Latest Surfs...

[oldmansurfer]

Well I almost didn't surf today because of work but I managed to run out and surf the sandbar area that I usually surf then went to work with salty uncombed hair On the way back it seems the swell is picking up and the lefts that I had been surfing looked awesome , much better than when I was there and there was a right break in that area that looked good too. Unfortunately I had to surf earlier than usual and shorter than usual so I missed out on an awesome swell but I did get some exercise and managed to catch one ok wave and a couple totally blah waves

[IanCaio]

Around 2ft hawaiian today, cold water, a bit of sun!
Formation wasn't the greatest and wind was blowing onshore on the beginning of the session, slowly decreasing as the time passed.
A bit hard to keep the speed on some waves, since they would come a bit steep and then get chubby after you dropped on them. Maybe if I had better skills I could survive those sections with some better pumps.
Got a nice right, nailing 3 cutbacks in a row (had to pump a bit after the first not to get passed by the wave). Went out of the water once I felt like I was in the way to get some cramps on my leg.

[oldmansurfer]

2 x 30 minutes weekend surfing, first one was middle Horners nice fast break about 3 to 4 feet, but short takeoff zone. I caught one wave where I got to do a bunch of turns and the rest were fun but nothing exceptional. The second day I went to outside Horners and it was fun maybe 3 to 5 feet I got in one nice backside off the pip snap.

[oldmansurfer]

It was an off the lip snap I also got almost tubed on the same wave but I guess backside I am still shy about trying to get tubed. I probably could have stalled and got a little coverup but I just turned down from midface made a bottom turn and then hit the lip.

[oldmansurfer]

A weekend of more lefts, more backside surfing. I wonder if my frontside surfing will be off now but it's clearly better on the reef. The sandbars I surf normally aren't shaped right for the size of swell that is coming in.It's been a fairly difficult lineup to figure out. Today was more difficult to figure out but yesterday I had "guests" surfing with me. I knew they were guests because the one guy who was surfing there had a clear tan line that didn't go past his neck or his hands. Clearly he is used to wearing a wetsuit. The women who were there had booties on which is the very first time I have ever seen booties at that break. They were all trying to shoulder hop the waves. Today was nicer conditions but trickier lineup. I tried a whole bunch of different approaches to the wave wand wasn't able to get ahead of the tubing section of the wave while it was tubing. I think if I stayed longer I would have figured it out but as it was it was fun and I got exercise.

[oldmansurfer]

I guess it was going to happen after 2 months of overhead surf now just shoulder high or smaller stuff. I spent most of yesterdays session paddling due to the only reasonable waves were by the rivermouth and the river was flowing out creating a sideways and out current that I had to contend with. Today I went away from the rivermouth and at least I could rest a bit and not drift out of position too much . Didn't catch anything exciting but I did get a lot of paddling in and will be ready if it's better next weekend

[Brian]

Went out yesterday, surf's been on the smaller side where I'm at in SoCal. They are filming a master chef episode right on the beach where I surf (9th st @ huntington beach). I saw a drone flying around from the set, maybe I'll make it into one of the episode cuts. I had to get out after about an hour of surfing, my elbow has been killing me after a few waves the last couple of days. I'm guessing it's surfers elbow. I fell hard at hockey and sprained my wrist so I think this might be the root of the issue. Such a frustrating injury!

[dtc]

I had to get out after about an hour of surfing, my elbow has been killing me after a few waves the last couple of days. I'm guessing it's surfers elbow. I fell hard at hockey and sprained my wrist so I think this might be the root of the issue. Such a frustrating injury!

If its a hockey injury then ignore this; but if you think its caused by surfing/paddling then check out 'rob case' on google. He is a 'paddling expert' - to be honest, a bit over analytical at times (he treats surf paddling like elite swimmers treat swimming, trying to eliminate every single problem to get that extra 1 second advantage, which I dont know is entirely relevant to our level of surfing). However, nonetheless he has a lot of good things to say including how to paddle in ways that dont cause elbow and shoulder problems

[K10Bay]

Last surf was over two months ago! Made it out in Newquay (Britain) in 4-5ft 10 seconds and clean, perfect peeling beach break lefts and rights. Not used to surfing with that sized crowds though. Was weird having a load of international surfers around especially when they started sticking their waterproof ear phones in!

