Surf mat

It’s been awhile since I’ve been on my surf mat. I still check the surfmatters.blogspot.com website almost daily, and I still look at waves through the surf mat lens. The left I’ve been riding so much would probably be good on a mat. I also want the full body workout of surfing with swim fins. So, I dug out the fins and got ready. This weekend is family camping so no surf. Luckily there was a mixup and I took Friday off work even though camping was Saturday. I used the opportunity to surf!

My plan was to go to the left, but I had low expectations because there was almost zero north waves and only a 2’@15 from 180. I thought it would be a good idea to check the big rock to get a reference data point. When I got there it looked pretty good. Both the inside right and outside left looked like fun. Soon another person came and checked the waves and as she was walking away I asked if she was going to surf, so I didn’t have to risk it all alone. She said no, but her friends were on the way and they would. We chatted a bit more and good waves kept coming about 10-min between sets. The friends showed up abs seemed friendly and full of good vibes. I get my gear and took the walk down the steep hill, figuring they would be out soon. I got a couple not great waves on the right as the others paddled out on their longboards. In just a few waves I could tell they knew what they were doing and I thought I would be happier trying my luck on the outside left. It took a minute for me to get it figured out but my first wave I made was a long speedy shoulder. I continued to get waves, sometimes two in a set, and the sets kept coming. I had fun, and was exhausted in about an hour. I was using muscles I forgot I had, and I’m glad I did because it makes me want to do it more and get stronger.

So, new spot, good vibes, surf mat, and waves exceeding expectations. A great day in small waves!

Learning from failure

I had field work on the north coast on Friday, and so woke up early to sneak in some surfing at a new spot before starting work. I arrived before dawn and hiked the mile down to the spot. There's no way to check it that I know of except to take the hike down to it. When I got there I must have seen the best set because one or two waves were almost ridable, but those were the biggest and best I would see that day.

It's a rocky spot and I wanted to take a minute to see where the problem rocks were before suiting up and paddling out alone. I waited, but only tiny waves were filling in. Too small to catch and breaking through the rocky piles. I waiting longer, not having anything else to do with my time while I waited for the designated meeting time with my co-worker. It's a nice hidden pocket beach, and probably protected from some of the wind, but hard to get to for sure. After awhile of not a single ridable wave, I decided to run up the coast and reconnoiter another hidden spot. Even if I didn't have time to surf, I could get eyes on it and find the path down, etc. I ran into trouble with my phone not getting enough signal for the maps to work. I did my best to pick the right cove (there are so many coves and headlands!) but I missed it by one and checked out the wrong cove. By the time I figured out my mistake I was out of time to continue exploring and had to head to the work-site.

When I got home I dug into the buoy and wind data from the first time I checked the spot and the conditions of my failed attempt. The two days were very similar, so I'm going to assume the one difference was the critical difference, swell angle. It wasn't even the difference between a N and S, more like the angle of the swell was 10-deg different. So, now I know one more detail about this spot.

Then Saturday JB and I returned to the usual G. It wasn't great, but it was good enough. The weather was good and it was just the two of us. After more than a year of surfing this spot almost weekly during the smaller swells, we have only ever shared it with one other person. The adjacent spot occasionally has some people, but we've surfed that a few times too with nobody, or just one or two people out. Pretty great that we found this spot, even if it's not a great wave very often.

It's been awhile since

The spots we've been frequenting don't handle the onshores we had Saturday morning. On top of that, there was a lot of choppy junk in the water and that area looked a mess. I made the call to go to tres-mile because I'd seen it look good when the north coast looked like it did Saturday. Despite not liking 3s when its small and south swell, JB was still game. When we got to the beach there were only 4 guys out with shoulder high sets and it looked like fun! By the time we paddled to the reef there were 6 surfers, and then when I counted again, 12. Still, most people choose the end of the reef and with good reason. The waves there are always make-able and have a longer ride as the wave wraps around the edge of the reef. I prefer the less crowded middle reef which has an exciting drop and section before catching up to the lower peak and closing out. I got a handful of good waves, sharing the lonely peak with JB. As the tide filled the magic hour started and JB make the connection through the lower peak all the way to the beach. I knew it was now do-able, but people were starting to congregate at the peak we were at, and filling in the between-section in an "in-the-way" way. It all got too crowded for me, and then my calf cramped. It's an ongoing situation that when I get tired my calf will cramp and at best I can get a few more waves before it cramps so bad I can't get it to relax. Anyway, I took waves in and checked some novelties down at the sandy cove. There's potential there, but I didn't have the patience to wait for one. Someday I'll stumble across it when it's better and ride another novelty for the first time. Overall a good day when familiarity with the area paid off.

New Spot!

I motivated and got myself up at 2:30am for the drive north on Saturday. It was a long drive, but I was rewarded with a longboard wave with only one other person out. There was a light onshore wind blowing, but it was better than it looked from the beach. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to longboard without a crowd. Even so, I could tell where I surfed was no secret. It's also easy enough to get to that I imagine most people check it as routine.

After surfing I hiked to the next point south checking to see if it was surfable. Not at that time. Then I drove up and hiked to another point to see if it was surfable. Not at that time, and looked like it had less potential. After all that I went up to the well known spot and watched the fishermen and the left. The left looked really shifty and difficult. It looks like there are good rides to be had, but it would take some study to know where to sit and which ones to catch. The outside left looks challenging, and was too far away to really tell what was going on. The fact that nobody was surfing it was also a little worrisome. I didn't explore any further north.

On the drive back home I made a stop at one well-known beach. It looked like a sand-bottom beachbreak, so could be surfed. There appears to be some cover from the NW wind on the sandy beach, making it a good spot to bring the family. Then, much further south, I noticed some surfboards and wetsuits parked on a small pull-out near the "secret" spot I found last time I was in this area. In my opinion, this spot remains a secret because there is no easy way to check it. The only way I can figure is to take the 1-mile hike. Although this pull-out might make it a 1/2 mile hike. Still, I won't divulge any more about it because I like secrets.

Sunday morning I got up early again to go back to the same old spots with JB. When we arrived the conditions were perfect and we had high hopes. When we made the walk and got close enough to see the left, we were unimpressed. However, the old-man's spot looked better. So we went there. The right wasn't good and many of the lefts were also just a peak and no shoulder. However, once in awhile a bigger left would come in and roll into the sandy stretch. The sand was arranged for a nice long and fast ride. Although I never got one of them, JB got several and was smiling. It was the best he'd ever surfed at this spot. I surfed until hunger made me need to leave. JB stayed and got a few more before returning to his car. 

Nobody came to surf and I realized that some of the best surfing to be had on the coast (balancing quality, consistency, and crowds) might just be here. It really calmed my excitement about the spots to the north I had been researching. Although there's surf up there, it's not that much better than what I've been surfing lately.