The pick of the litter

Given a choice between great weather or great waves, the waves win every time. It was fugly overcast and drizzly this morning, so I let the fog roll in and out before I went down to check the surf. The silver grey glassy ocean was combed by an offshore wind that switched around just as I got down to Dogpatch. Lowers was completely insane, but the local schools were out today, so Dogpatch got the nod. It was smaller but much better shaped today. I had the pick of the inside bowls and did some remarkably sick insane floaters and lip launch re-entries just to make the wave, but they worked, and I made a lot more of my waves today. With all the locals getting blown out to sea and pushed north by the drift down in the KO bowl, I have to say this cool cat got the pick of the litter!

Trying to keep up with the curl

Big powerful waves were still rolling through today. I caught a few nice ones but I didn't make quite a few more than I like, for the swell was still kind of closed out. The old geezers let me have it to myself for a couple hours and I took advantage of everything Dogpatch threw at me. Besides some spectacular wipe outs I managed to pull off a few impossibly deft maneuvers carving in, over and inside the overhead faces trying to keep up with the curl.

Something you only dream about

After a foggy and rather disappointing weekend, today made up for the 2 unsurfed weekend lay days. Howling off shores blew the fog to Catalina and a new NW swell started to combine with the unruly SW so that the waves just got better and better all morning. Sunny and not crowded at Dogpatch, I had my favorite peak starting out to be an occasional freight train and then by the end of the morning session it got just unreal with even a tube opportunity or two on every wave. It was mostly overhead or bigger and the biggest sets when they came were mostly still unruly. Still, when the good ones came, they looked like something you only dream about.

A perfect 10

Today was throwing down 10s and I was grabbing them up as fast as I could. With the tides funky real early, I made it out a bit later today, knowing full well onshore winds weren't going to be an issue. I basked in hot, glassy waves, and 80 degree temperatures on the beach all morning. I even had to use sunscreen! The swell seemed to greet me, a new deep water south, that had head high waves with a bit of wallop. Thankfully, the early morning crowd had retired and the mid morning group was no match for these juicy waves. Today was mostly about flying. I flew over sections, over closeouts, over insane re-entry wraps and just about everything the ocean threw at me. I was doing remarkably well for a change, knocking the bag out of most everything and getting a few tubes as well. I don't think I would have scored any 10's in a contest, but for me at Dogpatch, I'd give today a perfect 10.

Something for everyone

With 80 degrees on the beach, offshore conditions and butterflies and dragonflies to add to the magical nature of the Santa Ana winds, Indian summer is in full bloom today . Unfortunately, Lower's parking lot was already full before sunrise, so I took a chance on Dogpatch having a few waves like yesterday, and made the right choice. It was a real potpourri of waves all morning; 2 foot sets, 4 foot sets and 6 foot sets broke from just about every angle you can have at old Dogpatch. Being bigger and meaner than yesterday, most of the lightweights got blown out of the water pretty quickly. For myself, I really couldn't catch waves fast enough, for it felt like I had it to myself for an hour, thinking any minute the hordes would attack. I caught one wave after another after another, and luckily the masses just didn't really materialize until I was too tired to fight them off. In addition, each wave I caought today was way different from the last one I just rode, so it really was a good session to size up the wave quickly and decide what method of attack to use to get the most out of the wave. The big south swells were a bit closed out but powerful, so they got the big hacking slash and an flying whitewater re-entry. The mid sized SW lined up so they got the haul-ass-floaters-over-the sections trick. And the smaller remaining NW were just perfect peaks and received the square bottom turn then the square off the lip treatment. All in all, there was something for everyone.

Real peeling fun ones

It was a spectacular sunrise as I got out very early hoping to beat the crowd. Heading down to Dogpatch I found my favorite little spot infested with butt boarders and stand-ins, which is what I call the guys who go out in Kayaks and the new-fangled craze of standing up on your board and paddling with an oar. Undaunted, a new south swell was strong enough to beat those guys up pretty quickly and a nice 270 degree west swell and strong offshore wind meant there were honest to god tubes on the inside reef. I inspected several nice waves from the inside out and blew the bag out of a whole lot more until the local geezers made the place less fun than it should have been. Still, for a couple of hours, it felt like a wave machine turned up to medium-well done and sunny offshore conditions made some real peeling fun ones.

The Waiting Game

Well, it's been 2 long weeks of being sick and not being able to make it out in the water to surf. An uncomfortable bout of the vapors kept me from surfing, but the ocean also took a turn for the worse, too, and really I didn't miss all that much as weather, tides and swells conspired to produce some pretty weak conditions for last couple weeks. Being able to surf today, I wasn't about to take no for an answer, so I had to wait for the tide to drop, the crowd to disperse, and then paddle out into a misty drizzly Lowers point with only 4 guys out and take my chances. I wasn't expecting much, for even Middles wasn't breaking, but in the truly strange form that only Lowers seems to do, waves for a short while during optimum tide just popped up and broke pretty well, all things considered. I was a little rusty, but I stumbled into some pretty peaks at my favorite spot that lined up much better down the point than even the ones breaking on the point itself. I got swallowed up by more waves than usual, but having my favorite peak to myself, flying lessons included, and picking off a dozen peeling waves made it easily worth the waiting game

Another grom playground day

After spending much time and money to set myself up to live a few minutes from Lower Trestles, it never seems to amaze me how difficult it is to get it on a good day. After a weekend lull, today should have found it in top form, and it was , except it resembled a day care center. It seems vans full of tiny tots were dropped off with their boards, lunches and all their friends. They proceeded down the path, into the water and almost immediately ruined the spot for surfing, turning it into a cross between a "Chucky Cheese" and an after school playground game of kickball. Not just a few, I'm talking 40 in the middle school age zone. I sat off the point in my usual spot, fending off a couple of munchkins who could barely stand up, and yet they still surrounded me, along with their their posse, trying to herd me around and off the takeoff spot. I do wish they would keep the little maggots in school. Somehow, I managed a few waves that swung wide and kicked a few turns around the floating squeaky hazards, but what could have been an extraordinary day fizzled into a yet another grom playground day.