Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

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Went out last night for a repeat of Monday's session, but it was windy and garbage. No one out although yesterday was two dozen cats out there. What a difference a day makes, although some tipsters say mid-day was really fun. I shoulda been there an hour ago.

I knew the waves were going away, and the buoys had dropped in half since yesterday and I wasn't about to have an afternoon blowout again so I went at lunch. It was small, and only a few guys were out there tinkering around. I was in the water for 34 minutes and caught a dozen super small waves. At first I was going nowhere on them but after awhile I got a few that took me to the beach. Was working on getting my back foot further back. I keep getting up on the fish way too forward and end up not being able to turn and bogging down. The further back foot helps. Judging by the forcasts this could be my last SB based session in awhile, it's looking bad.

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How many time do co-workers complain that it was crudy weather all weekend but then sunny on Monday? Tell them all about May 23rd, 2005. After 3 warm and sunny days in a row, with waves to boot, it gets foggy on Monday back at work. The NW long period swell was gone but there was some 11 second or stuff out there around 10ft on the buoys. Certainly enough to sample some beachbreaks after work.

I headed to my usual after work Goleta beachbreak and suited up as the fog was breaking. I already saw Bobby out there on his yellow board, hitting the lip and getting air on just about every wave. The beach was completely changed since last week, the creek had cutout big ledges and moved a lot of sand, and now it was all back on the beach. The shape was quite good for a beachbreak, although a lot of them were too fast to make, many were makeable.

The best barrell I've seen in weeks happened about mid-session where some local 90lb kid I see out there all the time dropped into a teardrop shaped barrell and let the board slide down towards the curtain while he tucked his body perfectly into the oval shaped pocket. Was a great image as I paddled over the shoulder.

Once again a good vibe out here, mostly groms who all know each other and a few older dudes, all stoked to be out there. I had a few tuck ins and got taken out by the lip quite a few times too. Waves seemed more consistent towards sunset as the the crowd thinned. I drifted to the Eastern peak and found a groove, with a fun drop, a few turns and then a tuck into a closeout section that would pound me to the sand.

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Friday: Two sessions in the 3/2 fullsuit. Saturday: Two sessions in the 2/1 springsuit. Today: Two sessions in Trunks and no leash. What a maddening May it is. The swell is all but gone, but there still is some energy, however small, that makes it all worthwhile. The water is so warm trunking it is not a problem at all. Leashless was tough because there are a lot of bathers inside, and I lost my board too many times. I never took out any toddlers though.

Best wave was the last one of the first session. A fast bowling right that swung way inside where the beachbreak was closing out amongst swimmers. Screamed down the line and managed to control my board when it all came crashing down.

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More time along the sunny May beaches south of Santa Barbara. K-dog and I park and walk north of yesterday and as we look to setup camp we see the camp of Kevin, Dana and Rodney so we setup near them. A lot of people at the beach, there really is nowhere to else to go today. The cove has a dozen or so people out and Kevin recommnends heading up past that to the reef break. I have the fish in tow and head up there for a quick springsuit session. Shaun is out in the water and I follow rule #1 when I'm surfing in the proximity of world class surfers: stay the heck out of their way.

As so happens I did manage to stay out of ST's way, I didn't drop in on him nor did I stupidly get caught inside of him. I just wanted to ask why he said yes to the "In God's Hands" roll. My 2nd time surfing near him and both times I'm just too chicken to ask him that. That question aside, I had a great session working both the far out peak and the inside section. Some good sets would come thru that spoke of true solid swell, but in between there were a lot of scraps to work with. Went back in the water an hour or so later, this time in the cove. Lot's of longboards and kids in general a real low key scene out there. Occainasionaly some real nice rollers would peel thru the cove and the guys outside would get nice long rides. I hung inside more and picked up a ton shorter waves. Great day.

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After an early dawn patrol session I engineer a post work session with Greggory and K-dog with a cooler full for Friday Happy Hour. We packed the wagon up and headed south. The 101 was packed of course but we only had a few exits to go. We brought our gear to the beach and sure enough the swell was still there. We camped out near a palapa and started changing. Within minutes a security guard and a dog came to tell us we were on private property. I had setup camp in front of this palapa many a time and never had a problem, but what I didn't notice was the 3 new security cameras they installed, one right on top of the palapa. We moved a few feet seaward and then chatted up the gaurd. It's amazing how quickly a situation can go from tense and defenesive to friendly. I simply asked the guard what her guard dog's name was. She responded with "Cheyene" and then was really friendly, switching from letter of the law to now how to get around the law, and then eventually offering where to keep our stuff in case the wind came up. All because of Cheyene.

