Latest Surfs...

[oldmansurfer]

My weekend wasn't too exciting. Yesterday I surfed the sandbar beak in the middle of the bay. It was head high and while there were some nice waves coming in it was very difficult to figure out the lineup. It was breaking all over the place and some waves were just shoredump. 5 yards over to the side and it would be a wave to ride or 5 yards further out and it would be rideable. I was out of sync and out of position. I caught 3 waves, one I did a bottom turn and wanted to do a floater but I was too slow back up the wave and had to cutout through the back of the wave as it pitched over my head. The second wave I dropped down and could see it was closing out but also could see it was super shallow so I went over the back of the wave. The third wave I just managed to make it to the bottom before it closed out and rode it in. I was close to being in position for several waves and maybe was in position for some but didn't know it. I got more practice reading waves but it was good to paddle around trying. I just want a chance to catch a nice wave, don't really have to catch it but as long as I am trying and there are some good waves then I am happy and it's the best way I know to unwind from the pressure of the world. I made a couple lineups before I paddled out but the second one had really bad backwash which I didn't notice from the shore.
Today I went out to Horners (left breaking reef) and it was challenging too. It was well overhead maybe up to 12 foot faces and breaking in several different places and there were cleanup sets coming in. I went to the left most peak trying to avoid the cleanup sets but still managed to get caught by a 4 wave set. I caught 4 waves one I managed to do a cutback on and the another one I managed to do 2 cutbacks and some other minor turns. What might be interesting to you all is that for the second cutback I was standing more forward on the board. I went too high back up the wave on the first cutback and had to go more forward on the board to get it moving back down the face and then did not change my foot position but it still made a nice carving cutback. I made a lineup on my way out for a middle Horners break that I saw paddling out but couldn't line it up well enough coming in so had to just paddle in after catching a lame flat wave. Lot's of practice reading waves today also.

[oldmansurfer]

yesterday surfing at middle Horners in head high or so waves. I caught a couple with really steep drops and for a short bit a steep wall. I haven't had such a steep drop on a wave above waist high in a while. I love it when it feels like you land on your board at the bottom. I was all by myself till a grouchy longboarder came out.......oh well I was ready to head in. Today I was riding the sand break in the middle of the bay. It was mostly shoredumping but I managed to get a few waves. I went in about 75 yards from where I ended up because while there was a reasonable wave coming in there it was so infrequent that I wasn't getting any paddling in so I tried a bunch of spots as I paddled back down the beach. Mostly it was shoredumping just sucking up water and breaking in inches of water. If I waited for the right wave I could make a bottom turn before it got too shallow and ride it a bit. My wife was boogie boarding down the beach so I went by her and caught a whole lot more waves. There was a little peak breaking right and left. It didn't look too great but I could ride the waves all the way to the shore on these nice steep little walls Of interest I pearled today sort of , caught the outside rail of the nose and wiped out in shallow water. To my surprise the leash was ripped off my ankle. I braced myself because I fell in shallow water with the board between me and the wave (not a good way to fall). I was surprised not to hit the bottom and then surprised again to find the board still outside of me and further away than it should have been. The velcro let go of my leg. I guess that it got loosened while I was going out through the shoredump. I got hit by a bunch of waves on my way out , managed to stay upright but guess maybe I stepped on the velcro or somehow snagged it with my other foot on the way out and loosened it. Another thing of interest is there was a large branch sticking in the sand by where I surfed initially today it was most likely put there as a marker for the break yesterday by surfers or boogie boarders. So there is one way to make a lineup, place a large piece of driftwood sticking up in the sand in front of the break.