[Brian]

I had to get out after about an hour of surfing, my elbow has been killing me after a few waves the last couple of days. I'm guessing it's surfers elbow. I fell hard at hockey and sprained my wrist so I think this might be the root of the issue. Such a frustrating injury!

If its a hockey injury then ignore this; but if you think its caused by surfing/paddling then check out 'rob case' on google. He is a 'paddling expert' - to be honest, a bit over analytical at times (he treats surf paddling like elite swimmers treat swimming, trying to eliminate every single problem to get that extra 1 second advantage, which I dont know is entirely relevant to our level of surfing). However, nonetheless he has a lot of good things to say including how to paddle in ways that dont cause elbow and shoulder problems

I'm not real sure of the cause. I did fall hard while playing hockey, there's a lot of beer flowing pre and post game in our league . But I'm always looking to improve my form so I'll take a look at his article, thanks for the tip!

[IanCaio]

2-3ft today east swell today. Good waves, was good to practice some hollower drops. The more experienced ones could even find some tubes. My best wave was a critical drop. I was really sure I was going to nosedive, was even preparing my face to the faceplant (might be sounding exagerate, but it felt really vertical). I made it down the face, trying to balance, and as soon as I regained balance I bottom turned to the face, trimmed a bit, tried a cutback (that wasn't really cool or radical, maybe waited too much) and then kicked out.

I was managing myself on the outside today, but my paddling endurance is really letting me down this winter.. Not sure if it's because I'm wearing a 3/2 Long John, or if I just got a little less active on winter (or maybe both!). On my last wave my shoulders couldn't handle the paddle back, so I just went back in.

Picture of the place I surfed. Series were a bit bigger (just a bit!)

[oldmansurfer]

So I had a 3 day weekend and hurricane surf. Unfortunately the best surf was Wednesday and I was busy. Thursday and Friday in the evening were kind of breaking all over the place and not enticing so I did my usual Saturday and Sunday surf plus Monday. Sunday was breaking all over the place. I surfed the sandbar in the middle of the bay and it was well overhead maybe 5 or 6 feet. There however was one of the strongest curents I have ever been in. I paddled 90% of the time I was out there and even then I ended up getting pulled way out of the lineup and had to come in and walk back down the beach. I didn't catch anything worth mentioning. Before surfing I watched every single surfer shoulder hop the waves and thought omg there are good waves coming in and no one is riding them. But once out there I realized it was difficult to stay lined up and difficult to take off on the good waves.The surfer in the pic is on the inside of the sandbar. The outside waves are outside Horners and there were a couple guys out there but I didn't get pics of them

Then Sunday I went out at middle Horners. I had the intention to go to outside Horners but my arms were so tired I opted not to go all the way out. I caught a couple waves but it was difficult getting into them so I went to the sandbar area and it was smaller but still overhead and I didn't catch anything worth mentioning there. It was much better in the afternoon, a little smaller but more consistent unfortunately no pics of that. This picture is of outside Horners yesterday. There were a few guys out but I didn't see anyone catch anything exciting , just bunch of shoulder hopping.

Today I went to outside Horners and it was the best of the three days for me. It was overhead maybe 3 to 5 feet and some tubing sections. I almost got tubed but being so scared of backside tubes I bailed. I thought there was a good chance the lip was going to land on me so I dove off my board and ended up taking a solid whack to my calf muscle with my board. Darn it ...I should have just went for it. I only dove to keep from getting hurt. Anyway I did a couple cutbacks on the best wave I caught. The pictures don't really do justice for the waves but my camera isn't the best. This one is outside Horners today, no one else out but the waves were decent

[jaffa1949]

Well that was a first for me!
Happily surfing a late afternoon swell with 4 out, and then four Orcas came in and almost got close enough to see the freaked out look on our faces as we went rapidly onto the ankle deep sand bank!
Maybe 20 metres away ,

[Big H]

Yesterday went to Dreamland...solid 5ft and barrelling....got off under the lip and tucked in, got covered up and the BANG!; lights out.....good holddown, had to climb my legrope to get up.

