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*** Official 2023 Community Surf Journal ***
- Thread starter vanrysss
- Start date
Everyone sure was on it. Where were you at? I was between O and P (to only partially name spots).
Crowd looked daunting but I managed to find a few gaps with a semi-worthwhile peak.
Same experience as you described though. My first wave lined up a little but the rest were just drop in, wiggle my feet into the wax, try to set a rail, only to be kicking out once I stopped rolling up the windows. Regardless, beautiful conditions today, and the drops were fun at least. Was nice to not be groveling waist high slop for the first time in a while.
A lot of running barrels seen today. I have never seen so many 30-40 y/o rippers in my life on one peak. Got a couple backside with nice views that turned into underwater spin cycles. The aggression level was on High but no bad behavior, not that it matters to me since I can't compete with those kids.
Only saw 2 guys I know out of 50.
Dropped the wife and kids off at the airport early. Had a window before work... Flat.
Long hard day of work.
Checked it for a possible sunset sesh... Flat.
I’ve forgotten what it feels like to surf. Even my SD grovel quiver is getting dusty.
Long hard day of work.
Checked it for a possible sunset sesh... Flat.
I’ve forgotten what it feels like to surf. Even my SD grovel quiver is getting dusty.
Yes indeed. EVERYONE was on it in the morning, and packed between 4 blocks.A lot of running barrels seen today. I have never seen so many 30-40 y/o rippers in my life on one peak. Got a couple backside with nice views that turned into underwater spin cycles. The aggression level was on High but no bad behavior, not that it matters to me since I can't compete with those kids.
Only saw 2 guys I know out of 50.
I was near you taco, but maybe a half to a full block farther south.
Yesterday was still really fun, but getting smaller all day. You couldn't ask for a nicer day though. 80 degrees, Offshore all day, and what I'd call 2-4 foot the whole time, but Surfline was calling 3-6. It actually felt like it got better again with a little more tide. It was doing less capping out the back and closing out on the inside and it was much more defined on the inner bar. It may have been the dying swell too.
I surfed twice. We dragged the full kit onto the sand by about 10am. Tent, sand toys, wife/kid, wetsuits, snacks. At first I was bummed I only brought a shortboard. It looked perfect for a step down (I don't have one) or there were a million opportunities for a log or something in between (I have both). There were less for a shortboard, but they were there.
After pitching camp, I suited up and paddled out front, just north of my street. Lots of cats from Santa Cruz, lots of regulars from all ends of the beach, and some randoms out. Some people absolutely yard saling and some ripping. I got mostly meager ones, but lucked into one little left tee pee that I got awkwardly covered up on. I never square and sink my into my hips enough when I pull into barrels and end up crouching at the knees with my ankles close together. It ends up with my inside rail tracking up or, more often, down and out through the lip. This one was kinda forgiving though. I paddled back out and another beauty came to me, but I saw the sour faced, mid to late 40's guy on an all black board, Oneill sticker and a Water Bros sticker on the nose looking frustrated and trying to go on the shoulder. I didn't stop paddling, went, and he snowballed the whole takeoff. I nearly fell off 3 different ways and blew the whole thing trying to push past him. It kept giving sections and I was too off balance to do anything right. I went in.
I put the kiddo down for a nap, wifey went and grabbed lunch and a beer. When she came back, she told me she backed into a retaining wall in my car at the grocery store. Sick. I drank half my beer, half a salad, and paddled back out in a long arm spring (It was so hot. What are these dudes doing with hoods and boots on???).
After absolutely torching a guy and blowing it (I'm sorry, it's not you it's me. He was more gracious than he should have been when I apologized) I lucked into a rhythm that I really, really didn't want to duck out of. No tubes, but a series of lefts that weren't stellar, but were just really playful. Never in my life have I tried one of those back arm, two hander layback carves (bad example, Tyler Wright because I can't think of a good example right now), but I found myself doing one. Then just a couple lefts that let me do some fun turns and cutties. I got to spray one of the older loc dawgs from the left around the corner that operates on his own rotation out there, that was funny.
All in all, I did more turns of reasonable qulaity in 45 minutes than I've done in the last 6 months combined. Packed up the crap on the beach (It's always tougher packing out than packing in), and headed home satisfied.
Oh, and I got to take the lil guy out for a few after each session. He was yelling "agua!" and laughing between waves.
beautiful morning. crap waves on the groveler with thick ass kelp on the inside ruining the inside section. because it's 2023 it was amazing.
