Great Weekend

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.

A not gentle reminder

It's been a long time since I've surfed OBSF. Last weekend I had a narrow window to surf, and the surf looked small and junky, but with no wind. I figured it was as good a time as any to give OBSF a try. I wanted to feel the longboard again, and had it in the car with the TH. I met JB pre-dawn and we looked around. It wasn't great, and really wasn't even good, but we had agreed to make the most of it. We went out near the north end where the mess of waves was smaller and hopefully more manageable. It was a good reminder of why I stopped surfing OB.

1) It was silly how many people opted for the not-great conditions first thing in the morning.

2) We decided to walk down the beach to get away from people. The ever-present currents at OB quickly moved us back to the crowd.

3) The waves were all over with no organization that I could make sense of. No line-up, just drift and hope for the best.

4) The few waves I paddled for were close-outs. I only rode one or two and those were brief.

5) I found myself in a rip, which seems to happen at least once per session at OB. Of course I wanted to be on the far side of the rip, but experience has taught me it's often not worth the effort.

And that was it. About one hour of kooking around in the ocean with some exercise and no fun. The day was not all bad because JZ met us on the sand and we all hung around catching up with each other. And, I have a reminder fresh in my head why I drive the miles to get away from OB and get the better waves at the reefs. 

Pretty good actually!

With low expectations I dragged by body out of bed at 4:15. I really doubted that it was going to be worth the loss of sleep and gas money. I made my coffee and lunch and was on the road in the dark. JB and I agreed to meet at DLanding. The forecast was for smaller, short period waves and wind. We figured at least we would take a look and learn something about the spot. We learned that it wasn't good that morning. We drove up to Scott's and found the same, but that was expected. We decided to head back to the same old same, but made another recon stop along the way. We had an interesting experience at D.aves. When we parked it looked like at least one or two of the cars were not overnight sleepers but morning arrivals. We walked the main trail and saw one wave that hinted at what I thought was worth surfing. Then a guy came up from the beach trail and kinda startled us. Maybe he was down there going pee or something, I dunno.

We saw more potential, but hadn't seen anything worth it when three teenage girls came out of the trees through the path, all giggles and excitement. What in the world were these girls doing at the cold beach in the first light of day? The sun wasn't even over the hills yet! They milled about chatting until one of them had the courage to ask us, "Where is the swing?" Ah, the Instagram-able swing, that makes more sense. Maybe they were savvy enough to know that the morning is "golden hour" in the photography world and wanted to up their Instagram game. I gave them directions, and they left just before another young person came through the path. This guy was suited up with a board under his arm. We didn't see anything to surf, but he looked like he knew what he was doing so we stayed to watch. We soon figured out his game was the sideways-backwash-hits-the-incoming-wave-wedge. It was cool to watch him get wave after wave and sorta good rides, but not rides we were going to try to get.

So we headed to Tres and actually parked in our usual spots. DwnPtrl was there but nobody else was around. We opted to bring gear down because we weren't sure it was going to be worthwhile. We made an agreement that if there was anything, we would go surf. When we got there it was a little more than nothing, and DwnPtrl was heading in! We hiked down to our usual spot and went out. I opted for a long walk to the pinnacle reef. I climbed up and inspected the jump off. The waves were small, but non-stop and the edge of the reef has steps in it making it impossible (or just really risky) to jump off the top of the reef. The non-stop waves made it tricky to time a walk down the steps. I managed it by being patient.

I stopped at the top of the reef and it was starting to do the break/roll/threaten thing. I got a few fun waves and convinced JB to come up to the top. The inside wasn't great and was getting crowded, so he did join me. He got some good ones and we had it to ourselves for the most part. It lasted about an hour before it shut down, which is a pretty good little session. After it stopped working I tried to figure something out on the inside, but it was truly crowded. We went in satisfied. Even though it was only and hour I caught a good number of good enough waves and felt good about it.

Edit: Part of the inside crowd included a surfmatter on a Standard model 4th gear flyer. I stopped for a moment to chat, but the conversation was cut short by him catching a set wave and "whoosh!" off he went. I talked a bit more to his buddy on a longboard. He had tried a mat but wasn't convinced. I gave him a few hints of when/where to ride a mat to the most enjoyment, and hopefully sparked some interest. I was tempted to swap out the board for my mat but it's a pretty long walk and the chances were good that he'd be gone by the time I returned. Anyway, good to see variety out there.

Canoe Quiver

It started with a $400 Old Town Discovery 168 in Royalex. I had just purchased an old truck and build a rack out of 2x4s so I could go pick-up this canoe. It came with a few paddles and was a great starter canoe. It only ever went out to the Oakland Estuary, but I enjoyed the calm of moving quietly through the water with nowhere in particular to go. One great memory is of a warm summer day when I was unemployed. I paddled down to the German brewhaus on the water called Brotzeit Lokal. I had a pretzel and a beer before paddling back to my car and heading home.

