Frequent: Surf Reports. Surf Photos. Weather. News.

Friday, January 31, 2003

Wardie is back on the photo train. Some pics from last weekends swell. Man, I've been surfing the wrong places.
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<---- New Report for Friday.

The "swell" that many surf forecasters predicted for today just is not packing much of a punch, at least up here in Goleta. However it was worth just getting out in the 80 degree weather.

Justin fills us in on more Nautica Escalera News. Some news gleaned from the Indepenedent:

- A Frame Surf Shop in Carp is having a big sale all weekend including 20% off of wetsuits.
- There's an article about Rev. Surfer Chris Rankin-Williams.
- Lance is back in town preparing for the Tour de France.
- Surf Movie "Scratching the Surface" which is in this years Film Festival will be shown at Victoria Hall @ 7:00 on Wednesday, February 5.
- Tonight at Absinthe, "The Supreme Beings of Leisure" and Saturday at SoHO "The Mother Hips".

Have a good weekend.
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Thursday, January 30, 2003

<---- New Report for Thursday.

TBMaddux chimes in to let us know that the Santa Barbara Film Festival is having several Surf Centric Films in a program called Surf Sessions. Along classics like Big Wednesday are other popular films such as "Siestas y Olas" and one that showed at IV theatre not long back, "the Far Shore". No word on how much each of the nine movies that begin March 1 are, but stayed tuned for more info.

The Daily Nexus has an article about last nights meeting about the Goleta Seawall. If anyone was in attendence and wants to submit a few words about it, please email pope. One of my most anticipated classes at UCSB was Ocean Engineering. The class turned out to be as boring as Numerical Analysis but one thing I did learn: Seawalls increase water velocity nearshore. Higher Velocity = More sand picked up in water. More sand picked up = no beach. I'm amazed how many Goletians want a short term solution such as a seawall when a real long term solution is needed if they truely want a place to take their kids. Hey folks, read Willard.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2003

<---- New Reports. Just Check out January for all the action.

It appears there is a meeting tonight about the Goleta Beach Seawall.

Paul Jensen has some pretty cool custom made hollow wooden surfboards to check out.

I've been slack about posting reports (edit: see all the ones above). Been out just about every day in varied conditions and the reports are coming soon. A swell seems to be in the water now, but the sets are very inconsistent.
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Thursday, January 23, 2003

<---- New Reports for Wed and Thurs

2 days ago the Washington Buoy was reading 27ft. Today the Harvest Buoy is reading 8.8ft, California chiming in at 12.8ft and SEPapa reading 17.4ft.
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Tuesday, January 21, 2003

<---- New Report for Tuesday

Waves are not as predominant as I thought but the future still looks promising. If you thought 7 January was big here, check out this Mav's video from the same day. Wicked.
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Monday, January 20, 2003

<---- New Reports from the 18th and 20th

After what must have been close to a week of fairly small waves we are getting a bit of action again and it looks to only get better as the week progresses. John, who took Fridays cover photo, has linked his entire January 7 Campus Point Album. The amount of SPAM that surfline.com sends out is hardly worth signing up for their newsletter but they do put out a monthly summary which is prettier then Santa Barbara Surfing's.
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Friday, January 17, 2003

<---- New Reports from Rincon & Costa Gaviota

This Pic is courtesy of John who was hanging around Campus Point on January 7 and managed to catch a photo of the elusive Pope on his and Greggory's trip surfing from Campus Point down to Goleta Beach. Amazing the way you can see that wave get bent by the bay right there, about half way out to the Goleta Pier. The spec riding the wave is so far the only web documented picture of pope surfing. The mystery continues. Have a good weekend, it appears waves are in our future.
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Wednesday, January 15, 2003

<---- New Report for Wednesday.

Some time ago I linked "Step Into Liquid" but had no idea when it was due out. I'm a little slow on posting this since I don't listen to stupid corporate radio but the flick is coming to the Arlington Saturday, February 8 at 8:00 as a special sneak preview with Bruce and Dana attending. Tickets are on-sale now and they are still available although going fast. It will cost you $19.50 for one ticket after a "facilities charge" if you go to the box office. Otherwise you can get them on TicketMonopoly for $25.25. Yes, this is a movie we are talking about. Jesting aside, the movie should be for a great cause. The proceeds will benefit the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum which happens to be right next door the "The Endless Summer" bar and grill. There are also $40 tickets which put up front in the Arlington. If you really are a philanthropist you'll be able to fork over the $100 for the pre-party. This will get you a dinner with Bruce and Dana Brown along with other secret special guests. There are indications that an 10:00 or 11:00 showing will happen also (and TM is selling them) but the event coordinator said this will happen only if the 8:00 sells out. How fast are they selling out? Tickets bought yesterday were in KK.

