Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

January Overview | 1997 Overview


Date/Time:
Wednesday, January 1st, 7:30 am - 10:00 am
Location:
Rincon Point
Weather:
Grey cloudy skies and some light fog and sprinkles of rain.
Conditions:
Excellent, none of the expected and dreaded storm bump.
Swell:
Fun waves from chest high to overhead, pulsing sets that faded as the morning moved on.
Comments:
Car trouble in the early morning; a phantom leak in the power steering system that I'd been hearing about for four years finally manifested after two solid weeks of being parked out in the rain. Surfer Bob was swift with the startup of his trusty Baja veteran VW. We were still late meeting Will in the parking lot but soon found him atop the cove.

After getting a couple of weak and slow waves with flat shoulders on the inside, decided to opt for waiting outside for the larger sets. Got what felt like more than my share at the start, from the top of the cove to the call box and beyond. Just link up those bottom turns and cutbacks or stalled off the lips or just rollercoaster it and wait for things to speed up before linking a floater to finish it out. Jog back up the length of the point -- down here the longshore current is a river keeping pace with the freeway. Paddle back out, do it again. And nobody dropping in! Got another wave so quick after paddling out I couldn't stand it... not ready for another trip to the freeway I carved up and did the most critical turn I could, made it through but bogged the follow up soul arch through the bottom. That's ok, someone else was there for the scraps.

It didn't last forever, of course, eventually the crowd was on it thick and it was the usual scene, too many hungry surfers paddling for the same waves with too many more trying to get out of the way, too many surfing the wave after the takeoff and too many more on the shoulder waiting for one of the three people surfing the wave to fall. Aah! Get me out of here!

We got the best of it, except maybe the people on the indicator, who occasionally got rides past the top of the cove.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 1/1/97.