Anyone else get some today...?

[Piggity]

Now the question is, where's the free parking around there?

2 hour parking is back near the nautical bean. There's another lot back further across from Joe's crab shack, haven't parked there but I think that's one free.

[PowerWhore7]

Fuck yeah! Shoulder high love yesterday with the promise of more today, kids are mostly back in school and one more holiday weekend to get through before we get our beaches back. WOOT WOOT!!

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Sweet.

We might be getting some choppy wind waves this weekend.

[Ottime]

Small south filled in, plenty of sunshine and no wind. Just chilling at the Hook watching the 40 plus person crowd sitting and waiting within a baseball's toss of the 30 plus sitting at Shark's. Holy geez the point is crowded this morning. Must be the wave starved souls.

[PowerWhore7]

Huntington did not disappoint today, crowds & barrels were a plenty








Life has meaning again

[Ottime]

That is exactly what this swell needs. Sand bottom wide open beach. Got a few okay ones at no smiles. And plenty of better than nothings. When it was time to go, I waited my turn and finally went and on the make it section there were three just sitting there with deer in the head lights eyes and I had no choice but to turn down around them and miss the send me home with a big smile section. Oh well. Will see what the morning will bring.

[noparking]

tonight was good here up north. out in the water till dark.

[shera]

there were three just sitting there with deer in the head lights eyes.

Well I'm up to La Jolla today, where everyone looks like this, pretty much. Have a nice crew up there though (yeah!) and I'm getting some free lessons. Using a lot of gas, but whatever, the one guy says I just have to come and pay my dues. Last Saturday the swells were as much as 4' but at this point I just grind through to the outside, on a beach break no less. Still can't manage to stand up consistently on that big a wave, maybe today - I just have to sack up for the popup earlier. I know what I need to do, replay it in my mind over and over.

Anyway, beach day!

[Long duc dong]

Newport was fun on Friday evening. Surfed 48th street from 430-730, with the crowd by the jetty coming and going. I got some periods where there were only a few of us out. It was shoulder to occasionally head high, and clean. Great to finally get some surf after a lackluster month. It's looking like a Trestles/Cotton's day today, so hopefully it won't disappoint.

Water was warmer than I expected. I wore a 3/2, but probably could have gotten away with a long sleeved spring.

[shera]

Water was warmer than I expected. I wore a 3/2, but probably could have gotten away with a long sleeved spring.

Somebody told me 57 F. I guess a shortie would be the perfect thing right now. Plenty of people trunking it. Just nice out.

Waves were small today at La Jolla, 2-3, right in my wheelhouse.

[Ottime]

Gotta be warmer than that. 57 is chilly enough for a 4/3.

I wore a shorty for my 20 minute session at hook/sharks today. This big win was as we were packing up to go my son walked out into chest (his chest) deep water and climbed onto the surf board. He floated around for a bit and I pushed him into one and he belly rode all the (5 feet) to the beach.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Windchop + swell last weekend. Very irregular and messy but some nice big waves rolling in (i.e. big for a beginner like me; read: HH).

Funny to notice how I have progressed. I picked up surfing last year, at the end of the summer. At the time, I remember laying around in shoulder high surf and being pretty darn impressed (=scared). Last weekend had me more exhilirated than scared. Even caught a few nice growlers and made some turns (+ first semi floater, woohooo!). Pop ups had to be dead on or you would get grilled.

[jtran10]

went to check out the baja for the first time this past weekend. only got 1 session in due to exploring/seeing the sights/wine tasting/crazy winds sunday afternoon but it was a great one. Head high, consistent, and starting to barrel as the tide lowered through the morning. only 2 other guys sitting on the same peak as myself, with plenty of waves to just take turns. Can't wait to get back down there, such a great place. food, people, scenery. And we only waited 1.5 hours at the border Monday at 10AM.

