but everyone was undergunned and I didnt recognize any of them so I was fairly comfortable paddling a bit further out and deeper and picking the good ones.

Last session of the trip was on the Gigglebox in some pretty cracking overhead waves. Rode it as a quad just for shts and giggles and overall it felt quite nice. Even more crowded but everyone was battling a bit too far out, leaving abundant juicy inside double ups for myself and a couple other wily characters. Surfed from 6am to 9 or so and then packed up camp and hit the road. The wind had started to go onshore but it was still hard to leave with that much swell in the water.

We passed over the grapevine and into the valley smog this evening. Tomorrow to Monterey to grab a board off of a forum member and then, if we have time, up to the proof lab shop to fondle the boards and grab some wetsuit accessories and leashes, etc.

 

[bluengreen]

So that Gibbons 7-2 handles juice?

 

[Aruka]

So that Gibbons 7-2 handles juice?

Yeah it does very well as my step up/crowd beater/lazy/surfed out board. These are big baja point waves Im talking, not OB or the type of stuff we get at home. Not that it doesnt work in the type of stuff we sometimes get at home but it wouldnt probably be my choice for heavy beachies. Its perfect for our softer reef wave spot, even when it gets pretty big and powerful. I have paddilac and blackbird for the real serious stuff but neither one of those would be as much fun in the comparatively consequenceless point waves down south.

Being back in the states has me in a bit of culture shock after over two months of camping. I stopped in monterey to pick up a board and I felt like such a dirtbag among all of the shiney, happy people. In Ukiah now for the night. I had a semi toothless man with a truck full of bald tires strike up a conversation about rock hounding with me while I was getting gas and despite still being in CA and six hours from my house it did feel like a homecoming of sorts.

 

[potato-nator]

last sesh a good 'un....3ft@10sec (blank) angle hitting the super-famous jetty just
riiiiiight....and of course airybody knew it....and they all came out to play even tho
the freekin H2O was 38degf....

 

[oeste858]

Paddling, I always want to scoot forward, and then when I get to my feet, I'm too far forward. Could this be the last straw for my one remaining narrow-nosed surfboard?

Hmm. I actually find that the wider the nose, the further forward I paddle. When I stand up, my front foot kinda naturally seeks the wide point of the boar. It feels like I am a good few inches forward on my 6'7 Townsend than my 6'8 BB when I stand up. Really have to consciously scoot back for turns on wider-nosed / fishy boars. The longer the boar, the more noticeable it is too:
5'6 tkf = no problem; 6'4 PlasmEgg = conscious adjustment.

 

[Aruka]

Hmm. I actually find that the wider the nose, the further forward I paddle. When I stand up, my front foot kinda naturally seeks the wide point of the boar. It feels like I am a good few inches forward on my 6'7 Townsend than my 6'8 BB when I stand up. Really have to consciously scoot back for turns on wider-nosed / fishy boars. The longer the boar, the more noticeable it is too:
5'6 tkf = no problem; 6'4 PlasmEgg = conscious adjustment.

Totally my experience as well. I think one of my favorite things about my 6-10 BB is that it is one of the best longer boards Ive owned in this regard. The foil and rocker and outline is all so well balanced that I find myself catching waves and popping up with my stance fairly centered and my back foot seems to find the tailpad area much easier than it does on say, my paddilac or my AG twin, etc. Ive even had shortish boards that were bad in this regard. I think its one of the reasons going longer on fishy boards can so quickly backfire for me because they are so foam forward and i find myself paddling and popping up from a position that is too far forward, a problem which is much worse in smaller waves where there is less space and time to adjust your footing.

 

[bluengreen]

Totally my experience as well. I think one of my favorite things about my 6-10 BB is that it is one of the best longer boards Ive owned in this regard. The foil and rocker and outline is all so well balanced that I find myself catching waves and popping up with my stance fairly centered and my back foot seems to find the tailpad area much easier than it does on say, my paddilac or my AG twin, etc. Ive even had shortish boards that were bad in this regard. I think its one of the reasons going longer on fishy boards can so quickly backfire for me because they are so foam forward and i find myself paddling and popping up from a position that is too far forward, a problem which is much worse in smaller waves where there is less space and time to adjust your footing.

I think it has to do with riding wider, shorter, low-entry rocker boards so often. The nose rocker on the BB sticks way up, so I move up to flatten it out. Maybe I should just paddle with it flipped up in the air. Just not used to it. If I rode HPSB all the time, I'm sure I would transition easily to the BB.