Anyone else get some today...?

[Atrain505]

Well, technically, not every where. I live in a very popular surf town with 8 million people within driving distance. All the spots in town are super crowded for sure. But I regularly get world class waves a ten minute drive and 5-15 minute hike from the car with 0-8 people out. It is crazy how easy it is to get away from the crowds here when conditions align (swell, tide, wind). Lemmings are lemmings.

Yeah. You clearly have it good down there. The very few vids that come out from that area every once in a while always has me going, why does any surfer live in socal (excluding obvious family and job commitments and the what not).

Lemmings. Everywhere. My brother lives in socal. I visited a couple years ago. Small surf. Waist high at topanga. It's a decent mushy point wave. 30+ people on the peak fighting over scraps. I look 300 yards to the right and there's beach break that allows 1-3 turns, occasionally closes out. Same size. Tiny bit steeper. Zero people. I look at my brother, he says, "I often surf there alone unless Topanga is really firing." Just me and him trading waves next to the zoo.
But man oh man, some of the other days at other spots I struggled in the crowd down there. Not used to it!

[Long duc dong]

Yeah. You clearly have it good down there. The very few vids that come out from that area every once in a while always has me going, why does any surfer live in socal (excluding obvious family and job commitments and the what not).

Lemmings. Everywhere. My brother lives in socal. I visited a couple years ago. Small surf. Waist high at topanga. It's a decent mushy point wave. 30+ people on the peak fighting over scraps. I look 300 yards to the right and there's beach break that allows 1-3 turns, occasionally closes out. Same size. Tiny bit steeper. Zero people. I look at my brother, he says, "I often surf there alone unless Topanga is really firing." Just me and him trading waves next to the zoo.
But man oh man, some of the other days at other spots I struggled in the crowd down there. Not used to it!

I actually think the waves in parts of socal can be underrated in certain ways. It's much less windy than up north, and Orange County gets REALLY consistent in the summer, which is big for me. It also gets insane from time to time. La Jolla is pretty nuts too.

One of my buddies from UCSB and Newport lives up north now. He surfs Ocean Beach pretty regularly. He grew up on the Big Island and rips. He loves Ocean Beach, but says it can be blown out for months on end in the summer. He says he would prefer Newport, as it has more consistently surfable days and occasionally pumps, plus you have an easy drive to San Clemente. He says he would trade the occasionally epic Ocean Beach days for the consistent fun of Newport. NB/HB might be the easiest area to surf a lot if you have an office job. Orange County is actually arguably better in the summer than in the winter.

But the issue in OC is the crowds. It's insane down here. I absolutely love Lowers, it probably has more good days, depending on how one defines that term, than any other wave in California. But the crowd there is horrible.

If you are shrewd you can find good peaks that are not TOO crowded down here. Like you said about the beachbreak near Topanga, I am always amazed to see people crowding around a great peak in NB/HB when there are peaks 80% as good that are not nearly as crowded. It never ceases to amaze me. The HB pier is one of the most glaring examples of that. The peaks close to the pier are really fun, they get insane from time to time and that zone probably has more surfable days than anywhere in California, but I never understand why so many people crowd around that one south of the pier when there are peaks almost as good just slightly down the beach. It really does not make sense to me. I have also seen more fights there than any other break, and I usually surf Newport.

I actually surfed south of the pier today. It was thigh high, and I had fun on the 7'6" again. Today was not good, but it was worth getting in the water on the big board. I should have an early window tomorrow.

[liv2ski]

Aaaaah to be young and willing to put up with the shit of So Cal surfing. 20 years ago I was an everyday surfer and my buddy that was 15 years older than me couldn't be bothered unless we went to K38 and it was firing. Back then I never understood him, now I do.

[Ottime]

SoCal has some great waves. No doubt. Many with crowds that require you to don the horse blinders to surf. So no kindness less it be mistaken for weakness. I can do all that but it feels like a day at the office.

