Reporter: Dave Meriage, dmeriage@amgen.com Date/Time: March 29, 1997, 7 am to 10 am Location: Somewhere near San Quintin, Baja Weather: Sunny and cool Air/Water T: 69 F / 54 F Conditions: Glassy Crowd: No one around for 100 km Food: Orange and sandwiches Surch Distance: 500 miles Surf Vehicle: We needed a good 4-wheel drive. Swell: 3 foot SW Surf: Head high and hollow (sometimes) Comments: It took 7 hours to get to this little point surrounded by lava rocks from an old burnt out volcano and it was totally worth it. My very first wave decided to throw over my head and keep me locked in for a couple of seconds. A super fine sesh all around. Reporter: Ken, Poseidon09@aol.com Date/Time: 3/30/97, 7:30a-about 10:30a Location: 10th Street, Charleston, SC Weather: clear blue skies Air/Water T: 78ish F / 68ish F Conditions: clean Crowd: all alone Food: banana before and turkey sandwich after Surf Vehicle: Stewart 6'6" (too small in retrospect) Swell: small Surf: small but perfect A-frame waves CLEAN! Comments: I decided to skip the commercial Easter church service and get my spiritual fix at the beach. I was rewarded with exceptionally clean waves and two dolphin that played in the waves with me sometimes about 15 feet from me. They were mostly just absorbed in each other but would give attention my way occasionally. Very satisfying. I haven't been surfing long, 1 year or so, but this was a stellar day, I caught as many rides as I wanted and improved my frontside turn off the top and caught a mini-tube ride backside (a first for me). All in all a great experience. And I didn't even know it was World Surf Day. Reporter: Mike Fraser, mcf@cs.nott.ac.uk Date/Time: 30/03/97, 1200 - 1700 Location: Scarborough North Beach, E.Coast England Weather: Sunny Air/Water T: 17 C / Cold (!) Conditions: Clean Crowd: 15-ish in line-up Food: shortbread before, fish&chips after Surch Distance: 120 miles Vehicle: VW polo car, 7'6" yukky popout on waves Swell: erratic - big lulls followed by big sets Surf: 2 foot ( getting overhead ) Comments: Nice light offshore breezes, caught a very nice left, surfed very badly apart from that. Hit my head badly on the board once. Locals dropped-in at every opportunity. Reporter: Eddie Taylor, etaylor592@aol.com Date/Time: 29 & 30 March, 11am - 2 pm Location: Bamburgh, England Weather: Sunny & windy Air/Water T: Chilly / Bloody Cold !! Conditions: clean Crowd: almost non-existent (3 on a 2 mile break) Food: Cheese & Rum ! Surch Distance: 215 miles Surf Vehicle: Redley 6' 3" Swell: Low tide Surf: 3ft offshore Reporter: Tim Gilboy (a.k.a. Tim'), gilboy@icess.ucsb.edu Date/Time: 3/29/97, 5:00 pm - sunset Location: Turtles (north of Pismo), CA Weather: Wonderful Air/Water T: Mid/Upper 60s F / 60 F Conditions: Very good Crowd: Good vibe Food: fast food / soup Surch Distance: 650 mi Surf Vehicle: 8'3" Log Shape Swell: good NW swell, touch of south Surf: solid fun long head high rights, shorter peakier lefts ending in a closeout blast Comments: Hit it here on the way back from surfing up north. The perfect cure for road drag. The waves were perfect for the long board. Some fun long head high rights peeling into a cove and shorter peakier lefts ending in a closeout blast. Great vibe in the water. Much different than Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz on Thursday. The whole Santa Cruz image is definately working. They have driven another person away. There nothing wrong with protecting your breaks, but that city has lost it. There is so much attitude and bad karma in the water. Way too much competition for me. I am usually not one to judge, but living up in San Francisco it was a good occasional day trip south. Oh well everyone is happy, Santa Cruz gets one less person and I have learned something. Happy surf day and enjoy the positive energy. Reporter: Mark Date/Time: 3/29, 2 pm - 5 pm Location: Santa cruz or so Weather: barb'quein' and bakin' Air/Water T: 70 + F / 52 F Conditions: light side shore conditions Crowd: minor Swell: ? ft out of the nw Surf: 2x - 3x overhead, macking and rideable Comments: Glory day, no shit. 6 - 10 guys out, sets