The Swell Comes In, Bigtime

After my last posting it rained (11/12 and 11/13). By the time the rain had cleared up I was sick. I stayed sick until this past weekend when I finally went surfing again. Saturday (12/10) was small and weak. I was riding a board I borrowed from a guy at work. He wanted to sell it to me and I told him I wanted to try before I buy. It was a 9-0 longboard with a ton of rocker. The surf on Saturday probably didn't do it justice, but I could tell it wasn't what I was looking for.

Sunday morning a big swell came in. Travis Chase and I met at 17th St but it was completely walled out. We ended up at Bolsa Chica and had a great day. Even up at Bolsa the sets were coming in a few feet overhead and there was a slight offshore. The waves were a bit tricky to catch because they got steep very quickly and you had to time it just right. I caught a big left, made the bottom turn then looked up to see a wall of water well over my head and closing fast. I turned hard into the wave to get some speed then turned for the shore just as the water crashed behind me. I caught a super late takeoff on another left, made the drop and just dove hard into the face of the wave. A bit later I tried the same thing going right, but the wave won that one.

At one point I saw Travis paddle for a wave. I watched him take off on it then looked out to sea and saw the monster behind it. I layed down and paddled as hard as I could to try and get out far enough to avoid getting crushed. Using all the power available in my already rubbery arms I just made it over as the lip was starting to spill over. It was big enough that when I made it over the top there was that moment of freefall going down the back. I knew from where I had last seen Travis that he was going to get crushed. Sure enough, when I caught sight of him he was off his board in the water surrounded by bubbling white foam. When I asked him about it later he told me that he saw it coming and knew he was screwed. "By the time it got to me," he said, "I was laughing. I just bailed off my board and dove for the bottom."

We also got a visit from one of the larger pods of dolphins that I have seen. There were more than 10 of them, including some young ones, and they swam directly under us. The young one and one of the large older ones were breaching a lot so there were splashes and blows on all sides. It took the group what seemed like several minutes to swim past us. It was quite exciting. It was a fun day and we left the beach weary and satisfied.

I didn't surf Monday, but was back today at 17th street. The tide was super high, but the swell was still holding but was very slow in the high tide. With only 10 minutes left before I needed to get out and go to work I still hadn't caught a wave. I was not paying a lot of attention and kept making the wrong decision about where to line up. I ended up catching two short rides before coming in. It was already after 7:00 when after paddling after a wave and not catching it, I looked back to see the set wave crashing behind me. I saw Travis catch the shoulder off to my left and I just turned to catch the whitewash. At least I didn't have to paddle in.

6 days straight (is that really a streak?)

I didn't surf very much this summer. My last posting was in June after a trip to Mexico with Travis and I have been surfing about once a week or less since then. I surfed 10/30 and 10/31, skipped 11/1 then surfed Wednesday (11/2) through Monday (11/7). Tuesday was too small to even bother and today (Wednesday) was stormy and small. I just went to work. Monday was the best day surfing I have had in a long time. Even though the surf was small, the lefts were staying open at the north end of the Cliffs, my timing was coming back and my legs were feeling better. The first few days in the water my legs felt like lead. When I did manage to catch a wave, I couldn't manage a bottom turn and was unable to move my board around in the water. Many days I don't spend more than 30 minutes in the water, but the therapeutic effects last all day. I always feel better when I surf and need to make more of an effort to get in the water every day.

Tuesday I went down to the beach with my board. I stopped at the Cliffs and at 17th street, but the surf was rediculously small. Often when it looks bad from shore it is still decent, but this was beyond flat so I went to work. Wednesday was similar but stormy to boot. Wednesday and Thursday night it rained. It looked like the rain has cleared off, so Monday I'll be back in the water. Stormsurf is predicting 2-3 on Monday, so there should be something to ride.

Mexico, Part II

Last Friday (6/10) Travis and I left for Mexico at noon. The surf forcast was dismal but we had been planning the trip for a few weeks and both still wanted to go. We didn't waste any time getting out of TJ and didn't stop until we got to to Rosarito. Neither of us had eaten lunch so when we pulled into the taco stand on the street, the guy running it was in for the sale of the day. Tres tacos y una coca I blurted out, Travis said the same. After three tacos each Travis ordered two more. I looked up at the menu and asked, ?Que es una mulita? It turns out a mulita is two corn tortillas with carne asada, beans, cilantro, onions and guacamole with cheese melted all over it. I ordered two and Travis changed his order from two tacos to one taco and one mulita. Having satisfied our hunger and expanded our knowledge of Mexican cuisine, we got back on the road. A short time later we got off the toll road and took the free road, exploring surf spots and noting which ones were near hotels. We arrived at Salsipuedes around 5:30, set up the tent, suited up and surfed until the sun set. It was a fun session with chest high set waves to entertain us. We got out and made a fire and sat around eating donuts and apples until we ran out of wood. Some yokel in a 4Runner tried to blaze up a dirt road without looking and got stuck. Without looking or thinking he gunned the engine to to back down and jammed the corner of his truck into the hillside, unable to move forward or back. It was dark by then and we watched and listed as someone tried in vain to tow him out. We speculated that alcohol and bravado were involved and had little sympathy for either.

