Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

January Overview | 1997 Overview


Date/Time:
Sunday, January 19th, 7:30 am - 11:30 am
Location:
Gaviota Coast
Weather:
Gorgeous morning, cold light offshores, warm sun.
Conditions:
Perfection. Offshore-fanned barrels improving w/ tide drop.
Swell:
West groundswell, inconsistent sets chest high to overhead and a half.
Comments:
Very crowded today. Watched it for a while before deciding to suit up and give it a go. High tide didn't seem to hurt the waves much although it made access an issue.

Lots of big drops and smoking closeout barrels, followed by boneyard poundings on the inside before the sets let up. Took a lot of waves on the head. Doughnuts for breakfast!

Best wave could have been the first one; swung around on it and pulled back. It peeled for tens of yards, perhaps even more. Spent the whole session trying to make up for it and got a few racy pitchy waves that came close. Surfer Bob got a lot of waves as well; only saw one just after I got outside the boneyard. I was more jealous of him not getting pounded getting back out than I was of the epic wave!

Started getting tired towards the end, getting pitched and hung up in the lip. The winds shifted as well, coming on out of the south, pre-frontal style. A good time to go in and get some sun before heading home.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 1/19/97.