Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

Location:		Sands
Weather:		Sunny and Hot
Conditions:		Clean Waves, Closing Out
Swell:		NW Windswell, First Trace of NW Groundswell?
Surf:		Waist High Sets
Wetsuit Life:		11 Sessions in Rip Curl Bomb

Comments:

Had a dr's apointment with an ENT guy named John McCaffery in Goleta who said I had a sinus infection which is why my last 6 weeks have been feeling less than healthy and why the VC session on Sunday really hit hard. I wrote a review on the Doc, cause I think he could be helpfull for surfers in the area.

So after the doc, Kyle hit me up at lunch to go surfing. I figured I might as well get some more junk up those sinus cavaties while I'm on the meds, so we headed to Sands. He was on his 6'3" round tail and I was on the Fish. Sands wasn't too crowded, but it was hot there were plenty of beachgoers everywhere. Less than 15 guys out, mostly at first peak, although shifted to the West somewhat because of the low tide. We'd only been out about 10 minutes when there was this huge "BOOM" coming from the West. There was a helicopter there, and I put two and two together and realized that was Bird Island that I've seen them dismantling for the last few weeks from various vantage points. Here is the NewsPress article:

A deafening explosion went off at Bird Island today and a column of water shot into the air -- but the giant caissons of the old pier did not tumble as expected.

The 1 p.m. detonation off the Goleta coast was part of a monthlong effort by BP America Inc. to dismantle and replace the crumbling structure off Sandpiper Golf Course, part of an oil pier that was built in the 1930s.

The pier remnant had become a hangout for cormorants and pelicans, and plans call for erecting new platforms for the birds in its place. Originally set for 9 a.m., the explosion was delayed for hours as monitors on land, at sea and in the air scanned the ocean within a half-mile radius for signs of sea lions and other marine mammals. Kayakers in the area were told to leave. The explosives had been set earlier at the base of the columns by divers, but some of the charges did not go off, observers said."

It was pretty loud, and we did see white smoke come up from the structure. The helicopter kept circling, it wasn't a heavy lifting chopper, I think it was solely there as a spotter. After that big explosion, we moved from 1st peak and sat at 2nd peak to get some waves to ourselves. Every now and then a real fun set would come in, but the lulls were long and unfruitfull. The biggers waves were closing out but the thigh to waist high ones were fun. Kyle was the MVP, he got two fun lefts, one of them even bigger then waist high. Huge.