Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

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Craziest Rincon Session ever. Was heading to Pierpont for pa's birthday dinner and figured I could squeeze in a quick session in this quickly filling in post-storm swell. The stormy weather was clearing out and it was looking like it might give the ocean a chance to offer a stage for the big swell. Both parking lots were packed, people were parking on the road, the CHP was hasseling people. I parked and went for it, didn't even want to know how crowded it was or what it looked like.

I was in in for a big surprise. I walked down the steps to indicator and big bombs were coming in. I wanted to paddle in up top and backdoor the lineup but the beachbreak was looking imprentable. No one was opting for that route. So I crawled over lots of rocks above the rivermouth and began to paddle out. I then got worked for about 10 minutes paddling out and ducking wave after wave. Watching bombs explode outside, some coming in near double overhead. It was loco. I was undergunned on my 6'6" Sands board. I was also not nearly mentally prepared for such conditions and was losing hope I'd ever make it out.

By the time I made it out to the lineup I had been swept into the cove, and was sitting in the lineup just above the glass house. After some rest I began to figure out where to sit. The crowd was nervous. When big sets would come in, half of the pack would high tail for the channel, and the other half would head out to greet it. I did a little bit of both, depending on my confidence level at that particular moment. I only had 1 hour to surf and I was 20 minutes in without a wave but rested up from the paddle out. Sets were coming in and I was waiting for my magic chance, it was crowded but so big it was thinner than it could of been. I finally clawed by way into my first wave, a heaving giant that came sputtering along. This was, without a doubt, my biggest Rincon wave ever. I don't think it was bigger than the Jan 19th waves I caught along the Gaviota Coast, but it was way heavier. The waves had some mush to them but were heavy. There was a lot of water behind those walls.

I raced down the line, looking like some kind of frozen caveman on my short board, just hanging on down the line, no big turns, no hitting the lip, just praying to god that I didn't blow it. I only got dropped in on once, and a whistle took care of that problem. The wave then hit a slow spot and I finally made my first cutback, let a bunch of poor souls over the shoulder and then raced down the line again. Coming now down towards the freeway the wave hit another lull, and as I tried to milk it to callbox I noticed it was ramping up to close out inside. I chickened out and let it go blast on the beach.

I then sat on my board in disbelief for about 5 minutes. My first wave of the session was both my biggest and longest Rincon wave ever. Should I just stop now? I only had a half hour to begin the brutal paddle out and attempt to wrestle a wave from all star surfers. I should of gone in and treausred the single Rincon wave I got on an great day, but instead I decided to go out again.

The paddle out was eternal and I wasn't able to get in postion for my 2nd wave, so at 4:55 and visions of flaking on pa's birthday dinner in my head, I caught some smaller inside wave, blew the takeoff and then got pushed into shore by whitewash. Not a very victorious way to come in from a session with photogs and gawkers on the beach. I wish I had time to grab the camera and document the day, but I began the walk across the driftwood and rocks, thru the first parking lot, down to the road and up to the 2nd parking lot. Everyone along the way had big, relaxed smiles.

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Nearly identical to yesterday. Surfed the pier as a last resort because we had to head to Nipomo to pick up firewood. Too lazy to drive up the coast to more exposed spots so surfed the pier with millions of groms and tourists in mushy beackbreak. Even though, surfing is always fun.

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The buoys looked big, so I headed to a sheltered area, which ended up being too sheltered. As a last ditch effort to just get some exposure I went to the pier and surfed with a bunch of 13 year old groms in chest high beach break. Surfed south side, and the lefts towards the pier were the best. Sometimes the rights would line up and the inside section offered fun times. Lots of groms. Lots of tourists. Fun anyway.

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Deveraux again on the longboard, this time with Greggory in tow. Coming off of a high tide, only a few guys out. One guy on an awesome green swallow tail who also out yesterday. Completely owning the point. The point wasn't as shut down by the ledge as yesterday. At first we sat out in front of the ledge and caught some nice ones. Soon we were working more inside as it was more consistent. We were getting a lot of waves cause it was very consistent and only a few of us out.

The drops were fun but then followed by a slow section that required some serious cutbacks, of which I was about 50% pulling off. Water was hammering of of the ledge I think and sometimes walling up the wave right about the time I was coming back from my cutback.

My favorite wave was a nice sized set wave that I took off way too deep on, inadvertently backdooring a peak that swung wide. After a nice drop it was obvious I was not going to make it past the main peak and a guy was paddling out right into the impact zone. Instead of trying to make it and surely eating it in front of him, I swung up, hit the lip and went out of control airborne on what must of looked like a completely botched longboarding section floater. Good times.

Greggory had a similarly awesome botch job. He was taking off way late on a good sized set, in what looked like a 1 or 2 stroke paddle in and a quick stand up that screamed of momentum needed. The wave did pick him up but he slid down the face sideways, not quite tracking. Just when it looked like he was about to pull it off he completely lost all contact with the wave and went down big time. Awesome.

Fun session.

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Deveraux on the longboard in a sea of shortboarders. Had I known it was so shortboardable I would of done the same. I avoided stink eye by not abusing the power a longboard could of had out there. Mostly. There were times I tried to take off way outside of the ledge and setup before it jacked up over the ledge. This had a poor performance ratio so was soon abandoned for the inside lineup. The ledge was owning the outside, tempting all but having no takers. Soon the tide dropped enough where pre-ledge surfing was do-able.