OB can surely get great but is sucks as a local break. Picks up no south swell and usually windblown 200 days a year. Shot gets way mellower south of Pigeon and SC faces SE. plenty of places to get great summer surf. A spot in Big Sur is a bit gnarlier than anything I’ve ever surfed in OC in the summer. Don’t get me wrong. Had some fun surf at Lowers, Uppers.and Cottons. But this place requires a step up or gun during a moderate south. Can’t imagine what it looks like on a big one. We’ve also got a place up near here that makes a south turn into a bomb. Next place I know like that is in Poipu.

If you friend wants a tour, lemme know. Always looking for strong partners to go and get some with. Must not fear the white shark.

[Long duc dong]

SoCal has some great waves. No doubt. Many with crowds that require you to don the horse blinders to surf. So no kindness less it be mistaken for weakness. I can do all that but it feels like a day at the office.

OB can surely get great but is sucks as a local break. Picks up no south swell and usually windblown 200 days a year. Shot gets way mellower south of Pigeon and SC faces SE. plenty of places to get great summer surf. A spot in Big Sur is a bit gnarlier than anything I’ve ever surfed in OC in the summer. Don’t get me wrong. Had some fun surf at Lowers, Uppers.and Cottons. But this place requires a step up or gun during a moderate south. Can’t imagine what it looks like on a big one. We’ve also got a place up near here that makes a south turn into a bomb. Next place I know like that is in Poipu.

If you friend wants a tour, lemme know. Always looking for strong partners to go and get some with. Must not fear the white shark.

I should clarify that OC is more about consistent FUN waves than gnarly ones. Cottons over 4th of July weekend would be an example of a big south, it was double overhead but not really scary, steep faces but not really throwing. If you got caught inside it was not all that bad, I did a couple of times and it was just rolling. It is really rare that you need any sort of step up down here, maybe occasionally in the winter at Lunada or Blacks, but those days are few and far between. You guys get much bigger surf up there.

My buddy spent high school on the Big Island. He spent a year on the North Shore, his mom had bought a condo and had him live there for a year rent free, a year he says he misses. He has said that one November at OB was among the top 3 surfing months of his life. He works in outside sales, so he can get sessions in during the middle of the day, he said he surfed just about everyday, it was at least head high everyday, and the winds were good. But he also says that he has had Augusts where there is, literally, not a day where he would surf. He misses the ease of getting decent waves in Newport. His wife has an office job in San Francisco, so unless she is able to go permanently remote they are going to be up there. I'll pass along the offer, he has mentioned the areas north of Santa Cruz before. And yeah, I've heard plenty of stories of the sharks.

I think the only place I have ever surfed up north was Stinson. It was my sophomore year in college, over Thanksgiving. My family was back east, so I always spent Thanksgiving with family friends who lived in Woodside, they had a son who was two years younger than me that I was good friends with. I had been surfing for around six months at the time, and I brought my board with me. There was no surf, surprising for that area for that time of year, it was waist high and sloppy, but I paddled out anyway. There were seals all over the place, I didn't really understand what that meant at the time.....

[Ottime]

^^^souths are typically smaller. But there are a few deep water breaks that does something special to them.

SoCal does much better with the south. But we also can get a bunch if wind swell in the summer generates off Mendocino that can keep things surfable in between. August can be rough for sure.

OB is super exposed to the dominant wind so it needs legit off shore conditions. Thankfully there are other options that vary more.

Surf is certainly a but tougher over all up here, but the Westside gets pretty groomed, clean and mellow.

What I’m most fond of is the small nW wind and ground swells that filter in between the bigger longer period souths and northwest swell. Oh and the long periods west swells that light everything up.

We have a hard time picking up steep souths and tropical swells. Points to OC for that.

[Long duc dong]

The last three days have been decent at 36th. Far from epic, waist high, but pretty good shape on a morning rising tide. Some lined up lefts off the jetty, I'm learning to love the big board on small days with good shape. After a dip the water is back to 64. Things are supposed to change this weekend, finally.

[subtle plague]

We're leaving tomorrow, but things do not look very epic for ireland in the next week. But it's August and I knew that last year was exceptional.
And there should be some swell until September 4th.....

