Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

September Overview 1998 Overview

Date/Time: Saturday, September 12th, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: Secos / Arroyo Sequit / Leo Carrillo
Weather: Typical marine influence with AM marine layer clearing with westerly winds into the afternoon.
Conditions: Good worsening to poor through the afternoon as those winds filled in.
Swell: Weak southern hemisphere swell, 2 ft at 14 s.
Surf: Knee to waist high with chest high sets.
Comments: Shared the lineup and a bunch of waves today with SurferBob and the Malibu Boardriders doing tandem surfing with young kids with disabilities of various kinds. Some of their crew would get the kids out into the water for a kayak trip, followed by an optional choice to share a few waves with one of the 'Bu boys on a big 15'+ Pearson Arrow tandem board with front straps. A lot of the kids were pretty sketched out at the concept of it, but I didn't see a single one that didn't eventually get into the idea of it and eventually catch a wave. You couldn't help but be gracious about the minor crowding of the lineup that they presented.

Since they were mostly taking off on the shoulders, I worked a lot on fading deep into the whitewater and doing good solid bottom turns with lots of rail to get back in front of it. On many of the sets I'd take off on the first few along with the tandem riders and would paddle back out while Robert cruised by on his longboard on a better, cleaner, and emptier wave. Saw him get one great little series of rollercoaster up-and-downs on a real clean racetrack section on the inside.

On the waves that I did get to myself I got in a couple of really obnoxious cheater-5's, some legit nose time, a head-dip cover-up caused by some windchop-produced sections, and the last wave a very late drop that it took all my luck and toes to hold, followed by a long, pretty windblown wall.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 9/13/98.