May 30, 2003
found some waves..

First off, all you heady-heads out there in niceness-land ROCK THE MUTHA FUCKIN' HOUSE!!! seriously! I just read through all the posts from yesterday and am overwhelmed by the protuberance of great vibes and general stoke. i was feeling kinda unsure of myself after bertrand and some others voiced concern over my rant and it's lack of surf-related sunshine and smiles.. but.. it's kewl..

umm... tough times this morning in the bay area. Northern points miniature.. i considered commandoing a FPers session via a cliff-scale-down and lengthy paddle but just bailed on that plan.. other waves in that region flat and getting flatter.. OB churned, grumpy and in a generally foul mood. Rockaway south end maybe doable but the wave faces that did manage to present themselves contained divots and bumps and knobs.. not smooth at all.. nobody out.. Lindy terrible.. Montara bigger than ob but narst.. Grey whale cove not too bad but definitely not worthy of an exploratory solo mission.. My establishment-related angst and general surf-jones had been building and growing all day yesterday and this morning.. as i approached the jetty i knew that i was pretty much going to jump in no matter what the conditions. I needed a surf badly.. and.. low and behold... conditions at the jetty were small but surfable!! yay!!! thank you mother ocean!!! pretty glassy sea-surface with the side/offshore wind.. waist to shoulder-high little peaks breaking in thigh-high water. a little crew of longboarders and beginners keeping things mellow.. i probably nabbed 20 or 25 rides.. mostly just little micro-dribblers where i never stood up from a crouch.. but managed to trim down the line for a bit.. then jump off into ankle-deep water.. i also managed to sneak into a few chunky power-centers and enjoyed some racy drops and a few bottom-turn/off-the-top combos... albeit the "off-the-tops" were of the slow, questionably-legit variety.. more like i rounded some turns off the top before the wave closed.. anyway.. SURF!!!! psyched.. i'm behind here at work now.. maybe pics later..

hope some of you scored!! so fun reading everybody's posts yesterday!! sick!

trey show tonight?? should be good..

e

Posted by Ethan at 10:14 AM
May 29, 2003
grrrrrrr!!!!! denied!!! so hard!

After a full, marvelous day yesterday (fun morning surf, crazy work day, 4-hour monster band practice, uplifting/stellar late-night talk with Seymore Sassafrass).. i was ready to keep the ball rolling with an energized surf this morning.. With the low tide and onshore wind at my house i decided to give ol' FPers a low-key check.. pulled up at 6:25 to see the entranceway blocked and a "Closed" sign strung across the road.. Fuck! Drove down there anyway just to check it. Bad move! Glassy, head-high, perfect wind-swell lefts wrapping around the point. Nobody out. National Guardsmen everywhere.. I was immediately approached and asked to "LEAVE OR BE TICKETED".. I was fucking FUMING!!! Bastards!!! A product of the fear-filled, oppressive police-state that america hints at becoming. Yeah.. let's go to war to "protect our freedom." I have an idea, let's keep everyone in the country fearful and anxious by issueing media-savvy color-coded terror alerts! Yeah!, they'll be afraid to criticise our short-sited, warmongering policies then! Yeah!! The people will fall right in line with thoughts of, "we have to stand by our president now, our nation is threatened and at war!".. "If you speak out against the administration or military or government, you're not being patriotic!! You're not a true American! Maybe you're a terrorist! or.. at least a focus group!!!" Let's distract everyone in the country with thoughts of fear and dread and hate.. then we'll pad our pockets as our friends and cohorts make billions building more and more weapons for the already bloated and over-emphasised military complex.. yeah!! and Rumsfeld, why don't your Halliburton boys take over the reconstruction of the iraqi oil infastructure.. yup.. we're fighting for FREEDOM!!! Go run out and get the duct-tape and plastic to cover your windows folks!! and.. whatever you do!! Don't go surfing near that big bridge in San Francisco.. you might be strapped to the teeth with plastic-explosives! Just let us do all the dirty work of killing thousands and thousands of innocent kids and dads in Iraq.. but.. go surfing at your favorite wave??? Hell no!!! Remember, you're supposed to be scared and docile, ready to accept our every word and ignore our raping of the environment and social services.. Teachers?? Fuck NOO!! We don't need them! We need more cluster bombs!!!! Yeah!! Doncha love these new-fangled weaponry we have!! Look at them thar explosion on the TV!! Yeee-haw!! Look at dem purdy lights!!! Just like a video game!! our tax dollars put to good use!! our personal entertainment!! What's that you say? people dying?? naww!! if they's be dying.. then they're for sure terrorists!! All of them Arab people are spiteful and filled with hate!! Non of them Arabs have families or like to write poetry or sing songs! naww.. just look at them explosions and tanks! us americans are bad ass!!! An educated America will only lead to more dissent and a democratic spectrum of ideas! let's cut funding for teachers and schools. A few thousand teachers in california are in danger of losing their jobs?? pish! but.. we could make 2 patriot missiles for that money!! It makes me so mad. When key components of my life and a source of inner happiness and peace for me are taken away for no good reason other then fearful sensationalism and political scare-mongering it makes me mad. I saw a sign on a park bench on my way out that said, "Enjoy YOUR park!".. Yeah.. thanks! DMers totally flat as i watched a solitary surfer get one mini ride in about 15 minutes.. was that you matt? Onward past a wind-ripped OB.. Rockaway and Schmlindy enjoying the side-shore south-wind conditions but only throwing up lackluster, knee-high dribblers and close-out mush. Nothing at the jetty.. Over an hour of driving with nothing to show for it except an even further aggravated festering psychological wound caused by our government and its oppressive, spineless, fearful, selfish shame.

yeah.. i'm ranting..

for better vibes than my loaded banter check out Dano's Mexican Extravaganza!

Peter Mel (The Condor) in santa cruz yesterday
santa cruz

orca feeling the glide
orca glide

This guy wimped-out big-time
pull-back

Serena Brook.. not wimping out
serena


Posted by Ethan at 10:37 AM
May 28, 2003
Burly, crazy, a few nuglets

Cruised the beach and wasn't too psyched on what i saw. Not much wind but the surface remained bumpy and jarbled from winds last night. Biggest waves a few feet overhead and oozing with juice. For some reason i found myself donning the wetty, stretching and paddling out. It was one of those sessions where your walking into the water, looking out at dismal, utter crapola. Wondering why on earth you're about to plunge into pitching/disorganized/chaotic/thundering craziness.. Once again conditions looked *relatively* stable and mellow from the parking lot but once out in the water the low-level OB fear-factor seeped into my consciousness. A few waves cruised through every few minutes that rose up precipitously, standing sometimes 10 feet strait up.. then munching and crushing and blasting anything in their path.. Not nice shapely waves either, more like warbled, mishapen, ugly sucking demons-of-the-night. A few of those vibrated through my skull and knocked my earplugs out. But somehow a few chunkified south-swell lefts also offered speedy, thrilling rides.. I caught 6 lefts and 3 rights in about an hour. I suffered 3 spine-tingling eruptions of set waves on my head and also went over the falls a few times for good measure. The lefts were really fun and wild. crazy, ledging, grab-rail-and-prey as my left shoulder digs into the wall of the wave and i somehow make the drop and jet down the line as the wave continues to suck and pitch and warble and race and it seems at each second that thousands of pounds of liquid energy will implode on my face but i keep backhand pumping and racing and pigdogging and willing and just flying down the line.. then.. the shit dumps on my head.. ahh.. that was fun.. with the long lefts and absence of rights i ended up down at Taraval by the end of the session..

anyway.. sounds like Ian scored the jetty yesterday.. local groms sound like they ruled the peak but it's good to hear of magnificent, glorious action at the princeton jetty. probably good this morning.. anybody check it?

also.. check this out.. i think that i'm bartending during this..