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday I surfed Middle Horners again and it was head high at least and fun but nothing incredible. Today I went to the middle sand bar and got some rights. It was well Overhead maybe 10 feet at the peaks but difficult to read and catch. In the first ten minutes I caught no waves and took a set on the head. I was looking for my lineup and looked back to see a nice wave and I guess I hesitated because I was almost in position for it but it turns out too far in and I tried to turn back through the wave and ended up getting sucked over into the whitewater and then took multiple waves on the head (not too bad but considering I hadn't caught any waves it was the ocean 1 and me 0.) The next to last wave I caught .....well It caught me I decided to catch the whitewater from one of the crumbly sets because I was there and hadn't had any great waves yet. I paddled before it got to me but it was a big whitewater and it picked me up and slammed me around and I rode it out on my belly, swear I did an areal on my belly then pointed the board over to the unbroken wave and popped up. Seemed like I belly boarded it for five seconds before i popped up but then I got a fun littler wave that allowed me to make some turns and got an almost coverup and got a head dip in the shoredump part of the wave. I went back to the same area and caught what was my last wave I managed to lineup a little better and took off at the top where it was crumbling but still small popped up right away and did some speed turn and then a hard top turn where I was flying pretty fast then turned to go straight back down the wave. I lost my balance a little (and regained it ) I think maybe my last two finis were above the wave so I slipped sideways a little and I hadn't planned on a slipping turn but I caught myself and got it back under control early enough to start a bottom turn and decide to straighten out and kick my board forward and jump back onto the whitewater as it exploded behind me.

[dtc]

The last week here has been flat flat. But I wanted to mention an interesting result - we have had a westerly swell.

Now that may not seem significant but I'm on the east coast of Australia. So the swell is actually moving away from coast!

We have been having really strong offshore (westerly) winds and the result is that the winds have pushed the swell (which is measured a few km off shore) westerly. Of course the secondary swell is the usual 'toward the coast' swell, the result being they more or less cancel each other out


biggest wave of the day

[oldmansurfer]

That is awesome but I would think that is sideshore backwash. Backwash from waves that hit the side of a bay and reflect back sideways across the lineup. I went surfing today and worried that there wasn't going to be much I could surf. There was a little break but a bunch of bodysurfers were there so ruled that one out. Next to them was another peak but there was a fisherman fishing there so that one was out. I walked down the beach and finally found inconsistent waves coming in at middle Horners so I went out there. The waves were really inconsistent and mostly flat but intermittently something rideable came in. I managed to get one wave where I had a nice long wall to work with and did 2 bottom turn to snap off the lip turns combos in a row. I probably would have gotten a score of 2.85 if I were surfing in a pro contest.....well who knows? It was the best wave of the day since I was the only surfer out

[oldmansurfer]

Today I thought my sessions would be all drop and bottom turn and then mush. The waves were down and it wasn't breaking at Horners but the spot where the body surfers and the fisherman were at was open. I decided to go out a bit further into an area with intermittent reef and sand. I was surprised to catch a wave that I rode for a bit. It was a head high right and I did a bottom turn to a sort of projection turn....not quite a speed turn but put a bit of pressure on my rear foot to angle the board more down the face than down the line, then another bottom turn to a off the foam floater kind of thing. I turned off the top of the wave where it was crumbling and not quite a floater because I started my turn before I hit the whitewater but rode the whitewater back down. Anyway way more fun day than I thought by looking at it.

[oldmansurfer]

So my usual 2 day weekend surf and the usual nothing to great but yesterday I went out to outside Horners and it was inconsistent and breaking about head high. I only caught two waves one was fun, I did a steep drop with my rockerless 7'6" board and then a few rollercoasters because I wasn't quite sure what the wave was going to do and then a nice cutback completing it all the way back in the whitewater. Not much in the wave count but it's about a 400 yard paddle so I got some exercise paddling out and back in. Today I went out in the sand area in the middle. Initially it didn't look too fun but there were lots of waves and the occasional longer ride. I spent a lot of time working on generating speed on small waves (knee to waist high). I did catch one wave that I did 5 or 6 top to bottom turns. It didn't have much of a wall but I would bottom turn the hit the shoulder and whip the board back down the wave stepping heavily on my front foot and head straight down the wave while it crumbled behind me and by the time I got to the bottom there was another shoulder to hit. Anyway it was my best wave of the day, once again more fun than it looked.

