Weekend surf

Great Santa Cruz surf weekend.

Saturday: firing, big out there. I went out at PP and managed to pick off some good long ones out there around 2nd peak area. It was definitely crowded though, and not just any old ordinary crowd...there were some rippahs on it. Dang these guys are good, throwing buckets of spray all over the place. It's cool to see that up close and personal, but man I really wish I could have some of those waves to throw my teaspoons of spray on. But just watching those guys is educational. I saw some really good cranking bottom turns, it's fun to watch and see these guys setting up for those as you're paddling over the shoulder of the wave, knowing you're about to get splashed as they come out of that bottom turn and tear the top off the lip of the wave behind you. So, most of the really good waves are already taken, but, there are often waves that some of the more courteous sharing rippahs will pull out of as it gets to 2nd peak area, which if you're paying attention, you can pick off. Or, sometimes a guy will crank that cutback a bit too hard and bury a rail or something, giving another pick-off opportunity for those watching closely. So that's what I did, picked up the scraps and also sat a bit further in, where I could still get some good ones that were breaking wider than 1st peak. I surfed the Kingfish, which is a good board out there. If it wasn't so crowded I'd surf my fish or something smaller out there next time...but man it really is crowded. Just catching a wave is hard enough, but it's not over there, once you're on it get ready for some bobbing and weaving to avoid any collisions. Most guys can get out of your way but I wouldn't want to be coming at 'em out of control. All that being said though I did catch a lot of waves, and I'm getting better. Trying to carry over some of my up close observations to my own surfing. Note that it would be WAY easier if just some of these classic spots were LEFTS, so I could surf them frontside which despite probably having about half the experience on I can probably surf a left twice as good as a backside right. Why can't there be good lefts in Santa Cruz? Life just isn't fair sometimes.

So I had my fun out at Pleasure Point. Stokemaster reports indicate Steamers was even bigger, middle peak pumping out some bombs. I'm sure good fun could also have been had out there around Indicators too, but then that would require driving 10 minutes across town.

Sunday: Swell dropped but still plenty of energy out there. To lose some of the crowds and hopefully get some punchier (uncrowded) waves, I packed up Selin's car (we were driving it this weekend) with my 6'2 fish and headed north. Went all the way to Wadell. But it was so foggy up there I couldn't even barely see the waves from standing on the beach, and while I was looking for uncrowded this looked practically empty, so I turned back around and headed back to civilization. Stopped in at Pearson Arrow shop and got a free Surfing magazine (last month's -- they'll often give them away, awesome). From there I headed over to Natural Bridges. Not much happening there so I drove a bit further down West Cliff and saw a couple guys out at one of those numerous little coves so I decided why not, surf was looking fun head high or so and it wasn't crowded, and I could surf a new spot. So I parked, suited up, and scrambled down the rocks. Next time I'll probably take a different route, what I did worked but it wasn't the easiest way down (watching from the water I saw other guys taking the easier route, next time I'll follow them). Session was great! These are the little spots I would never surf a few years ago -- my surfing has progressed a long ways from then. Im pretty confident about handling myself in most conditions -- ask me this again in a few months when winter really gets here -- but I feel comfortable about not getting myself in too much trouble out there in the ocean. I'm cognizant of what is going on and what is too much for me. But I still just really dont like mixing it up with those crowds of shortboarders, jockeying for position and making real tight take offs. It all comes to more confidence, I'll get it, but I think most anybody would agree with me, aggro crowds are no fun. Anyways back to the surf...I got some good, fast, fun waves at a new spot, on my little board, which I surf better every time I'm on it -- Kauai was good practice. AGAIN, rights, but what are ya gonna do. Highlight: I got barreled...sort of. Well, I definitely got barreled. I just didn't make it out. That still counts right? It was awesome. I pulled in to this real quick wave, pigdogging it, and it was like what is going on and there was all this water around me, yet I was still sliding sideways down the face of the wave towards light, mind you i'm practically crouching on my board as this is far from a stand up barrel or anything even close to that, but the sensation was there...water dumping all around me but I'm still moving out of it...until it picked me up and rolled me over completely. Awesome moment though, I was pretty pumped! Nobody saw it to confirm how sweet it really was, but, I'll always have the memory. And now it is forever immortalized here on Horace. Which is what Horace is all about! Memories.

Other things. Guys were nice to me out there. When it was most crowded there were maybe 12 guys or so out. As I do mostly given my semi-grom status (I'm old, but not old in surfing years. Not compared to these guys who were born in the water) I sat mostly furthest inside and picked off the scraps. Still get good waves, but not the crown jewels. But the crowd thinned out, and by the end of my session it was just me and I think 3 other guys or so, and they were really nice. I moved further out and they were yelling me into waves if they weren't going to catch them or if they were too deep, making chit chat with me, thanking me when I didn't drop in on a wave that was debateable if the guy was going to make a section or not (he did)...that kind of stuff. I felt so accepted! It was nice, progressing in both my surfing and my social surfer status on the surfer totem pole.

So I surfed for maybe about 2 hours. Went home and Selin and I headed to the flea market, which, sadly, will be coming to an end after Thanksgiving. A hospital or something bought the property (which is also a drive-in movie theater at night) and is going to make it a maternity ward or something I think. Not like we went to the flea market that often, but it's sort of sad, but a maternity ward is good to have too I suppose. We were hunting for TV rabbit ears so I can pick up the broadcast TV channels at home, now that my cable was disconnected. We found what we were looking for plus a new frisbee. In fact we actually found more of what we were looking for -- first found a broken pair of traditional rabbit ears, cost $1. Frisbee, cost 2$. Then we found another TV antenna which we also bought, $2. THEN we found the mother lode of antennas, but as I'd already bought 2, I couldn't buy another. And he really wasn't interested in trading my 2 for one of his, he got annoyed and said he had enough already. It was closing time after all. But oh well the little $1 rabbit ears worked pretty good once we got home, I get about 4 channels now! Caught the end of the 49ers game at home, they sure do stink. And choosing to kick that field goal at the end of the game? What the hey? Down 7 what good does a field goal do you? Not like there's anything to lose, Nolan should get some balls and go for it. He should also never punt again while he's at it, I mean it can't get much worse for you can it? At least do something entertaining!!

After 49ers debacle I took Kingfish back out for an afternoon/evening session, 2nd peak. Caught some more fun ones, crowd was down a lot from Saturday. Not so many rippahs, I can catch a lot more waves . Good stuff, paddled in as sun was going down.

Great Santa Cruz surf weekend.