Session 36 - Mar 9 - Lane

Sunday Mar 9, Daylight savings time 11 - 3, 6'8 Taylor

Wetsuit Tan! That's what you get for surfing 4 hours in the bright sunshine on a beautiful and very fun surf day in glorious Santa Cruz. Seriously though this wetsuit tan thing is getting out of hand -- despite my consistent sunscreen efforts (I used Waterbabies SPF 50 for this session. It works, but Bullfrog is much better. Bullfrog or bust from now on) there's just no way to avoid getting a lot of sun when you're surfing for that long. So I've got a nice straight line about halfway up my neck, where the tan stops and the white starts, plus the same at both wrists. Like Charles Barkley's tight white shorts...Sexy!

But aside from the inevitable wetsuit tan, a 4 hour surf session also usually means one other thing: good surf! Steamer Lane is really a great place to surf, I can see why it is so crowded, and today was no exception. In fact, due to the high high tide which I hit, it was actually pretty empty. Very much surprisingly so -- but I think the surf was pretty good at a lot of spots, so likely a lot of people were getting barreled at points and beaches further north out of town. As the tide dropped and the session progressed, the crowd picked up with the standard pack of Steamer Lane rippahs, but it was still never a complete feeding frenzy -- rare. I'm glad I went there and got on it when I did.

Given the high tide, my 6'8 Taylor wasn't the ideal board choice, but I made it work. Day like that is when I really miss the 8'10 Vernor, woulda been flying on that thing, performance longboard central, can't get much better than that. But like I said I made the 6'8 work, definitely got my share of waves. Lane is fun to surf, because in a small area it offers up a pretty solid variety of waves -- of which I caught a little of each -- big drop fat bombs at middle peak, which just give you a big fun drop and then not a whole lot after that, race track rights breaking off the rocks that the pros just rip apart, airs, hacks, whatever you want to see they're doing it, and even an occasional left that will give you a good drop and a bit of a section to work with. Fun to have that kind of variety out there and get to mix it up a bit. I caught one big one I remember from far outside middle peak, that was probably a double OH drop but just kind of petered out into nothing after that...but I stuck the drop backside which I was content with. Kind of just a big fat shoulder, nothing too gnar gnar but good for me. Also caught a few of those lefts which were fun and some rights as well. Current wasn't bad at all, really easy to stay in position, all in all a pretty epic surf session at a pretty epic surfing spot.

Good, solid, long session after the day before's poor showing. Back on the surfing express, full speed ahead.