Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Location:		Central Coast
Weather:		Breeze coming up but sunny
Conditions:		Ocainsonal perfect peelers. Ocainsional
Swell:		10.1ft @ 11s @ 310°
Surf:		Head High Sets

Comments:

Went out at the Southside of the pier in Bakersfield by the Sea. I can see why the local groms are a pretty tight knit and tough to penetrate group: tourons. So many tourists descend upon town, it displaces the residents. The water can get crowded with people in over their heads, as seemed the case today. If you take the channel out on the southside you can get wisked out beyond the breakers, which today was past the end of the pier. Once out there you drift south a little bit and get to a nice peak. Catch a long wave here and you pull out in no mans land, looking back out to sea at wave after wave coming towards you. After duck diving a half dozen waves in freezing cold water that makes your head stay stop, you realize you are not making much progress. Eventually the sets let up and you scramble outside. Next time you'll pull out a little earlier unless the wave looks epic. And this is for experienced surfers. With all the respect I have for those that make this place home, I still got pissed at Mr. Hooded Kid who spun around in front of me right as I was about to drop in. He gave me two choices, one get up and run over his back, or two pull out. I choose option two, and he took off all the while snickering. After that he made a nice point of paddeling real close to me when jockeying for waves. I certainly wouldn't the pier to be known as my local spot, but holy crow it sucks when you've put time in at a spot and still get stuffed. The good part of the story is my last wave, in which I pulled one of the best floaters of my life, hit it and landed the timing nicely and didn't eat it. Well worth getting sat on by Mr. Hooded Kid.