First Ding

After years of riding a variety of Hess boards, this weekend I got my first ding. Out at the beach this Sunday there was a light offshore and a building swell. I was around kirk/law and waves were overhead with some pitching, but mostly just solid peaks dancing around. I was out on the 6'8" and was glad for the extra float to fight the mass of water that was moving around. Not impossible, but a steady northward current. Mid-session I took off on one late and tried to cheat it by angling down the face instead of dropping strait to the bottom. I got hung up and when I stood up I touched the board for a moment before it dropped away and then reconnected with my body. When I lost contact with the board it pulled up the face and the inside rail met my back foot and then my back knee. Hard.
Underwater I felt the pain and thought it hurt, but I wasn't crippled. I spent no time nursing my knee and paddled back out. As soon as I was through the inside bar and into the middle area of calm water I stopped to flex my knee and feel bad for myself. The pain was bad but my knee worked and the waves were good so I got back to the lineup and continued to surf. Eventually my knee was fine and that was the end of it.
Walking back up the dunes I stopped to look at the waves and a guy asked to look at my Hess. He was talkative so I didn't have a chance to praise the board and include my usual mention of how I've never dinged one after 5+ years. I'm glad to because when he was done I noticed something. The rail I had hit with my foot and knee had split. It was about 4" long and split in two parallel lines. The glass had lifted but it looked like the wood below had rebounded back to it's original shape. I hope so because that will make the repair easier.
Not that I'll be doing the repair. I don't have epoxy resin, a work-space, or time to mess around with a repair on what is supposed to be my go-to board for this winter. I'm dropping it off with SF's #1 ding repair couple, the Martins, and hope to have it back before I need it again.
I tried to drop the board off the day I dinged it but they weren't in the shop. As I was walking to the shop gimping from my bruised foot and knee, I wondered how often they get someone gimping in with a ding on a board and a matching ding on the body.

The Zen of not surfing

Since the change of employment my overall level of stress has gone down, and with it my overall cash flow. I have all the surfboards I need and a wetsuit that's less than a year old, so I'm set with equipment. I've been reduced to a one car family for the foreseeable future. I'm sure we could get a second car if I really wanted to, but I don't really. The lack of a personal car has impacted my ability to get to the beach, but I don't seem to mind. This is part of a new relationship I seem to have with surfing.
I still enjoy surfing, but I don't find myself sitting at work wishing I was out there, even when it's good. I don't keep as good a track of the conditions as I used to. Even when I'm at the beach and it's good, I feel more relaxed about the whole situation. Out in the water I try to get waves and paddle to stay in position, but if I don't, that's okay to. Overall I feel very "okay" with however things work out.
I suspect this is due to a much less stressful work situation, but I don't know for sure. Perhaps my body is reaching the age that it doesn't strive to dunk itself in cold water and beat it's head against walls of whitewater. I've even been forgetting to check the craigs-list for surfboards of interest.
So what's next for me and surfing? I hope that I don't slowly withdraw from the beach and stop surfing because I see surfing as my main form of exercise, and exercise needs to be a part of everyone's life for their entire life. I do dream of easier surfing, or at least surfing where it's warmer, but I make no plans to achive that dream. I make less money and I'm adjusting to the less money lifestyle. That, combined with ever increasing cost of gas, results in fewer trips to the beach. And the weird thing is, I'm okay with that.

SurfMat Session

Did a mid-Sunday-morning session at the 4th mile. Although there were people on the beach, the water was empty. This was likely due to the small waves and low tide showing rocks and much kelp/eel grass. These things are no problem for the surf mat though, and I got right out there. I still can't find much speed on the mat and I'm limited to what the wave wants to do, but it's still playing in the ocean. I surfed for a good hour before another joined and I got bored with the wait between sets. A few good waves and pleasant weather, but nothing to brag about. I came in and changed out of my wetsuit on the beach. Before I was finished there were 8 people in the water. I left at just the right time, I just wish I started earlier.