[oldmansurfer]

Today I surfed middle Horners, it was well overhead and there was a lot of current but not too bad and there were lots of different peaks to ride so if the current took you out of the lineup for one peak it took you into alignment for another peak. I had 2.5 elevator steep drops. The kind where you feel like you are falling. On one of them my board pearled a bit but I managed to step on the tail and pop it back up (this was my 8 foot board with lots of rocker). I think maybe the reason why I can pull this off is because when I take a drop I am going from front foot pressure to back foot pressure anyway so I just increase the amount of back foot pressure rapidly and I am going from barely touching the board to my full weight landing on the board on a steep drop so I make sure that weight goes on the back foot. The 0.5 steep drop I just thought I was going to do a midface turn and instead the wave jacked up and my board was sideways and I wasn't centered over the top of it and wiped out. There was an older women out surfing middle Horners (she is my wifes pharmacist) and is the biggest crowd there that I have had in a while.

[oldmansurfer]

today back to middle Horners and it was still overhead and some of the waves looked better than yesterday but I couldn't find them. I was out of sync with the ocean. Caught a few waves but nothing worth mentioning other than the wave that I fell on my board. I was behind a section and the lip landed next to me and blasted me up in the air. I could see I was going to land on the board and was coming down sideways so I put my hand out and slowed the contact with the board down so neither the board nor me was hurt.

[surph]

Today I went out for a surf at my usual spot. There was a bit of swell in the water so it was breaking much farther outside than usual. I caught the majority of the big sets that came through but the peak was shifting a bit so I missed a few. The only problem was that whenever I caught a wave it would fade away and reform pretty quickly and you couldn't ride it anymore. I tried moving around the lineup and moving inside a bit to catch the reform but that that didn't work so I paddled in. I decided to bodyboard the shorebreak instead, but then I saw that with the bigger swell it was breaking a little bit farther outside and peeling a bit. I took my wavestorm out instead so that I could try to catch them early and pull in to the barrel. I caught a wave as soon as I got out but it wasn't the best wave and although I did kinda pull in it was a forced barrel. Then after waiting a bit, a set appeared, so I caught it. Unfortunately I have a bad habit of popping up onto my knees first because I'm afraid I'm going to fall and waste the wave. I know that's an illogical fear because I have good balance and I probably won't fall, but I'm so focused on catching and riding the wave that I don't really think about it and on waves that I think I might fall I often don't pop up fully. So I popped up on my knees and only started going into a crouching/kneeling position when I was pulling in to the barrel. Once I pulled in, I got a nice barrel vision and it looked like I could've made it out, but I popped up too late and didn't take a high enough line. I wiped out and although it wasn't the longest wipeout, it was very violent and the fins of my board ended up hitting me and I got some fin cuts. The worst cut is on my pinkie, but it's not really the cut itself that hurts. I think I bruised or punctured a nerve and it might keep me out of the water for a bit. I probably wouldn't have hit the fins if i'd popped up properly, so I hope that will motivate me to focus on a good popup next time.

[IanCaio]

Man, you know that day when conditions are really good, every friend of yours tell you about the great waves they catch and you just didn't make the best of the conditions?

A solid swell hit the coast this weekend, it was breaking around 3ft hawaiian where I went out, hollow waves, opening some nice lines. Wind was weak, so it wasn't glassy but it was really good. But the crowd, oh the crowd... I went out from work like 7am and got on water around 8-8:30am and it was full of people.

I don't know what was the problem, I usually don't surf at my best when it's too crowded, having to worry all the time about not being on others way (and sometimes positioning myself worrying more about this then where the peaks are breaking), or not reading the waves very well. I ride a left that I lost for waiting too much to cutback (think the wave got a bit chubby too, not sure).