Went out yesterday around 2 in Cbad. Pretty choppy so not too optimal but some good sets coming through. Had to battle with the labor day BBQing LBers for most of my session, but the waves that I did score were fun and pretty long.

[jtran10]

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/spo/4031551760.html

Any thoughts on this board? Looking for something for small days that's not my LB. PW said he has a 5 11 x 21.5 x 2 5/8. I'm trying to find something similar.

[Ottime]

Getting better daily. Made some poor decisions but surfed every day this past weekend. Even had fun on the short board again yesterday. Just before the wind came up. Looks like more nw could be on the way for Friday. Mid period stuff to boot. And the 5 day model looks promising as well. Fingers crossed. If this all starts showing up, I don't really care about the s/sw. In fact, I'd almost like to see those go away, or rather, fill in the gaps between nw. Anyway, looks like we have a little bit of fall happening around here right now, and I don't mind that at all. We could even get an off shore flow going in a few days. Yes, please.

[Atrain505]

Vancouver Island was quite fun this weekend. Saturday and Sunday were clean and head high at the beach breaks. Beautiful sun, no wind, hot, head high waves was a thing of beauty up north here.
Heading back out on Friday for that nice uptick in the swell.

[Ottime]

I can imagine how these past few micro nw must have been pretty fun up that ways. A bit closer to the source. I'm gonna hope we see some of that uptick by late Friday down here. A bit longer period than the last one, but maybe a bit smaller. So, same size ish, but lighting up more reefs.

Last night felt like a bonus session. Hit up sunset at no smiles. Had been there the night prior, hanging with my son on the beach. Had looked fun. Did not expect much to be left over. Nothing great, but fuck, I surfed it well. I was able to piece together some turns. Tight snaps, fins loose, slides, carves, wiggles, pumps. A whole assortment. Even finished the session with a nice little floater an rode it all the way to the beach. Felt good to have one of those days.

Lets see if I can repeat with some better waves. That would be a blast.

BTW, I switched out the Rusty Black Stix for some Stretch from a 5 fun kit. Quite a bit smaller. Not sure about all the technical differences, such as rake, cant, flex, but they are smaller. Anyway I can sure feel the difference and these are working out great as "summer" fins or small wave fins. I need the Rustys once it gets bigger, but at head high and less, these are way more fun to ride.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

BTW I just started on a ghetto build: stripped one of my windsurfboards down to the core, tore out all mastrails, footstraps and what have you, sawed it in half to glue in a stringer, plugged a bunch of holes with new EPS foam (I was hoping against all odds that it would have been a PU core) and hope to start shaping myself a board this weekend (may be delayed somewhat).

I've gone kind of overboard on the design in that I will be making a 5'7" board (coming down from my 7'10" beginner board, that is a huge step). Outline will be Mini-Simms-ish: big fat nose and tail, a bit like a longboard but without the middle part. Should be a bit of a wavecatcher (again) but nice and loose and nimble enough to cope with those super fast breaking waves, where if you're not exactly in the right spot you either don't make the wave or it hurls you over the falls (like last weekend).

Dims: 5'7", 23", 3"; about 3" of nose rocker and nearly no tail rocker (FYI: I'm 6'1" and weigh about 77kg, still consider myself a beginner)

I hope that it will do well in the beach breaks we get down here and that I will be able to surf it (and if not, at least it was a cool adventure).

[Ottime]

Good luck with that. The most important part will be the rails and the rocker. I you can create a good foil, it will surf. It is good to do a project like this. We use to strip down old delamed boards to shape into smaller boards, just to practice using our tools and practice out glossing. We made several fun boards this way. Some came out too small. Sounds like you have a lot if foam. Why so short though? A 6'4" is still a super rippable size, but so much more stable on the rail. If you have enough foam, I'd suggest a little more length. But then again, I'm old school and feel that grace is more important than tweaky twitchy airs.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Thanks for the tip. Actually a mini simm(on)s IS old school! If you google 'mini simms outline', you'll see that the shape is very short but wide and thick. A lot of video's show pretty old school-ish riding too. Not the typical new school slash n burn stuff 9not my style either... haha, like I have one)