On Thursday, May 29th the San Francisco Sierra Club is honored to host an evening with Mark Massara, the director of the Sierra Club's Coastal Program. An avid surfer and noted watchdog of the California Coastal Commission, Mark is a skilled attorney and effective advocate for coastal protection. Attend this briefing on all that Mark and the Sierra Club's Great Coastal Places Campaign is doing to protect our coasts from the never-ending onslaught of development and encroachment.

Thursday May 29th, 7pm. social hour, 8pm program
Sierra Club National Headquarters, 85 Second St.,
3rd floor Yosemite Rm.
Free admission.
Wine and beer cash bar. Non-members welcome.
Co-sponsored by Surfrider Foundation. For more info., call
Randy Zurcher at 415/812-0577


Just a friendly reminder..
OB niceness

OB niceness

Blakestah's favorite OB shot
OB niceness

Posted by Ethan at 10:06 AM
May 27, 2003
missed this morning.. looks ok..

surfed almost 4 hours yesterday in the pismo/shell beach area... got back to SF around 1am.. risked missing OB perfection by sleeping in. But.. it doesn't necessarily look to be celestial, unparalleled Ocean Beach nirvana. Wind light to non-existent out of the south.. sun shining brilliantly at the beach.. waves shoulder high but maybe a bit junky?? anybody with the first-hand account?

I'm a lame-wad for not taking photos but i'll give you heads the quick recap of my central coast sessions this weekend.

The central coast surf-zone near SLO-town is pretty much split into two main regions with the sprawling Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in between. North of Diablo Canyon the coast faces west in Los Osos (Hazard Canyon, Left Spot, Sandspit, Cables, Montana de Oro State Park). Hazards and Left Spot are reefs, then it's pretty much beach break northward until you hit Morro Rock. If you haven't seen the powerful, pyramidal, primordial Morro Rock jut out of the ocean and absolutely dominate the visual landscape, you should. Anyway.. then Morro Bay faces west and offers miles of west-facing beach break.. with a few rocks and river-mouthy setups here and there. North of Morro bay the coast bends around and faces southward starting at the town of Cayucus. With the predominant NW spring/summer winds this area can offer some wind-protected waves. Cayucus pier is a comfy, intimate, mellow little beach-break tucked into a bend in the coast. North of Cayucus pier there are a bunch of high-quality, tempermental reef breaks (Killers, Abalones)... I haven't yet surfed these reefs but i watched Killers for a while and i was chomping at the bit. Former Cambria local lady-charger Anastasia told me about an interesting custom of the Killers lineup.. If there are already a maximum number of people in the water (8?), you're supposed to wait on the beach until somebody paddles in.. then you can paddle out to the wave. not a bad little system.

Sooo.. south of Diablo Canyon the coast takes a sharp turn and faces south through Avila, Shell Beach and Pismo Beach.. then sticks back out at these huge Dunes south of Pismo. This weekend the NW winds raged and you could see turbulent white-capping in the outer water.. but the breaks of shell beach and pismo enjoyed glassy, relatively windless conditions. Pismo is just a big beach-break.. i surfed there on Saturday with Seymore Sassafrass.. Entertaining, glassy, crumbly, closing/peeling shoulder-high waves marched in. Seymore worked her way to the outside lineup after much paddling/swimming/bailing/diving/tumbling/dealing.. finally sat up on her board.. only to be knocked all the way back in by a mischievous sneaker set that caught everybody off-guard. Later-on she started catching a bunch of rippy belly-rides and began the trial-and-error-based surfing progression that we all know so well.. She learned one of the first, pivotal lessons of sitting back on your board so you don't pearl on takeoff.. it was great to see her impulsively grinning ear-to-ear after a making it through a harrowing white-water drop and then jettison toward shore with a bucketload of speed. yeah seymore!!

then sunday i slurfed in the shell beach area.. Like Santa Cruz and Point Arena, Shell beach is blessed with all these rock reefs that undulate out into the ocean and create character-rich, pro-peeling, solid waves and sections. On various tides and swells different blips and blaps of the 8 or 10 reefs can come to life and fire-off tantalizing lines. I scored a little left reef called Spyglass on sunday morning. Two "locals" kinda owning it but i was the unobtrusive third and slanked into a bunch of high-performance, reeling left walls. Spyglass isn't a long wave but it invariably offers up one perfect, glassy, rampy section that just begs and pleads to be either molested/groped/spanked/destroyed/pounded or soothed/caressed/hugged/licked/trimmed depending on your style.. Right next to Spyglass is a right called reef-rights that flirted with working but didn't take it to the next level.. i've heard that on macking NW goundswells that place can reel and peel and deal and feel like a mini J-bay or some shit.. You could see it in the setup.. Then yesterday afternoon i had a fun/crappy session at Silver Shoals, which is this beach/reef break in Shell-beach. Kind-of a family-style, people chilling on the beach, gramps and groms in the water, people surfing without wetties type of place.. caught some fun ones. nothing amazing..

anyhoo.. maybe an arvo session today??

the Tavarua ASP contest is on hold today
I am sooo frickin down!

Carrol in the barrel
Tom Carrol

Kalani

Posted by Ethan at 09:53 AM
May 23, 2003
junky but rideable

just your average spring surf jam this morning at OB. Nothing spectacular or disgustingly epic but just enough sweetness to allow for a few good slides down the line and even a cutty or two. The south wind jarbled the sea-surface a bit but things weren't chaotically disheveled or anything. Super fun to surf with Robme, Lerm and Kaiser.. We pretty much had our own space for a while but were amazed to observe veritable legions of dudes paddling out all around us as the session wore on. It bummed me out a bit as these folk could have easily paddled to their own peak up or down the beach.. but.. no worries i guess. The whole lot of us drifted south until we had successfully floated beyond any shapely peak. I'm fairly certain that glimmers of the W groundswell originating from Japan (thanks blakestah) made its presence known.

