Latest Surfs...

[oldmansurfer]

Two day surf weekend for me Yay! Small surf though. Both days I went to the rivermouth area because the waves were small and that is where it breaks the best when small usually. No really great waves either day but lots of exercise. Today I saw a small shark fin maybe 3 to 4 inches cruising by me and saw it twice so I decided to go in a little short of my allotted time. I used the extra time to take some photos of the area so you can all see more accurately the situation.

This is the beach in front of the bay where I always surf. You can see some logs and litter but not too much

This is the opposite side of the rivermouth which is now a big logjam

This is the big log that got stuck on the reef prior. It seems to have maybe moved in a little or just became completely surrounded by a logjam

This is the surf

[dtc]

thats quite a log jam!

i guess there are other priorities right at the moment, but do you know what the intention is with the clean up? Just leave it and wait for nature to sort it out?

[oldmansurfer]

On the far side of that logjam is a couple of swimming ponds built with boulders that have been filled with sticks and logs. They have been working to clear out those ponds for the last couple weeks but there is still a lot of work to be done. Most likely that logjam will stay till nature removes it. That logjam was originally stuck under the bridge and was freed up with cranes and now got stuck on that huge log that is stuck on the reef

[dtc]

Nature...

[oldmansurfer]

Nature as in the next heavy rain or large waves

[oldmansurfer]

I went up close and realized it isn't a log jam but rather the sand got pushed up into the river mouth area much quicker than I thought it would and all that lumber is sitting on sand. And the big tree trunk that was stuck on the reef got pushed in along with the sand (apparently). Here are some pictures of the ponds and the cleanup effort there.

They have machinery helping to clean it now but it was human effort only for a while. People were dragging the wood up on the shore and then the machinery would scoop it up. The two ponds were once completely full and covered by wood but as you can see the keiki pool (kiddie pond) is mostly clean and the larger pond is about two thirds cleaned out.

This is a closeup of the debris by the ponds.

[dtc]

It would be good firewood, if it ever got cold.

[oldmansurfer]

Yes well some of it is getting burned hopefully some taken to a power plant to be burned for electricity. The funny thing is people are building structures with it everywhere teepees, lean-tos, houses, artwork?

[BoMan]

The funny thing is people are building structures with it everywhere teepees, lean-tos, houses, artwork?

In the Bay Area, mudflat art is a tradition!

[oldmansurfer]

no nails used here

maybe a raft?

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday I surfed inside Horners which is a shallow reef break. There were other waves but with people in the water in those areas so I saw some nice waves on that inside section. I walked the whole length of the beach that day first to the rivermouth and figures it didn't look to promising so then I walked back the other way and realized there were people at the spots I wanted to surf so I kept going and saw the waves at inside Horners. Apparently there was a swell coming more from the south and it was low tide which made the waves break something like point break over the shallow reef. About shoulder high at the peak with a steep drop and a wall to race off down the line on it was fun but all I did was speed turns. I broke the nose off my board there long ago so it hampered my decision making. I was going to do a floater on the inside part of the wave and realized if I messed up it would be a disaster so I kept going over the back of the wave instead of turning back down.

Today I went to the rivermouth. It looked more promising today. Fun shoulder to waist high waves but a real challenge to line up. My best wave was the last one I caught where I managed to do a cutback or maybe a fade back on a knee high section of the wave. I could walk out about 50 yards through the break.

[oldmansurfer]

This is a picture of the huge log that got stuck in the rivermouth after the big rains. The shape of the rivermouth changes frequently due to the flow of water from the river and wave action. There are hieroglyphs that can be seen on the rocks if there is less sand in that area.

This is the waves today. I could walk out almost to where that wave is breaking. It is probably waist deep there.

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday I was at Middle Horners and the waves were challenging head high waves. I had a single late drop wave of the steep variety made a good bottom turn and the wave flattened out. I had one of those Goofy late drops where I popped up on the back of the wave that broke in front of me but unlike Goofy who rides the wave like that I dropped over the edge and got onto the unbroken face of the wave. I had one wave that I rode all the way through to the inside section. Nothing too exciting. Today the middle of the bay was breaking and I decided to go out there. This break is actually my main break although lately you might think it was middle Horners. Probably 90% of the waves I have caught were there since I restarted surfing but for some reason it hasn't been breaking. It wasn't too great but I am so glad I went out. I love that messy break. I didn't have any great rides because the waves were mostly crumbling slow moving waves but they were overhead and rights! I had one wave where I did at least 6 cutbacks or carve backs or fade backs I don't know what to call them but I did a bottom turn and then went out and slowly weakly turned back (compared to what I wanted to do) to the soup and then repeat. I did catch a wave that had a long wall and I was so looking to jamming some hard turns on it but I made a bottom turn and then a speed turn and I was making a second speed turn to get moving along the wall before I tried any hard turns but I think I hit a bump while I was unweighting and the board got tweaked a little and I fell. That's my excuse anyway I don't really know why I fell. But hopefully there will be some more waves like that in the future. I miss that place. I guess it has been good for my backside riding to be forced to go to Horners but I want to get some big frontside waves again like I used to have nearly every weekend for the longest time.