The tide was super high so the paddle out was a little rough yet quick. Two shortboarders were outside. I was on the fish, and my companions on longboards. If I was nearly soloing a peak and 3 people paddled out on wave catching machines I'd be bummed, so we kept it lo pro for most of the session. We didn't stay out too long, traded a dozen waves or so as it got more and more crowded. K-dog and Greggory went in, and I was going to catch one more. I paddled all the way out and one guy on a yellow railed board was deeper than I. A set came and I thought he missed it so I took off. Looked back a little and didn't see anyone so raced down the line. A few turns into it I crash into the guy. Without a doubt my worst burn job ever. I felt horrible and apologized profusely saying I had no idea. He was pissed and would have none of it. About 5 minutes later I tried to repeat my apologies and this time he accepted them without chastising me, saying with the setting sun it's tough to see behind you. I caught a small one in and couldnt' stop thinking about it. Jenny took photos, and afterwards we all shared story and beers as the sun set. Not a bad Friday; two sessions, a nice sunrise and a nice sunset and capping it off with a brew on the beach. Summer.

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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.

Comments: Quick lunchtime beachbreak session. Warmth out in force, and although the waves were very small it warranted getting out. Leashless in small yet fast beachbreak in very shallow water. More then once did I hit the lip and go down in a blaze of glory to hit the bottom with my back in 18" of water. Was much more successfull at getting speed today compared to yesterday. Although it was smaller the low tide must have given it more juice and so I wasn't bogging down. An out of place guy was down there with a HUGE lens on his Nikon camera. Looking a little suspicous, my belief is he was paparazzi stalking a celibrity of some sort staying at the nearby resort. There was certianly a lot of non beach bum activity down there today so something must be going on in those parts. A guy who paddled out two minutes before me went in two minutes after I went out. It took longer for him to suit up then to surf. It was that small.

Comments: Post work beachbreak session with the fish. Handfull of guys out and a lot of bait in the water that the pelicans were feasting on. Many impressive dive bombs in my vicinty by hard working birds. High tide and the waves had a bit of lump to them so getting speed and power were tough. Most waves consisted of a drop a turn and then a complete loss of speed. Other, more agile, surfers were making something of things out there. The fish is a crazy board to figure out. You can do really long drawn out soulful turns and also take tight snaps, but I can't always know what's going to come out when I lay into a turn. Took a couple nice lips on the head during fast rail grabbing tuck ins.

Comments: Yesterday was perhaps one of our windiest days of the year. An afterwork check at the beach had 20+ knt winds and an ocean in shreds. Today the winds were light and the ocean had some of the windswell benefits of yesterday's havoc. Walking down the path I saw Yellow Board Bobby and a photographer friend of his coming out of the water. There was a mix of shortboarders and longboaders, a half dozen or so all at the leftmost peak. The tide was high, and was digging into the the creek and making walls of sand as if there was a winter swell eating at the beach.

Waves were coming in with typical windswell style, lumpy and shifty, sometimes fast and peaky and sometimes rolling over the outside sand and spitting out on the inside bars. I took the fish, it's 3rd session out and I already noticed a small ding on the tail.

Did some major floundering, one time taking off on a quick left with a potential tuck in. Grabbed the outside rail and ducked in but then ended getting sucked over the falls in that position, still with my hand on the rail until the board got ripped out of my hands and suffering a cut on my thumb when my fin whizzed by it. The fish is super fun but is taking time to get into the groove of it. Turns are more drawn out and I have to come back to the source more often than I thought. Rails are so thick it doesn't dig into the wave on big turns and stays on top more than I'm used to. Wave catching ability is rad as are the turns.

Changing on the grass afterwards I got bit by a million mosquitoes. Those things are everywhere this spring when I get out of the water at dusk. These guys must have been on patrol from their breedding grounds over at the creek. They were relentless, I had to change as quick as possible allthewhile swatting myself in a scene that to bystanders must have seemed like mild schizonphrenia.