Thursday is my 30th Birthday. I'm ditching work and enjoying the pastime of surfing. Enjoy.
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Monday, January 13, 2003

We headed to Half Moon Bay this weekend and Mavericks was one stop along the way (to look, not surf). Quite a spectacle to see guys suiting up in the parking lot with giant guns in California. We even saw a Randy Cone...having at one point in my surfing career had an RC board shaped for me I was stoked to see a guy suited up and paddling out to the 15' waves on the Cone. Being my first time at Mav's it was amazing to see some bombs come thru with their momentous amounts of water and watch the pack scramble to get over. With about an hours worth of watching we probably only saw 4 rides, but well worth it.

Some good stuff coming from our area in the way of Pete Pierce, a local artist and surfer. We've also got some surf-centric video from Don, a couple of Poles Sequences from Saturday. No surf reports but soon....
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Thursday, January 09, 2003

<---- New Reports for 8 and 9.

Still quite a bit of swell out there and not as messy as the weather might have you believe. A fun lunchtime session and hopefully one more before the weekend trip. Some mixed responses on the Daily Nexus editorial by Dwayne, and Pete links us to this sensical 10 commandements of surfing. Santa Barbara Surfing won't be updated again until Monday, so enjoy the weekend and catch some of this swell. As Code #6 says in Pete's link "Lighten up. . . you're surfing for God's sake!"
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Wednesday, January 08, 2003

...MARINE WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA 10 AM PST WED JAN 8 2003
...HIGHER THAN NORMAL SURF THROUGH THURSDAY ACROSS WEST FACING BEACHES FROM POINT PIEDRAS BLANCAS TO SAN MATEO POINT... A LARGE WESTERLY SWELL WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE COASTAL WATERS THROUGH THURSDAY. AS OF 930 AM...SWELL HEIGHTS OF 8 TO 10 FEET WITH A 17 SECOND PERIOD HAVE BEEN RECORDED BY BUOYS NORTH OF POINT CONCEPTION. SOUTH OF POINT CONCEPTION...WESTERLY SWELL OF 5 TO 8 FEET HAVE BEEN REPORTED.

Had a sunrise session this morning before this weather pattern arrived. One could see rain out in the channel and down towards Ventura but here it was light offshores and partly cloudy. Now outside it looks like our 7 day streak of sunshine and warmth is coming to an end. Could even shower today. Harold has pictures of the sunrise also, not far from my surf destination. The doppler map is showing a smattering of localized rain throughout the southland.

Extra bonus: You can vote on your favorite quarter for when it's California's turn in 2005 to have a special quarter. One of them even has waves and is in 3rd place right now.

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Tuesday, January 07, 2003

Wow. What a fun January we are having. Waves, waves, Waves.

First off, if you are interested in the story of the surfer at Coil Oil Point, you can read all about Steve Issaris' life at the newspress by clicking here, but I think you need to sign up. If you can't read it and want to I've mirrored it here. I've never met him but I'm sure we crossed paths in this small town. As it says at the end if you are interested in contributing to his Memorial Fund you can go to the WaMu on Fairview. In other press you can read the rant D-Wayne wrote to the Nexus today. If I didn't know him, I'd probably wonder who the heck this guy thinks he is.

Next, I finally got a chance to catch up on surf reports. Thus far I've surfed 8 sessions in 7 days and the swell is looking like I can keep the streak alive. Check it all out there, the January Reports.

In addition, Harold has yet more pictures for you to check out. I think this guy lives the life. Happy New Year everybody, enjoy the ride.
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Monday, January 06, 2003

Don has put together some sort of video from our glorious winter weather yesterday, with a snipet of waveage from Depressions.

Harold has fotos up from this mornings session already.

I think a common native american saying (if I've learned anything from Hollywood) is "Today is a good day to die." I think warriors said this to themselves and to the Great Spirit before heading into battle. Well the more I think about it the more I believe that was true of yesterday; 80 degree temperatures, warm offshore breeze, big swell pumping. Glorious.
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I have a big knot in my stomach reading about the surfer yesterday. Still no word on his identity but my thoughts are with his family. Yesterday was one of my best surfing days of the year (until hearing about this), I suppose that may be true with many a Santa Barbara surfer and a good way to remember our fallen comrade.
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Sunday, January 05, 2003

Surfed every day of the new year thus far but no reports up yet. Did finish up with December and 2002 though. As if it wasn't already apparent, we've had 5 days of warm sunny weather and something to ride every day.

There was a surfer in serious trouble this afternoon at Deveraux. Some surfers I know were involved in helping. We really want to know if he's ok and what the heck happened and why the Medical Response was so damn slow for this fellow. Any information is greatly apprecieted.
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Thursday, January 02, 2003

The New Years swell showed up just after midnight on New Years. After the air horns and bottlerockets subsided, one could hear the newly arrived swell breaking outside the Ventura Harbor. With the new day and new year came an absolutely gorgeous sunny day with offshore winds, super shape, and chest high waves down near Ventura. Report coming soon. In the meantime, check out Harold's pictures from the day, now with the spot names on the DL.

The Southern Hemisphere is having their share of waves, with Cyclone Zoe crushing part of the Solomon Islands and bringing waves to Australia.
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Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.