I watched Lerm shimmy down a fun-looking left. Robme also took off on a chunkified lefty.. and Kaiser, as always, was taking off on everything he could... Kaiser and Robme are two dudes cast from a different ilk than me.. While i'm generally choosy and even conservative sometimes on the waves i take off on, these two chargers basically thrust themselves over the ledge on almost anything.. I've seen them both paddling into ugly, towering, threatening, obviously-gonna-close-out, sucking, fanged monsters.. just when i think they're going to pull back as any sensible person would.. they fucking go! I'm constantly amazed by it.. and inspired.. chargers..

random question - anyone know what kind of whales cruised the OB lineup a few weeks back? A friend of mine from Surfing magazine asks..

another note.. the niceness crew brunch at chez Robme that was tentatively planned for tomorrow has been officially rescheduled for Saturday June 7th.. after the dawn patrol (saturday style... a little later) at OB.. details forthcoming but it would be rightious to see all y'all chowing down on bagels and eggs after paddling around in summertime norcal slop at the beach.

also.. Ian's always bummin' cause he's usually the last person to post on the list.. soo.. here's his good vibrations post from last night..

"I'm always the last one to post.. damnit..
ck- I'm sorry to hear about your back, I hope you a quick recovery! My dad's back gets tweaked a lot from construction and what not. He's laid out for days.
scott- E.Coli in linda mar water? That is fricken disgusting. I was just in it yesterday morning and I just feel contaminated thinking about it.
blakestah- thank you for the forecast. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that you make my day with nice swell postings.
e- good catch on the swell, blakestah got on it and made us all happy! :D
Bug- Have an AWESOME time dude! Try and get some pics! Just tell them your bags have... uhm... snowboards in them. They don't charge for snowboards, and uhm.. well.. since tons of people take snowboards to mex, they won't be suspicious :D"

Teahupoo.. looking mellow
tpoo sickness

australia - burleigh head
burleigh heads

burleigh heads

Posted by Ethan at 10:22 AM
May 22, 2003
surfable, maye even fun... but.. the dream is over.

Climbed twin peaks last night and watched as the fog and onshore wind worked its way into town, effectively squashing this run of epic morning surf we've enjoyed the last three days. Checked the beach this morning and almost jumped in at Sloat with Christian. Junky, messy, churning sea-surface with scattered niceties here and there.. If you haven't surfed in a few days and are jonesing you can get your fix at OB... but if you've surfed the last 10 days strait and are jaded on three days of incredible, glassy OB nirvana.. then.. you might want to stay in bed.. I think that Christian ended up surfing at VFWs with Anastasia so maybe we'll get the first-hand report from him. To be fair to OB i did watch a few funnelling, barrelling, high-performance waves rifle through at Sloat.. Probably 1 wave in 8 offering up a tantalizing section. I watched some thick, gruesome barrels march along the sandbar too.. some makeable but most not. Only a few surfers at VFWs, nobody throughout the rest of the beach.

So Cal
So. Cal from behind

these old tourmaline dudes are having a good time..
So. Cal from behind

Holy mother of all that is holy.. check this sequence out!!! From Lindy this morning!!
DAMN!

DAMN!

DAMN!

DAMN!

DAMN!

this other shot of the Princeton Jetty last night is pretty impressive too.. is that S.S. Sharkbait out there?
DAMN!

check out http://www.tim-mckenna.com/ for more sick pics

Posted by Ethan at 09:46 AM
May 21, 2003
super schweet

reflective sunshine glints off cresting glassy faces
sand and foam gurgle as head-high barrels roar
steep drops, streamlined sections, paramount rippability
360s, carves, floaters, barrels, snaps, roundhouses, insanity
scalloped sea-surface due to side/offshore wind
archetypical high-performance, dredging OB A-frames
heart-fluttering air-drops into chisled conical dreams
Crowds frothing and charging and destroying playful lips
lefts, rights, straits, walls, meat, corners, closeouts
Awwww muthaaaa fuckinnnn yeah...

only certain parts of the beach working.. others shut-down or small.

some blurry, low-quality pics i took this morning from the great highway
may 21 niceness

may 21 niceness

may 21 niceness

may 21 niceness

Seymore Sassafrass daydreamin..
seymore sassafrass


Posted by Ethan at 10:29 AM
May 20, 2003
choke waves brah! da kine!

ridiculously gorgeous morning. The waves could have been utter shit and it still would have been enjoyable out there.. but.. the waves melded with the weather in some sort of melodious cosmic syncopation. Super easy paddle out to waves breaking forcefully on the inner sandbar. Less juice than yesterday but possibly better shape and rippability. Kaiser and i surfed near Rivera from 6:45 to 8:15. An annoying rip kept the surface from pond-like glassiness but with a bit of paddling you could get to the calm/smooth areas. I have to admit that today represented one of my favorite types of sessions.. i would choose this morning's session over last week's Lane session EVERY TIME! I love punchy windswell!!! seriously! I'll take 30 tight/racy/churning/grinding windswell lovebugs over 4 miraculous/roping/reeling/earth-quaking groundswell juicers pretty much every time. I caught a few today that pushed my technical abilities to the max.. just super-quick drops that barrelled and forced you to problem-solve and negotiate yourself into the right position within milliseconds of taking off. hopefully this shit will last all summer!!!! if every morning was like today until October 1rst I'd be the happiest little surfer there ever was!

Ken Bradshaw at OB
OB niceness

Jenks in New Jersey!!
Jersey Sweetness

Santa Cruz barrel
santa cruz barrel

carving
skate

Posted by Ethan at 09:58 AM
May 19, 2003
Glassy, solid, body-rockin' slabs!