But to answer your question: we get a lot of super short frequency (i.e. low energy) waves here. Like I said, that means they go from flat rimples that are impossible to catch to super steep (sometimes even hollow-ish) beach break dumpsters. I find that my 7'10" is often simply too long and slow for those waves. What often happens is I catch the wave as early as I can, start making the drop but then the wave becomes so steep, so quickly that my board pearls. What helps a bit is to start at a slight angle but even then the margin of error is pretty small*. My train of thought is that a small, fast board will fit into the wave better and will be able to outrun the white water. Then again, I just need to learn to surf too... ;-)

On how much foam I have: yeah, I have length enough but it's all pretty badly damaged and the best part of the core is not super long. But that's more of an excuse than a real argument. I could patch the rest up too and work with that.

The super short 'zipping down the line' mini simms just seemed like a good idea. On that note: I got an 6'4" order in at a local custom shaper so I think I'll be set any which way.

*the waves I surfed in Bretagne (France) on the Atlantic were a blast for exactly the opposite of this: I felt I had heaps and heaps of time/ space to get on a wave. Didn't have to paddle my arms off to get onto them either!

[Ottime]

Well, I'm not that old school.

I guess what I meant was that a super short rail (which a 5'7" has, even when 23" wide) will inevitably be very easy to turn, in often too easy to turn. Slash and burn is what I think of when I think of Occy. Rail style power surfing. That is not what I suggest this board will want to do. I agree, when surfed well, it often has that old(er) school style, akin to a longboard - which you suggest in your first post. But if you try to drive it hard, they tend to wobble and wiggle, unless you are very apt at applying the right pressure at the right moments.

So. Seeing you have a more typical short board coming from a pro shape, ignore my previous comments. You should be fine.

If you only has the 7'10", I would have suggested shooting for something between 6' and 6'4", wide, but not 23", only because learning on a Simmons type board could lead to bad style habits.

When I watch a small wave contest, or beach break contest, I see three types of surfers. Those you rip real waves, and suck in the mush. Those you rip small waves, often with tweaky style, but bust 3' plus airs. And those you surf both well. For instance, Kelly will carve and ride rails, before and after an air.

I kind of feel that learning on just a uber short and wide board is like learning to ski on super fat, rockered, forgiving skis. Yes, you get to have fun, but you may never learn to carve. Anyway.

In regard to your waves, I'd love to see some video. Super short period stuff is kind of weird. What you describe may be more a result of the bottom topography of your break than the period. Long period waves can do the same thing you describe, but with the bonus of them pulling you into the wave. I find that 12s seems to be the easiest period to ride. Shorter than that, you really need to get yourself into the wave. Longer than that you have to time it really well.

This may sound odd, but you may have more luck on a longer board as well. Something that allows you to pick up the swell early, before it gets steep, drop down as it is setting up, and making a solid bottom turn to project you down the line.

While in Maine this summer, I mostly surfed 2-4' @ 7-10s. On the smaller/shorter end of the scale, I was only riding a 9'4". Rog was out, I think, on his 5'10", we have already discovered he stands 4' tall and weighs like 160#.

Maybe some of the uber small board guys around here can weigh in. Knowing you have the 6'4", I'd say go for it. When we were pulling apart boards, the worse thing you would end up with is a cool coffee table.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

I really appreciate the feedback Ottime! Thanks. I get the feeling I sometimes live in a kind of vaccuum in that respect. None of my friends surf and I don't have a group or whatever to bounce ideas off of. This is an idea in that respect, albeit a well thought out one.

