Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments:

It's been around 40 degrees at our house up the canyon in the morning, and this has led to difficulty motivating for the dawn patrol. Which is OK because thus far the wind has held off until noon or so (even offshore often), and the crowds aren't quite the issue up here. The water temperature on the other hand is supposed to be at 57 degrees, just 2-3 degrees shy of the lowest SB winter temps and it's only November. Which led me to purchase the 4/3 RipCurl Ultimate Fireskin. The warmest suit by Rip Curl, it is only 50% elasto as the mid-section is polypropylene (think:fleece) which limits it's mobility. I should do a suit writeup soon. Very, very warm, yet you sacrifice mobility both in the arms and the legs. However what I hope to gain is the ability to motivate on cold overcast mornings. Along with the new suit, I tired out the Rip Curl 357 booties which make you feel like you are some kind of deep sea diver but warm nonetheless.

With my newfound confidence in the warmth department I was able to pull a longer sesson than usual and caugth a ton of waves. Perhaps the best one was a set wave that formed outside that I manged to be far out enough to get. Most were caught inside letting out a hoot before they got crushed by it. Somehow I managed to catch it, make the drop and head down the line until I bowled up real quick like and I did a wusslike duck out the backdoor. Should of stayed in, it would of been the best barrell of my life.