But that canoe weighs upwards of 80 pounds. With a small kid always under-foot, I had a few scary close calls where I thought I might drop it onto my son. I needed something I could handle lifting onto the top of a car. (The truck became too expensive to maintain, so I am now in a Honda Element.) On Craigslist I found a Bell Morningstar in Kevlar for cheap. It was cheap because the person who was selling it never got around to making repairs to the wood. Nearly every piece had to be replaced, including the gunwales. I did the work and it came out okay! 

I sold the Old Town and this is my canoe for adventures. I've taken the Bell out to a few reservoirs, mostly with my son. (He's in the background near the tree.) He prefers to explore the shore over fishing or paddling around.

I had good feelings after buying a canoe for cheap and restoring it. I never stopped watching Craigslist and came across a Kevlar Wenonah for free! I went to pick it up and found the Kevlar in pretty rough shape.

After researching what it would take to fix it, I decided it wasn't worthwhile. I contacted the guy who gave it to me and we arranged for me to give it to someone else who had responded to the original add. Back to one canoe.

But of course I keep watching Craigslist. I came across a Dagger Venture 17 in Royalex for $60! With the research I did on the first two canoe repairs, I had an idea of what it would take to fix it, so I went and picked it up a few weekends ago.

It's only the hull with no thwarts, seats, or even gunwales. It was so floppy on top of the car I convinced my parents to let me store it at their place which was close enough to the pick-up spot that I could drive there staying on city streets. It sits while I source vinyl gunwales and figure out what other parts I need to order. I think I can repair the seats that came out of the Bell, and I'm deciding what else I should purchase or should make by hand. The goal is to repair it and then sell it for a small profit. The main goal being the experience of bringing it back to life.

Of course I still haven't stopped watching Craigslist, and I found a Mad River Explorer 16 in Kevlar for $300! Most of the gunwales are restorable, but it looks like I'll need to scarf in a few pieces at one end. I have end-cuts from the Bell gunwale replacement, so this repair might be doable without any purchases, just some work of sanding and oiling. The Kevlar is in excellent shape, and I'm considering selling the Bell and keeping the Mad River. I'll have to paddle the Mad River before I decide on anything.

In summary, I have three canoes. One that's ready (Bell), one that can be used but needs some work to seal the wood (Mad River), and one that needs all the structural parts put back together (Dagger).

And because surfing is my passion, I can't stop dreaming of accessing surf-spots by boat. Being canoes and not really suited to the ocean, I'm looking at lagoons and calm rivers. I've got some spots picked out to try, and I'm just waiting for Covid to clear so I can have a second person with me. Until then, I'm looking at boat in camp sites.
 

It would be nice

I think it would be nice to find an uncrowded spot to ride a longboard.

A good one

I did some gardening and some surfboard repair on Saturday. The repair was frustraiting because I was distracted, uncovering more problems as I went, and generally not into it. But still, progress was made. 

Sunday was the surf day and we made a good choice. Although the swell peaked on Saturday, the north coast was windy. Sunday dawn still had plenty of waves and no wind. We surfed Tres mile on the high side of the tide. Dealing with some backwash and shorter period swell, but still something to work with. I got my share of waves and so did JB. All around a good session. 

Afterwards I went and paid $60 for a Royalex hull. Someone had stripped everything off the hull, the gunwales, decks, thwarts and seats. The guy who had it never got around to buying any of the replacement parts and had given up on the project. I took it on and my plan is to go with vinyl gunwales and repairing the old seats I have. I'll make the decks myself out of wood, but I'll need to buy thwarts because I don't have any hardwood on hand. The first task is sourcing the gunwales and getting them shipped for something less than $300! 

 Edit: I had to come back to this. Later on Monday my legs were feeling tired and I banged them a little with my fists to loosen up the muscle. Instead, my thighs threatened to cramp. This reminded me of the most noteworthy part of my session, bottom-turns. I had a few kinda late drops on overhead waves. On those, my legs didn't respond like I wanted them to. They are too weak and the extension during the end of the bottom turn was delayed as my legs waited for the g-forces to lessen. I remember this feeling from many, many years ago when I had a 7'4" min-gun and I was first riding shortboards and big waves. Longboarding small waves never tested my legs and I was suddenly feeling to weak to do what needed to be done. Every once in awhile I get compressed on a drop, but yesterday it was nearly every wave. So I am once again doing more squats during breaks from the computer.

A nothing weekend.

No water related activities. I harvested spring potatoes, reset the bed, and put in new seeds. I weeded the yard and generally did family stuff. Then on Sunday I went to my mother in-laws's birthday. Socially distant, heavy food and a nap in the yard. (Can't go inside because grandma and grandpa don't want to get sick.) I guess I did something, I picked up some surfboard repair supplies. But didn't touch the repairs. I'm looking forward to next weekend and hopefull condtions are decent!