Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments:

Headed to the same reef as yesterday but it looked totally lame, slow and small so I did the worst thing possible, I headed to the Pismo Pier. There it looked too big so I paddled out on the North side where the shape looked better. I paddled right next to the pier figuring it would suck me out but I soon realized I was doing a lot of ducking and working to stay away from pilings. I made a gametime decision to paddle under the pier to get to the south side. Here there was a river that took me straight out to the lineup. The lineup was out past the pier. I've never surfed here when I've been surfing out beyond the pier. I'm glad I didn't get caught in any fishing lines on this paddle out.

Once out, before even assesing the situation I got into a great right that had both size and shape. After that I realized I got an anomoly, most were dumping top to to bottom and offered no shelter. A few short rights and lefts that closed out and I drifted down to a peak that looked makeable. I got a few dream rights, with easy paddle outs afterwards. Yet another anomoly. Our pack soon drifted down to a rip current and it looked like we were out too far. Most started to paddle up and in, as did I. Then one of the biggest sets came in, a perfect right that broke where I was not 2 minutes ago. I was paddling right next to some guy, and ducked under the wave as it was breaking. When I came up, he was gone and I was very impressed he spun around and caught that monster. After the 2nd wave I looked inside and he was half way to the beach. I caught the 3rd wave in and then paddled back out with him. I congratulated him on his guts and he said no, had actually tried to duck the wave and got dragged all that way. Holy crow.

I then caught some totally unmakeable closeout and while I was underwater getting mugged by this wave I felt my right ankle feel lighter. No, not two days in a row of my stupid leash ripping off my ankle. I was out past the end of the pier, which is 1200 feet in length and had a long swim ahead of me. By the time I got in I was too tired to make it back out through lines of whitewater so I hung out with the rest of Bakersfield in the parking lot.