Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments:

A rare late season NW groundswell gets sent our away from somewhere in the NE Pacific. This one is predicted to have a healthy dose of West in it with 14 second periods. Truly awesome, to have a mid-period groundswell out of the West in May with blazing sun and mountains that aren't quite brown yet. Funny how when a swell starts to roll in friends crawl out of the woodwork and contact each other for sessions. This time it was Kevin, who I hadn't surfed with in a year who contacted me. We planned a 5:30 rendezvous in the lower Rincon lot. Kevin was surfing Emmy's 7'6" CI Funboard and I brougth the fish for it's first time in groundswell. Parking lot had a dozen or so cars in it but the lineup wasn't that bad. Their was some size out there but the shape was disapointing. It wasn't the Rincon we daydream about with long racing rides to the callbox. Instead it was like surfing a beachbreak where sometimes you'd get a long ride but more often you'd get shut down by a section. At least that was my experience with how slow I am. Soon we ran into Dave out there on his shorty, enjoying one of his last sessions in SB before he moves back up to SLO where size is a plenty but Rincon-esque shape isn't. Too bad Rincon wasn't itself today. Who knows, as the tide dropped, the swell built and the morning sickness went away maybe it turned into an all star day. Didn't have many good waves, a couple of lip hits and a lot of flounders. A late drop on a closeout set wave that pitched me. At one time Kevin, Dave and I all got stuck inside on the wave of the day. A longboarder was screaming down the line, not going to make the next session and we all ducked under the whitewater and came up in various states of dis-array but all with proper board control. That's the good thing about surfing with those you know, you can duck-dive just a few feet from them and no that no matter what they are going to control their board. Right around 6:00 or so the trunking it kayaker guy came around to do his rounds. That guy owns it, strolls down from his beachfront home and kayaks in trunks for 30 minutes before going off to whatever it is he does. A longboarder in red shorts was also turnking it with excellent form. Aftewards I stopped by the French Bulldog for some coffee and all's I had was quarters for the $1.70 tab. The barrista didn't like that and gave me 5 pennies back. Jealous he wasn't at the 'con this morning.