We got up late the next morning and discovered that the swell was gone and the extreme low tide made Salsipuedes unsurfable. We finished the donuts packed up and headed north looking for somewhere that was breaking. The guy in the Toyota was still stuck when we left. We ended up at k58, or La Fonda, depending on who you ask. La Fonda has been called the HB of Baja because like HB on a big day, if you get caught inside, it is a long way out. Right from the beginning La Fonda lived up to its reputation. I struggled mightily to get outside then sat up and rested once I got there. The set waves were coming in overhead. It was hard to believe that just a bit down the coast it was completely flat. I thought I picked my wave carefully, but after a big drop, it closed and I had nowhere to go and no chance to pull out. I jumped into the whitewater and took my beating. I recoverd and started the long paddle back out. I thought I was going to fare better on my second wave. It was a bit smaller, and I got a good drop then rode the open section a ways before I saw it closing from the other side. I dove through the face of the wave and started swimming out immediately, but the pull on my board dragged me toward the beach. I finally recoverd my board and started to paddle out, only to get pounded back almost to the beach. By this time my arms were like rubber and my upper back between my shoulder blades was begging for mercy. I conceeded and went to the beach. I decided on my way up the sand that I was going to get my third wave and sat on the sand to recover. After a few minutes I picked up my board again and paddled out. I kept getting pounded, but I just put my head down and kept paddling. After what seemed like forever I stopped and looked up. The whitewater was behind me and I could finally rest. I looked around and saw that I had drifted a few hundred feet south during my ordeal and I seemed now to be in a rip current. I started to paddle again, this time north parallel to the coast. As I went, I saw a dark fin directly ahead of me. I see fins a lot and can usually identify them readily as dolphins, but this was darker and smaller and moved differently. I pulled my hands and feet onto my board and hoped I looked a lot bigger than him. I didn't see the fin again, but I paddled like hell to get back to the crowd. Just as I reached them another determined soul was crashing through the final wave on his way out. He burst through yelling and shouting like a man determined. The fin and this guy had taken my mind off the surf, so I didn't see the outside set coming until it was too late. I got knocked back inside and after I recovered I sat up, thoroughly defeated and unwilling to battle back out. I caught a crappy wave to make quota and didn't ride it very well then caught some whitewash to the sand.

We made one final stop for shrimp tacos then set cruise control for home. Another successful and adventurous trip to south of the border. On the way home, Travis proposed that this be the summer of Mex. I think it will be.

A little fatigue

I went surfing this morning on the shortboard. The swell had picked up and the set waves were coming in about head high. I did manage to get to my feet three times to make quota, but none of them were spectacular. The swell would build and build and then break quickly, partly due to the onshore wind. I did not have the quickness today to make it to my feet on the faster board. Yesterday was much better. The swell was a bit smaller and there was no wind. I made three good sections yesterday and got a confidence boost I needed to keep going on the shortboard.

Part of my sluggishness this morning was due to my active weekend. I surfed Saturday morning, if only briefly, and then went of a charity walk/5k with the family. I ended up running about half of it pushing two kids in a double stroller and wearing flip flops. Then I surfed Sunday, worked in the yard, rode a stationary bike and ran on a treadmill. I felt a little stiff in the legs when I woke up this morning and with the swell and the chop my arms felt the worst while I was in the water, but when I got out I definitely felt the fatigue in my legs. Unfortunately for me, the swell is supposed to continue throughout the week so I may not get a day off for a while.

Oh yeah, one more thing. There was no-one else near me. There were two guys about a quarter mile north and two girls tried to paddle out in about the same spot, but didn't get through the inside surf. The water was grey and choppy and I was on a short board (more sea lion looking from the bottom than a longboard). All in all it rated 7 fins on the sharky scale. I got out early and was at work by 7:30 again.

Huntington vs Baja

I went surfing this morning at 17th street. When I woke up this morning and looked at CDIP it showed 3-5 from the north. Some of the set waves were maybe 5 but the bottom seems a bit uneven and so they look like they are going to break then flatten out. I was on the short board, got my three waves and was at work by 7:30. I was happy just to get three waves on the shortboard. There was not the crowd that there was at Newport. Freddy was out there, but maintained his usual distance and just before I left two more guys showed up but were still a peak away. The water was a bit dirty and had a faint odor. Curious since there has been no rain for over a week. After only two days surfing at home, I still compare everything to the first day in Baja where we had everything almost perfect, so on a short crappy day with dirty water Baja wins.

