Anyone else get some today...?

**skideeppow** · 07-07-2014, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by strawjack

Is that baja east cape?

Yes, it was off the hook. Perfecto was over 25 feet.

**Ottime** · 07-07-2014, 02:59 PM

Awesome to get your first barrel on the biggest waves of your life. Looks fun. Certain spots up here did pretty well with this swell. If my back were in batter shape I would have foun a way to drive a few hours to a place that is likely off the hook good right now.

**Tectonically_Neglected** · 07-08-2014, 03:30 AM

Holy heck those are some serious waves!

Still waiting for my first barrel...

**skideeppow** · 07-09-2014, 10:46 AM

Yeah i was pretty stoked. Learned to surf at the age of 21 at Old Mans, Sana Nofrey (sp?) and go a couple times a year, mostly to East Cape. The river surfing has really helped with my board skills.
I made the drop on that wave and was so stoked when i saw water crashing over my head i put my hands up, and someone happened to snap a pix.

**shera** · 07-09-2014, 12:50 PM

You mean San Onofre? That barrel is cool!!!!!

Yeah this thread is about surfing but I haven't even been, so I'll just say that I got myself onto a race boat and I'm sailing/crewing. Super fun so my sloooow progress at surfing is prolly slowing down even more. I just want to get out on the ocean and we're gonna race over to Mission Bay and have an overnight with a bunch of boats rafted together and I'm so excited about that.

**Tectonically_Neglected** · 07-10-2014, 08:32 AM

Surfed some storm swell of yesterdays NW storm, today. Shoulder high (maybe more?) massive, fast, barreling, choppy beach break with no line in it. Close-out-ville. Got hammered a few times. Shore break was a muther ##### to get through. Made a few drops too that I wouldn't have made a few months ago. Probably made the longest ride on my home made frankenboard aka mini simms (in hindsight that thing has way to much volume for this kind of surf... not being able to duck dive it sucks). All in all pretty stoked.

Tomorrow should be cleaner and have 1 - 1.5m swell. Keeping fingers crossed!

**Piggity** · 07-10-2014, 11:46 AM

I like this one, does that shelf at the end hold up or close? I'd love to backdoor that one if it it doesn't pinch

**Long duc dong** · 07-10-2014, 03:47 PM

Hope some of the rest of you Californians got some of this last swell. I got it on Sunday at Upper's/Cotton's and then got it Monday in the same zone. I think Surfline overrated the size, but it was still fun.

**jtran10** · 07-10-2014, 04:31 PM

Didn't ever get too big down here, though there was one 6ish foot set that rolled through when we were just chillin at the beach.

Just been surfing the PM semi-slop at Avalanches a lot, and hoping for a bump in the more westerly angled swell so I can head back down to the cliffs. Anything SW to NW works for the closest spot to my house, but the SSW and S swells we've been getting just pass it right by. Opposite of my spot in Carlsbad.

Been playing around with my longboard as a single fin a bunch too (it's meant to be a 2 +1). Since my back fin isn't supposed to be a single it's super squirrely, but kind of makes small waves more fun until you eventually lose your balance and fall. It paddles like a cigarette boat though.

**postnasaldrip** · 07-10-2014, 05:41 PM

Jtran, i've found i never miss, or think about running the 2's anymore. I did go with an 8" single, but may go 7" as i only use the board when it's under waist high and gutless. The exta paddling speed and looseness of the single is wonderful, and any solid surf i've taken it out in really forces you to get that rear foot back and power off of your rear foot.

**Ottime** · 07-10-2014, 07:15 PM

I prefer a single fin long board hands down. I don't really like surfing a LB trustee style. Jtran is your center fin a box fin? Look around for a taller/wider skeg. Surface area makes a big difference.

**skideeppow** · 07-10-2014, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by Piggity

I like this one, does that shelf at the end hold up or close? I'd love to backdoor that one if it it doesn't pinch

There is a great shoulder there, but when it gets this big(I would say this is close to a 20 foot face, I'm at the bottom of that wave so gives u a pretty good point of ref) it closes out quick.
Shoulder is hard to get on with a prone board, but with a sup it's real easy.