[oldmansurfer]

It was a three day surfing weekend for me. The first day I went to middle Horners and it was chaotic and about head high. I caught a few waves but nothing worth mentioning. Yesterday I went o the middle of the bay. It was about shoulder high and breaking outside but only crumbling on the top half of the wave then reforming and breaking before hitting the shallow water shore dump which is out from the shore a bit due to lots of sand. I had a few waves and it was surprisingly fun. Didn't look too good from the sore. My last wave was definitely my best wave, I did a bottom turn to a sharp quick 180 degree turn back and the wave was already walled up to break again so I did another sharp[ 180 degree turn back and rode the wave for quite a while looking for a place to make a big top turn but it never came. Even the shoredump part of the wave was just mutant and weird so I rode it to the beach. That might have been the nice wave that I saw come in from the beach....or perhaps it was the two wave overhead set that caught me inside and looked really nice but I think there was only one set in the thirty minutes I was out so probably the break I surfed was the waves I saw. Today I went to the river mouth and surfed a little peak that offered both rights and lefts breaking over this long sandbar that is at the river mouth. Fun little break about shoulder high to waist high but no spectacular waves. I think during these last two days people might assume I know how to surf because I didn't fall down

[oldmansurfer]

Oh yeah there were logs and debris in the water by the river mouth so I kept my eyes peeled for stuff which made me a little paranoid about seeing living obstacles in the lineup and in fact I did see a creature in the water with me... a turtle with about a 4 foot shell, a bit bigger than most that I see. There was a bit of current and the waves and the current kept all the debris outside of the lineup but sometimes close enough to make me worry was that a log or some other creature?

[oldmansurfer]

I went to the middle of the bay twice this weekend. The waves were about head high and crumbly. Today I probably should have gone to check out the rivermouth break because there seemed to be a nice left coming in but the driftwood situation for the left was probably not good so I didn't go check it out. I probably would have except that I had to work and it threw off my schedule and it was noon time and I wanted to avoid sun as much as possible. No good waves on both days but fun trying and good exercise.

[oldmansurfer]

I had to work yesterday so a one day weekend for me. I went to the middle of the bay because it seemed to have the best of the junk waves there today. The conditions were challenging to read because ti was breaking all over and the swell would come in looking perfect but then not break until the shallow inside part. There were shifting peaks and swells that would look great then flatten out. I didn't manage to find any of the better waves but did manage to get some exercise and my ocean therapy session was important to my mental state of mind. Perhaps I should have gone to Horrners because I saw a couple nice waves there but it was so inconsistent. Perhaps I should have braved the rivermouth but it really didn't look too good . Initially I went out where there seemed to be a driftwood free area but there was one little driftwood piece that joined me in the lineup. After a while it seemed the swell had changes so I went a little further down and the wave I caught to go in had a huge log on the inside that was at least as long as my 8 foot board and as big around as my scrawny thigh. I cutout and missed by less than 3 feet. Some excitement for the day

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday I went to the river mouth and surfed shoulder to waist high rights. There were some good waves but i was unable to lineup properly for them. I caught maybe 6 waves nothing to get excited about but a log (driftwood) decided to join me in the lineup and I let him have it all to himself. Today I went out at Horners. Interesting conditions I think the tide was dropping because there was a lot of sand on the beach and you could see the brack line from the earlier waves. There is likely also more sand being deposited at the beach from last weekend. Horners had some good waves but I wasn't able to lineup for them. It was too inconsistent. I caught 3 waves that were just a bottom turn to top turn and then cruising. They were about head high at the biggest son not so fearful. Beautiful day. As I was going home I saw a SUP guy headed out there.

[oldmansurfer]

I went to middle Horners yesterday shoulder to head high waves. Thought about going to outside but my shoulder has been acting up lately from playing with my dog Hudzley. It was ok I had some good bottom turns and one right breaking wave. Today I went to the middle of the bay break and it was not so great but all rights. On my wave in which was nothing much of a wave but perhaps a display of good paddling for me to actually catch it or more likely about how well my 8 foot board catches waves, anyway a nothing wave just a shoulder on some whitewater barely a couple feet high and I was riding it laying down but I got to the shoredump part and I could see it walling up so I popped up and made it down the face before it could toss me over the falls. There was both backwash and steep shorebreak but this was just steep shorebreak due to the water hitting this suddenly shallower sand bar. There are currents in this part of the beach that go sideways and dig out the sand so there is a really shallow inside sand bar and then deeper water so the waves lurch up when they hit it an break for the first time or again or when it;s big maybe the third time and breaks in waist deep or shallower water. Well it was good to get in the water and have my ocean therapy and good exercise and it will keep me from backsliding the next time I surf.

[oldmansurfer]

I forgot to mention my excitement for the day. Today I saw several times something brown pop up out of the water. Never saw it well enough to tell what it was. It could have been a log, or a sandbar shark which have a brown color to them or stingray or turtle. I kept seeing it so I kept watching carefully but couldn't ever make it out. When I went in I saw a turtle so that is probably what it was all those times. Also yesterday there were 4 foot wide tree trunks in the water where I surfed today. I never saw any driftwood today but my wife got smacked by a small piece.