Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A different part of the reef...

Took a surf day off work to dodge the crowds and try to get a piece of the swell. I got a very small piece at WR at dawn. Lucky I got out at that time because I surfed warbled early south swell for about an hour before the wind picked up and made it un-surfable. I headed into town but the West Side wasn't working and the East Side was very crowded. I did nothing much for the rest of the day except watch the surf and visit a surf shop.
The next day I surfed with Jeffs back at the same spot. I started on the North corner, where I normally start, but Jeffs went south to the BB-shoulder section of the reef. I wasn't having much fun on the north end so I paddled down to see what they were doing. WOW! That is a great waves. The peaks bounce around a bit but when they came to me I was getting steep drops from behind the peek into a steep, but short shoulder. Very fun indeed. I was on my 6'6" Buttons Pipeliner, which was a good board choice. The extra float allowed me to get in a touch early and the narrow template let me stay close to the steep face. I had a really great time on the few waves I got. I pushed my luck on a few and got too angled on a take-0ff and the tail slipped around as I pulled under the lip. I did a similar thing a few waves later and decided I should let the wide ones go by.
Meanwhile, at the TRUE BB there was a crowd of rippers gathering. That take-off was just as critical but the wave after had a nice long shoulder. I stuck with my peak until the waves stopped coming and took one in.

That afternoon we tried the reef/beachy south of Scotts. It looked great so we stopped on the side of the road to watch. Several more waves of good quality filled in and we suited up and paddled out. We each got a few waves, then it all stopped. We went in and before we left saw only a few more good waves over there. Scotts and WFs was not doing anything good with the south.

The thing that made my weekend so great was I found a new part of WR that I plan on surfing again, hopefully soon, and I got a really good feeling from the Buttons board.

Right now the forecast is for a west swell and glassy conditions for the weekend. There will be 1' low tides in the evenings, so I think I'll surf OB in the morning, then again in the late afternoon/evening this coming Saturday.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September Mornings

It's September, and if feels good.
Yesterday was warm, in Berkeley! I had lunch outside and we stayed for an hour or more soaking in the sun and arguing about Afganistan.
Today I surfed OB with SR. The waves were chest high and all mixed up and warbly, but it was sunny with no wind and just so pleasant we made the most of it anyway. 5' @ 9sec from NW with little to no S in the water.
Anyway, it's September which is the start of good waves and good weather around here. I'm spending the weekend in Aptos (wedding) and I hope to get some surfing done while I'm there.