Yup.. OB turned it on this morning. Zero wind and super-glassy faces on the far outside. Another classic OB scenerio where it looks gentle and inviting from the parking lot but ends up being large and serious in the water. Robme and I paddled out at Sloat around 6:30. Nobody else out there.. a few surfers at VFers, and a few at Noriega. Conditions looked small from the great highway until you saw a surfer that looked like a little gnat in a land of giants as these overhead++ shorepound bombies would crack and peel and munch. I ended up ditching my board and just swimming and diving through the shorepound to get past the mayhem. definitely an exilerating way to wake da fuck up at 6:30 in the morning. 10 minutes of paddling through the churning, turbulent middle section.. then a race through the mine-field of outside bombies.. finally get outside and i have no idea where Robme is.. Start catching waves.. big suckas funneling in.. biggest maybe 9 feet on the face? big. Sexy, oily-glass sea surface. I caught a bunch of big-wavy take-offs followed by drawn-out cutbacks as the waves would mush-out. Also nabbed a few that walled-up and raced along for a spell.. Still no robme!! finally i see the dude, about 300 yards south of where i thought he would be.. turns out he was battling on the inside after catching one.. geez.. OB lashings being dished out.. But i'm randomly threading needles and in the flow.. probably caught about 10 rides, almost all of them quality.. just one of those good days that i'll have to remind myself of next time i get my arse kicked by Old Biatch (OB).. Embarrassing moment of the day happened as i took of on a speedy right, probably a bit over head-high.. paddled furiously, popped up as the bottom began to fall-out.. pumped for a second.. then tried to make a bottom turn but somehow just got bucked right off the wave, literally jettisoned in the air and off my board.. oops.. oh yeah i also tried to take off on this pretty steep right that was already breaking and ledging.. a few strokes and i was in.. but i ended up back on my heels in that ugly-ass squatty-potty position and just got eaten by the cauldron of seething white-water.. but.. my last ride was sooo sick, probaby the best surfing i've done on a wave in months.. a big, hulky right rose up way on the outside.. i was luckily in position and stroked forcefully to get into the beast.. it wouldn't let me in and i stroked as hard as possible.. finally over the ledge and the thing is standing strait up.. i took off on an extreme angle just so i wouldn't fall end-over-end over the falls.. i crouched super low and back for stabilization and basically rocketed down the face, taking a pretty high line.. i then found myself high-up on the face, crouched low with good balance and just eyeball-tearing/rampaging with speed.. so i did what i've invisioned in my head a million times while riding the muni/eating lunch/skating/going to the bathroom/reading email/slacking/etc... and that is just laying down a full-blown thigh-quivering power cutty all the way around the meaty face.. back into the white-water.. then i snaked it around for a bottom-turn.. back up the face.. then into another turn off the top.. man.. now i remember why i often blindly paddle out at OB and deal with the 80/1 duckdive-to-ride ratio..

anyhoo.. Robme scored a few bad-boyz.. we were stoked..
probably still good right now.. go hit it. the wind is real light and actually a bit offshore out of the northeast..

Got to surf a mellow little left with Bug and Wells and some others on saturday and sunday.. A few juicy ones kept everyone salivating but it was mostly squirty quirky peelers.. I saw Bug get one long one for his last ride on Sunday.. I caught a few surprising high-performance/barrelly wedges at this other little wave that's rarely surfed by i guess has its days. It left me smiling.

not that any of us need to hear this.. but.. dano sent me this tantalizing email this morning from mainland mex ..

e,

You will hate me. Surf was so good. More to come.

-d

OB November '02
OB.. like we like it

Pleasure Point rippah'
pleasure point pizza

Eightwest at Jeffrey's Bay
jeffrey's bay


Posted by Ethan at 10:24 AM
May 16, 2003
glassy, waves, duckdives, ice-cream headaches

sunny, crisp skies and no wind this morning. Just when you start thinking it's going to be onshore and grey forever it clears up a bit. Scooted down to VFers around 6:20. Ocean surface still warbled and messy.. a few *maybe* waves on the outside. Didn't look that great.. Onward down the beach.. scattered possibilities throughout the aves.. pulled up to Sloat and took a extended look at an expanse of calm, groomed ocean between jarbled messiness to the north and south.. nobody out. Probably 4 or 5 rows of whitewater but from the parking lot the paddle-out looked cruisy.. but... however... I've learned my lesson the hard-way about making the, "aww, it's mellow out there" assumption from the parking lot and today proved no different. Start paddling and i'm duck-diving little rows of whitewater.. paddling.. duckdiving.. paddling... duckdiving.. ice-cream headache.. more duckdives.. etc.. same penalizing OB ass-kicking.. made even worse by the fact that my expectations were for a mellow paddle. anyway.. i'm still duckdiving rows and rows, getting serious brain-freeze.. it looks like there are about 20 rows left to the outside.. I sit up on my board and seriously contemplate getting out of the water and driving to pacifica.. grumbling to myself about getting denied at OB by a small windswell. But like a good little OB surfer i put my head down and just kept paddling.. eventually the waves let up and i snuck out.. whew.. Super glassy on the outside.. shoulder/head-high+ waves rising and cascading and peeling and sometimes spitting barrels.. I only caught 6 rides in about an hour but most were steep and racy and enjoyable. I took off on this one oversized left with a ledging/cavernous drop that felt great. sped down to the bottom.. then pig-dogged and shoved my hand into the face to help slow me down and turn down the line.. then backhand pumped and rode up high on the lip before the whole thing crashed and i punched through the wall. I've been watching so much of that Teahupoo coverage that i imagined i was dropping into the One-eyed Tahitian Terror myself.. 'cept there was no barrel.. and my wave was only about 4 or 6 foot on the face.. and there was very little risk to my personal welfare.. and no reef underneath... and thick rubber all over my body... and no tropical island paradise as my backdrop... and no radiant, crystal clear water underneath.. but.. except for those things.. my ride was JUST like Slates at Teahupoo..

also a bunch of rotund, lumpy jellyfish out there.. i think i actually got stung on my finger.. long squadrons of pelicans soaring just above water-level, banking and gliding along the unbroken waves.. sun shining.. no wind.. can't complain.. except for all the duckdiving.. soo many duckdives..

here's a classic Occy carve
occy

Posted by Ethan at 10:02 AM
May 15, 2003
windier than a mo' fo'

So windy this morning.. i didn't even consider checking it. Who knows?? the wind is currently 14knots strait out of the west at OB. d'oh! 6am saw a -2 ft. low tide! that's low!! The SF buoy is way down to 8ft 7sec. geeez.. rough times right now..

