I've had a few good sessions that I've been hesitant to post because of the semi-secret nature of these spots. The fact that I know about them and surfed there means they are not real secrets, but they are definitely below the radar of most surfers, and are guarded by skilled and aggressive local crews. I am just barley skilled and aggressive, but I wanted to talk out how I make it work.
Margins. With the number of surfers these days if the conditions are good on a weekend then where ever it is good is also going to be crowded. The better it is, the harder it is for me to get waves, especially if I go to a point/reef spot with a narrow take-off zone. So I hit the margins. What I mean by margins could be a few things. It could mean that the weather isn't all that great like the winds is side-shore or light onshore, or it's raining, or very cold, but still surfable. It could mean that the tide isn't quite right. Either it's the part of the tide that isn't yet low/high enough or the tide wont get quite low enough for that spot to really do it's thing, etc. The point is that the local crew would look at the conditions and have reason to hesitate to go surf. That's when I surf.
I have two examples of this working for me. Both spots need big swells and low tides. Both times I paddled out before the tide was right and got waves before the crowd.
One because it takes 30min to get from where you park to the wave, so if you wait to see the first good set hit then it's 45min before you catch one. We didn't wait and caught a wave out of that first set, and then a few more before the crowd got to it.
The other because at the higher tide the wave catches backwash and doesn't have much shoulder. It was cold and rainy and there was junky wind on the ocean, I surfed for an hour and a half by myself and caught all kinds of "marginal" waves. It was getting better the whole time and the crowd filled in rather quickly, but I stayed out for another 30min until there was no more room for me to get waves.
Both sessions left me feeling satisfied even though I didn't get the best waves of the day.
One thing about the margins is that some "margins" have disappeared with more and more people surfing. It used to be that surfing at dawn in Santa Cruz was a margin, but now it's one of the most crowded times of the day! I used to surf a break that was rather crappy no shoulder backwashy nothing spot, a margin that I could get with very few others out. Now it is filled whenever a wave breaks out there.
Lastly, I consider margins different than seams. Seams are the better part of a day/tide/swell when for whatever reason there are fewer people in the water. I think about hitting the seam in the way a running back does, finding an opening among the crowd to get what I want. The morning after the Super Bowl, World Series, or whatever when so many people are sleeping off a hangover missing great waves is a seam. The 45 min between the dawn patrol crew and the later morning crew is a seam. The 4th day of a great swell when the waves are still really good but most people have gotten all the waves they want is a seam. The wave that swings wide/short and hits a different part of the reef/point from where everyone is sitting is a seam. Hitting the seam often requires being at the beach waiting, watching, and jumping when the seam opens. Seams can't be planned for, you just have to take advantage of the opportunity. Margins are more predictable but less rewarding in some ways.
