Originally Posted by
Long duc dong
This summer just keeps going. The water is around 73 in Newport right now.
Saturday I went down to Trestles, to surf the Cottons/Barbedwires area. I got there as the tide was going down. The sets were about head high and really fun, I lined up a beautiful 100 yard left on my second wave, but it was a bit inconsistent. The non-set waves were okay, but a bit soft. Still, I got a couple of really fun lefts. I had to leave after an hour, as a cop told my wife that the rules regarding dogs had changed at Cottons, they were no longer allowed. They have always been allowed around the Orange County line, but I guess they changed that. I see dogs there all the time, but none the less she motioned for me to come in and we had to go. Although it was inconsistent it was REALLY fun on the good ones, and glassy for 1230. It takes an hour from my house to actually getting in the water to surf the Cottons area, so it sucks to only get an hour in the water.
Sunday I surfed from around 830 to 1030 at tower 71 in Newport. It ended up being a ton more fun than I thought it would be, chest high with the occasional shoulder high set, but consistent little A-frame peaks with nice shoulders. It was one of those sessions where you just dial in wave after wave because it is so consistent. Today I did an earlier session, 7 to 815, and it was more of the same, lots of fun. The water was VERY warm for 7 am, I trunked it with no issues. The water temps this summer have been great.
I will be very busy over the next few days, it looks like we might have something coming this weekend. I will try to get a quick dawn patrol in tomorrow if it looks good.
What a summer it has been. Not a ton of epic but LOTS of good, and surfable almost every day.
I am not the greatest expert on Newport sand bars, but I will say that things seem to have changed. The 56th street jetty still gets really fun, but there were always good peaks going up to tower 65 in the past. Now that is often not the case, unless you time the tide just right it gets very walled in that zone. The area from 48th to 56th does not seem to be as good as it used to be either. The lower jetties, 36th, 32nd and 28th, have good shape, but don't pick up as much summer swell. They can be really fun if it is overhead and walled from 44th to 65th. The sandbars from tower 68 to tower 74 are still good and very consistent. I don't like to surf 74, too close to the river, but the 68 to 71 zone has been fun all summer. It can get pretty heavy when it is a couple of feet overhead, at that point I usually head to 36th or 32nd. I don't know why the sand bars seem to have changed in some areas, but I have talked to other people who notice it too. It is a problem because it causes areas like the jetty at 56th to be even more crowded than usual.