Cold Morning Waves

Ridiculously cold this morning. Forty five degrees on the beach making the water warmer then the air. The light offshores brought the temperature down a couple more notches each time they'd whistle through. Today I featured, "the standing ice cream headache", guess it comes with the upright nature of our surfing. I've got nothing to complain about compared to what guys on the East coast are dealing with, even my brother in Santa Cruz is reporting iced up windows and lawns. Any sane person probably would've passed today- but where's the fun in that? The surf has diminished slightly but there were still some fun ones to be had and Marla scored some of her longest waves today; getting better every time! Here's some clips from this morning remixed with some from yesterday.

MichaelF wrote in asking me what's up with all the videos lately. Answer: Shooting and editing video is vastly easier then putting an original thought to paper, er, to monitor. I think that's why there's so many video bloggers out there- it's just way less work and takes much less creative energy. At this moment, I'm working on a large stand up surfing project, it's sucking up most of my writing time and energy- so, since I'm committed to posting daily (why, I have no idea) I'm taking the easy route. And, I have to say it is a different kind of fun.

Now as far as editing and posting- Camera Grom, my fearless video partner along with FuzzNugget productions posted the Sunday "Church" piece. All other pieces are mine. It's been super fun working with CG, the kid's super reliable and technology savvy (read: smarter then me). If I were you MichaelF, I'd give him all your footage and the music you want put to it (or else you might get the clown music) toss him a donation and he'd probably pull it together for you. By the way this is a shameless plug for Camera Grom- anybody interested feel free to contact me at paddlesurfbaja@gmail.com

December Morning Bonus: Good Times

Woke up this morning to clear blue skies and fun 3 foot waves with a slight offshore breeze. Zipped down to the end of the street and here's what we got:

Also, I was stoked to paddle Kelly's new Stu Kenson stand up board (the yellow one 9'10"x 28" x 3.75"). I really didn't think the board had enough in it to float me so I was totally blown away when I hopped right up on it and caught three fun waves. Stu's got something going on with his decks, the boards way more stable then you'd expect. At 220lbs I had only slight wobbles paddling it around in relatively glassy conditions- give me two weeks on that board and I think I'd have it nailed. The board's a little ripper. I busted one of the biggest floaters of my life on it on my last wave. We're lucky to have such a cool little community of paddlers down here, lot's of boards to pass around. On it again tomorrow!

A Little Bit of This and A Little bit of That (hopefully)

Keeping my fingers crossed that we'll score some fun surf tomorrow. I was able to steal a couple of hours out of the day today and hop in at the end of the street. Turned out to be a fun two hour paddle with mushy waist high lefts funneling into a new hole punched out by our recent storms. The beach is changing with the season, the sand's moving offshore and some of the slow, shoaling sand bars are starting to work. Perfect for our type of wave riding!

I'm keeping my hopes up that tomorrow will bring clear skies, clean water and fun little waves. A big part of this is the blue railed number you see here. It's a scaled down version of the Mahi and I really want to see how it goes. It's fun (and really important) to try different configurations of the same design. You start to rachet down the variables until you're where you need to be. I'll keep you posted.


Top Photo: 10'o and hot.

Middle Photo: Sweet rocker.

Bottom: Good clean fun.

All Photos: El Tigre

New Paddlesurf Video: Courtesy of FuzzNugget Productions

Video Highlights: Brennan Hovland's drifting floater on the 10'6" C4 has got to be hot by anybody's standard. We're all in trouble now that the rippers are getting stand up boards. Also, check out Pinky almost pulling in on his 12'0. And, no I didn't snake that guy behind me (I'm on the green and yellow Stamps), it's fun surfing behind somebody. How about Kraig Surplus getting a little floater on his new 10' Stamps? That shape (same as mine but add an 1/8" all around) is a real California solution, check out how much speed it makes on waves that haven't even broken yet. Not shown, Marla's first wave- pay your dues now and reap the rewards during the sweetness of summer! Killer session today people- glad we could share some waves.

Excellent job Camera Grom- look forward to working together again. Breakfast burritos on me next time.

And: I have no idea why Kiwi got the clown music.

Caught Inside: A Swell Peaks in one Solid Set

Ever been caught inside?
A two hundred yard wide swath of double overhead, pissed off white wash rolling at you like a subterranean tsunami death surge? A pitching blue wall stalking you and holding, holding, holding... until it's locked on and singled you out for termination. Been there? Know that feeling?

Friday's swell peaked in one solid set that caught most of us with our pants down. Kelly Kraus sent me this:

"THAT set was epic. I had actually caught a wave just before the set came through and was far over inside, safe in the channel, paddling back along the shoulders of the whole batch with the best view possible.

There were so many good waves in that set I lost count. Maybe 6 or 7 beautiful rolling rights with no one anywhere near clear water. Mike G on a SU and Dave Lopez on an old windsurf board (being used as a prone gun) were the farthest out but on this set it made no difference. Both guys had no leashes and lost their boards. The rest of the prone pack were positioned well inside of them and all got mowed by healthy whitewater.

