A south swell in the water and spring tides high in the morning so JB and I got to the beach closer to dawn than first light. Our first waves were at a spot I've purposely not discussed publicly. Although it's visible from the road, the somewhat transient nature of the Scott's Creek bar makes it sorta secret when it forms and starts working. By now, tons of people have driven past and word must be out for anyone interested. So that's where we paddled out around dawn.
It looked great from the road. It was actually pretty shifty and soft, making it hard to get a satisfying ride. JB did better than I did, getting two "good" rides as well as several mushy ones. I only got two mushy ones and when I saw 6 more people paddling out, I took that second mushy waves to the beach. From the beach I found another peak that was hollow and nobody on it. I paddled out to it and grabbed a few close-out barrels, one in each direction. JB had joined me and didn't have as much luck. We decided to head to the reef instead.
The walk to the reef was sketchy because all the sand between the rocks is washed out right now. The tide was mid-low and we still were in water up to our chest and getting pushed around by wave surges. There were a handful of people at the first spot, mostly going left. We kept walking. The cove/channel was also devoid of sand making it more bouldery with reef peaks sticking out of the water when waves lowered the water level. Sketchy. It actually seemed safer to walk to the tip of the reef as far as possible and then paddle out sideways washing over the shallow spots and getting pushed to the outside part of the channel. I ended up at the top of the reef and got a good one. The larger ones would break a little further out and had great shape. The medium and smaller ones would bowl up and break where reef peaks would boil the face of the wave. Sketchy!
We each got a few and JB decided to move down the reef where the waves were hitting different. I stayed at the top picking carefully and not paying the price for the few mistakes in judgement. (Well, I did chip the tip of a fin on the reef duckdiving my way back out after a wipe out.) I noticed that some that swung to wide to go left looked like going right was an option. I tentatively took a right and found a pretty good wave to fill in between the more exciting lefts. I eventually got worn out and took a right to the beach. It was also sketchy, but the reef was more predictable in shape with fewer peaks and more readable ridges. When I got to the beach the tide was pretty low and I explored the tidepools to see what was there. I found lots of the same things. No purple urchins, no owl limpets, but many turban snails. I found two nearly complete, empty pink abalone shells. I decided to leave them there.
My exploring continued as JB kept getting good waves and paddling back out. I ended up back at the other reef just as the last few people were on the beach leaving. I decided to paddle out and caught a wave before JB was on the beach waiting for me this time. I caught one more with arms of jelly and just rode it to the beach. We got back to the cars and it had been nearly 5 hours of beach time!
I left that spot and met my family down at tres mile sand. It was a beautiful day, waves were good there too, and the tide was very low. I explored some of the deeper tide pools and found some of the more rare species. I was watching novelty left and it looked fun, but I was spent.
The next morning I wasn't planning on surfing but my body felt recharged enough to go get a few. I checked the reefs and the wind was just enough to kill it. I checked the landing and it looked pretty mushy. I went back to novelty lefts with a board and the 4th Gear Flyer. I didn't make the final decision until I was suited up when I decided the surf mat was the right choice. The reasoning was that the medium sized waves were getting reef peak boils on the face, and many of the waves were hit with backwash warbling the face pretty harshly. I rode nearly 10 waves of all sorts and had a pretty good novelty session. As I was getting rides I thought that this wave was pretty good on a surf mat but might be frustrating on most other surfcraft. The surf mat allowed me to enjoy these waves. I know the surf mat would have also been tons of fun up on the reef, or on any of a number of the reefs along here.
Then Monday I took the day off work and my son and I went for a hike in the redwoods. A great weekend all around.
No comments:
Post a Comment