who here has been surfing this week?

It's felt like groundhogs day all week. Same conditions, every single day. Clean, offshore to calm winds. The sand bar that I've been following around all week has been slowly shifting up the beach some since it's been a constant SE / ESE flow for a while now. So it's pretty much in the same spot, but maybe 20-30 yards North of where it was yesterday.

This bar has been picking up every little bit of swell out there. All week forecast was 1.8' or 1.9' @ 8 or 9 seconds, and it continues to push out these thigh high to even waist high waves. Today was more consistent than the past 7 days and it was supposed to be even smaller at 1.7' @ 7-8 seconds. I would tell you that there were a couple that were pushing in the stomach / chest high range but nobody would believe me.

One I was sitting too far inside and it broke way out, I almost got to it in time but just missed it, the other one I got. We're talking a full on bottom turn, top turn, off the lip and ride the curtain down on the LB and keep riding into the reform to the inside where it got hollow and shallow. Get low and hold on... WEEEE!

Then it just died back down and it was thigh high with an occasional waist high liner. So much fun though. I take it back, i'm not tired of riding the LB, I just needed a good wave or two to feel that power again. I was sitting there waiting for a good wave to finish the day on and there was lots of big fish hitting the bait pods around me and it started to get sketch, so I was all hands on deck for about 5-10 minutes while they fed and I just waited for a set to come through and I rode one of the best waves of the session to the beach to get out with all my fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs in tact.

 

Ankle to knee high forecast for Buxton on a summer sw is pumping much bigger peaks on set waves at the motels. Surfed 8 days in a row by myself but went back home to the jersey shore yesterday.

 

The incoming tide and a little 2 foot windswell were gold this morning. Popped over the dune at 7 a.m. saw this and had a feeling it was gonna pick up and it did. Perfect soft waves for the mini simmons.

 

ACNJ trip was fun this week. It was small, but I had the great opportunity to truly dial in my grovellier disquette. I got about 4 days worth of waves ranging between shin and waist high. This morning I got the best ride of all. It was forecasted to be ankle slappers or less but the forecast doesn't seem to be too accurate for AC. It's always a little bigger. I was out this AM around 8 mid tide but filling up, light offshore winds and really glassy. The sand bar I was at on NY ave seemed to like a mid to high tide. There is also a pier on the left. Decent knee high sets were coming through. Caught probably 15 to 20 good waves in 2 hours. Anyways, this ride i caught was probably thigh high, extra glassy. A solid left was peaking up farther than the rest of the sets, so I paddled seaward. Quick turn around, one, two pump, set rail and catch. It was starting to feather in front of me so I was hustling down the line, with some fast speed pumps probably 3 or 4. I was surprised to see this thing still reeling. Hit a few more bottom and top turns before entering into shin high water depths. I took the rest all the way to the sand, trimming ever so slowly. What a ride. Turned around to see it was a 50-75 yardage. Mom just walked onto the beach so she got a nice upfront view. I definitely enjoy AC and the grov. Definitely a stoked little Vaca. Just about to book my next trip to San D in August. Pumped for some thicker swells. Here's a few pics from this last trip. Enjoy brotato chips.

 

Today was the 6th time during my week long vacation that I got to surf

Valhalla and his wife said it was flat at dawn, which I figured what with the buoy showing 1' and it being dead low tide.

Me and buddies got in around 7:40 and it seemed like for about 60-80 minutes there was a peak spitting out some shin high waves, occasionally a little bigger and thus breaking further out and not so shallow. The incoming tide gave it a little push too.

I did have a fun longish ride that made it a good day to be in paradise. My buddy said it looked good too.

After about two hours it seemed so small, so I left. Valhalla was still out there having fun though, getting fried by the sun...

The sun was just so dang bright air was 82 at dawn and got up to about 93. Luckily a mile breeze helped out, and the ocean has cooled down to about 83 this week. At some point, I put ice cubes inside my hat and iced down the arms -- that's how hot it got.

Four manatees were out playing. One is the one that is fond of leash chewing and pulling the boards out to sea

I think it will be flat all week, so that's gotta hold me

 

That looks so fun, I'd be pretty jacked if I crested a dune and saw that.

 

More of the same this morning...offshores blowing back the lips on perfect little waves for the mini simmons. 3.5 hour sesh. I'm crisp. Water is mid 70s.

