SurfBlog

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Back to the Blog

I forgot my login info for a long time and haven't posted. So here's two sessions from over a month ago that I wrote up and could never post. Whoops! Now that I got my login info back I'm ready to post regularly again.

Session: 20
Date: Wednesday, 6/1/05
Place: HMB Jetty
Time: 5 to 7PM
Waves: Small, Weak, Blah
Stokemeter: 3


I had my Rotella back in action today for the first time in a few weeks. I was excited about that – but the waves didn’t cooperate with me. I went to the Jetty after work and it was pretty small – but on occasion there was what looked like a decent wave to ride coming though. I went ahead and got out there and caught one wave right away and wiped out. Then another wipeout. Then I actually got one and a guy dropped in on me. Then I got another and for some reason I couldn’t get any speed at all. Gonna have to get used to the Rotella again…It might not be as fast as Christina’s Cino board. Anyway I caught 5 or 6 more waves and that was about it. The water was freeeeeezing cold and I wasn’t really feelin’ it so I called it good. Bruddah Nic came and met me around 6 or so, and he surfed to the south of me for a bit. I went over to where he was and caught one wave and then talked him into going north to check out Linda Mar, it was good yesterday afterall. Well, it wasn’t good today. Outta control – it might have been good had I had the energy to fight my way out through all the whitewater – but I was too cold and the last thing I wanted to do was duck dive 50 more times. So I wimped out and called it a day. Nic considered going out at the South end of Linda Mar, but decided against it and instead went back to Jetty and surfed a bit longer with Manabu Tokunaga of the StokeMaster’s group. It probably ended up getting better after I left as it usually does, too bad, I should have just stuck it out at the Jetty. All in all I just wasn’t feeling it today, and the super cold damn water certainly didn’t help. Blah, a 3 on the stokemeter.

Session: 19
Date: Tuesday, 5/31/05
Place: Linda Mar, middle of beach
Time: 6 to 8PM
Waves: Fairly Large, a little overhead
Stokemeter: 8


I watched the waves for a long time today before going out. I was trying to find a good place to paddle outside, somewhere where I wouldn't have to duck-dive 25 times to get past the breakers. I thought I had found somewhere but I was wrong - when I finally put on my sealskin and started paddling out I still had to duck-dive non-stop to get out. Several people on the beach were watching me paddle and for a moment I didn't think I was gonna make it. I even stopped for about 20 seconds at one point and considered riding some whitewater back in. But I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of such a large crowd so I kept at it - they motivated me to keep going. It ended up being worth it, since once I finally got out far enough I could sit and rest for a bit and wait for some real nice waves to roll on in. I was the furthest guy outside, sitting just north of the center of the beach. There were 4 other people out sitting just inside of me and to my right (if I'm facing the beach). Some pretty sizable waves were coming though every now and then, and I saw a couple go by and then a new set came on in and I snagged the first one. It was big but it held up and made a really nice face to carve a little bit on. Fast too. I was on Christina's board again and that is one awesome stick. Holds stable in everything and gets going really quickly. Anyway I probably caught about 8 waves on the day, and it was fun because I was paddling outside of everyone else and picking off the biggest waves of the day. It's always fun to be one of the better surfers in the lineup. It's also fun to have some good sized waves. Today rates a good solid 8 on the stokemeter scale.