Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments: I told myself I was NOT going to psyche myself up for Hurricane Howard, but I did. It appeared it would start showing on buoys on Friday night but did not. I woke up at 5am and still didn't see anything on the southern buoys but I have little experience with those southern buoys so I didn't know what to look for. I went anyway and was down looking at small offshore waves at Sequit and County Line at sunrise. I saw a guy get nice and barrelled at County Line so I went out.

Turned out that there were nice waves to be had outside, shoulder high or bigger sets that went both ways and threw out some lip. However these broke in water that was littered with surfers and there boards. At 6:30 it was not crowded but by the time I finished my session at 8:30 it was one big reason for me to never, ever re-locate too far south. The crowd there is funny, it's kind of a begginner spot so you have lots of floundering, ditching of boards, late take-offs, etc. I saw so many seens out of a Bruce Brown movie where two guys take off next to each other and then end up crashing into each other and eating it.

I drifted south, hoping to get some nice lefts. I did get some fast lefts, but most were waist high and smaller. They were short and broke in 2' of water and after awhile it just wasn't worth it. I headed in before I hurt myself or got hurt my some errant board.