Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Sunny, Warm, Offshore
Conditions:		Clean, Crisp, and Feathering
Swell:		Medium Period NW
Surf:		Head High Sets

Comments:

24 hours later at the same spot as yesterday and the conditions had improved dramatically. Instead of slow sluggish waves with 30 minute lulls and sets with juice, we had consistent juice driven down the coast. I was stoked, I walked a little south to a peak that looked to be funelling the swell in a little better as up north was a litle mixed up with a confused rip current. Still gotta figure out these sandbars, I'm not even sure where the nearest creek mouth is. I was a wave catching machine, notching up rights and lefts in the waist to chest high range and occainsonly roping in a head high monger with power for turns and hits on the lip. It was a whole new surfing experience compared to yesterday to get up, angle down the line and figure what you wanted to do. I had an amazing right that went like a top, it was like a point break I went so long. Towards the end of the session I had a screaming rail grabbing left followed by a turn off the lip and a crash into a whitewash strewn impact zone. I popped up and hooted, but there was no one there to hoot to. Also saw a dolphin today, my first dolphin on the central coast this fall. I'm glad he was policing the lineup. One of my alltime surfing sessions this fall.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Sunny Warm, Offshore
Conditions:		Clean but sluggish
Swell:		Short Period NW
Surf:		Waist High Sets at Best

Comments:

Another smallish day on the central coast, but the conditions were setup for a perfect day with mucho sun and a slight offshore. Would of been great for a longboard with clean waves that were sluggish and took some pumping. Still have yet to bring the longboard out up on the central coast though. the 3/2 with booties was warm enough because the sun was toasty. Caught a few real fun ones on the sets, both racing lefts and slower rights. Got crowded towards the end at the peak I was at. Even though it was small there were 3 nice sets while I was out there, about 30 minutes in between them. These sets were towards the head high range and offered excellent lefts. There were a few longboarders who had these sets wired and were racing down the line. I wrangled one of them but couldn't make the first section and watched in sad desperation as I got stuck behind a wall of whitewater. Still worth the rush.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		High Clouds, Offshore Wind
Conditions:		Slow and small
Swell:		Short Period NW
Surf:		Waist High Sets

Comments:

The smallest day of central coast surfing yet. It didn't help that I went during high tide which was slowing things down. Fairly uncrowded, would have been perfect for a longboard. Actually only was able to milk one wave all the way to the beach with some turns, the rest were either to slow to get going on or closed out pretty quickly. I had a wicked case of poison oak in my armpits and my borrowed 4/3 which is a little tight excabberated the situation. 1 Seal sighting, I've still yet to see a dolphin up here. Wind came up around 9:30 and started to put some undesirable texture on the waves. It was time for the Nautical Bean.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Sunny and Warm
Conditions:		Clean and Glassy
Swell:		6' Short Period NW
Surf:		Chest High Sets

Comments:

The warmest central coast day at the beach for me, full on sun, slight offshore breeze and the water actually seemed warm. That may have been influenced by the 4/3 I was borrowing. A longboard may have been a wiser choice today as the waves were a little slow and lacking power. The sets had power with some fast lefts but everything else was a little lackluster. The water was pretty empty, only 1 guy out when I paddled out but soon turned into a dozen spread over a few peaks. Caught a few steller waves that packed power, but still no barrells for me.

Location:		Sands
Weather:		Spectacular Post Storm Sun
Conditions:		Fast and Clean
Swell:		11' mid period swell at Harvest
Surf:		Head High Sets

Comments:

With parts of the county getting over 6 inches of rain between Sunday and Wednesday the water probably wasn't the cleanest out there, but it was big yesterday and still looked good today so I headed to sands with the shorty. It was crowded for a pre-lunch session, don't these kids go to class? Head high sets with nice shape were coming in, perhaps closing out a little too much but that broke up the lineup a bit. I headed down to the peak in front of the rocks at the snowy plover refuge and soon cut open my foot walking out. Nice. Once out I caught a few fun ones off the bat, super fast rights that were so clean. I then drifted to the main pack and prompty choked two waves in a row. Ran into our newly highered 18 year old gopher at work, who promptly has been nicknamed Squid. He was on his 7'2 and catching a lot of waves and coming back from every one with a giant grin and claiming that was his best wave ever. I manged to eat it in front of him, therby ruining any chances of him runing any errands for me at work in the near future. Caught shoulder high and running rampant wave in. Best day of surfing in Santa Barbara in a month for me.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Overcast, damp and drizzly
Conditions:		Clean and pitching out
Swell:		Some NW and SW groundswell
Surf:		Head High

Comments:

It's tough to find new places to surf in a town you don't know. The best you can do is head to the beach and look for a lineup and go experiment. Today I did that, the most north I've surfed yet this fall at a beachbreak that funneled the combo swell in nice rifiling lefts. Surfing somewhere new is pretty awkward. Where do you park, where is the path through the dunes, will locals know you are some SB kook if you paddle out in the wrong spot? As it turns out you just need to go for it. The sets were head high, and coming in lovely lefts that were fast and sometimes spitting. I really only got one classic set wave that I could keep up with and it required trying to keep the energy as much as possible thru turns and pumping. No cover ups for me but I saw several hunched over barrells. My backside game continues to improve, I'm not just some lifeless stick on a board.