You could be right on the seabed morphology thing as one beach I frequent definately is more prone to this than others. To give you an indication of swell frequencies we get here: 3 -4 sec is short, 5-6 is very decent and we hardly ever get longer swell periods than 8-9 secs. Add to that that everything here is beachbreak i.e. one moment breaking left of you, the next breaking right, behind you, in front, etc. So being in the right spot can be something of a challenge. Last weekend was 5 or 6sec, I think and had some fierce over shoulder high faces;


pic is not of me (and at a better break for that matter) but of last weekend.

I have another windsurfer lying around that I might just be inclined to try and make a performance 7'something out of, as opposed to my playmobile NSP...

I dunno, I'm talking all kinds of core and acting like I know anything about surfing. I'm a total newb with a tonne of enthusiasme for the sport and am trying to feel my way around and get better at this. Having a blast fiddling around with the old windsurfer though!

[jtran10]

water felt super warm last night, and sun was shining bright. some good waist-stomach waves with a really small crowd too.

Really starting to feel comfortable on the shortboard. still working on my backhand but it's coming along

[Ottime]

^^^^there are certain ahah! moments in things like surfing and skiing. I think one for surfing is when you are like "holy shit! Short boarding is way fucking easier than long boarding." Once you get comfortable on a short board, it just fits better, turns easier and is more accurate than a longer board. That is why the tow in guys are on such short boards. 8,9, 10 foot of board is a lot to handle.

And holy shit TN, that pic was surprising. I imagine I surfed plenty of 5/6s period stuff growing up in Maine, but that is a lot of size unloading for that period. Generally speaking: Swell height * Period * .1= Breaking wave height. So that looks like a five foot face or so, so 10@5?? If my memory serves me right (from 20 years ago) when ever we were surfing the super short period they were never much more than weak chest high peaks.

Is that wave in a funnel shaped bay at all? Just curious. An clearly it is a nice steep beach.

I'd love to see video on your waves if you have them.

Also, that pesky aspect of the beach break you mention (wave here, wave there) is likely more to due with period. Or rather how close to the wave making source you are. Long period swells that have traveled a long distance tend to be more organized. Both in sense of Sets, but in also how they break. Even on a beach break, the long period will ten to focus in similar spots. Of course sand bars influence this. But even point breaks and reefs become more shifty in short period swell.

And playing with as many boards as possible is the way to really learn how t surf. After your mini Simmons, grab that other blank and make something else. I don't know if it ever gets big there, but a performance 7' likes a pretty big wave. I'd go for ether an egg shape (if you have any long rolling beach breaks) or maybe see what you feel like you are missing after you get two new boards.

The coming nw looks weaker than previously hoped. Hoping that keeps folks away from the water. Only bummer is it looks like it won't show till Saturday. Oh well. Maybe I should long board this evening.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

HI Ottime, at work now so have to keep it short:
the pic is near Scheveningen harbour, one of the two breaks in the Netherlands that has a structure running out into sea. Both of these spots are $hit fests once the waves start rolling, just clogged with Slater-wannabees, and kooks like myselfs. The former with a tonne of attitude and the latter often oblivious (ok, I'm past that stage). I wouldn't describe the beach as being steep, though I have little reference. The beaches in Bretagne were shallow, I'll give you that, were huge stretches of beach would fall dry during low tide i.e. 300yards - 2km. THe beachs here often vary in width about 100 - 300yards (difference between high and low tide).

This morning it came to me what I am trying to do here: build experience on different kinds of boards and find out what fits well for me and the circumstances here. I see you came to a similar conclusion!

As for the performance 7'-er: maybe performance wasn't a good word. Maybe I should've said: step up from the current board and then ditch the NSP.

Actually, I might just have to pick up SUP-ing too. Looks like a solid core work out and can be fun on small rimples.

As for vid: I'll see if I can find some stuff but I'm sure there's not a lot of material of 'my' break (if any). Might be some Scheveningen stuff but as noted that is a different kind of break due to the harbour.

Shaper invited me to visit his shop this w/e as he will start shaping my board! Sweet, stoked.