Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Comments:

On the way down to Lynda's 50th Birthday Party in Ventura K-dog and I stopped for some beach and surfing. Ended up just north of Emma Wood along the beachbreaks. The tide was getting high which left just a little bit of sand on the beach. The waves were awesome, perhaps my best session this summer. Super fast pipes were barrelling up the beach from the south swell, creating challenging lefts that were strictly for racing down. The water was freezing cold. I wore my spring suit because my session earlier that day at Leadbetter in the fullsuit was too warm. Mistake. Freezing. Just a few people out at the peak I challenged, and wave selection was key. 40% of the waves were top to bottom close-out mackers, while the rest offered rideability. A few rights were even to be had, in fact my longest ride was a right that offered up a shoulder to tour into. Sometimes the rights were sneakers though that just closed out on you in a hurry. The lefts were the main attraction though. You could see them for miles marching up the beach, a hint of offshore grooming them, a bit warbly from the high tide, but pitching out like some kind of tropical reef-pass. I had countless railgrabbing quick drops, tucked into position, trying to get into the teardropped shaped hollows, sometimes beating a section or two and then skating out the back like I just had a perfect 10 at pipeline. Although I'm sure from anyone's viewpoint I never got barrelled, I had Barrell View Potential.

There was a guy up on the rocks watching our peak for about 20 minutes. When I got out K-dog told me she thought it was Marcus Allen. I didn't know he surfed.