Good Day

Trip out to Marginal and the conditions were crap. Thought the south wind would be good for cleaning up the short period wind swell, but the wind was still calm and the ocean bumpy. I went out anyway to get a feel for the 6'8" Hess Lola. It felt good with more paddle than the 6' Pacheco, but none of the oversized feeling of the 7'5" Lola. A bit hard to duck-dive but I adjusted to it.
I didn't stay out long, figuring the next part of the day would be better. I cleaned up and headed to the skate park. FTW? Locked gate and the sign says it opens at 9am. Okay, I drove up and watch some waves ridden at Rocks. Nothing great, but I might have had more fun there than Marginal. Killed some time and returned to the skate park.
The park was fun with a shallow, low transition 3/4 bowl that I was able to pump and gain height, which is something I havn't done in a more vertical bowl, no matter how small. About 5 more people showed up right after 9 so I had to clear out of the flat bowl as they were using it to launch. I took turns, spent some time in the Med bowl, and even tried low launches like the other guys. The best part of my day was the few succesful ollies off the lip of some low kickers. There were also a few +1' flat-to-flat drops that I toyed around with to get the feeling. The park also has a larger bowl with 4 levels, the deepest of which goes over-vert. Having no roll in spot, and with the shallowest part in the middle of the park where you need to walk some spines to access, I didn't even try that part of the park. I stayed two hours and then left, swung by Rocks again deciding it wasn't worth the cold wetsuit, then headed home.
Overall I would say this is a good combonation of things to do on a day off. It would help justify the drive and, on a warmer day, I would more likely double session the surf.
I also spotted some broken skate decks at the park. I thought about picking them up for a project but hessitated and didn't. The idea is to cut them down to small hand-planes for surfing. It would be a fun project and might make a decent hand-plane. So hipster right now.

New Board, no really.

The downloading of the Craigslist app that allowed instant, multiple times a day targeted searching has paid off. I picked up a 6'8" Hess Lola for 8 big ones. It's a bit wider than I would prefer at 21", but the wide point is forward of center. I'm hoping it will have tons of float at 3" thick with a domed deck. The board is clean without a single visible ding on it. I'm guessing it didn't get ridden much, but I'm at least the third person to own it since it says "for John" and I bought it from Dave. Year built '09. The forward wide point tapers down to a rather narrow tail that I haven't yet measured. This fills in a key spot in my quiver. It's the "OB is overhead with current, but not quite 10' on the sets." If I get the paddle advantage I want out of this board it will allow me to reach the peak better and get more waves. I imagine it will go with me every day there is "swell" at the beach with the second board being either the Pacheco if it's "not big" and the 7'5" if it is "big."
I should do a few "Hess Quiver" photos and post them here.

Went on a search for surf on Friday and ended up at mediocre quatro-mile, with a bit more crowd than expected for a weekday. I didn't do to well, letting better waves go to those who were more aggressive and instead taking mostly trash waves, but JZ did just fine keeping it smooth on the hull. This allowed him more range and earlier take-off. Plus he's more aggressive and is gonna get more waves whatever the situation is.

Skate-wise I'm pushing myself and seeing minor results. My legs are stronger so I can go for an hour before feeling the knee give out. I've done a few grinds on the low edge at Alameda. It's surprising how little grinding feels like what I thought. It's just a bit of a slow down from rolling, so really nothing much to it. Just don't take too vertical a line for your speed and overshoot it, and don't get the front truck up on the ramp deck if you didn't intend, and break off the grind line while you still have some speed, and commit to the re-entry. Okay, I guess there is more to it than "nothing."

I brought the GoPro to the park but didn't get there early enough to be the only one there. I was first, but before I got comfortable enough to break out the cam more people showed up. I'm going to have to go pretty early to get some shots. I also took a closer look at the wall where I thought I was getting fully vertical. Turns out it's not vertical even at the lip, so I'm not vertical, even if it feels that way. Took some advice to loosen my trucks and did so, a 1/4 turn, which is hardly noticeable. I should keep going until I can feel it.

New Board

It's been a terrible spring for surf. Nothing but short period (9 sec) windswell and onshore winds. There has been the occasional, short lived south swell, but they've all been small and not du I dering times when I could surf. Earlier this week there looked to be a break in the wind and a bump in the south swell on a day I had off. I drove to Ano and without much forethought suited up and paddled out. After about 45 min I paddled back in. There weren't any ridable waves, and the top half of m setsuit wasn't even wet. I looked at Wadle which had mixed up windswell with some junk. It was surfable, but grovelly. Naturals had one ridable wave in 20min of watching, Stockton something nearly ridable on a bigger board. Blah all around. Surfing once a week (or less) isn't really enough to get better at it.
I started thinking about skateboarding because there are a few parks around. When I searched the web I found there are MANY skate parks around, two within bikeing distance of home. I decided to go for it and got myself geared up with a board and helmet. The first day I took it easy at the Alameda park, learning how important it is to read the transition shape of the banks. I relearned kickturns and got the feel of things. Two weeks later and I've been to 4 different parks (could easily be more if I wanted) and I'm getting 3-4 feet up the walls, near grinding on the lowest bank, and olliing better than when I was a kid. Each session at the park doesn't last too long since my left knee gets tired and starts getting weak. What happens is the muscles stop working and I can feel tendons moving around in places they shouldn't. When that happens I take it easy and do low effort things like try to ride fakie (backwards.) I also noticed a pain at the back of my heel near the Achillies tendon. I did some web-searching and it looks like I have tendonitis, small tears in the tendon. There isn't really any treatment except let it rest, stretch your legs and back, and take it easy old man. So I'm taking a break from the skating and stretching each day. Now would be a great time for the waves to pick back up! But if not, maybe I'll go to the rock gym.