**Ottime** · 07-11-2014, 09:54 AM

What kind of board were you riding? And not to be too big of a dick, but from that pic I'd put that more in the twelve to fifteen range. Still plenty of size and makes me pretty confident a place I did not go would have welcomed my 7.6. Damn back and aging body.

Looking at that pic again it looks like you are right in the impact zone. Did you ditch? A little trick in big waves it to start paddling up the face before ditching and pushing off the tail of your board. Hard to explain, but it results on less impact on your board. When the board is in the flats and gets hit square by the lip, there is little, other than luck an pray, that can save a board.

Also, if you are feeling lucky, sometimes you can charge up the face and slip under the lip. Kind of like a duck dive, but instead of going under the wave, you go through a thin part of the wave right under a pitching lip. I do this occasionally with my 8'4". It does not really duck dive, but this method works do to your speed from water movin up the face. OTOH, if you duck up the lip will grab you and toss you and send you out for a proper pummeling.

Looks like it was a blast down there.

**skideeppow** · 07-11-2014, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by Ottime

What kind of board were you riding? And not to be too big of a dick, but from that pic I'd put that more in the twelve to fifteen range. Still plenty of size and makes me pretty confident a place I did not go would have welcomed my 7.6. Damn back and aging body.

Looking at that pic again it looks like you are right in the impact zone. Did you ditch? A little trick in big waves it to start paddling up the face before ditching and pushing off the tail of your board. Hard to explain, but it results on less impact on your board. When the board is in the flats and gets hit square by the lip, there is little, other than luck an pray, that can save a board.

Also, if you are feeling lucky, sometimes you can charge up the face and slip under the lip. Kind of like a duck dive, but instead of going under the wave, you go through a thin part of the wave right under a pitching lip. I do this occasionally with my 8'4". It does not really duck dive, but this method works do to your speed from water movin up the face. OTOH, if you duck up the lip will grab you and toss you and send you out for a proper pummeling.

Looks like it was a blast down there.

Not a dick statement at all. I would defer to your judgement. I was in deep trying to get some long peelers and this thing came from outside. I was paddling lookers left to try and get over it and it was so big i flipped out and just ditched the board and dove. Board snapped in the middle, took two more on the head and then the leash broke.
I know about that trick but just lost my shit and dove for the bottom, did not want to get stuck in the whitewater. I love the water, ocean and rivers but have a distinct fear of drowning.
The photographer told me that if i had dug, i could have made it over. Board was a 9'6".

**Tectonically_Neglected** · 07-11-2014, 11:25 AM

Stoke alert! Todays session started off superbly: shoulder - head high and NO WIND. It was glassy. We hardly ever get that here... And no-one in the water (they all picked the easy to get to and crappier break in front of the parking lot... hehehe)!

I had a mantra in my head: if I'm late dropping in 'weight the back foot and extend' (thank you TGR maestro's). Made a few drops that had me shitting my pants but stuck them all the same! Then made a 'huge' drop and got hit in the head by a bunch of water... oh wait, that's the lip! So if I duck now... ah! Water falling OVER my head without hitting me.... YEAH BABY! I'm surfing! ALOHA.

Was able to 'wiggle' my way down the wave properly now too (I found out that I was trying to do this too low on the face).
So, so, so friggin stoked, I'm shining light (I get all teary eyed thinking back to that moment when my head was in the green room... so, cool).

Then the winds picked up and the waves petered out a bit. Had fun but nothing like that first 45mins.

PS went to the physiotherapist first and she wans't againt me surfing... ;-) Got some good advice too: if it's a dull, aching pain you can go, if it's a sharp/ hard pain: stop!

**Tectonically_Neglected** · 07-11-2014, 11:26 AM

PS sorry about the over the top stokeage... this may all be cut n dried for you guys but for a beginner like me.... woowiieeee!

