Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

July Overview 1998 Overview

Date/Time: Tuesday, July 14th, 11:30 am - 3:30 pm
Location: Secos / Arroyo Sequit / Leo Carrillo
Weather: Overcast and foggy again with building clearing breezes.
Conditions: Good worsening to fair with building wind choplets.
Swell: Moderate SW groundswell, 3 ft at 20 s in the AM.
Surf: Pulsing in strong sets when they come of 5-10 waves. Waist to shoulder high with some head high sets.
Comments: Headed out with Surfer Bob today; timed our departure to get the optimal tides yet still get back in time for dinner. Light crowd when we paddled out that thickened throughout the day until it became super-heavy, too many for the consistency and quality of the waves.

Best wave of the day was one of my first, coming off the second reef a bit wide and nearly overhead, fast and reeling all the way to the stairs. Boosted an aerial kickout past the closeout section with a full somersault, stoked! Never got another one like that as the sets started to close out the point, although did get a few bomb drops. Mostly it was fun-sized carvable stuff. Didn't see any of Robert's waves except from behind, but he was gone for quite a while after a few of them and came back smiling.

Water was super-warm and most of the crew friendly except for a few drop-in types. One guy drops in front of me over the body rock, which I was prepared to deal with, and then spun out and fell, shooting his board into the flat and barring me from going down the line, which I wasn't prepared to deal with. I need to work on my ollies.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 7/15/98.