Yesterday surfed the mid-north end of the beach. Smaller and declining like Mr Dobbalina said, but still beaut day/conditions; racy little head dippers, couldn’t make any as they either pinched, closed out, or pinched and closed out. Found one that lined up for a couple wiggles. Rode a 5’9” EC Anthrax (“80s”-inspired shape) with a twin + trailer and finally had a personal revelation that twins simultaneously make me try to surf better (by forcing me to use the rail), but also make it way to easy to surf like sh!t (dorky little tailslides are way too easy).
This morning: mid-south end, even smaller and gutless, would’ve been choice on a log. Rode the same board, found 2 that let me take off deep enough to sneak a turn in before it burgered. Still pristine conditions though.
This morning: mid-south end, even smaller and gutless, would’ve been choice on a log. Rode the same board, found 2 that let me take off deep enough to sneak a turn in before it burgered. Still pristine conditions though.
Has been a nice run of beautiful conditions and fun-ish waves. Nothing memorable but she has been pretty. Had to dig out an old wetsuit and cutoff the hood because my leaky Buell has been too hot. The crowds have lessoned as the waves became smaller, but even today, some guys didn't lower their assertiveness. Wednesday all the middle-aged Brobrahs appeared and dominated w/ some quality surfing. Thursday not so many but a few with decent quality. Today. My people, adult learners, were back flopping around with a couple of aggressive leftovers. A lot of unmade tubes and short nice views mostly backside. Rode the 5'10 Stamps, 6'3 twinpin, Vaquero w/o problems switching between
.
Walking home the aggression on the streets, with even a fist fight between drivers, has been rather high.
.Walking home the aggression on the streets, with even a fist fight between drivers, has been rather high.
same experience at The Beach as a few of you it seems. Surfed Tues and Weds evening, and quick surf thurs morning. Amazing how fast the season changed, 7 months of sw wind stops, it's hot as hell and there's swell.
I've been doing my off-season routine of road biking up hills for the cardio. I've surfed maybe once a month since may but felt like I could paddle decently well since the cardio was there. Wasn't super good, either outside burgery peaks or inside sucky closeouts. A million rippers of all ages and surprisingly large packs of wide-eyed beginners. Amazing to be out and surfing though.
I had been ignoring the starter motor on my car starting to make a little bit of noise until this morning when it just doesn't start. Glad it happened parked at home -- that was admittedly pretty risky of me. Guess I'll have to figure out how to replace it this weekend.
I've been doing my off-season routine of road biking up hills for the cardio. I've surfed maybe once a month since may but felt like I could paddle decently well since the cardio was there. Wasn't super good, either outside burgery peaks or inside sucky closeouts. A million rippers of all ages and surprisingly large packs of wide-eyed beginners. Amazing to be out and surfing though.
I had been ignoring the starter motor on my car starting to make a little bit of noise until this morning when it just doesn't start. Glad it happened parked at home -- that was admittedly pretty risky of me. Guess I'll have to figure out how to replace it this weekend.
So this thread has turned into a bunch of dudes surfing the same 2-3 miles of beach break. 
I let everyone have what little was left all morning today. I invited a buddy from work to hang at the beach with the fam and, predictably, the day dragged away. As we dragged all our sh!t across the sand, I was navigating a near 10' board through the only puff of North wind to blow all day. It was nice to cool off, but the waves were in danger of getting blown to shreds.
Luckily, in the time that we set up and got my son out for a couple on the log, the wind backed down. I took 3 to the beach on the 9'9" Micah Beutz Speed Shape and that was enough. The first one was a beautiful wall and I mostly just stood there trimming until I managed a little cutback. My second was a dud that I rushed into. My third was sweet and got up to the nose for a moment. One of the trickier things to get back after back surgery has been the small adjustments on a longboard. Staying agile, but subtle while tryhing to crosstep and moving a bigger board has ben more difficult than doing turns on a shortboard. Strange, frustrating, but better than the alternative.
I let everyone have what little was left all morning today. I invited a buddy from work to hang at the beach with the fam and, predictably, the day dragged away. As we dragged all our sh!t across the sand, I was navigating a near 10' board through the only puff of North wind to blow all day. It was nice to cool off, but the waves were in danger of getting blown to shreds.