Went to batu bolong in the morning tiday and Kuta beach/combined with errands. Canggu was firing this morning and I stayed out for 2.5h.

Good times!

[jaffa1949]

Yesterday's perfect little surf with the crowd you see out there all 6. With an occasional set twice that size.

Warm water and no sign of the Orcas nearby
Very happy Jaffa nailed a selection of great waves

[dtc]

Jaffa, I'm guessing the knee is holding up? Or are you on the new knee board?

[jaffa1949]

No sign at all shapers can be notoriously slow! I plan to go see this weekend!

[oldmansurfer]

Fun little shore break sandbar waves today. I was the only surfer, some of the waves were head high at the peak about what I would call 2 feet. I caught a few waves with multiple speed turns and a foam climb or not. One wave I hit the bottom when I wiped out. It was one of the larger sets and a double wave although it had almost combined into one wave so I tried it. Dropped down the back wave and then got over the edge of the front wave to find it lunching shoredump in almost dry sand. I kicked my board forward and landed on my right butt cheek but not very hard so no injury took a pounding and jumped back up laughing. Speaking of injury my right calf muscle was hurting from last weekend after getting hit by my board but it seemed to be all healed by the time I made it out to the surf this weekend. Probably the best wave was a left. I was out of position for the set wave but it looked like maybe a short left would be better than a too far behind the peak right so I dropped down and did a bottom turn then vertical up the face hit off the lip and straight back down but the wave was square, you know straight up vertical face and 90 degree angle to a flat bottom. I kept the board parallel to the bottom so it wouldn't pearl , not an air drop but just the tail in the water. This was my 7'6" board with no nose rocker. Anyway it was fun and better than I thought it would be.

[oldmansurfer]

went out today for some more sandbar shorebreak but it was a little smaller and waiting for the sets so it was sucking dry sand to bottom turn in left me without a lot of waves. I paddled around the beach looking for a better spot. Well today like yesterday was all about paddle hard then popup quickly then turn immediately and try to get down the line without getting slammed into the bottom. My most fun wave was the last one where I got a head dip in the lunching shoredump and finished the ride stepping off my board after dragging the fins in the sand.

[IanCaio]

Extratropical cyclone went close to the really south coast border and then went away to the ocean. Forecast said the swell would arrive today with a peak at the late afternoon.
It was about 2-3ft hawaiian where I went out, getting bigger slowly, lots of close outs. I got in the water with a friend, we started paddling and again my paddling endurance was a weight keeping me back. I was paddling and a set came, even duck diving it dragged me considerably. It wasn't long and my shoulders were crying for a rest. I sat at the board and rested, only duck diving whatever waves came and then paddled again until I needed another rest. I seriously thought about giving up many times, but for some reason I felt like pushing it until I literally could not paddle anymore (I know it wasn't a wise call, but there were no strong rips, so if I really exhausted myself to the limit I could use the waves to get back to the sand). I don't know how long I paddled, but I'd guess about 10-15 minutes. I did manage to get back, and had to sit for several minutes to rest.

Sadly I couldn't catch any waves, they were closing out a lot. Everytime I was paddling to what seemed like a good wave I noticed the wall peaking too fast and just pulled out to realize it was just a close out bomb. I did drop in a left, locked the rails but had to carve back to the bottom because it was closing out in front of me. After maybe an hour or more out there I was dragged inside by a set and was too exhausted to force my way out again. To complete my entry to the wall of shame I nose dived belly boarding on the way back to the sand! I was on my belly, all good, until the wave got really vertical on the inside, making me face plant on the water a few meters from sand

Well, it was a good workout.. I'm completely broke. Let's see if my body can handle some more surf tomorrow.