who here has been surfing this week?

I had a tough session too. The direction of the swell made closeouts an issue. Just could not seem to keep position when a descent corner showed. It was sooooo glassy I had to at least attempt a few. Cold is here. Always worth paddling out tho.

 

I swear I warm up faster changing out of my wetsuit back into clothes in the road. And changing into the wetsuit in the road is a must... I'm always in different kind of suite until 3pm.

 

There is also another matter to consider.....I am anal about keeping the inside of my car clean, nay, spotless. So getting wax , sand, seaweed, saltwater, etc splattered all over the place is VERBOTEN!!! I keep my car AND my wife car spotless inside. Outside, I surrender to environment.
My wife does the same for inside the house. "Take your shoes off!!" is a common request from her as I enter our home....lol...."yes, Dear" ......life is great at Cuda Mansion!

 

I had a 40 min window to get out after work monday, which turned into 15 when I started to change and realized my wetsuite was not in my gear bucket (boots and gloves and water jug and everything else was, but not the suite... 100% my wife's fault but no need to get into that here). Made a couple attempts to paddle out and got thoroughly denied, froze my ass off in the process.

Got a 45 min session yesterday morning, one good wave and a beautiful morning but a whole lot of closeouts and a ton of current. One of those sessions where the smaller waves are perfect but too far inside to get on without getting cleaned up by the closeout sets. Wish I'd made it out yesterday afternoon, looks/sounds like a ton of fun. Hoping there's enough left for a log session after work.

 

I go back and forth on this. Every winter there's one or two sessions where the roadside change-out is horrible, hands go completely numb to the point I struggle to get the suite off. Most days not that bad. The biggest reason I often change at home in a hot shower is not comfort, but the fact that my suite gets washed in the process (and i'm usually too lazy to rinse it out if I change at the beach). But if I'm in a hurry, I always change at the car post-session, but will typically struggle for hours to warm up afterwards. After work sessions I usually end up putting the suite on at the beach... in the winter it maximizes very limited daylight, and in the summer it's warm so why not get an extra 10 min in the water.

I definitely prefer to put the suite on at home for morning sessions in the winter, simply because it makes it about 800% more likely that the waves will look good enough to paddle out. There's something about the thought of changing into a still-wet 5/4 at dawn on the side of the road in single digit temperatures that can make my mind play tricks on me, to the point that even really good waves look like knee-high shit in the freezing first-light haze. If I drive to the beach in my suite, even if it doesn't look great I usually conclude "I'm already here and dressed, I might as well hop in and give it 5-10 minutes and see if there's anything worth riding." 9 out of 10 times once I paddle out and get a wave I realize it's better than I first thought.

 

Glad to hear you are back in the water PJ!!

 

Glad you got wet! I hate the cold. But for some reason when it comes to surfing i just embrace it. Weird. I think about moving south sometimes but don't think i could ever do it. Love the idea though. And im the same with changing outside. Close enough to drive, and do sometimes, but I'll change outside more in winter than summer. Don't know why. Part of the experience i guess. My truck is a giant sand bomb. Later of sand throughout. I even got sand in the damn air vents. I don't even know how that happens.

 

Very fun afternoon sesh today after frustrating one yesterday. Glassy chest high, light offshores, 4' @ 12 sec swell, buttery as hell.

Got out of the water, grabbed the cam and this dude drops in and cranks about a nice of a turn as i've seen on a 9+ foot log.

 

Jealous... you guys north of us are getting good doses of offshore winds.

Winds over here are shit right now

 

That’s what I’m talking about. If your going to ride a log, ride it like that....

Waves were good today and I actually had FOMO all day. This confirms my fears!

Glad you were on it!

 

Rode the log yesterday, too. Only waist high, + or - , but still had that long period pop to it. The sandbar I surfed the day before was still working, but not quite as good... a little sectiony, but every set had one good one that would peel perfectly down the beach. It's amazing how fast a longboard can go in perfect trim. Got a couple fivers before the street lights came on.


And now we wait...

 

I’ve been fighting a cold this past week or so, still can’t seem to shake the sinus congestion / pressure. So I’ve been picky about when I surf. Yesterday swell was good but I didn’t feel like getting out of my warm bed to get wet in 49-50 degree air with N / NW winds blowing. There was a window early on with decent conditions at a couple spots that work with those winds but I just didn’t have the motivation to get out there.

This morning I’m still congested but I got suited up after my morning dump and went to a few spots to see if it warranted me paddling out. Air 50 degrees and wind much lighter out of the N / NW. There is still swell, but tide was still deep coming off high tide and was looking soft and not breaking far enough out with enough power to have fun on the SB. Maybe if I had brought the LB I thought. I stood there looking at it trying to get turned on but all I could think about was I needed to go poo again. A set came through that looked rideable but it just didn’t have much power on it. Not feeling it, so I went home to drop another deuce.

 

Surf will be fun in an hour I bet, just needs a little less water.

 

Yesterday had a nice OH north swell 6-8 foot on the peaks, long lines. By the time I could get free the wind was hard straight out of the north, and I checked a few spots, everyone was getting out of the water, the few left were drifting too fast to lineup a peak.

So I went to the south Jetty. It was very clean, and crowded and about chest to shoulder on the peak, with some decent rides to be had. One or two guys were on the right headed back to the jetty, I planned on sliding into the rotation, but a left popped up and I got the best ride of the session right off. Three nice lip bangers on the backside, with a floater to end it. Walked back to the jetty and paddled back out.

Got a few more lefts, finally a real nice right so I didn't have to walk back, and things were getting very crowded and the tide was filling in, shutting down the occasional swing wides and bunching everyone up on the inside. There was a little grom shredding the inside and a young female getting some good peaks on the reg. And more kids start paddling out in groups.

Some kid started yelling at an old LBer "you gonna drop in on me all day?" and the old ass just ignored the kid. A SUPer was making everyone nervous, then a kayak paddles out and I go in.

My buddy's kid got out of high school and went out same spot, texted me after it was a total shit show and he was thinking of running the kayaker over in the parking lot. He would have been the local hero.

 

Today is about 4 foot swell, clean, with HH peaks. I'm stuck here till lunch againne, hopefully the wind will be nice and I'll break out the LB and get irie.

 

Figured swell on way down, take the 6'2" got to the spot for some fun smaller surf right? But no, still 5-7+ with sets ended up being a little undergunned and not getting in early enough and getting punished. Icing on the cake was my tombstoning board rebounding into my scalp (right next to the arm over my face as I came up as I KNEW it was going to happen) and giving me a nice cut. Bad luck run from 2018 carrying over into 2019 i see...

 

Wind is on it from the SE closing it out, I got a burger and fries instead of waves. Maybe before dark? BTW this site can NOT predict local winds at all. (I can kinda, but not really spot on).

 

Took a half day yesterday and got some pretty good head high waves here in Jupiter. The north wind was on it and the drift was bad. Saw a first for me, a guy out in a full wetsuite with hood! I have never seen a hood here in SFL lol