Kaiser and i took the SF-->SC challenge yesterday. Got down to the Lane around 6:15.. beautiful beautiful waves funnelling in with consistency and immaculate shape. biggest waves a bit over head high but everything glassy and peeling and SOOO ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS compared to the windblown dribbly slop we've been hampered with in the bay area this last week or two. Not much else working in town or north so the whole afternoon surf posse concentrated at the Lane.. which.. didn't bode well for two travelling city-boys trying to get a few waves at Santa Cruz's most coveted and storied break. Seeing a few moderately contested insiders peel along we suited up and paddled out. Kaiser had never surfed the lane so was pretty pumped. In the first 5 minutes i snagged two little doohicky rides and was anticipating a wave-rich session.. Nothing coming through at middle-peak, indicators or the left off middle peak, so everybody concentrated along the slot.. about 20 guys on the main peak, and then another 10 or 15 strewn along the line.. CROWDED! and EVERY WAVE was ridden and jockeyed for. We watched and salivated as magazine-quality, high-performance waves rocketed down the point. Barrels, huge gaffes, insane takeoffs inches from the cliff wall, drop-ins, yelling, seal barking, lady shredders, giant impossible floaters, smooth surfing, ugly surfing, ripping, shredding, shralping, jamming, flailing, charging and everything in between happened before our eyes as we sat down the line and tried to pick off scraps.. Neither of us were having much luck an hour into the session.. we even thought about getting out of the water and driving to the east side. but.. we stuck it out. we were waiting for a wide-swinging set to miss the main peak and hook us on the inside.. finally a macker wide-swinger came around and i was in perfect position.. i frantically paddled to head it off, paddling from deep and kind-of back-dooring (without the barrel) the take off.. this longboarder was down the line from me and started stroking for the same wave.. we both popped up at the same time but i was way deeper and obviously had the right of way.. the wave was sweet.. probably head-high and chunky.. i was frothing!! Make the drop and start to bottom turn, next thing i know this logger is fully dropping in on me and turning LEFT!!! Yup.. he deliberately went left, ruined his chances for a ride, JUST TO KILL MY RIDE!!! This wasn't a beginner longboarder, he was one of the dudes sitting and ruling the main peak. He had been getting tons and tons of rides and i guess saw me, some out of town outsider, trying to pick off a nice wave.. he was on his way back out from getting his own super-long ride on a set wave, and must have just thought he'd "enforce" the lineup a little and make it known that i wasn't welcome. Well.. Cheers to you fella! great work! He's an older, super-skinny longboarder (bright green rails) who paddles on his knees and seems super mellow and chill.. if you see him, give him a huge shaka for me.. anyway.. that kind-of sucked.. then i snagged a small, long peeler that got my stoke back.. then i take off on a little insider, and two guys deliberately drop in on me.. heckling and yelling in a feigned playful way, but really knowing that they're just snaking me. soo.. that sucked.. then.. about 20 minutes later.. i take off on a medium sized one.. lose, then regain my balance and start to pump down the line.. this guy is RIGHT in my way and i had to turn off the back and lose the wave.. then i come out of the water and the guy is yelling "Jesus Christ, what the fuck!".. as if it's MY fault that i didn't turn around him or something!!?? basically it was your transparant tough-guy/local response to making a mistake and projecting that mistake onto the real victim, as if it was my fault.. soo.. that kinda sucked.. i'm basically getting hassled and vibed and dropped in on and worked but i'm still enjoying myself, not letting it get me down.. Still i'm clipping off little sections and getting glassy faces.. Non of the vibings were acutely violent or threatening.. all just bitchy.. soo.. the session wears on.. the light starts to fade a bit.. and the crowd starts to thin.. waves still marching through.. beautiful... i was almost crying with amazement and joy at their perfection and beauty.. all of a sudden Kaiser strokes into a nice one.. i see him (from the back) take off on a steepy and then gauge a nice cutty into the face.. fuck yeah kaiser!! 10 minutes later Kaiser's up doing it again.. The guy had been struggling for waves in the beginning of the sesh but as soon as the crowd starts to clear he's raging.. He basically had a "magic 40 minutes" and caught 4 or 5 really nice, long-peeling glassy waves.. aww yeah!! but meanwhile.. i still have to get mine! you know how it is.. only 5 or 6 peeps in the water now.. we're sitting at the main peak and a nice set wave comes my way.. stroke a few times.. take off near the cliff wall.. pump and ride high along the vertical wall.. down the face into a bottom turn.. back up and DUUDGE!! into the face of the wave for a full-bodies cutty!! FINALLY!!!! yes!!! felt soo good.. the wave kinda bowled on the inside and allowed for a feel-good cutback.. so stoked.. back out for more.. caught another big sucka as the light continued to fade. raced speedily to make it around a closeout section.. back on the peeling face.. pumps and small turns.. looks like a barrel section coming up but super dark and hard to see.. race and pump along the soon-to-pitch wall.. make it around.. another cutty on the inside.. a few more pumps.. niiiiiice.. i'm all the way into indicators.. paddle back out for more.. another wave caught right along the cliff.. drop.. bottom turn.. turn up the face.. cutty into the top.. yeah.. grooving.. almost dark.. full moon shining.. crazy boogie-boarder getting deeply shacked inches from the rock wall. another few full-moon rides for kaiser and i.. out of the water a few minutes before 9pm... soooo stoked.. sated.. felt like i experienced the whole spectrum of santa cruz surfing during the session.. from full session-ruining vibes to random uncrowded sickness.. from ridiculously shreddy aggro asshole youngsters to chill/flirty stylized surfer-girl longboarders.. From seemingly super-chill longboard carps who are actually the biggest arseholes to the mega-good-vibed late-night crowd hooting each-other into waves in the darkness. man.. i needed this session SOOOO BAAADDD...

anyway.. that's that..

e

slates does the pig-dog yesterday at Teahupoo
slates stylin'

Faarkk!!
holy mackeral!

Posted by Ethan at 09:01 AM
May 14, 2003
geez.. no waves again this morning

We tried.. we failed.. we ate donuts. Miserable throughout all immediate bay area breaks again this morning.. Not much swell coming in between the Cliff House and Pedro Point. West wind having a field day.. good day if you like flying kites or windsurfing or getting that cold/numb feeling in your face and ears from the wind blowing right at your for hours and hours. Or if you like paddling around trying to catch mushy nothings and crumbly closeouts. It sounds like people found waves in Marin and Santa Cruz yesterday, and Matt was loving OB around 11:30. If you're lucky enough to have that 2-hour lunch break you might want to check out ocean beeatch.. nawww.. i didn't mean that Ocean Beach.. i really do love you... i wouldn't want you to rudely smack me senseless next session for calling you a beeotch. umm.. If you have a 13 foot log or you've only surfed once or twice you might want to check the north-end of Lindy. I watched a few loggers clock a few milliseconds of standing time. It's super small and gentle, and the wind isn't reeking total havoc yet. Wish i had that teleport system so that i could get a sesh in the mentawais this morning.. or maybe catch that South swell on the outer reefs of New Caledonia. or maybe catch the afternoon glass at that long right in Zimbabwe... then jet back in time for work.. Wouldn't mind teleporting to the Galapagos for some lunchtime south-swell action and then i'll take the serenity of outer maldive island niceness at the end of the day.. then a quick teleport to my fave Amsterdam coffee-house.. teleport a few friends there too.. then right to Rio for a little beach-party.. then to Slo-town to hang with Sassafrass.. then back to SF in the morning.. or.. maybe the Andamans for some more indian ocean juice.. yeah.. then have dinner in that peaceful little village in Bhutan.. do some yoga in Varanasi.. then a sitar lesson.. bust over to Sienna for some Italian dinner.. etc.. yeah.. i could get used to a teleport system.. but... only for myself and friends... hee hee..

Here are a few examples of why we all love OB and what's in store for us again in just a few short months..

Awww mutha fuckin' yeah!
nice

alex martin sequence shot by paul ferraris
nice

Be thankful that we never have to deal with conditions like these committed east-coasters.. brrr.. yup.. that's ice.
right coast hard-core!

