Monday, December 30, 2002
<---- New Reports (28) (30)
The storm that came thru on Saturday left in it's wake a fair bit of wind on Sunday. There was some size in the water but it was tough to find a place where it was clean enough to surf. Harold caught some pics of windriders though. Today the wind was much better, as were the conditions, but there was still some mess in the water. Wind created a good bit of coastal upwelling too resulting in cold, nutrient rich water.
Have a Happy New Year.
link to this
Thursday, December 26, 2002
<---- New Reports (23) (24) (26)
After what seems like weeks and weeks of solid waves the pacific seems to have shut down for the last few days. Not that there aren't fun waves to be found out there, but it's back to searching for it. The water has settled down and was crystal clear today. No beaches have closures issued and the only surfing beach with a warning right now is Refugio.
The pope quiver has changed yet again. Got rid of the Pig and bought a brand new Walden longboard on Christmas Eve with Christmas Bonus. Quiver is now the Progressive shortboard and the Walden longboard.
link to this
Monday, December 23, 2002
<---- New Reports for my Weekend Warrior Sessions. (sat) (sun)
Fun weekend. Saturday was stormy and Sunday was sunny with offshores. A good mixture. Had not been out in over a week due to sickness and un-cooperative conditions but the stars lined up and I made it out.
A couple of the Malloy Brothers were at the Brewhouse on Saturday night celebrating Dan Malloy's 25th Birthday. Rumor is my boss was close to blows with Chris over some sort of a blow up doll. Weird world.
For those of you that have been following the proposed golf course along the Gaviota Coast, you realize that the CCC rejected it just recently. A Ventura County Star's golf editor, Bob.
Hope y'all have a Merry Christmas and get some waves.
link to this
Friday, December 20, 2002
The Alpaca Cam is going off today. Downtown didn't flood as bad last night as it did on Monday. 
Last two days have shown messy brown blown out disorganized lumps up in Goleta, although the Ventura Cam was showing some cleaner sections yesterday morning. With 6 foot high tides on the a.m. sessions and high winds for the lunchtime sessions it's been a tough life. Yesterday NOAA had 5 severe weather alerts for the 93101, yet today we only have a high surf advisory and Hazardous Weather Outlook.
link to this
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Harold has a site up now that is perhaps the best link i've ever posted, FunFotoz, which is a local site where he takes photos before or after his surf session and posts them up for you to check out your style. He's got pics from Rincon, Hammonds and lesser known spots, and it's quite possible you'll find a session that you were out in and find yourself. No charge to check the photos out or email them to buddies and you could also order print versions to prove to friends how big your wave of the day was, and to help Harold pay for all the bandwidth you're sucking up.
link to this
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Awesome swell comes in and pope gets taken down sick. Lesson learned: if you feel yourself getting sick and a swell is predicted in 4 or so days, take the hit and stay home from work and get over the cold before the swell. Then when the swell arrives you are good to go and you avoid co-workers emailing you the bouy reports with remarks such as "Sure you are sick today, slacker."
Good thing we have readers such as Tyler out there sending in a pictures he took of Deveraux on Sunday:
link to this
Friday, December 13, 2002
<---- New Reports for Yesterday and Today.
Those that checked out the photos of Branden Aroyan and the video by John Lynch last night were in for a spectacular multi-media sensation. The 1/2 hour or so of slides that Branden presented featured photos from here (Rincon, Coal Oil Point, PCH, Sandspit .... etc) and abroad (Hawaii, Philippines, Samoa....etc). Branden certainly has a way with a lens and manages to have a good eye for subject and framing. Check out some of his photos or memorize his bio and start stalking him.
Librium, on the other hand was 35 minutes of visual bliss put together by John Lynch, another local boy. Featuring Hawaii, Florida, Samoa, and Australia and a kickin soundtrack with the likes of Blackalicious/Ben Harper, Gorrillaz, Ozomatli and Modest Mouse to name a few. Hopefully we'll see some more homegrown stuff by these guys and hopefully they'll put more local stuff in. John's comment after the show was he never shoots film here cause when it's good, he wants to get wet. However on a surf trip he gets so dog tired of riding perfect waves all day that he doesn't mind shooting for awhile. Nice life.
"South of Point Conception...The Westerly swell will begin to affect the inner Waters late Saturday. Surf Heights will Reach 5 to 7 feet Saturday night..."
Oh and for all you dawn patrollers... this Sunday's dawn patrol will be especially glorious because Vandenberg is launching and old cold war era Titan II ICBM (equipped with a meteorological satellite) between 6:18 and 6:33 AM, so it could be quite a site.
link to this
Thursday, December 12, 2002
<---- New Report for yesterday, a surprise sunset session.