to near triple overhead. The 7'8" felt soo goood. Some of the guys produced their worst wipeouts of the season. The hootin' and hollering from the beach pushed the performances above and beyond. Breaking way off the usual lineup, this spot typically can't handle that kind of size, but this was one for the books. Reporter: Jose Borrero, jborrero@usc.edu Date/Time: 3/29, 9:30-11:00 Location: S. side, Hermosa Pier Weather: clear, sun Air/Water T: 70's F / 58 F Conditions: clean, wind picking up Crowd: not a factor Food: corned beef and cabbage (after) Surch Distance: 2 mi Vehicle: toyota 4 runner 91 Swell: 2-3 NW Surf: 2-3 weak, mostly closed out Comments: The swell was weak in the south bay. The models made it look good every where else except maybe orange county. Florida probably sucked too. Wish I could have driven somewhere to get it bigger... Reporter: Miriam Goodman, showpro1@earthlink.net Date/Time: March 30, 1997, 1:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Location: Malibu, CA (first point) Weather: overcast, with broken clouds Air/Water T: 65 degrees F / 60 degrees F Conditions: bumpy Crowd: light to moderate Food: veal chops in white wine after Surch Distance: 8 miles Surf Vehicle: Toyota Landcruiser Swell: 8.9 from 305 deg., .9 from 205 deg Surf: 1ft to occasionally 3 ft, fair to poor Comments: The conditions weren't the best, but I still can't think of any way I'd rather spend my day. Reporter: Zack, VETTEDUDE2@aol.com Date/Time: 3/29, 5:30am-9:30 Location: secret spot Weather: nice Air/Water T: nice / cold Conditions: alright Crowd: 0 Food: donuts, subway Swell: don't know Surf: Comments: fun Reporter: Crazy Joe, fleming@thegrid.net Date/Time: march 29, 9 am, noon, sunset Location: front of my beach house on California's central coast Weather: very sunny! Air/Water T: 80 F / 55 F Conditions: glassy Crowd: only Crazy Joe Food: sushi Surch Distance: 0, only surf in front of my beach house Vehicle: no vehicle, don't have to go anywhere Swell: 6 to 8 foot northwest Surf: kinda closing out, but good off the reef Reporter: Danny Clark, clark@vcnet.com Date/Time: 3/28/97, 1115-1230 Location: Silver Strand, Oxnard CA Weather: overcast Air/Water T: 65 F / 59 F Conditions: onshore winds Crowd: light, no drop-ins Food: ate my sack lunch at my desk after surf Surch Distance: Walked 200yd from my office Surf Vehicle: bodyboard, walked to beach from office Swell: 2-3 ft NW Surf: 4-6 ft faces, mushy with dumping inside Comments: I sprained my ankle 5 weeks ago bodyboarding a shore break on Kauai. This was my first trip back in the water. Would have taken the longboard, but the ankle didn't feel strong enough for the jump to my feet or bottom turn. Took out the bodyboard and had a fun time. Not great waves, but after 5 weeks and 4 days any wave was good. Reporter: Ron Lagerquist, surf4life@compuserve.com Date/Time: 3/30/97, 10:30-12:30 Location: "The Wall" Ventura, CA USA Weather: Overcast to partly sunny Air Temp: 60s F Conditions: Slight on-shore flow off of fog Crowd: Four surfers total Food: Big BBQ feast at Gyro's post session Surch Distance: ~7miles Surf Vehicle: 7'8" Funshape Swell: WNW w/emphasis on N Surf: Shoulder to head-high, decent shape Comments: Hit it right after Easter Service at St. Paul's. Weather, Swell 180 degrees different that Saturday. First 4 waves were lefts, fun to go backside for a change. Had lots o fun. Got one nice right that lined up for over 50 yards, just beating each section. Feels good to have supported World Surf Day because the effort was simply "GO SURF" :-) Reporter: Tom Keener, keensurf@cts.com Date/Time: 3-29-97, 1pm-2:30pm Location: Boomer, La Jolla Weather: cloudless, sunny skies Air/Water T: 75 F / 63 F Conditions: slightly bumpy Crowd: 1 other person Food: greek eggs with toast & coffee Surch Distance: 2 miles Vehicle: Dodge Ram Swell: 3' W + 3' NW Surf: 3'+ mushy, occasional 5' Comments: A harbor seal blew his nose in my face, I barked at him. Reporter: Paul "Gadget" Tomlin, GadgetPJT@aol.com Date/Time: Sunday 30th March, 0800 - 1100 in the water Location: Widemouth [pron. Widdymuth] Bay, Bude, Cornwall, UK