Posted by Ethan at 09:43 AM
May 13, 2003
bummin' in the bay area

A few teasing glimpses of the south swell juice at OB this morning.. but.. not too much sweetness coming through. It looks like most of the coast, both north and south of OB/Pacifica is windless and sunny.. but our local breaks suffered from a painful case of morning sickness today.. I surfed VFers with Christian and Welle and a few others. Just mostly junky nastiness. I'm sure that Jake and Ian are scoring deep, invigorating, glassy pits down in santa cruz. Biatches! I did find a few racy rights amidst the topsy-turvy junky mayhem and managed a few turns. I also got gruesomely pitched over the falls on this suckout left.. got held down and when i finally came up my hair was all in my mouth and i couldn't get a breath.. then back down for a second wave. Sometimes long-hair can be a disadvantage.. but other times.. like full skull-rocking head-banging heavy-metal rampaging.. long hair rules! There was also a speedy north-flowing rip in the lineup that necessitated constant paddling to stay at the one sandbar with surfable waves.

all and all it was a painfully crappy session. Every 7 minutes or so 3 or 4 groundswell waves would cruise through and break/crumble/jumble with no form or shape..

If this swell holds into tomorrow i might have to make a santa cruz run either before or after work..

ahhh... slurrrf!

eightwest posted this report last night..

"Headed down to SC today, first time in a while. Scored some pretty damn fun waves out at Steamers. The south was hitting well there, sets being head high+, and pretty consistent. hit it from noon till 3:30, fun the whole time. The slot was the spot to sit (minus the gnar crowd) today. some waves were connecting to the 2nd peak - not too many. Little Barrel sections, doin' it. The 2nd peak micro bowl was pretty fun too. Not nearly as big as outside, but shralpable fo sho. Plenty of good ones for everybody.
Sunny Day, sea surface smooth, Good times.
all surfed out now, and ready for a good nap.

On the way down. A. Nuevo had a few waves - 4 dudes out, looked fun, thinkin it'll be the same tomorrow (maybe a bit smaller)

Anyway, get on it down there fellas, if you can -- you'll return home with a fatty grin. "


Seymour Sassafrass posted these kind words of wisdom last night...
"thanks for the shoutout buddy! my cheeks are a bit rosy still! it's hard sometimes to be humbled because i have been watching the water and its riders for such a long time. each time i jump in the water i think that i'm going to automatically be the surfer i've always wanted to be. i guess the naive optimist in me forgets about the key elements to becoming really good at anything: patience, perserverance and the confidence to know that true mastery isn't earned in a heartbeat. oh, and soon i'll be standing up, baby! yeah! (just before i take a huge pounding and forgeting the difference between my head and my feet!) i look forward to jumping in the water with you again e.
cheers to you and your eternal smile!

seymour "wetter than last week" sassafrass"

soo.. Welle, Anastasia, Beth and the rest of the small but mighty posse of Bay area wahine chargers.. you might have another scrappy little determined lady-charger in your midsts soon!

Matt sent me this killah pic of the Jersey-bomber himself.. Tom!! charging his local spot.
tom

Malibu wahine Kassia
kassia


Posted by Ethan at 09:57 AM
May 12, 2003
looks surfable..

didn't get out this morning.. the wind is pretty light out of the west. The south swell is showing at the SF buoy at 3.3ft 17seconds. Probably extremely enjoyable at OB, especially considering i didn't get on it. It looks a little bumpy out there, but not blown out or thrashed.

I surfed all weekend at A-beach (Atascadero?) just north of morro rock. Just a wide-open beach break with some rocks here and there. Warm, friendly mellow vibrations in the water. Surfed with a couple 60+ yr. old longboarders, some groms, a bunch of dads, and a few smooth, styly uber-rippers. This one cruizy-shralper was launching radical, vertical aerials all over the place and landing them. I watched him take off on a steep, rampy, shoulder-high left, generate speed out of nowhere, turn vertically up the wave and just flex and churn off the top for a piercing backhand cutty.. then backside pump for a second before turning strait up the wave, launching into the air, grabbing rail, floating around from a sky-facing direction to a sea-facing direction, then stick the landing all smooth and clean, looking for the next section.. very impressive.. I've seen a heaping amount of high-quality surfing in the central coast over the last month or two. people killing it from san simeon to pismo. South-swell sets would march in every 5 minutes or so, offering up bowly, slight-disheveled lefts and a smattering of punchy rights. It felt great to swim and surf in CLEAN water! In the bay area it's rare to actually see your feet while you're sitting on your board. This weekend i could actually see little pebbles and rocks on the ocean-floor.

I also had fun body-surfing while my friend tried out my surfboard.. As a kid i used to hang at the beach all day, and body surfing was the shiz.. So fun to throw your body into gnarly little pockets and stick your leading hand out while trying to go down the line. Mucho Kudos go to Seymore Sassafrass for braving tumultuous conditions for one of her first attempts at surfing in a long time. She scored a few quality belly rides and showed impressive amounts of *sack* while getting pounded a few times and not even thinking to complain.. she's a natural little water bug.

nor-cal crowds - north of santa cruz
norcal crowds

about to get shacked?
norcal crowds

foghorns
norcal fog

can anyone guess this pacifica wave?
pacifica

Posted by Ethan at 10:06 AM
May 09, 2003
doable.. exciting!!!

Robme and i suffered a classic, horrid surfing disaster this morning.. Cruised the beach on the early tip. Things were looking bumpy and disorganized but there were magic sections scattered about and the wind remained mellow. Biggest waves overhead but about 80% closing out.. We almost suited up but for some dumb-ass reason i thought that the sea-surface might be cleaner down in pacifica so i suckered Robme into heading down there.. Get down to Pathetica and shit is blowing hard onshore and the situation is hella fugly. oh well.. we opt for bagels and donuts and just kick it at fog city java, talkin' about party indescretions, crying kids, george bush, euphoria and other typical 7am topics. We get Bryce from Fog City to pronouce "Montara" properly... ha ha!! that's a little inside joke for Lerm. then head back up to Sloat to get my car.. pull into Sloat and for some celestially ironic reason the sea-surface has actually cleaned up a bit and it's looking fun and exciting out there.. One guy paddles out and in about 3 minutes strokes into this chunky inside wave.. skids down the drop, bottom turns into a tight little snap, scores a barrel moment, and then pops an air off the closeout.. all on the same wave.. i was fricken' frothing in the parking lot.. it's 8:15 and i'm contemplating jumping in for one ride.. but.. alas.. my arse needed to get downtown.. soo.. i at least had a little jam riding my bike through ucsf/haight/market st to work.

oh well... ya win some.. ya lose some.. or some such balderdash..

The man the myth the legend KUS posted this late-night last night but i thought i'd post it hear again so y'all could get the jersey update..

so,
Random Jersey Update!!!
Jerseywise it has been mildly sweetness of late, small groundswell fading...henassey and myself are in for another sesh a.m. tomorrow, still chilly at about 48degrees...wind hasnt quite been favorable though- totally empathizing with you o.b. guys, but RIDEABLE most days the last few weeks. The struggle verse the breeze is tiresome.