 

Took my daughter down with her 8'0 this morning, and got the unexpected.... "too big for me, dad." And it kinda was. Not big... only about waist high with an occasional belly high set, but sort of doubling up and barreling. So I gave it a go on her board and it was f'n awesome. Even pulled into a few little tubes on it. It's stringerless EPS/Epoxy and built super light for her... which means a good surfer can really flick it around. Off the tops... snaps... floaters... what a freakin' blast. And I "hate" midlengths! Ha!! Made a liar out of myself in the best possible way!

 

I saw you Mitchell...had to been of you taking the photos with the big camera a tad north of the youth...Personally, it sucked. Got out there to late... tide was to high...hung out with the family...nice day...gonna try now...lower tide.

 

Head high to slightly O-head offshore peaks, sunshine and warmish (59 deg.) water with 2 locals in the corner, while 50-70 of Seattle's Finest battled it out down the beach.

Another fine day.

 

nice dude ! i score yesterday too spent all day friday driving around doing recon but everywhere was well overhead, stormy, foggy and rainy, couldn't coax myself outta the car. Saturday however i drove up to the same spot i reconned met a buddy and scored, he got two solid overhead barrels and I got 5 or six super long punchy lefts a few feet overhead all the way down the beach. Then the tide killed it and the waves disappeared as quickly as they materialized.

Been feeling kinda jaded recently tho, unless its all time my 8 hour sessions in the off season have turned into 4 hour sessions, which have turned into 2 hour sessions if its just average. Hell, i went out for 45 minutes after work the other day and was satisfied. Its strange how living at the beach can curb your hunger, yet make you hungrier for better conditions at the same time. What a duality. Sometimes ill check it like 3 or 4 times a day and not get in the water just cause its down the street from my house, yet im beholden to the cause like a waveslave.

Gotta love the land of "woah theres too much swell and not enough people around". Sorry to hear the Seattlites are coming in stronger force this year, at least they learned to stay away from the corner with their libtechs and longboards.

 

Dude, you sound like you're not only jaded, but getting old too lol.

Yeah, summer weekends are starting to look like the Clearwater Classic here on a regular basis. Apparently there is still enough intimidation to keep the blow-in's off the main peak.

You will bummed to find out that the other spot is being invaded like I've never seen before. Yesterday, 20-25 kooks in chest-high closeouts with those goddam " swirly" conditions. Kinda funny watching those kooks get sucked into the rough bar and doing the Walk of Shame lol

 

"Waveslave"... awesome!

I don't know, man... I was out for 2 1/2 hours yesterday in these little waist high windswell waves, and still didn't want to get out of the water when I left. I guess we're all waveslaves in one form or another.

 

Good stuff, Betty! Sounds like you did your vacation right!

It was wierd pulling into the parking lot at sunrise Saturday to find it completely empty. Did we make a mistake driving two hours for nothing? Oh well, make the best of what we've got. It was very small and barely surfable but we were catching waves from the start. It was cool to have the place to ourselves and one other guy for an hour until the Betties began to arrive.

As the tide started coming in so did some waves. Occassional rouge sets had knee high liners. Little wind and very clean. Perfect conditions for my wife to learn in. She had so much fun that it would be impossible to wipe the smile from her face. Her board should be repaired this week so we have another great excuse to return next Saturday regardless of forecasts. Go before you know.

As Betty said, it's been hot and the sun is relentless. You know it's hot when you can feel yourself sweating in the water. Last week I debuted some SeaSpecs. This week I got one of them FCS bucket hats to mitigate the sun. That helped a lot. The water was noticeably a few degrees cooler this week and crystal clear.

Here's a shot of me negotiating one of the bombing rouge sets. Yeah, I'm on the foamie. It was so shallow at low tide I didn't want to chance wrecking a fin in the sand:



So, it's summer and I'm still getting waves every week or so. IDGAF if they're tiny, it's still fun. Beats not surfing but I'll be glad when it's October and the first cold front rolls through.

 

Nice shot dude!

 

Thanks, man. Slave gets some nice high res pics. Cool dude too. I had surfed with him before but didn't know who he was until Saturday.

 

Bombing rouge sets for wave slaves lol

 

Nice, well it looks like you were having fun!

 

Rouge, love it. Yeah Valhallalla!

 

lol my favorite was once i was drinking on the rocks at that spot, and four seattlites got out of their range rover, put on their patagonia suits (3 dudes and 1 chick respecting the seattle ratio of dudes to girls) and proceeded to paddle in at wimpys on their longboards and lib techs, got sucked down the beach without catching a wave and got out at the last groin and started giving each other high fives and de-suited and drove off back to seattle.

All within fifteen minutes, me and that kiwi guy were laughing so hard.