[Ottime]

Getting some is better than getting none.

[subtle plague]

Getting some is better than getting none.

Wisdom right there.

I'm just happy to get out and have a break from my climbing training regime. I'm a lot better at climbing than surfing, but it's still only number three in my list of fun things to do after skiing and surfing because it is so much effort. If I don't train three times a week (or get out on the rock) for about 2-3 hours, I lose my power.

Right before my summer surf trips it's always been more of a chore than anything else.
On the other hand: I've always come back stronger after my surf trips because they reignite my hunger for climbing and training.

And there should be some waves ( looking at the models) so it's all good.

[nortonwhis]

Wisdom right there.

I'm just happy to get out and have a break from my climbing training regime. I'm a lot better at climbing than surfing, but it's still only number three in my list of fun things to do after skiing and surfing because it is so much effort. If I don't train three times a week (or get out on the rock) for about 2-3 hours, I lose my power.

Right before my summer surf trips it's always been more of a chore than anything else.
On the other hand: I've always come back stronger after my surf trips because they reignite my hunger for climbing and training.

And there should be some waves ( looking at the models) so it's all good.

Why do you choose summer to go on surf trips? Its probably the worst sport for northern hemisphere surf action. Why not wait til mid sept and increase the odds of getting swell.
edit: sorry re-read that and it seems kind of rude, not meant to be, just curious

[Ottime]

I’m guessing he is connected to the education trade. My family is, and we can take long trips (usually) during summer. Mixed blessing as it is when all the kids are off, but kind of cool as we can plan 3-4 week trips. Visits friends in Kauai for 10 days last summer during a week’s long south swell run was pretty fun for N hemisphere in summer. Acid Drops was a real as any OH winter wave around here.

[Long duc dong]

Why do you choose summer to go on surf trips? Its probably the worst sport for northern hemisphere surf action. Why not wait til mid sept and increase the odds of getting swell.
edit: sorry re-read that and it seems kind of rude, not meant to be, just curious

There are actually a fair number of northern hemisphere places that are good in the summer. Orange County and parts of San Diego are good, and consistent, in the summer. Lots of areas of Mexico are really fun in the summer. As you go south into Central America there are tons of great summer places. Costa Rica in the summer is about as consistent as anywhere.

Oahu can be fun in the summer too, if you go to the south shore. If you want REALLY big waves it is obviously better to go in the winter, but summer offers plenty of fun surf.

The key is finding northern hemisphere spots that are far enough south, and face south or southwest, to pick up southern hemi action. There are places in mainland Mexico that are just nuts all summer. Cabo also gets fun on south swells if you want to combine surfing and partying. When I was single we had some great surf/party trips down there. They take a toll though, when you are drinking and chasing girls all afternoon and night and surfing for three hours you return to the office (talking the ACTUAL office here, not the beach bar in Cabo San Lucas) more tired than refreshed.

[Ottime]

Hell. I come back from most vacations more tired than when I left. Just means you are doing it right. Chasing girls and booze or not

[subtle plague]

Yeah I'm a teacher. And surfing is a summer holiday thing for me. I used to get to lots of fun tropical places because of it. (before our daughter).

And summer Is prime surf season in indo. Where I basically went every summer from 08 to 2015.


I mean I got andermatt (2h), Engelberg (1 1/2l h) and magic wood /ticino (2h bouldering) close by so I can't have a world class reef break at my door step I guess. And that's OK because honestly I'll never become a real surfer anyway

I noticed that in my sabbatical. after 3 months I was tired of Sumatra and surfing while in skiing I still got up super psyched at. 5:30 on may 9th to get my 75th pow day that season. (in Engelberg). After having been to AK and Japan and BC that season

Waiting for the ferry (Monday) anxiously watching corona rates right now . If the UK doesn't let us Germans in anymore my "Dublin dodge" maneuver via Northern Ireland won't work. (people coming from NI don't have to Quarantine in Ireland and there is no border patrol anyway because of the good Friday agreement)
But I had 2 really nice sessions in Normandy today, in 1-2foot Beach breaks nonetheless. I totally dominated the line up of 8 foot softboards beginners

[nortonwhis]

Sorry I should have added summer in Europe.
But that all makes sense with education and children being in the mix!