The currents were really strong and I didn't notice until I got out. I ended up almost 800 meters from where I went out. Waves were getting small by the end of the session (like barely 2ft), which I now think it was because I got dragged to the weaker spot. There I had my first collision, just to make the session even more remarkable. In my defense, I think the guy was in fault. He was going out, stood right in the way and even when I pulled to the line to try to avoid collision (and maybe kickout) he managed to get himself in the way again. I didn't manage to kick out on the closing section and felt over him, leashes got tangled, but nobody got hurt (thankfully the boards were fine too). I apologized, which I don't know, but feels like saying "I'm guilty", though I don't think I was, except for not being skilled enough to kick under the lip or avoid it somehow. In the end the guy apologized too, we went our ways, I stood for 10 minutes and left.

Well, guess that happens. Heads up, now let's wait for the next swell..

[oldmansurfer]

Went out yesterday to the sandbar area and it was well overhead. I got a lot of practice doing suck dips and going through surf and managed to catch a few waves nothing too exciting. Today I intended to go out to Horners (the reef break) but there were a couple guys oout and they weren't catching anything and while I was thinking about it a set came in to the sandbar and it looked fun so I went out there . Unfortunately the sets were in frequent so I went to the inside break and hunted down peaks there. I only caught two waves of substance. The first one I took off on the opposite side of a huge section of crumbly wave from where I wanted to go. I managed to get around it with just a solid bottom turn and the got to do a few small turns. The second wave of substance was my best wave of the weekend maybe even the month. It wasn't the usual fast breaking erratic wave that I love to ride but a slower more even breaking wave. I was ready for it because I watched that video of Australian surfers that billie posted. When I watched Mark Richards surfing a fairly big wave I realized it was so slow that he had to be careful not to get too far ahead of it. Anyway It put me in the mood for a slow wave. I did a bunch of cutbacks or what I call fade backs because I change direction but only go to the bottom of the wave at the end. This gets me back into the steeper portion of the wave and then I can do another turn or wait for the wave to wall up then turn. I also did a few off the top turns where I went straight back down to give the wave a chance to wall up. I think I surfed that wave about as well as I could have.... it was a good dance with the wave all flowing and smooth from one turn to the next.

[Brian]

Just got out of the water in HB, I surfed for only an hour and a half in building 4-7 ft waves. I surfed for 4 hours yesterday in 3-4 foot waves so I just didn't have the energy to make it an extended session. Yesterday I easily caught 40 waves, paddling out, catching a wave, paddling out again and catching another wave. Rinse and repeat. I ended up only catching 8 waves today, most being closeouts. I caught a nice right and got barreled before trying to pull out and going of the falls. There was a huge sweep pushing everyone south so I was paddling the entire time to stay in the spot I wanted to. There was a lot of water moving and it's only getting bigger.

[oldmansurfer]

My weekend surf sessions were at the beach break between the parking lot and the rivermouth. The river has pushed sand out into that area so it breaks a little ways away from the shoreline. Yesterday was waist to head high but the head high stuff wasn't too regular. I managed to do a waist to shoulder high floater, just popup drop down bottom turn and floater all in less than 3 seconds. It was cool though I love to do floaters where I am riding the lip over the falls. It's a fun thing to do on closeouts. I also got a head dip. Today it was smaller and more gutless but I managed to do a few turns on a couple of waves and I caught a bunch. There was surf lessons nearby so it was fun to listen to them hooting and hollering about every wave they caught

[oldmansurfer]

Birthday weekend and the conditions were really nice except for one thing

The waves were up on the north shore but not the east side so on my birthday I decided to do a project I had been meaning to do for a while but unfortunately had to go work and didn't get either my project or my usual surf session in. Today it was like this (just like yesterday). I jumped in and paddled down to the rivermouth then caught a few small waves that I rode for a second or so till the water disappeared. Then I paddled to the other side of the beach and back and that was my day surfing mostly just paddling but I got some serious paddling in.

