Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments:

Pulled up at the same spot I surfed last Saturday. I hadn't bothered to look at the buoys but it would turn out that Harvest was at 7 foot. That made this spot with lots of West exposure be quite large on the sets. I paddled out for the first time in this warm channel from some power plant output. It was a fast and nice paddle out and then on over to the 1st peak. I caught a bunch of waves right off the bat, both rights and lefts although the lefts were much more fun. I started to drift north in between the 1st and 2nd peaks. Every now and then I'd pick off a nice waves but quite often it was closing out across the channel. The first peak was getting more crowded but the sets that were coming thru were amazing, peeling lefts with plenty of zip. I paddled to the fringe and picked off one nice big left that soon closed out on my head. I had the biggest hold down of my winter. These waves had power and after lazily surfing in Santa Barbara all summer I wasn't quite ready to test my lungs out yet. Tired, I began to paddle back out again and duck under what seemed like a giant wall of whitewater. Right as I was pushing my nose under, my hand slipped off my board, I fell to the side and got pummelled for what felt like forever. I popped up way to close to some guy who was noticeablly nervous about my poor duck diving skills. I apologized, paddled back out, and caught some mid sized closeout in and never looked back. Wow, this is what a little bit of power feels like.