Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

June Overview 1998 Overview

Date/Time: Monday, June 15th, 10:00 am - 2:30 pm
Location: Secos / Arroyo Sequit / Leo Carrillo
Weather: Marine layer heavy; patchy fog and overcast all day. No wind.
Conditions: Excellent and glassy all session long.
Swell: Dropping SSW swell, 4 ft at 17 s AM buoy reading on Santa Monica. Once again problems getting online so direction is intuited.
Surf: Inconsistent and fading fast, must have peaked yesterday despite optimistic forecasts for holding swell through today. Chest to shoulder high with head high sets.
Comments:
The Good:
Perfect waves coming across the outer lineups with the tide push, got on it a few hours before the crowd did with low expectations and right off dialed into a speedy one all the way to the stairs, kicked out with heart pounding. Lots more to follow throughout the session for both Surfer Bob and me. Fast all morning long, with the usual slow spots nonexistant and the wave a racy demon all the way down the line, loads of fun if you can make it.

Surf food was exquisite, a pre-surf repast at the local French bakery across from the Malibu lagoon, tasty sweet cheese danish and cinnamon rolls. Post-surf papaya-bannana smoothies served in huge 16+ oz margarita-style glasses with tortas combinaciones at Rebecca's juice bar in downtown Oxnard.

The Bad:
We were hoping for better! Last night arranged for a super early dawn patrol to until recently never-before surfed spots with Surfer Bob, the 7'2" looking stoked and ready to go. By the AM buoy report I knew it was down and brought the 6'6", but even that proved inadequate. We drove as far as Malibu hoping for something but found nothing. Dawdled for a good 2+ hours before hitting the lineup at Secos.

More bad news in the lineup. An irate surfer hassled someone for not paddling hard enough to get out of his way on a set wave, preventing him from dropping in. Same guy later hassling his drop-in victims for giving some 'my wave' hoots. Yet another guy stuffs someone else in the critical section in front of the rock, ding city, shades of yesterday's 3-man rockfest. Perhaps worst of all, I got kinda cold after surfing for nearly 5 hours straight.

The Ugly:

Itchy, gnarly fungal rash setting in from improperly dried trunks. Tolfunate for me and laundry for the trunks!


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 6/15/98.