Newport vs. Baja

From an email to Travis 5/10/05

*****************************************
Baja..............................Newport
Clear Water.......................Could not see my knees
6 people = crowd..................6 people = empty (there were a lot more than 6)
No work after surfing.............Work after surfing

I stopped at 17th this morning but decided it was not worth paddling out. As I drove to work I decided to paddle out anyway, so I went to Newport, paddled out into a crowd of prepubescent boys and was reminded how fast that wave is. I was on my short board.

After the trip, I decided that I needed a new goal for this summer. My goal is to learn to ride the 7’2” no matter what. To that end I will be shelving the longboard until I either break the shorty or get desperate for some easy surfing.

Rebecca mentioned that you guys checked out a bunch of spots along the coast. Did you see anything good? Any good spots near a hotel? I think if we go camping, we should go south of Ensenada.

I found your book. It was hidden in the middle of the floor in the office. It was completely in plain sight and I have no explanation as to how I could not see it before. It describes the road we took and mentions Punta China, but nothing about CEMEX. Apparently the road at the mouth of the river continues north and there is some sort of spot there.

Brett

Mexico, Finally

Travis has been trying to get me to go surfing in Mexico ever since we have been surfing (5+ years now). Well, this past weekend it finally happened. We drove down to Ensenada with our respective wives and kids and shared a rented house in Punta Banda, just south of Ensenada on the southern end of the bay.

Although the house was on the water, it was in the bay away from any break. So we loaded our longboards on the roof of my car and headed off in search of legendary Baja surf. We had second hand information that there was a spot at La Bufadora, at the end of the peninsula that formed the southern shore of Estero Bay. Since that was the closest spot that is where we headed. When we got there we found a tourist town with one major street lined with shops similar to TJ, but no surf. We turned back and after a short foray on a dirt road along the peninsula, we came to the conclusion that we had to go back to highway 1 and head south.

Next stop was the local Pemex, for gas because we were likely bound for the middle of nowhere and a map because we had no idea where we were actually going. Luckily for us the map we got had little surfers at all the surf spots along the coast. All gassed up and ready to go, we headed south. We drove half an hour along the windy highway until we came to the dirt road turnoff. The road was in pretty good condition and the Honda Passport made good time. We had switched to four wheel drive, not so much because we had to, but because it added to the experience and allowed faster cornering on the dirt road. We saw cows, dogs, lizards, squirrels, burros, horses, had to ford a stream that had pooled on the road about 15 feet long and a foot and a half deep. We had stopped to assess the fording possibilities and were considering a path around when some locals in there beat up old Toyota pickup drove up and just plowed through. A little sheepishly, we got back in the truck and drove through. We drove almost an hour on the dirt road to get to the coast, not seeing any turnoff that looked significant enough to be our turnoff, and finally reached the coast. There was a beach, but nothing worth surfing. We backtracked to the first "major" turnoff with a beat up old sign indicating it was the way to Punta China. Ten minutes on that road and we came to a guarded gate for CEMEX. We talked to the guard, who was cleaning a rattlesnake skin, and got him to let us in to get down to the cove we had found.

There we were, standing on the rocky beach of a deserted spot in Baja. The cove was pretty small and it was directly facing the swell, so there was a right coming from the north and a left breaking from the south. Since there were rocks to the right, we opted for the left. After watching for a few minutes for any signs of strong currents, we paddled out. The set waves were coming in head high. We were right at high tide, so they were a little soft, but we did just fine with the longboards. We surfed for about an hour, made quota and decided we should cut it short, since we were already overdue back at the house. On our way out, we tipped the guard to thank him and told him we would return the next day. The trip back seemed much shorter since we actually knew where we were going, and just to make the experience complete, we stopped for fish tacos at a little roadside stand.

The next day we decided to spend more time surfing and less time driving by going north. We were up at 5:00 and on the road. We stopped at San Miguel where there was a nice looking wave, but with the morning low tide it was right on the rocks. We saw it later on the way home and it looked fun. We continued up the coast to Salsipuedes where we payed our mandatory 50 pesos to park and hiked down the steep rocky trail to the rocky beach. Being north of Ensenada, we had to endure the crowd of six people vying for two peaks. We surfed until our arms gave out (at least mine did) then packed up and headed back to the house.

We spent the rest of our trip, relaxing, eating, sleeping and spending time with our families. The sun and the surf had taken its toll and we were happy to just kick back and get some rest.

