Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments: Headed down to Rincon with K-dog this time and brought along the cooler and some reading to take advantage of a nice summer day in SB. Had two sessions over the 4 hours we hung out, both times I trunked it and managed to stay out long enough each time to catch some fun waves. I hung out way inside the cove, at times all the way down in front of the first 101 light post. This is the area I usually end up my rides, but today it was a crowded Sunday afternoon and so we were just screwing around picking up scraps. My board was freshly stripped of all wax and lightly re-waxed so it felt like a brand new board. That plus trunking it at a nice point break and we're talking about good times. Did some stepping over, a little bit on the nose, but mostly cold chill trimming. More nice pre-season warm up surfing.

Comments: My first session at Rincon of the season. Well, I'm not sure the season has started yet, but this was a good pre-season session. I probably hadn't been to Rincon in 3-4 months. Surprisingly, I picked up right where I left off. It was good to see the familiar faces there, the amazing nose-riding skills of old timers and young punks alike, as well as the stream of talented female surfers that are always impressive out there. The water was clean and warm, and the lines were long and held up well. I have to surf this spot more often. Of course I say that until I end up sitting out a couple of sets while everyone around me jockeys for position.

Regardless of the crowds it was a good time. I caught a slew of waves, some that even took me down to the first light post on the 101. I was primarily sitting in front of what Tim Maddux called "The Whip Ladies House", that big long house with lots of glass windows. People are certainly friendly out there on small playful days like this. Chatted up one red headed guy for awhile who informed that I'd really missed a few fun days at the 'Con recently. Rats. I surfed until it got even more crowded and I was hard pressed to get in position for a wave, so I took one last one in with a big grin on.

Comments:

A nice Friday afternoon session at Sands, where the conditions had improved since Wednesday, but the crowds had grown. Mostly windswell, lots of peaks and many short rides. Quite a few nice lefts ended up coming in, making for longer rides then the more frequent rights. I got a nice little ride into the shore, where I jacked up and I tried to tuck in right in front of the rocks. This was a day that was perhaps more suited for a longboard.

Comments: My last few times I had surfed, way back in July, were full of defeat, driving all the way to Ventura to find small junk in overcast weather. Then it got even flatter and then I headed out of town. Back in town and it still looked flat. My boss was telling me about epic day after epic day down in the greater malibu area but that wasn't going to happen midweek for me. The forecast sites were keying in on the seasons first NW swell, just a little storm in Alaska that might bring something to NorCal but likely nothing to us. Some tiny bit of long period energy did show up on the buoys around here though so I forced myself to go look.

Sure enough there wasn't anything down there. A few folks were longboarding at Deveraux and that actually looked like fun but I had my shortboard on me so I walked to Sands and was going to go out no matter what. It was high tide and there were a couple of waves but they were breaking real close in. Waves were few and far between, small with short rides. I'm not sure if it was swell from Alaska, windswell, or boat wakes. I headed out to a lineup of only 3-4 guys and started catching waves like they were going out of style. Usually if I haven't surfed for a few weeks I have a pretty sad session, and besides the occaisonal slip on my board that needed waxing, I was actually able to competently surf.

Surfing is great. One short session in piddly waves managed to erase any amount of tension. Afterwards I was driving 5mph on the freeway and casually wondering why everyone is so uptight.