[BS720]

I wouldn't feel like my Cabo trip was complete if I hadn't dropped into The Office. Good drinks, but some shit as fuck food. On the way out, wife took yet another photo of some dude trying to sell me some blow. I have to say, if you've never been, you need to go and hit up East Cape. It was so much fun. Shipwrecks and the stuff around it are amazing.

[subtle plague]

Sorry I should have added summer in Europe.
But that all makes sense with education and children being in the mix!

It's also a conscious decision. I mean we bought an rv., don't want to fly to tropical places with the little one and wanted to scale down our flying a bit anyway because of the climate impact. So it all comes together.

And I had never been to Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia(we want to check out Norway in the next few years unless Ireland is good again and I'm totally hooked ).

Plus: I can't stand the heat. Don't get me wrong warm water and board shorts are great, but the climate on the mentawais or in aceh got to me.

[Ottime]

^^^i feel sorry for you. 3 months in paradise does sound repetitive. Jk

Surfing is harder to do day in and day out. Even if warm and perfect. I think it may be similitude to touting daily. But lift served skiing is easy to motivate for in comparison. Sit on a chair and go down hill. By third or forth run, we wake up and are good to go. With surfing you are putting yourself in the ocean to work even before you are ready.

I can, and have, stayed motivated to get in the water almost daily over the years. I think the fact that at home we have to chase waves, miss some good days due to life, wait for swells and surf a variety of different spots with different character. Surfing the same good set up daily for months with nothing else in the balance, I could see my motivation wane after 60 or 90 days for sure. OTOH, I can sit my ass in a chair lift almost any day of the year.

[subtle plague]

With me it's more than that I guess. I think it has to do with the level you're at and when you start. In surfing I have to think about what to do whereas in skiing it's effortless. And I never got beyond mediocre. In skiing like to think of me as decent.

I started skiing when I was 4 and surfing with 20.
Plus: I stopped improving at the end of the three months in Sumatra.

[nortonwhis]

It's also a conscious decision. I mean we bought an rv., don't want to fly to tropical places with the little one and wanted to scale down our flying a bit anyway because of the climate impact. So it all comes together.

And I had never been to Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia(we want to check out Norway in the next few years unless Ireland is good again and I'm totally hooked ).

Plus: I can't stand the heat. Don't get me wrong warm water and board shorts are great, but the climate on the mentawais or in aceh got to me.

I hear you on the climate thing. Would love to do multiple trips to Mexico a year but the main reason i don't is environmental reasons. Flights are cheap, its cheap once you land. Its a 60 hour drive with 24 of that in Mexico so an RV isn't really option either unfortunately!

The best thing about places like Ireland in the summer is even if the waves suck you'll have a great time!

[Long duc dong]

Yeah I'm a teacher. And surfing is a summer holiday thing for me. I used to get to lots of fun tropical places because of it. (before our daughter).

And summer Is prime surf season in indo. Where I basically went every summer from 08 to 2015.


I mean I got andermatt (2h), Engelberg (1 1/2l h) and magic wood /ticino (2h bouldering) close by so I can't have a world class reef break at my door step I guess. And that's OK because honestly I'll never become a real surfer anyway

I noticed that in my sabbatical. after 3 months I was tired of Sumatra and surfing while in skiing I still got up super psyched at. 5:30 on may 9th to get my 75th pow day that season. (in Engelberg). After having been to AK and Japan and BC that season

Waiting for the ferry (Monday) anxiously watching corona rates right now . If the UK doesn't let us Germans in anymore my "Dublin dodge" maneuver via Northern Ireland won't work. (people coming from NI don't have to Quarantine in Ireland and there is no border patrol anyway because of the good Friday agreement)
But I had 2 really nice sessions in Normandy today, in 1-2foot Beach breaks nonetheless. I totally dominated the line up of 8 foot softboards beginners

I like to consider myself lucky. I surf several days a week in the summer. Now that I work from home I'm able to get winter weekday sessions too, when I was in an office I was usually there from 7 am to 5 pm which made winter non-weekend sessions tough. I get to ski Mammoth around 40 days a year, most of them at Mammoth, which is a really great mountain.