More Lame Excuses

Between blah blah blah and blah blah blah I have surfed very few days since my last entry. Travis called this morning at 5:30 and managed to talk me into going surfing, not a terribly difficult task, but appreciated all the same. I met him and a couple of his buddies out in the water and was greeted with the classic surfer greeting, "you should have been here yesterday". The surf was fun and can best be described by the comment made to me just before I took off on what ended up being my best ride of the day. Travis' friend said, "that one's not going to break." And indeed it did not, at least not for a while. It was, however, steep enough for me to catch and ride until it finally did break/close out. This weekend it is supposed to be blah blah blah so I may not be able to blah blah blah, but I should go anyway. Oh wait, I can't, I am doing that thing that would be called babysitting if they weren't my kids. Tomorrow then and not again until Monday. No matter what.

Spring Surfing

I surfed Monday (3/7/05), Tuesday, took off Wednesday and Thursday for work, surfed Friday, Saturday Sunday and Monday. I expected my arms to be a little sore from the regular work and the tough inside section we have had lately, but my legs are the most sore part of my body. My last wave today was a nice left that didn't stay open long. I planted and made the drop, made a nice bottom turn and looked up to see a wall of water a few feet over my head. Knowing it was going to close soon, I brought my board up high on the wave and turned hard toward the beach. As I sped back down the wave, the lip came crashing down on the back of my board. I focused on staying on my feet as the whitewater exploded behind me. When it finally settled out I was still on my feet and got a free ride to the beach. There are several moments in surfing that stay with me, images I can recall months or years later. The sight of the lip of that wave curling over my head is one I will not soon forget.

Two Days in a Row

I went surfing again today. Woo Hoo. I remember when surfing two days in a row was a major accomplishment. That feeling faded this past summer, when we were doing marathon streaks, but has returned this winter as the rain has kept me out of the water most of January and February (so far). It is raining right now, so my streak has ended.

YeeeeHaaaa!!!

Back in the water again after a protracted absence, it was good to have decent surf and only Travis to share it with. I caught a couple of mushy waves before I noticed some of the outside stuff arriving. It was shifty and sporatic, but I figured it was worth a shot, so I paddled out some more and a bit north. I saw one come to the south of me, where I had just been, and another, almost at the same time, to the north, where I was not yet. I have learned not to overreact to that kind of thing at Huntington, because like I said, it was sporatic, so I sat up and waited. Finally a 6-7 ft wave was coming just north of me and was going to break outside of where I was, but I figured I could catch the shoulder as it came past me. I waited until the last possible moment, then turned and paddled as hard as I could. I felt sure I was too late, that the lip was going to crash over and take me with it. I popped quickly to my feet and stayed crouched, waiting for the fall. Instead, I felt a quick accleration as the back of my board came out of the wave behind it and I rushed down the face of the wave on a perfect line, screaming like a little kid.

Spotty Coverage

Getting back into the surf routine is proving more difficult than anticipated. One major reason is the location of my work. In January my work moved from HB (15 minutes each way) to Tustin (20 minutes to 1 hour each way, depending on traffic). Another reason is my son. If he is awake in the morning when I leave, I'll stay and play with him (he is one year old) for a while, thereby missing my window of opportunity for surfing (you have to have your priorities straight). Between the two, I missed Tuesday and Wednesday. I hit the water again today (Thurs) this time with the longboard. What a piece of cake to ride after struggling on the shortboard for the past few sessions. Surf was small, but I caught my three or four waves and had some fun. That is the biggest thing about the longboard, you will have fun and your wavecount will be high. Shorter boards may provide bigger thrills when you actually catch a big wave, but big surf is rare, especially in the summer. The longboard is simply fun.

More winter surfing

Surfed Monday and Tuesday this week (1/31/05 and 2/1/05). I went out on the shortboard both days. I actually made quota on the shortboard Monday. Not so much luck Tuesday. I got one good right, then got caught inside and as it was getting late, I went in. I forgot my towel and had to change inconspicuously in my car.

Back again

Finally Tuesday (1/18) I hit the water again. Surf was small, tide was high, it was dark. There was only one other guy out there. It was really sharky. I caught my three waves and got out. Yesterday I met up with Travis at the Cliffs. I had the shortboard because the surf report was for a big swell to hit. It was bigger than Tuesday, maybe shoulder high, head high on the big sets, but shifty and unpredictable. Riding the short board is like going back to the beginning of summer and learning to surf all over again. I almost went back to the long board today, but decided to gut it out. I did better and hopefully there will be a pivotal point where I improve rapidly and can ride the short board as well as I have learned to ride the long board.

Rain Rain Go Away

Rain, travel and the holidays have conspired to make December the least surfed month so far. I went to Dallas from 12/6 to 12/10. I didn't surf a couple days before I left. Rain kept me out of the water until 12/13. I don't remember exactly which days I surfed that week, but was out of the water for Jacob's birthday. I surfed a couple days before Christmas. Missed some good swell days, made some small ones. Rain has kept me out of the water since Christmas.