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.