With no one for reference it was hard to gauge the size but it was probably close to double OH. I saw MGs board bouncing in doing those ten foot high leaps that SUs take. The set was so long I made it back out half way and tried to hook into a shoulder on one of the last ones but positioned a little too deep and got nailed by whitewater. Pop went the leash but the board only went about 50 feet.

The really classic thing was Serge Dedina’s son Israel after the set with big eyes and a strain in his voice saying something like “Kelly, do you see any more big ones coming?” He had that “oh man, I don’t need this” look going but as a testament to his grom courage he stayed out."

Kelly once told me, "Guys get caught inside out there and just don't come back". I know that feeling, I'm the guy. A deep winter smack down courtesy of an icy, black Aleutian monster left a mark on me, changed me. When the place is really solid, it's creepy; you're the hunted. There's no set take off spot, and, for me, the fact that socks you right in the gut is this: there's no top end. On the right swell you could scratch over the top of what you think is the worst of it and face an absolute nightmare- and you are totally trapped. It could happen. The place can hold it. And that seed of possibility roots in your mind, it haunts you until you shake it free or you give up.

Really, it's one of surfing's purest moments. You're caught inside, what are you going to do? Some of us never come back, some laugh like maniacs as the axe falls and some put their heads down and paddle back out for more. Like Israel Dedina, eleven years old, shaking it free- and charging.

Top Photo: Kelly Kraus, at the tail end of a fun right- heading for the relative safety of the rivermouth.
Bottom Photo: Synched up: Serge in the background and Israel in the fore, pre-cleanup and ripping!
All Photos: Spidey

Are you kidding me?: Good People/Good Surf

Sweet waves rolled into town. Good surf and good people out today. Mike Gillard was out on a clean Marbella 10'6" SUB. Stoked to see Mike back in the water, he rips and best of all the guy's always smiling and passing the on the stoke.

Chad Kavanaugh scored some outside bombs- using every inch of his 12'1" Laird to power all the way through into the shorebreak. Nobody turns that board like big Chad.


Here are four photos of Kelly K. on the C4 BK Pro. Kelly takes exception to Thanksgiving List #21 (Being born goofy foot) and from the side of the peak he keeps choosing, I bet you can guess why.


All Photos: Spidey

Tomorrow: I've obtained full clearance to do a little up the coast run. Swell is dying but there'll still be surf- we'll see what the super high tide does to it. Photos and report to follow!

Back to Business: Surf/Tow-in teams/S-rails?

Whew! Good thing Sunday brought such fun surf, I was getting a little too uptight with Jason Smith's puff piece in Surfing Magazine. Final word on that: In the end he's right, this sport is no fun and it's lame- better if he never gives it a shot.

The head high swell predicted by many surf forecasters came in just as predicted- on time and as big as promised. Don't know how it was up the coast but here at home, it was lined up, head high, lefts and rights. A few new faces in the water including two unknown tow teams buzzing in and out of the lineup. One team featured a tow in boogey boarder. Five minutes before the law showed up, one of the guys bolted south- not really sure if he thought he had anywhere to hide down that way but he was going for it. Mike P. with the lifeguards told us that they are restricted from any surf break by a thousand feet- since they obviously broke the law and CF numbers were taken, somebody is going to get busted (Coast Guard was alerted). I'll keep you posted as details emerge.

Top Photo: Kelly Kraus Kills it Konsistently. Going right and going fast on his new BK Edition C4 10'0"
Check out the tow team in the background.
Photo: Spidey

Middle: Kraig Surplus looking happy on his new Stamps 10'0". Last saw Kraig dropping into an overhead right doing about Mach 10. The bigger guys (220 - 270, yup I said 270) are digging these boards. Stable, fast and carvey they are really a nice choice for a shorter board.
Photo: El Tigre

Bottom Photo: Emerald City Surf Shop in Coronado (619-435-6677) just added to their inventory of stand up boards. I'll post some of the stand outs later but for now, take a look at this: The S-Rail on South Point's Bonga Perkins model. In person, it looks really nicely done, would be great to try it out. More on this and others to come.
Photo: Igor Von Smiley

Enough.

Another fun morning in the water. Unfortuntately, this swell is on its way out.

Funny, I remember reading in Surfer Magazine an editorial about the maximum number of days that a person could surf good waves consecutively. I think it was Sam George who wrote the piece and I remember he asked guys like Tom Curren what the limit was for them; each of them agreed, independently, that it was somewhere between four and six days in a row.

At the time, I remember thinking that was ridiculous. Now, I 'm not so sure. We just had a nice six day swell that provided good waves on a daily basis. Each day delivered four hours of glassy morning zippers followed by an evening tube session. If you wanted it, you could put in six hours of surfing assuming you could get your arms moving again.

I'm now at day six and, guess what? I'm cooked. I almost passed it up this morning in favor of pancakes with the family. My cup of 7-11's finest and an extended conference with the boys at the end of Date street almost took away any chance of a morning surf- maybe subconsciously I wanted it that way. Finally, a clean left, peeling from pier to sand, stoked the dying surf-ember in me and I hopped in for a quick hour and a half run down to the rivermouth.

That Surfer magazine piece still haunts me though. And the question remains- if it was absolutely firing barrels all day long, how long could I last? Don't really know, but I'd love to find out. How about you?