Cotton candy

For some reason nobody was at the sunny warm beach today. On a week end at lowers, you generally expect 50 or more blood sucking warriors on a day like today. Instead, just a handful of happy folk, mostly the locals I see all the time, shared the sunny conditions easily. The surf was playful , pretty consistent and lots of fun. Several waves peeled inside over the reef for a good 75 yards or so. Today was so laid back, I was just doing the soul arch thing with my hand stroking the underside of the lip for most of the wave. Even if it was a bit fluffy, more like dessert than a main course, today's surf bout was a just a happy go lucky day and the waves reminded me of cotton candy.

A decent wave

Even if the waves were small today, Lowers did its best to make the most out of them. With only 5 others out early, the sunny conditions made the wait between sets bearable. The occasional south swell swung wide and gave me a few well shaped shoulder high waves that rocketed down inside point just for me. The ocean was teeming with fish, too, as I rode over what might be seen as my own personal Aquarium under my wave park. I spotted bass, rays, sharks and just about everything in between. All I can say is that, thankfully, Lowers can take just about anything in terms of swell and make a decent wave!

A little stormy

A change in the weather removed the perfect conditions and replaced them with typical November weather. Overcast and cool, it still was OK for a while a Dogpatch while a storm front was trying to blow over this morning. Mostly just just maintenance day, I can see the uncrowded fall to winter swells are just around the bend, as this is the best time of year for uncrowded waves, even if it is a little stormy.

Setting up and pulling in!

After a real sickly week for just about everything, summer returned yesterday and today with hot glassy conditions, offshore winds and Lowers throwing out some really good surf. For some reason, I see more tubes at Lowers at high tides than low tides, and with the full Moon pushing the tide up and several swells to choose from in the water, I found myself slipping into wave after wave, setting up and pulling in!

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.