The rights were fun too but required a lot more work to keep up the flow. There was a campground nearby, you could smell the scent of campfires and it that kept me warm out there. Certainly my 3/2 was not keeping me warm enough. So far this was my favorite spot for central coast surfing in terms of crowds, shape, and acesss. The best part is I don't even know the name of it. Back at the ranch we got 1.25 inches of rain in the evening.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		The Most Sunny and Warm I've seen
Conditions:		Strange Reef Break, fast at first then slow
Swell:		12ft @14s NW Groundswell
Surf:		Head High

Comments:

After Fridays drubbing at a beachbreak and the buoys being twice as big today as then I figured I'd try to find a reef or point or something with a little shelter down south. A lot of places were closed from the Shark attack and shark sightings, but the place I headed seemed to be out of the jurisdiction of lifeguards so it was ok. There were many lineups strewn among the cliffs. I've heard the names of some of these surf spots, but I'm not sure which was which, so I just headed out to a peak that looked good. I have no idea what it was called. There were a few really tight packs of shredding groms and then there was this larger sprawling pack with all kinds of folks that I went to. I hung out a little inside and to the right and picked up a lot of fun waves at first.

A fun rifling right that jacked up over a reef that would allow you a bottom turn (maybe) and then it would slow and allow a cutback to the lip for a nice little move back onto the face. A short wave with a few moves, good times. Then a 30 minute lull happened. I got lured inside and caught a few small ones. Then it was on again, about 30 minutes of fun waves with very consistent sets. The waves weren't as powerfull nor as big as on Friday, I had extra wax on the rails, so failed duck dives with resulting 30 yard drags were not present. I had a hard time figuring out how to get back out of the water, trying to figure out how to paddle into a narrow cute between rocks. I'll be hitting this spot up again.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Sunny
Conditions:		Large and in Charge
Swell:		NW 14 Second Groundswell
Surf:		Overhead

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.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Overcast and Damp
Conditions:		Mushy and Rogue
Swell:		NW Windswell
Surf:		Chest High at Best

Comments:

Session Two of Central Coast Exploration and it was time to hit Spot #2 based on Kevin's guidance. This spot also had a sandy bottom and wasn't too remote so it was a good starting point. This wave was like the ocean equivalent of a high pass filter, allowing only the longer period sets to break on it's sandbar while everything else broke on the beach. This meant long lulls in a seemingly flat sea.

There were only a dozen or so surfers out, and spread pretty far apart. I hate breaking someone's solo session by surfing their peak if there are plenty of others peaks around, but this was my first time out and I thought I could use someone near me in case this spot featured some unknown like the loch ness monster. I surfed near two guys with helmets that were very friendly and didn't seem to want to slash my tyres. The rip current was un-relenting. I spotted the rip from the beach and used it to paddle out. It shot me out thru a washing machine of crossed up waves and into the ocean open. The littoral current then proceed to suck me and my two new buddies south.

The best waves were lefts and I caught a couple that seemed like monsters. The drop was so full of bumps and skips it felt like Laird on some 30' wave with 2' chop on the face. The wave then entered deeper water and died out. This spot could be really fun on the right tide if I can figure that out.

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Overcast with Patches of Sun
Conditions:		Fast, Glassy and Closing Out
Swell:		NW Windswell
Surf:		Chest High Sets

Comments:

For the next 9 months I'm going to be a Central Coast weekend warrior as I'm up with K-dog as she tucks into her 2nd of 2 years of grad school at Cal Poly. I've only surfed a few places North of Point Conception so it's time to start exploring. Today's exploration I surfed near some big rock. I made the mistake of surfing a new place on a new board. I just pulled the trigger on a used 6'6" with an extra 1/8" of thickness and 1/4" of width in an effort to manage the ruggedness of the Central Coast. Of course trying to wire a new board in a new wave is a little tough. That is, you don't know weather to blame the board or the wave when you bail.

Another reality of this central coast existence is cold water. From springsuiting it in sunny Santa Barbara to putting on the 3/2 in foggy central coast and still being cold, it's a shock. Tomorrow it's time to dust off the booties. By November I better pull the trigger on a 4/3. Then a hood. Maybe some gloves. God no, not gloves.

The positive aspect is that there were waves. I'm not even sure I need to methodically check the buoys and predict where and when it's going to be good. I'm just going to drag my board down to the beach and head out and I'll get something. This place was way more crowded then I thought it would be, it must have been a small day. The pack closest to the rock was all longboarders and the pack I hung out 100 yards down was shortboarders. It was a nice co-existence, until some guy with 20 square feet of track top on his longboard decided to park it outside and catch every single wave.

My best wave was a nice chest high left that was reeling. I looked before taking off and the wave hog was about to take off way down the line, about two sections and 100 feet away. So I forgot my "I'm the outsider I should respect the locals" mentality and dropped in figuring he'd never make it through those sections. He hollered instantly and just out of spite powered through hundreds of feet of whitewater just to get to where I was, peacefully railgrabbing down the line of a pitching out section. I don't think I'll pull that move when I explore some of those "don't surf here unless you have puncture resistant tyres" spots.