[oldmansurfer]

It was a stormy weekend for me with overhead waves both days YAY! But unfortunately my wave count was 6 waves for 2 days surfing for 30 minutes. Yesterday 2 and today 4. Spent a lot of time paddling around trying to lineup the waves. Yesterday I would have gone out at Horners but I brought my 7'6" board and it looked like that was more challenge than I wanted with that board. So today I brought my 8 foot board and decided to not go out at Horners because it was breaking all over the place but the good news is the sand bar in the middle is starting to take shape so I went out there. It was also breaking all over the place but far less intimidating than Horners breaking all over the place. The waves were difficult to catch only the peak was steep enough and it broke only at the top of the wave so I had to be right at the peak. Normally I try to catch waves from the opposite side of the peak but on these waves there was about a 6 to 10 foot area that you could take off but beyond that you had no hope. I had 2 reasonable waves my first and last ones. The first wave was just a drop and bottom turn then a wide slow cutback and some minor turns on the inside. The last was was a left I was trying just to catch a wave in and didn't expect top have much to ride but as I dropped the left looked ok so I did a bottom turn to an off the lip snap dropped back down to see a backwash coming at me and managed to hop over the backwash hen ride the whitewater in. It didn't seem like much but I heard the kitesurfers cheered for me on that turn, Maybe because the previous wave which was a right I tried to do an late off the lip where the lip was pitching over already and got trounced. good to have some waves. Yesterday I saw one of the guys I used to see long ago. He was kitesurfing and talked to me like he knew me. I was too embarrassed to ask him who he was but after a while I realized he was Keoni who had a beautiful sister who was one of the rare woman surfers long ago. He was like 2 feet taller than I remember him but I saw him mostly before he was all grown up. Funny how your memory plays tricks on you like that. I mean I am sure I have seen him a couple times at least all grown up but I remember him mostly as being smaller.

[oldmansurfer]

Thanksgiving waves...or I should say wave since I only caught one. Hey but it is better to have tried and failed than to sit at home and wish you were surfing.stormy big difficult to read waves.

[BoMan]

Good times at Big River on Mendocino Bay. At 20 seconds you can see the outside break. Cross currents and wind forced me to grab the rails often to keep from wiping out!

[oldmansurfer]

My weekend was full of stormy surf. I got a lot of paddling in and caught a few waves but nothing too spectacular because it was so choppy I would almost fall on every turn. Waves were overhead to double overhead. It is rather exciting to be out in conditions like that because the chance of taking a pounding is extremely high and you have to be vigilant and aware of what the waves are doing (while you paddle against the current that tries to draw you out of position). I always feel like I accomplished something coming back with no injuries in conditions like that I tried to take a movie but I guess my batteries were too low so it only took pictures. here is one

[IanCaio]

Great day of surfing today, one of the best I had in the last weeks! I'd dare to say in the last month.

Woke up early, met a friend of mine and we went to a spot I hadn't surfed in a while. It was around 2ft, maybe 3ft hawaiian on series when we got in, the waves were opening some long sections and we were two of the few on water.

At first I only found lefts (which I ride f/s). My f/s rides are usually trimming, generating speed, maybe a cutback or a small carve on the face (I still don't feel like I can manage some small f/s snaps, just feel odd. Maybe I should practice it). Got a few cool waves, sometimes they would get chubby in a section, but if you insisted a bit they would reform on the inside and give some nice steeper walls. Cool long rides!

Then I was hunting some rights, but couldn't find it. I wanted to try some b/s wave, because it's a totally different kind of ride for me (b/s is usually a bit more radical and f/s is more of a trimming line, both cool on their own ways). Finally I found the right, what a wave! When I was done the water was waist high. Could do 2 nice cutbacks (on the second one I went back to the pocket but too far on the flats. I held it for a while and the wave reached me again to get me back on the line), and maybe 3 or 4 carves/"snaps".

Really wish I had the camera today, been stoked all day just remembering those rides!