Comments: Met Wild Bill down at the Pier while K-dog went running. Weather was awesome. We headed out to the northside, he on his Walden and I on K-dog's funboard. Giant crowd in tight so we were at the next "peak" up. Traded waves for sometime at this peak until the crowd started spreading out. Many closeouts but also some long rides. The fun board is fun. Can catch a lot of waves and yet still come up and hit the lip. That thing has so much Deveruax tar on it though it needs a good cleaning. I was sporting the new Dakine Interval Westsuit backpack which Wild Bill got for me. Thing is rad, look for a review coming up soon.

Wild Bill headed in and I paddled over to the pier to battle it out for another half hour of waves. Got some fun lefts on the sets. Soon a guy with a mission to catch every wave on earth came out and managed to always do so. I wasn't feeling like jockeying around for 2 foot closeouts so I headed in.

Later that day Wild Bill, K-dog, Haggarty and myself went out for one of our famous boooogieboard sessions. I was once again on the BZ DiamondRail with flourescent green bottom and flourescent pink rails. Haggarty decided he wants a floursecent green wetsuit, they are coming back. The wind was blowing strong offshore, creating waves that held up and pitched out. A half hour of extreme boogieboarding and this crew was ready for some Mojitos and Pork.

Comments: A quick lunchtime session which I remember very little about.

Comments: Back to back days on the new fish. Today instead of no one out in the lineup there was about a dozen. The weather was nice and the waves had picked up. About half longboarders and half shortboarders, a pretty mellow vibe of people making what they could of some springtime conditions. I can insanely far up on the nose of the fish when paddling for a wave without pearling, which gets me into a lot of waves but throws me off when I stand up.

Don't remember much about this session cause I'm writing about it 2 weeks later.

Comments: Got my brand new Fish from Dave Johnson over at Progressive surfboards today. Never had a fish before and this was designed to be my afternoon beachbreak session for the summer, to cope with afternoon windswell. The board came out nicely, the color a little more startling than I had expected, but a nicely put together board.

There was no one out, for good reason, it was pretty small. I had to go get this bad boy out though so I went out into the small peaky windswell and got to know my new board. The session turned out way better than planned, the fish caught a lot of waves and kept moving in the small stuff. A lot of tar floating out there today and the first session with my new board and I already got tar on it. Rats.

Comments: K-dog and I headed down to our favorite big sandy beach for our weekend ritual of surfing and running. It was the first day of May, and it was sunny and warm out. K-dog opted out of surfing and went on her run and I headed out with the shortboard. I went sans-booties because it's been getting a lot warmer up here, my first time barefooting at this beach. There were millions of those giant sandcrabs (Spiny Mole Crabs) tunneling into the sand, and they were squirming and sharp on my feet as I headed into the lineup. I had to start paddling way earlier than usual to avoid the feeling of walking on sandcrab shells.

The lineup was spread out and the current was moving us north. I started out in front of the park ranger station and ended up a the rivermouth because I didn't' fight the current the whole way. I caught some pretty fun waves, most of them closed out pretty quick but sometimes I got to get a few turns in before coming off the top in a blaze of glory.

Meanwhile I had devious intentions.

After 45 minutes I got out of the water to prepare for K-dog's arrival back from her run. I went to the car to grab my towel, camera, along with a special something. I saw her in those bright orange shorts coming from the south and convinced her to jump in the water with me. She went to put her bathing suit on but came back with her wetsuit on with intentions of bodysurfing for awhile. We started walking out and the sandcrabs became unbearable. K-dog bellyflopped into knee high water and dog paddled around to avoid stepping on millions of sandcrabs, and it became clear we were not going to bodysurf today. Back on the beach I asked K-dog if she could carry my surfboard for me. I did this because my covert ops had enabled me to leave a secret message under my board.

That's right, a few small sanddollars, some swift writing in the sand, and a rock on a ring and I popped the question right then and there. The answer was yes and we went about our day in a daze. Headed over to Wild Bill's and family for the announcement and champagne and then spent the afternoon exploring the shores of Morro Bay's back bay, followed by dinner at Mare Blu in Los Osos and a bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio.