Fall on the CA coast

Surfers and most outdoor enthusiasts in California know how special this season is on the California coast. Winter is wild and stormy, punctuated with windows of beautiful weather. Spring is cold and windy with the remnants of winter hanging on. Summer is sometimes colder than spring with the regular onshore wind that blows most of the day. 

Fall is the best season. The cooling weather mellows out the onshore wind. The sun is still high enough to warm the days, but often a chill in the air keeps it from getting to hot. The small south swells still provide waves, but the first taste of winter northwest swells start filling in, reminding me that I need to get stronger to handle the full winter swells. The Fall swells seem to come from further away and none of the storminess comes with it. There can be warm, calm wind days with overhead waves that are surfable all day long.

This weekend was one of those times. We got out Sunday morning to find overhead sets and glassy conditions. We surfed the main reef that can be seen from the road. Even before sunrise cars were parking along the shoulder of Highway 1. We decided to grab a few waves before the crowd filled in, with a backup plan to go to the more hidden reef later. As it turned out, there never was much of a crowd with good vibes and plenty of waves to go around. JB and I got a taste of winter with some 8' sets catching us. Well mostly catching me because JB was sitting on the wide peak and was able to catch waves off the occasional bigger sets. I opted for more waves, smaller waves, and not as good waves. It was a bad choice, but I got waves and some with the feeling of turns so hard my legs felt weak. Some late drops that compressed my legs and made my bad knee feel a twinge of pain. As usual, the first good NW swell after a summer of south swells and I feel like I really need to get back in shape!

The best part of the day was that I was more prepared than normal. My wetsuit is falling apart and my mail-order replacement didn't fit. I sent it back to get a better size, but also purchased some wetsuit shorts to keep me warm while I wait for the new suit. So I've got a 5mm worn out suit, but also a 1mm shirt and 1mm shorts underneath. This combination kept me plenty warm. I also drank a V8 right before paddling out. I normally drink one after getting back to the car but I've found this year that drinking one before surfing extends my endurance and avoids me feeling hungry before feeling tired. I surfed for 2-hours but felt like I could have surfed longer.

This week I need to exercise my knee, legs, arms, heart and lungs. I have images in my head of Sunday and the bigger waves, longer paddle, and multi-wave sets. So I have the goal in mind!

Skipped

I've been falling behind on my house-work/yard-work/canoe-repair. Last weekend I thought would be a good one to skip surfing and do some of the  things on my list. I thought the forecast didn't look great; but then as I was picking up rotten fruit, or trimming away dried up vegetable leaves, or sanding canoe gunwales, I would check the buoys and regret not surfing. I still got some things done, and that feels good, but I think I missed fun waves.

Now on Friday I'm looking forward to surfing this next weekend. The forecast includes a good west swell, which is exciting. A few weekends ago a west swell was also forecast but it didn't show up on-time and I was bummed. Hopefully this one is on time.

Frustrating times we live in at the moment. My 5-year old son had the sniffles starting Tuesday. That's on the symptoms list for COVID, so we had to keep him home. But then once we kept him home, he can't return to school without the passing PCR/Lab COVID test. We didn't figure that out until day two, and the lab takes up to 72 hours to give results, so now it's day four of being at home with him. He's fine and the cold ran its course in two days, so he got a bonus two days at home and I have to spend two extra sick days. I was hoping I could charge this to the "COVID" category on my timesheet and not use up my sick-days, but the new company that bought us doesn't do that, so I have to use my sick days. With that in mind I decided to try to get some work-from-home time in. The only way that I can concentrate is to sit him down with a movie so I can work in peace. Not great parenting, but all the other days I did a better job.

Yesterday in fact we went to the park. The park has a few skate ramps and I took my surf-skate out. I had a minute of luck not falling down after trying a few ramps. And then... I mis-read the transition on one that is steep and down I went. Falling at 45 years old means risking a permanent injury, because at this age nothing seams to heal 100% anymore. I think I got out of this lucky with only a scrape on my elbow and a jammed finger. I'm pretty sure I jammed my fingers like this a few years back when I was skating more. If I remember correctly, it took a year to feel normal again. This one might heal faster because although I feel that it is swollen, I can make a good fist and grip pretty well still. I still want to skate more because its good fun exercise. I just need to be carefull.