Collecting some numbers...

There are a few spots that I like to surf, but they are far away so I want to be sure the waves will be good so I don't drive far and not surf. I thought I knew how things worked, tide, swell, etc. but I've been burned a few times. I've decided to make note of the conditions when I get it good (or bad when I thought it should be good.) Get-John-chells: 11ft@14sec from 290deg. Tide range from 1.5 to 0.5. This was in March I think, and the swell was just enough to make it worthwhile, any smaller or further North and I don't think it would have come together. It was shoulder with some bigger sets. Some wait between waves but not too much. Rides from mid-cove to past the point, so short. Didn't make it down to the suck-up on any waves. The next cove up looked good the whole time as well. Ona: On Monday of this week I double dipped on either side of low tide. The swell was mixed 2-3ft@17 from north and south, tide bottoming around 0.5ft. I thought this would have been a magical combination but the waves were lackluster and soft with few wedges. The hour centered on low tide was the best, but was also clogged with rippers. I surfed before and after that and got a few weak waves. On Thursday of this week I spent 12 hours on the beach watching. 5.5ft@14sec from 300 deg, 1.something @14? from the south, tide range 1.5 to 4.0 to 1.5. Head high, a few bowls but no big wedges. Much more fun than Monday. The thing is as I watched it I saw surf-able waves all day. Certainly it was softer at high tide, but nobody was around and there were waves to ride. For the afternoon low tide more people showed up and it quickly went from a few of us to 8 people scrambling for any wave around. Seems like if there is enough swell from the NW then mid-tide sessions are worth the crowd dodge. GoPro: Got one from the wife for my b-day a few months back. Brought it out Monday using the head strap as a chest strap. This put the camera just below my collar bone, high enough to still paddle a board. Videos came out good enough to see what's happening, but I kept forgetting to turn it on when a good wave came. Didn't bring it out Thursday, but probably should have since the waves were much better.

Looking around

This Thursday I decided to see where else might have good waves when conditions are good. The wind was light from the east and the swell was about 6@17 from 285. I drove out to Park Shit (funny name for a surf spot) thinking low tide was optimum, but I had all day to watch. I arrived around 10:00 and saw waves that looked alright from the rocks. That's too far to tell size, and it doesn't show the inner most part of the wave, but I think it's the best vantage point to check it. I want to the cafe, and the sand, and felt like I couldn't see as well from those spots. The waves were sectiony, and semi-hollow. Not the perfect hollow waves I've seen a photo or two of. As I sat and watched the wind turned to more NW and I got the feeling that offshore wind was vital for it to be surfable. I never saw anyone out surfing it except a SUP who kept to the inside. From that the waves looked SH to HH on the sets, perfectly do-able if I had someone else to surf with.
With the day not over and the wind on the rise I decided to continue exploring and check Drestero. From what I gathered the walk down requires getting your feet wet, or less than 2.5 feet of tide. I walked down around low of 1.5 and the sand was wet and flat. On the way down I saw three guys with gear heading back. I couldn't tell if they surfed or not, and I didn't ask. When I got there the wind was offshore, the sun was warm, and nobody was out. Also, the waves looked terrible. As I learned at Park Shit, checking the waves from the sand sucks, but I still think nothing was going on out there. It must want a larger swell, or something more direct because it looked waist high. In fact, the parking lot looked about as good as the Drestero proper.
The tide had bottomed out and the clock was ticking. I chose to skip the last chance wave and instead race rush-hour traffic home. I took the quicker route and was glad to get home in a reasonable amount of time. All in all a beautiful day outside and at the beach, but no secrets unlocked and no surfing done.
I'm considering going back today…

New Camera

I got a GoPro as a gift. It's not the newest, it's a 960 I think it what it's called. Anyway, JZ has suggested we go for a surf with one person shooting from the water while the other surfs, then switch. I'm down for it, and I'll get by swimfins ready to go. So, with a break in the rain, expect some seriously distorted fish eye images appearing soon on this very blog.