Weather: Bright, cold, Easterly offshores 5mph, ideal Air/Water T: -1C / 9C, Frost on the ground, melting quickly in the rising sun Conditions: Nice regular swell, glassy. Crowd: 6 building to about 30-40 including half a dozen yaks Food: Before - Mug of tea, musli. After - Flask of Coffee, packet of rich-tea biscuits. Surch Distance: Went straight on Down to Widemouth, 15 miles. Road Vehicle: Rusty 1983 Nissan Sunny stationwagon. Surf Vehicle: Tiger-striped 9'06" Snubnose mal. Swell: Cleaned up new swell, South I guess [from a little system in the bay of Biscay]. Bouys were showing around 1.5m or less. Surf: Waist to chest-high, 3 waves @ 4-5 min, period -- 9 sec Tide: going off Springs now, high at 1005 BST [GMT+1]. Comments: WSD begins for real, after yesterday's false start. Up at 6 again, checked the bouys. The height has dropped, but the period had increased. Wind was a definite offshore too. Pulled up in the carpark and saw neat little baby walls rolling in. Fat-Dog has extremely short walk [some of the posters in this ng could take a lesson in patience from that dog]. Suited up and hung the dispoable camera round my neck, I'll get some pics online if it kills me. Middle beach was ok, but the waist high waves were hard to get into and weren't walling up much. Paddled over to the reef by Camel Rock. The drops were much better, and it had a workable wall. Had some good shots of Joss & Rubin Ash [tiny grommets]. Was teaching them bad habits. Got them to drop in on me so I could take shots of them, as they surfed just ahead of me. Had lots of good waves, took a whole cameraful of pics, and jawed some jaw. As we chatted, talk turned to "heading down South" [uphemism for TSIDNEHA, see next post]. This seemed an eminently good idea, it picks up way more swell than most anywhere around here. A two session day was an attractive option now that the helmet and gloves were off: Location: The Spot I Dare Not Even Hint At, Cornwall, UK Weather: Bright sunshine, wore shorts, scared the horses. Variable 5 mph winds, some sea breeze, but not terrible Air/Water T: 17C 63F / 9C 48F Conditions: Nice regular swell, glassy. Crowd: Large gaggle of bodyboarders, 15 or so shortboarders, one other longboarder [hehehehe]. Food: Before - Roast Beef with Yorkshire pud, During: Bottle of water and Skittles [shared w/ the lineup], After - Tea, biscuits and an apple. Dist Surched: Went straight on Down South, sorry ain't tellin ya how far. Swell: See above report... Surf: Waist to head-high, 3 waves @ 4-5 min, period -- 9 sec This brings my total to six and a half hours water time on Sunday, -- first time this year I've had a two session day. Magic!! The little swell really going off here at TSIDNEHA. The first summer swell, I reckon. All three peaks were firing. Went for the rights off the point, long, looping, with a fun speedy section halfway down. Boogers galore, schools definitely out!! All but one were fairly boring riders [what next... Oh I know another spinner]. The "one" was hot though, got lots of air time [have photos]. It's a shame that no-one's taught most of them the "eat it rule". It was a drag having to play slalom with fools scratching for the shoulder at my expense. But hey, that's a minor gripe on such a beautiful day. Got more than my fill of marvellous waves, spread some good vibes and laughs though the lineup, and got off on everybody's good attitudes. Reporter: Will Borgeson, wdborgeson@ucdavis.edu Date/Time: Sunday, 30 Mar 1997 Location: A left reef north of me Conditions: A little bumpy on some of 'em Swell: Buoys the day before 15-17' every 17-20 sec. from 300-315 Surf: 8' faces or so, juicy Comments: Saturday, it was pretty much too big most spots. On one, I had to fade deep to miss someone paddling, then a silence, then this huge wall of whitewash launched me into the air. I came down on my ass right on my board...felt like I'd been smacked with a paddle. Later I found a huge pressure ding near the nose... guess my weight shoved the board to the bottom. Did get some good ones, including a backside hope-for-the-best rail-grab coverup (successful).