* I remember when I was like 13 years old and chillin at E's house...and being totally middle school turned on and stoked by his mother's artistic sweetness creations of semi-naked ladies that were sporatically teasing me throughout their home...She is a gifted creator and artist.

Keala at Teahupoo
keala

Dano sent in some more money pics from the last south swell in Santa Cruz.. he's also off to Mexico next week.. Beeeattch!!

I'd be psyched to be this guy.. right about now!!
SC niceness

SC niceness

Dano's pre-trip packaging..
ready_for_dreams

Posted by Ethan at 09:47 AM
May 08, 2003
ugly..

man.. you might have to drive to santa cruz to find waves today.. OB disheveled, warbled and hacked this morning as the wind blows strait onshore at 10mph. The south swell remnants are still peaking through the wind-churned sloppiness, but.. it's just not really surfable. With waves too small for the jetty and winds wrong for pacifica, bay area surf looks bleak right now. It's a bit depressing. I'm super proud and psyched that Jake scored 16 hours of this south swell surfing in and around Santa Cruz, but i can't help but to reflect that the bay area produced about 4 or 5 hours of quality surf during the same swell.. We just don't have good southern exposure spots unless there is alot of West in the South swell. oh well.. I assuage my angst with realizations that Santa Cruz could be one of the most consistent, wind-protected, gifted, jam-packed stretches of coastline in the entire world! Seriously. Think about it. It's open to both northern and southern hemisphere wave activity... unlike the north shore, unlike Indo, unlike much of southern california. The predominant winds (NW) blow offshore all through town. There are about 20 (30?) quality points and reefs within a 10 mile stretch from waddell to capitola. Santa Cruz is truly blessed. Soo... those types of thoughts keep me from bumming too hard on our local scene and the inevitable comparison between it and our decidedly more wave-rich brothers and sisters to the south. The only other surf regions on earth that might compare in terms of consistency, good-winds and variety of waves are the Capetown area and east to Jay-bay, Margarate River (although.. is there good swell in the southern hemi summer down there?), San Clemente, and?? huh.. i'm not sure.. where else on earth gets groundswell all year round and has predominant offshore winds with point and reef surf? The only drawbacks to Santa Cruz might be lack of lefts, cold water and extreme overcrowding.

thoughts?

ahhh...
get in there

Donovan on an inflatable ULI
inflatable

Next time you're surfing solo.. be on the lookout.
they exist

My mom's embroidery
fish

Posted by Ethan at 09:44 AM
May 07, 2003
waves

hey.. thrust into immediate work-mode here.. but.. south-swell girth showing and pulsing and peeling at OB this morning. Surfed with a little crew and caught a bomb or two or six. FIIINNNAALLLYY got to experience some southern hemi groundswell energy at the home beachie. Biggest waves a few feet overhead.. juicy but not like the typical NW groundswell death squad. I paddled way way outside at one point, out to the spot where i had seen the last set detonate.. wasn't sure if i'd score but then saw the tell-tale blips on the horizon and knew i was in the money-spot. A big, fat wall-of-a-wave reered in for me and i scrambled and scratched.. then paddled down the face for a stroke before standing.. crouching and powering down the face.. drawn-out bottom turn.. big thick cutback.. another bottom turn.. another elongated cutty until the wave petered.. felt great to carve some long S-turns.. all that skateboarding has been hooking me! seriously! i've been churning through hours and hours of longboard carving these last few months and it's been absolutely hooking my native carving flow on the surfboard.. once i'm up on a wave i feel really natural. my body flows through cutties and off-the-tops with an unpremeditated, natural awareness that i really feel i've developed from skating more than surfing.. this, of course, is on the 50% of waves that i don't kook out on, or wipe, or bumble, or stumble, or the other myriad of goofy/kooky/barney/lopsided/stilted tendencies that tend to overtake my body while slurfing.. you know how it is :)

bombs to be ridden.. wind isn't totally out of control yet.. go get some..

also nice to meet Kay?? great smile and stellar vibes from the lady-charger!

also good to see Lerm out there strokin' into a few.

work beckons.. SURRFFF!!! so sweet.

deep
tube

jersey depth
jersey

sign me up!
utter niceness

probably my favorite curren shot. i think i've posted it before.. but.. it's just so rad.
curren

Our boy Bagel did this painting of the Duke.
bagel's duke

Posted by Ethan at 10:50 AM
May 06, 2003
we're hurtin' up here

I thought the south swell might peak this morning... but.. it looks like it's on the downturn. My enthusiasm for a 4:15 wakeup kamikazee santa-cruz mission sounded a lot better last night when i was amping on some surf magazine than it did at 4:15 this morning when i clicked the alarm off and fell back to sleep immediately. I'm not sure if i ever really woke up? I ended up doing the standard bay-area cruise.. geez.. spring is truly here.. and.. things are looking bleak... grim... foreboding.. The NW winds erupted to life before the sun had a chance to rise.. or maybe they blew all night?.. i stood in the VFers parking lot at 5:50 and conditions were already riled and funked. Not much swell showing along OB, significantly less than yesterday morning. Onshores killing any glimmer of opportunity. I noticed something resembling a peak near Taraval and then some groveler's delights at second lot sloat.. ugly.. nobody out. Pacifica not even close. all the way back down to Half Moon Bay for me.. surfed a wedgy right with a few others for about 1.5 hours. After paddling furiously and missing some meager "set" wave one disgruntled surfer commented, "these are more like boat wakes!" ... and so they were... just little blips and blaps snapping and peeling along here and there. I have to admit a little secret.. and that's that i actually enjoy small waves.. i like big waves too!! definitely.. but.. i don't mind measly little dumpers and pissant micro dribblers. One minute i'll be thinking, "man.. this kinda sucks.. these waves are gutless".. and then 25 minutes later i'll realize that i just lost myself in finding and skimming along little mini-bowls and pseudo-pockets... stuffing myself in thigh-slapper cover-ups and squatting down and trimming right into the beach. I don't know.. i'm weird like that. The act of catching waves is just fun, in and of itself... big, perfect waves are obviously more desireable... but.. pretty much any wave is fun.

things might get pretty ugly these next few days.. I'm not sure what to think or anticipate.. not much swell on the horizon.. probable continuation of bitchily persistent onshore wind.. huh??

anyway.. the folk down in santa cruz have been laughing and joyously cavorting in this south swell energy that we in the bay area squint and look for in vain.. sounds like Jocular Jake score 7 hours of water time yesterday and our resident santa cruz local Dano scored some quality waves himself.. he also sent me some ridiculous, mouth-watering pics. check em..

he made it
damn!

glassy succulence
damn!

a money set
damn!