So if you've ever surfed at Deveraux, especially during a low tide, you probably have noticed the Leopard sharks that like to bask in the tide pools. The first time I saw them I was coming in after a fun session, navigating bootiless thru the tidepools with about 3-4 men in gray suits sorta hanging out only a few feet away. They were probably only 3 feet long or so, but enough to give me a scare. However, after finding out what they were and that they are a common occurrence they haven't been much of a concern to me. According to a local diver named Charles though, he spotted a 6 foot shark of unknown orgin hanging out a Coal Oil Point on Tuesday. Was definitely not the Leopard sharks that like to hang out there and was apparently a meaty 12" or so in diameter.
Santa Barbara Surfing, causing widespread panic since 2002.
Don't forget the homegrown surf photos/movie tonight at Absinthe.
link to this
Monday, December 09, 2002
<---- New Reports from the weekend. Saturday and Sunday.
Santa Barbara has now seen several days in a row of excellent surf conditions. 
The Friday and Saturday sessions were steller and there is still engery out there now but much decreased and with a bit of wind on it. Santa Barbaran's faced with severe Noodle Arm syndrome as hundreds of surfers show up to work and school with sore arms, wetsuit rashes, and a general feeling that no matter what the boss/teacher may throw at them...they'll never be able to take away the stoke that the ocean gave this weekend.
Good news is it looks like there should be some more pulses coming in, enough to keep the GNP of the South Coast down about 2.2% for the month of December. (foto: late novemeber sunset by pope)
link to this
Friday, December 06, 2002
<---- New Reports from yesterday and today. Swell started filling in after sunset last night and perhaps has peaked but is still making many spots incredibly fun.
Gleanings from yesterdays Independent:
Shake Up at Surfrider and other news shorts.
Tonight: State Street Christmas Parade, 6:30. Surf Music by King Bee at Cold Springs Tavern, 7:00.
Sunday: 17th Annual Parade of Lights at the Harbor, 5:30
Dec 12: Surf Photos by Branden Aroyan and Surf Video "Librium" by John Lynch at Absinthe next Thursday, Dec 12. 6:30 and 8:30. $6.00.
Dec 14: Surf Happens Ocean Festival at Leadbetter.
link to this
Thursday, December 05, 2002
Yesterday was the biggest tidal swing of the year coming in at 8.6ft. This made the dawn patrol a super high tide, and the glass off super low. A check at noon during the mid-tide showed more cruddy conditions up here in Goleta.
Someday I'd like to get a section on this site for people to post boards for sale and other local deals, but for now I'll just resort to shameless self promotion. 3bd/2ba House near Turnpike for rent. $2500. If interested email me and i'll get you the details.
All the surf report dudes are saying waves are on the way. It appears weather is on the way too. Peering down south with my glass eye it looks fun, 6.9ft high tide non-withstanding.
link to this
Monday, December 02, 2002
As far as I know the history of SoCal surf forecasting sites has been Surfline vs. Wetsand. I was a huge fan of the surfline cam and lived by the Wetsand reports. Then Surfline kicked off the whole swell.com thing which was supposed to put the .com in surfline, as far as advertising, pop up adds, selling wares, and of course charging to access premium content. 
They even suckered you by letting you check out LOLA for a few months before bringing the smack down and charging money. Now granted, the whole 90's .com bubble burst around then and folks realized that they needed to make money somehow, so I'm sure surfline did a smart thing as far as a business model. Then we have wetsand.com on the other end of the spectrum. Relatively unchanged they provided reports and predictions back for at least 4 years that I can remember. They also rolled out an online shop but never have charged a fee for their info and have never had the annoying pop ups for Blue Crush or whatever needs to be pepped up that week.
Both sites seem to be ramping up this Holiday Season, trying to cash in on the lucrative surf market. So in the spirit of consumerism i mean going for the underdog and supporting something a little more low key, I opted to make my first purchase today at the Wetsand store, A Christmas gift for someone. They charged the same price as Surfline and shipped it already. There, that's my little online surf store shopping review.
The picture you see is my foto skills manipulating the C-street camera. When one can't get off of work to see the sunset, one can live thru others. Look closely, the sun is actually aliased into the middle of the ocean. I didn't P-shop it that way, that's how it looked. My own attempts at surfing at lunchtime were foiled by small and mushy conditions in Northern Goleta.
link to this
Sunday, December 01, 2002
<---- New Reports for the 27, 28, 29 and 30th.
The Thanksgiving Swell actually arrived as promised bringing head high waves and offhsores winds on Thanksgiving morning. It was no surprise as the entire coast was packed at dawn with surfers trying to get in a session before having to go to Aunt Martha's house.
The rest of the weekend brought fun waves too, however I just came up with a big bagel trying to get a glass off in North Goleta. It just wasn't coming together like I thought it would. I'm sure down south is still providing fun waves and Wetsand is saying a bump will come in towards the middle to end of the week.
link to this
Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.