Luckily, in the time that we set up and got my son out for a couple on the log, the wind backed down. I took 3 to the beach on the 9'9" Micah Beutz Speed Shape and that was enough. The first one was a beautiful wall and I mostly just stood there trimming until I managed a little cutback. My second was a dud that I rushed into. My third was sweet and got up to the nose for a moment. One of the trickier things to get back after back surgery has been the small adjustments on a longboard. Staying agile, but subtle while tryhing to crosstep and moving a bigger board has ben more difficult than doing turns on a shortboard. Strange, frustrating, but better than the alternative.
it's been a pretty fun run of waves. nothing absolutely firing and perfect but still eminently bangable by my standards. 7/10 OR, so like a Cali 4.
boardwise it's been a pretty equal split between the Driver and Bomdia with one or two sessions on a midlength just to trigger my haters. wavewise it's been all over the map. mostly crossed up beachies in the head high range. a couple sessions at a reef with a ground swell running and one rarely surfed river jetty day on a flood tide with lots of swell running and too much sea life and driftwood floating around for my liking.
the highlights have mostly been on the driver at a few different waves. it makes sense because i only grab it when the waves look good but there've been a couple sessions where it ended up being smaller or softer than expected and the board still has enough spark to please me.
had one session on this left wedge that looked very promising from the check spot which is far above and sort of behind the peak. after the long walk down we paddled out and tried to surf what we thought was the peak. spent like 30 mins trying to find one that didn't run off or just mush out. my buddy got so frustrated he went in and i was starting to feel that familiar sense of defeat that arrives when my cliff top wave judgement fails to line up with the in water reality. in a final act of desperation i paddled north to a completely different zone and quickly got an exciting left runner. we had been surfing the completely wrong peak. after i got a few more my buddy came back out and we dialed in the lineup for a very fun second half of the session.
yesterday was the smallest it's been in a while and after scouring the coastline we tried surfing one of our old favorites that hasn't gotten much play in recent years. it had what appeared to be a pretty obvious looking left burbling along but when we paddled out it was not so obvious where to be. i rode the bomdia because i had forgotten to grab something more grovely and it felt like i was really bumping up against the low end limits for this board. managed to find a few pockets with enough energy for a quick snap but there was entirely too much pumping and flailing going on for my liking. called it after like 45 min and came in to chill on the beach, eat beef jerky and watch my friends struggle.
boardwise it's been a pretty equal split between the Driver and Bomdia with one or two sessions on a midlength just to trigger my haters. wavewise it's been all over the map. mostly crossed up beachies in the head high range. a couple sessions at a reef with a ground swell running and one rarely surfed river jetty day on a flood tide with lots of swell running and too much sea life and driftwood floating around for my liking.
the highlights have mostly been on the driver at a few different waves. it makes sense because i only grab it when the waves look good but there've been a couple sessions where it ended up being smaller or softer than expected and the board still has enough spark to please me.
had one session on this left wedge that looked very promising from the check spot which is far above and sort of behind the peak. after the long walk down we paddled out and tried to surf what we thought was the peak. spent like 30 mins trying to find one that didn't run off or just mush out. my buddy got so frustrated he went in and i was starting to feel that familiar sense of defeat that arrives when my cliff top wave judgement fails to line up with the in water reality. in a final act of desperation i paddled north to a completely different zone and quickly got an exciting left runner. we had been surfing the completely wrong peak. after i got a few more my buddy came back out and we dialed in the lineup for a very fun second half of the session.
yesterday was the smallest it's been in a while and after scouring the coastline we tried surfing one of our old favorites that hasn't gotten much play in recent years. it had what appeared to be a pretty obvious looking left burbling along but when we paddled out it was not so obvious where to be. i rode the bomdia because i had forgotten to grab something more grovely and it felt like i was really bumping up against the low end limits for this board. managed to find a few pockets with enough energy for a quick snap but there was entirely too much pumping and flailing going on for my liking. called it after like 45 min and came in to chill on the beach, eat beef jerky and watch my friends struggle.
Picked up right where I left off in OC MD. On fire this morning. Light crowd. Surfed with hometown hero Mr. TeamScam. I can always count on him to surf. Good to see you brother!
Paddled out for some water play, hard to call it “surfing” with how meager it was today. 5th day in a row of my streak this week due to a light week of school work. Found one knee high runner that lined up but bogged by trying too hard. Made the effort of the drive/changing worth it. Slightly onshore but still a nice day out, can’t complain.
Fall conditions in full effect. Awesome glass this morning at a reef, with very small 3' rollers. It was beautiful and epic tho!
Some nipple high SW lines pushing through the fullish tide.South wind started just as I arrived to push out the fog and create some crumble Couple front side runners and a backside lip smack. Beats not surfing
Similar conditions but a little more walled up in the other OC 70 miles to your North. Fought the crowd for a couple of hours without a whole lot to show for it.