Posted by Ethan at 10:22 AM
May 05, 2003
a few waves in san mateo county

WNW wind raging along most of the coast this morning. The South swell somewhat evident along the northern stretch of OB. A peak looked to be firing off potentially appetizing, juicy lefts near the windmill every few minutes. The wind licked my right ear as i gazed out to sea, but hadn't whipped or hacked the surface too badly yet. I'd say it is/was surfable, but nobody on it, and i wasn't feelin' the probable gruesome paddle marathon and predominance of close-outs and steep-drop/mushy shoulder combos. Middle of the beach flatter.. messy at Sloat. Soutward i sojourned. Wind raging strait onshore through Pollutica.. but i actually noticed an interesting peak or two at Lindy.. though not enough to corral me into the lot for a closer look.. southward past grey whale beach, montara (does montara ever work?), haunted moss beach, monster mavs.. jetty.. wind almost offshore at the jetty.. tide super low.. making it easy to scale down the rocks strait to the lineup. Watched a rippah shred apart a nice wedgy right as i was paddling out.. he took it in and i was left to my lonesome for about 25 minutes.. Caught the three best waves of my session while solo.. all three classic jetty bounce/wedges.. rights rife with little power pockets and energy boosters.. I kooked on one but stayed pouncy and balanced on the other two.. ripped out a few high-speed turns that felt nice. best waves probably about head-high... but not very many of them. then Kaiser and Jeff Clark joined the lineup.. i thought that when the master of mavericks paddled out, that would be the end of the waves i'd get.. but.. he was mellow and paddled way to the outside, leaving us to scrap for most of the waves that came through.. just not the biggest biggies (about 1 every 25 minutes). I witnessed him kook out pretty bad on his first wave, bobbly take-off then falling on a cutback.. but on later waves i heard/saw/felt the deep "DUUGDE!!!" of a refined, powerful, deeply practiced frontside cutty emanate from the inside rail of Jeff Clark's surfboard.. Watched Kaiser catch a few good ones too.. saw a nice backside turn from the reputable mr. Kaiser Sose. If the south swell is really here.. it was barely showing at the jetty.. the sets came through every 10 minutes or so, and were pretty fun.. but.. not raging or anything.. there were some huge lulls as my session waned to a close at the jetty.. maybe the extreme low tide finally shut things down?

I heard that the middle of OB was on fire saturday afternoon?? barrels and lashings?? any stories or tube time for the niceness crew?

I enjoyed some manic, raucous waves saturday in Los Osos, near SLO.. surfed the beachbreak just north of Hazards and found some crazy/ledging lefts and one or two high-speed/rifling rights before the wind just utterly hacked it to shreds. I caught this one, huge wave, maybe my biggest of 2003 so far.. probably about 8 or 9 foot face.. but pretty damn thick and out-of-control.. i committed myself before i fully realized the scope of what i was committing too.. stroke into a backside/pig-dog/steepy take-off.. missile-launched down the line for a second.. then witnessed the gargantuan wall rising and sucking and lurching toward the inside sandbar.. with me about to get annihilated.. straitened out just in time to have the whole world crash down and explode behind me.. sucking me down and around and down and around for a while.. then i popped up and paddled back for more!!

ahh.. work time now.. later y'all..

e

just in case you haven't seen this yet..
umm.. yeah!

same wave.. different day.. looks fun eh?
thwack

Posted by Ethan at 10:29 AM
May 02, 2003
guh!??

ok.. what the hell is going on? yesterday afternoon it seemed the south swell was showing. Long, thick groundswell lines were pulsing in from an obvious southerly direction and churning out chest/head-high radial lefts all along OB. Super-fun waves were streaming in. At one point Kaiser remarked, "It's like a fucking machine!" And it was.. the sets were sometimes 10 or 12 waves deep.. and powerful.. at one point i was caught inside and got manhandled by some whitewater and thought, "yup.. definitely the groundswell juice!" Soo.. waking up this morning and noticing the SE breeze in my neighborhood i was getting amped off my gourd! Thoughts of an immaculately groomed OB, rife with feathering south-swell walls filled by groggy wake-up visions.. sprint down to VFers and... the immaculate offshore grooming in effect.. but.. the waves look about 6 inches instead of 6 feet. huh!? cruised the beach and it's the same deal throughout.. tiny.

Maybe as the tide swings around things will pick up?? What swell were we surfing yesterday afternoon?? blakestah?? Maybe it was just the super low-tide killing it this morning? I still noticed the seemingly south swell lines, but they were miniscule instead of muscular. huh.. i had a great session at pillow point though..

nice nor-cal right
nice

nor-cal drop-in
drop-in

line-up
line-up

Robme checkin' it.. mellow left in the background
robme checkin' it

Mendo style
mendo style

Posted by Ethan at 10:02 AM
May 01, 2003
real fun at OB

VFers painfully tiny.. maybe a bump here or there.
Middle of the beach glassy and inviting.. hmm..
Sloat bigger than VFers, but a bit disorganized and gurgly.

surfed Pacheco with Stan and CK and a crew of others.
Oily, glassy sea-surface. Conditions started off mini and meager at the beginning of the sesh but kept improving and improving as the morning wore on. I think that the tide turned and began to push a bit, adding a little oomph and significance to the playful windswell. The dry-hair paddle out and absence of wind made for some mellow-yellow times in the water. I probably caught about 20 or so rides... mostly just squirty little nothings.. But about 7 or 8 rides hooked it with steep drops and fast-moving/hollow/half-pipy sections. I caught one soul-gratifying left that peaked up nicely on the outside.. probably a little under head-high... I faded a bit before taking off.. then pigdogged and pulled up on my outside rail/leaned-back as the bottom dropped out of the thing and left me hovering and levitating right in the pit. It was one of those "mouth of the barrel" rides i think.. were it *kinda* felt like a maybe barrel but definitely wasn't a telescopic time-capsule spelunking monster barrel. anyway.. The unusual and noteworthy aspect of the ride was that i felt like i wasn't moving at all but that the water was circling and roaring around me. i felt like i was riding one on one of those flowrider machines. a stationary wave. I was grinnin' so huge coming out of there though! yeehaw!

I watched CK get a few nice ones and saw Stan take off on some ramps.. even saw him do a little cutty!

bobby - that's crazy.. that was totally me you dropped in on at the lane two-weeks ago (friday).. what's up punk!! psyche! yeah.. it didn't seem like you did it on purpose or tried to stuff me or anything.. soo. yeah.. absolutely no worries. i think i dropped in on Jake a few times that session! ha! Very cool that you wrote in to e's surf report. right on!

blakestah.. thanks for the south swell update.. i think i'll be in slo-town on sunday so i'll be enjoying some fun southern exposure reefs down there.. aww yeah..

cool.. time for me to get to work..

Posted by Ethan at 10:14 AM