Irony

Last year around this time I was spending too much time at work. I'd get full of anxious energy and when the surf was good I would charge. Well, I would try to charge, but because I was spending my days at a desk I wouldn't get far. Still, I had the full intention of getting myself into some big, gnarly waves, it was all I wanted when the beach cleaned up on a weekend day. This year I have been hitting the gym to get into shape to track down the big waves. I've taken an extra day off each week and surfed that morning. I've gotten into some good sized waves and for the most part handled myself. Now here's the irony; because I've been getting exercise, I really don't feel the need to charge big waves. The exercise that puts me into a position to achive the goal also makes me feel more satisfied in life and less in need of that excitement.
The good news is I can handle 8-10' OB, and anything smaller. I can go out and pick the size range I want to surf (even if it's not the biggest I can see) and go enjoy myself. Last weekend I chose 6' range breaking kinda soft. After I got a few I began working my way towards the size until I found some waves that were exciting enough without being too punishing. There was more size down the beach, and it was breaking hard enough down there that there weren't many takers. Those that were on it were getting great rides. And today is my day off and I've decided not to make the drive out to the beach, although it's perfectly surf-able. I'm gonna do some housework and pay some bills and try to take care of home life.

Would you rather...

The problem with not being rich is that I have to choose between a surf tour of Oaxaca and a new surfboard. Too bad I've convinced myself that I need a new board for the waves I dream of getting on this surf tour.
We've had an extended run of better than usual surf up at OB. Combined with my extra day off work and between surf exercise, I've been getting some pretty good waves lately. It's too the point that I'm starting to feel satisfied, which is good because there is change in the air. There is a storm forecast for next Thursday so I may not get surf. Looking at the extra long forecast, it kinda looks like after a few storms things will go back to sunny and offshore.
JZ is slipping. He was a hardcore addict of his Stoneman fish shape, having surfed through several of them in the past 5+ years. On the last one he ordered he ventured away from the proven shape and tried something a bit different, and was disappointed. Meanwhile I was going through my Pacheco purchase and trying to convince him that if he got the Stoneman fish shape done by Hess (i.e. Kunkle fish) then he would still be surfing the same board. His argument is one of short term finances, which is understandable, but my argument of long term savings still holds true as well. He's had a few sessions on boards Danny loaned me (barreled), on my Pacheco which he enjoyed, and just this weekend Danny let him borrow a 5'11" Pacheco of his own that he's ready to sell. We've got a nibble, I hope we can set the hook and get JZ to buy this board from Danny.
Yesterday JZ and I had a nice morning session. Things started more exciting and actually softened as the tide dropped. Waves got more inconsistent, but I persistently held position waiting for a particular bowl. It paid off with a smooth narrel. I was too deep so I paddled across to the peak as it came in. Nobody was around and I held back the drop and took a high line a bit behind the peak. I semi-side-slipped smoothly down the face as the lip came over, my hand dragging vertically downward as the wave grew upward. In an instant it was over with only a brief glimpse of lip over my head, but not between me and the beach. It felt great, but each time I replay it I think I could have held the line from deeper and think I should have not paddled so far across it. I'll try again!

Body (injury) Count

Since pushing my limits for better waves, I've suffered the following which are still noticable or painfull.

Hyper-extended elbow from doing bar dips at the gym. (Mostly healed)

Persistant (5+weeks) cough after a 2.5 hour session in good waves.
Pulled stomach muscles from coughing so hard. (Still bothers me.)

Upper shoulder/back strain from a long surf session in good waves. (50% healed)

Minor whiplash from Saturday session. (Getting better everyday.)

This is mostly due to the string of great surf we've been having. I've been pushing myself to get as much out of every session as I can, and I've been paying the price. Tomorrow we're due for a Big swell that will light up SC John St. area. I can go, it would be possible, but I'm so beat down I'm thinking I wont make it. I think it's time to rehabilitate myself. Maybe some light work at the gym and walking around for simple exercise, but mostly letting my upper body heal. (Not to mention the stomach flu, which seems like it will be a 12-24 hour kind, because I'm much better already.)

The learning process

On Saturday the wind was offshore and the waves were in the 8' range at mid-beach. I considered going north for less size, but ended up going out into the heaviest spot I'd seen that morning. I brought out the 7'5" thinking I could get into the waves earlier and handle the pitching lips that way. Once I got out there I found out that the waves were rolling along, not catchable, until hitting the bar and throwning over with heavy force. I had the most intense half-hour of surfing since Puerto at about the same size. The only difference is I was making waves in Puerto, OB was kicking my ass. It was too the point to make me worry about my health and I only stayed out for an hour, which was two waves made and many more getting drilled.
The next day I returned to similar condiitons but around 6' on most waves. I made the decision to go with the Quintara, the smallest board I own, and was glad I did. What I think is that the smaller board has less force pulling it up the face of the wave and so drops more easily when the waves are sucking out suddenly. I ended up making all my waves, and almost getting barreled. (JZ did better than almost, as did a few other guys out there.)
So next time it's 8' and throwing I'll go out on the small board and see what it will do for me. I am getting into better shape so I can handle the paddling better.