I caught a billion waves, some to way past the block house and some that would peter out in some holes. A shortboard would of been fun, I just wanted to carve out a big turns but the LB wasn't quite loose enough to put pen to paper. It was good at catching those waves that held up too long, frustrating all those with small foam and delighting me.

A few pretend cover ups, lots of cutbacks, minimal walking the board, and very little nose time. I was not using the LB as a LB, but rather being one of those performance longboarders that are often questioned. Either way it was an awesome session.

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My most commonly surfed beach break along the central coast. Paddled out and was instantly escorted 200 yards to the north, near a pile of rocks I'd never had the pleasure of surfing with. Constant maintance padlling was required to stay put. The waves were marching in from the South, creating huge rip currents and a huge side-shore current.

Waves were breaking on both the outside and inside bars again. Outside was a bunch of bombs, while inside they were denonating in 2 feet of water. In between was a river of muddy water. I caught a few on the inside bar and tried to fight my way down the coast to no avail. I got out and walked until I got to a peak that looked stable. I paddled out well south of it and hit it dead on. 4 guys out at this peak, and with them holding the lineup down, I was able to maintanence paddle my way into a stable position. This was the outside bar, it took work getting there and staying there. It was worth it though, because it was launching us into head high lefts that raced and pitched out thanks to the sideshore/offshore wind. I only caught 4 waves at this peak before calling it, but it was well worth it. After surfing in ucky brown water in screaming winds it was hot tub time.

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Back to a spot that I haven't surfed since the big storms. It's a giant stretch of beach where the sandbars were real fun before the big storms re-arranged them for the worse. Everytime I checked, it was not holding up so I was hitting up other places that were fun yet more crowded. Today I was back and the shape was still messed up but getting better.

Mother nature gave this beach a facelift in a big way, with one big long sandbar on the outside and then more typical sandbars on the inside. At first I headed all the way outside and tried to get the bigger ones. However 90% of these were not breaking outside. Some longboarders were able to get on these thing, almost like open ocean swells, but with the 6'6" I was getting frustrated. I finally wrangeled in one amazing left after paddling after it for yards and yards. Screaming down the line was well worth the wait.

The tide was rising, the outside bar was getting even worse so I migrated to the inside bar. This paid off well, as my wave count started climbing. The only problem here is that it got real shallow at the end of the wave. A fun takeoff, some pumping down the line and either a big cut or a tuck into the pocket as the chest high by now wave exploded into a mess of sand. Paddling in this shallow part of the beach was horrible as no matter what size the wave was, it denotated right here, leaving you to duck dive about every 12 seconds in pretty shallow water until you clawed it out to your lineup.

Abosultely invigorating session.

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A lunchtime session during a work from home day along the central coast. The weather was amazingly warm and the waves were looking ok too considering the location and the time of the day. I paddled out on the north side of pier and soon paddeled thru the pier to the south side as it looked better. The outside waves were big but with little to no shape. The better waves were inside a bit, and heading left towards the pier. Fast takeoffs, short rides, and tough paddle outs. A session of pure punishment, meant to improve paddling and duck diving skills. Took a few big, big turns on these short, short waves.

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Reunion session with Mank and Greggory, this being Mank's first session in SB since moving to great warm south. My stories of epic days in mid January all seemed like lies when we saw the buoys were not cooperating this weekend. We had to go a anyway, Mank on his DanO shortboard and Greggory and I on our lonboards. Deveraux was showing ankle high peelers and sands wasn't much better. No one was out for miles. For good reason. We traded waves for as long as we could, which in this case was until the sun went down. Even being as small as it was, it was fun. Greggory and I paddled around the point looking to catch on in at Deveraux. This was impossible. There simply was nothing there. The funnest part was paddling over the ledge when a few waves came in. We were in a little too far, the water was uber clear and as the water drained over the ledge we almost got sucked in. That is one long ledge.

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A quick lunchtime session along the central coast on a work from home day. Swell had dropped a lot and I went to a sheltered spot with the shortboard. Would have been better on a longboard or at a more exposed spot. Waves were a little slow and hard to get into, and died out too quick. Was reallt too warm in the 4/3. Nothing like a lunch session to break up the day though.

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Swell height and period dropping but still waves out there. This time Rio was out but Greggory was in but didn't have his board or wetsuit. So I was his personal caddy, bringing and extra suit and board to him on campus and heading out to Poles. I think I may start a side business being a personal surf caddy.

Not as crowded as yesterday, we managed to sit on the peak for a long time and catch a lot of waves. Some flounderers out there making some waves a little more dangerous weaving in and out of stray boards.

Greggory had an awesome wave, was screaming down the line when some old guy decided to head for the shoulder as opposed to the whitewash and just shut down his ride. No apoligies. Right behind that was a young planted on the nose screaming down the line. Same thing, old guy won't take the hit in the wash so scrambles for shoulder, shuts down noseriding guy's ride. I wish I had confronted Mr. Shoulder Scrambler on the two perfect waves he just ruined.

Very long and fun session again.