Not good

The conditions weren't forecast to be great, but there was potential for it to be good. The weather was right, the tide was okay, but the swell didn't arrive as forecast. I considered Scot's Reef for a bit, but the pre-dawn fog made it difficult to see anything more than just the fact that waves were breaking. I decided to go for the hike and see if FRG stretch was any good.

The walk down had some waves along the sand, so my hopes started to raise. Funboards had small waves, R reef had waves but didn't look right, and G's looked the best from the beach. We paddled out and got a few. I decided with the small waves I was going for one of the deep barrels. The current was hard to read because it was still too foggy to see the cliff very well. I ended up to far on the shoulder for the first set, then too far behind for the next set. I didn't feel like waiting another 20-min for one chance at a wave, so I paddled down the reef towards JB. He had been getting a few and let me know that they were lining up more than usual. But I waited, drifted, and never really caught a good one. I was having trouble getting to my feet under control too. I went to the beach to check R reef again. It didn't look good, I still wanted more waves, and JB always takes a long time to get his last wave, so I decided to paddle back to G's. JB took a set wave and didn't notice me paddling back out through the channel. He rode his to the beach despite me shouting at him. Oh well, I decided he would wait for me this time. But then I quickly got bored and chased a small one, then paddled back across the channel to JB. We looked again at R reed and it still wasn't much good. On the walk back we took a longer look at the waves and JB even jumped in to get one. He ended up taking a big set on the head while jumping off the beach, which meant he'd have to wait another 20-min for a set wave. He ended up catching a small one that wasn't as good as what we saw, and rode it all the way in. Oh well, not every day can be the best day.

Now I'm thinking of what I need to do to stay in shape, and improve too. Winter is coming and I'm feeling stronger, but not strong enough. My weak knee in getting stronger but gives out occasionally still. My shoulders can paddle me out through the channel without taking a rest, but I know I need more once the waves get bigger. This weekend I came in because I was bored and hungry, not tired. I need to figure out what to do about that. Maybe eat a fiber bar when putting on my wetsuit.

I almost forgot...

Surfing last weekend was so blah that I almost forgot to record it. There was a decent south swell due to arrive Saturday afternoon. JB and I debated whether we would surf both Sunday and the Monday holiday. By sundown on Saturday the swell hadn't arrived, and we realized Sunday morning probably wouldn't deliver. Monday became our best option. At around 5am on Monday, when we're each gathering ourselves to drive to the beach, I got a text from JB saying he had food poisoning. As I drove up the coast I considered what that meant. I parked at G-rock and watched the waves not deal well with the too low tide. I thought how G's might be better, but I didn't want to get so far hidden all alone. I decided to wait for the tide to fill in at the rock and go there. If anything happened to me, there's always some people around on the beach and in the parking lot. Two guys showed up to check it also and they decided to go to little rock. Close enough to see each other, but two completely different waves. I agreed that little rock looked better, but I wanted to see if the main left would get better as the tide filled in.

The swell didn't really fill in as the tide was rising. There were occasional sets of a few waves and within that sometimes one of them would line-up correctly. I was only able to get a few waves after an hour because the peaks were shifty, or maybe the water was swirling and moving me around. I couldn't tell because there was just enough fog that I couldn't see my line-ups off the cliff. I ended up getting frustrated and going in before I got tired. I felt like the spot needs more swell because on this day only the biggest broke how I like.

When I decided to go in I paddled around the rock and rode a right on my belly. It wasn't half bad, so I walked out onto the rock to do it again. I found I could stand on the rock watching the sets come in. When a wave looked good I would jump off the rock and a few strokes to the peak. I rode a few that way, but because I was on my TH (instead of a longboard) all I could do was nurse the wave trying to stay with it. It wasn't quite good enough for me to hike up and get my surfmat out of the car.

So I had a bad session, but afterwards I felt I had learned something. On days like this, it's probably better at G's than at G-rock. So next time, I'll go to G's without hesitation. Once I'm there, I won't wonder if it's better at the rock!