The title references a funny bit from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" that is appropriate for this past weekend. The WWiii forecast looked promising, but the best part, the SW swell forecasted, didn't happen. There was a small NW swell, but the bigger NW wind swell didn't show up. There was a long period south swell, but it was supposed to be a bit more from the SW, which would have hit with more size. The true SW never showed up, but maybe it's just the 12-hour too early situation that WWiii has been doing lately. (I just checked and the SCA buoy has a bit of it now.) The weather was great, and far as I can tell the tides were correct.
Saturday morning had the least potential and after a cursory review of Scott's, I parked at the Landing and walked the cliff to the north. I wanted to see how far I needed to walk before I could see around the corner. It was further than I expected, but well worth the effort because it gave me a different perspective of some spots I've been watching from afar. One of the spots looked good enough for longboarding. I continued to check spots as the tide changed and it's pretty clear that small waves and low tide is unsurfable at Scotts, and it looked almost worth it after the tide came up a little. I saw some ridable lefts off the top of the reef. I didn't surf that day.
Sunday morning I looked at the buoys at 4:30am and saw nothing had changed so went back to sleep. Around 7:15 I left the family and went back to the spot I'd looked at Saturday, this time along the sand and with the V-pin underarm. I rode several waist high or smaller waves on the right. It was fun enough, but only for a short portion of the wave. Even the set-waves were only good for a short ride. I never caught one as good as the few good ones I had seen from the cliff. I've been watching the left as well and paddled over to it to see what it was like. It was better than the right but shifty and a challenge on the longboard. It reminded me of rock view, but going the other direction. I got some rides and got a feel for the way it worked. Scott's looked small, but better with a bit more water over the reef, and the left looked tempting again. That evening I coordinated with JB. I convinced him to go to this "left" spot with me, with our funboards.
Monday morning I was nervous that I had made a bad call because the North swell got smaller, and the SW never showed. The S was a tiny bit bigger (2.0 instead of 1.5 feet). We took the long walk and there were waves along the way, but nothing exciting at all. Even the left we were heading to didn't look like much, until we paddled into the channel and a set came. It wasn't amazing or anything, but it was more than a lot of other places, and it was enough. We traded waves trying to work out the shifty nature of the place. We both got some shoulder high drops and a few that lined up allowing for two full cutbacks. But also several smaller ones and several that just had a drop and then died. It seemed softer than Sunday, but maybe that's because I was on the funboard instead of the longboard and could handle it better. Things seemed best at the bottom of the 2 foot tide, and deteriorated when the tide turned and filled. Scotts started looking good at that point, but I didn't look closely.
So, I think I found another spot along there that likes a low tide and a south swell. The others being the Landing and foremile, both of which get too crowded on the weekends. I can say that I haven't found anything that stands ahead of the best of the "in-town" spots. If nobody was around I'd probably go to the Lane, or First Peak instead. I imagine foremile would have been better (but crowded) too. So with that in mind, I think I need to hide these spots. Even just two more people would make these spots not worth the effort. (At least on these marginal days.)
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