**Ottime** · 07-11-2014, 12:09 PM

Dude. Stoke is stoke. Except for guys like the whitefisherking. If you can maintain that stokage as you gain more experience, then surfing will always be a draw. I had a period when I got super picky about surf quality and was only happy in the best of surf. That was about when I picked up snow sports, so it worked out fine. Now I find I enjoy getting I the water as long as there is some sort if surf to keep me moving. Anyway, no complaints here from someone bein stoked and positive.

I'll have to ask my doc about the dull pain thing. Makes sense. Right now I just want to in pinch this nerve. Flat right now so it is pretty easy to relax. Only problem is I'm not getting anything else done, so I'll have a shit ton to do once I'm back at full strength.

9'6"? Gun or long board. If the latter, hats off to you riding it in that size surf. I find with the nose volume of a typical LB it is a ton if work to swing that thing around quickly.

**noparking** · 07-11-2014, 05:40 PM

new board stoke. mine is the 6'1 orange and blue. the other is my buddies new nose rider. shaped by a local guy here in Portland. Took it out for a spin while we still had the swell for it. Going to be a big learning curve, but the handful of rides i got where so much fun.

**subtle plague** · 07-12-2014, 04:10 AM

I think i got some in brittany three weeks go. But i can't remember because, apparently, i bumped my kookish head pretty good, walked out of the water, acted weird on the parking lot until my freinds found me and didn't know who or where i was for two days.

Kind of spooky waking up in hospital with a whiteboard in front of your bed answering the same questions you seem to have asked the previous 24 hours in a 20 second loop. I hope this won't happen in sumatra this summer. The others said we had some decent surf....

the last two days of the trip that I saw weren't brilliant but seemed ok from the beach.

**Ottime** · 07-12-2014, 03:32 PM

Kudos for working with the local shaper. They tend to make the right kind of board for the local conditions. Hope you enjoy them. And once THA learning curve is 51% through, is suddenly becomes amazing what you can accomplish. I remember going from my plastic pop out to a proper fiberglass short board. Frustrating at first. Could barely stay on top of the thing. Half way through the summer I was suddenly ripping and doing things the Aiken could never dream of.

And bummer on that head. Too bad you guys weren't shooting video so you could try to recall the good ones you had.

That SE did decent up here. I chased it early and then had to go on injured reserve once the onshores let up. I think I might have landed my ass on the slab on one wave and made things much worse. Good bet there were a number of really fun days up the coast. Meager westerly surf on the way and with the SPAC looking like it plays for Brazil, things are just shutting down. Not a bad time to be hurt an leaving town for a few weeks. Oh. And don't surf slabs when you are just coming off of an injury.

**Piggity** · 07-12-2014, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by skideeppow

There is a great shoulder there, but when it gets this big(I would say this is close to a 20 foot face, I'm at the bottom of that wave so gives u a pretty good point of ref) it closes out quick.
Shoulder is hard to get on with a prone board, but with a sup it's real easy.

Looks fun, wish I took this set on the head. Can't wait for the day 2k pounds of water break on my mellon again. Glad you scored.

**jtran10** · 07-14-2014, 01:40 PM

back to my last post, I need a bigger back fin. I'm running one that is supposed to be used in the 2+1 set up so it's not ideal at all. Been a bit lazy getting to the surf shop though.

Looks like maybe some more waves midweek. Nothing spectacular, but hopefully fun enough. Gonna head out tonight for a sunset session since I haven't done that in quite a while.

**Ottime** · 07-14-2014, 04:28 PM

Wed we have forecast 2@16^298 and 1.8@16^211 combo and light south flow. Not sure if the 2 plus feet of 8 sec wind swell coming from north of 300 degrees will give it the added push it needs or just add a funky nature to the waves. Nothin big, but some spots could going at head high. Fun enough looking.

**Long duc dong** · 07-17-2014, 11:14 AM

Last weekend was small but doable. Stomach high in Newport, with just enough to make it worthwhile.

We have something in the water right now, and it looks like I can leave a bit early today for a Trestles mission. They are calling it heard high with some plus sets, and I will get it on a dropping tide which will hopefully get a couple of my favorite peaks going.