But I am CLEARLY doing something wrong:

You went to Indo for extended periods eight summers in a row. I have always wanted to go. Even for a mediocre surfer it looks like goofy-foot heaven.

You are FAR closer to skiing that is FAR better than Mammoth. For the record I have always really wanted to go to Engleberg in particular. I think a TGR segment in 05 sold me on it.

I would REALLY love to get tired of surfing in Sumatra!

Just curious, can you take a train to Engleberg?

Obviously you lack the convenience of day to day surfing, I'm lucky to have that. But good work! Even when I lived in Tahoe and skied everyday I don't know that I ever got 75 pow days in. I should actually go back and look at the snowfall tracker for Squaw from 99-03 and do some counting. I'm not sure if they still have it up.

[Long duc dong]

With me it's more than that I guess. I think it has to do with the level you're at and when you start. In surfing I have to think about what to do whereas in skiing it's effortless. And I never got beyond mediocre. In skiing like to think of me as decent.

I started skiing when I was 4 and surfing with 20.
Plus: I stopped improving at the end of the three months in Sumatra.

I'm actually similar. I started skiing at 7, surfing freshman year in college. I don't think I could ever get REALLY good at surfing starting so late.

Skiing and surfing are different in terms of learning. When you learn to ski/snowboard/skateboard you are starting standing up. You learn to negotiate moving on the chosen medium. With surfing you have to do a whole lot BEFORE you even work on moving. I mean, a long surfing wave can be 10 seconds on a decent Orange County beachbreak. You really get very little time in surfing to become comfortable.

I have often wondered what the progression would be like in surfing if you were able to start standing on a chest high wave. I think people would progress much faster. All of these sports are about getting comfortable, and surfing actually allows for very little time to get comfortable riding a wave. A three hour skiing session, and obviously we usually ski for much longer than that, affords far more time actually moving on a slope than even the best three hour surf session of my life. I have honestly never known anyone who started surfing at an advanced age who got good at it. One can be competent, but it is really hard to get good if you start late. With skiing/snowboarding it is possible to progress if you spend enough time on the hill simply because your time is spent ACTUALLY riding. Imagine how good you could get at surfing if a 2 hour session consisted of riding shoulder high Trestles type waves for 15 minutes! If you start late I think it is really tough to ever build the level of comfort surfing that one can in skiing. Maybe wave pools will help change this? Who knows.

I went down to Trestles today. The swell arrived, but the zone I usually surf, between Uppers and Cottons, was pretty bad. The wind came up early, and it was chest high and soft. It was consistent, but I got lots of bad waves with MAYBE 3 that actually lined up. Eventually I paddled over to Cottons. That was a bit better, but very crowded. Everyone is frothing down here, I actually had a tough time parking on Christianitos. I brought the 6'4" and wished I had one of my bigger mid-range type boards.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better. I'm a bit bummed, I will have lots of extra work to do tonight because of driving down today. From where I live a 2 hour Trestles session take about 4 and half hours of total time. If I had known it was going to be like this I would have hit Newport or HB. Still, it is nice to have swell in the water.

[subtle plague]

Yeah I hear you on the time thing. My wife, who snowboards and surfs (we did all the trips together and our first AK trip as honeymoon. A keeper, I know ), says snowboarding is similar, but much more fun because you actually ride for more than 5 seconds.

And I've seen an adult start with 20+ and get good. Erwin, Indonesian Co owner of the banyak Islands floating surf house. He rips, but he has some of the best waves with minimal crowds on his door step.

[Ottime]

With a SUP you don't need to worry about getting up.

Got in yesterday. Day 8 or 9 since shoulder injury recovery. Went looking for the SSW, but so did hundreds of others. Saw more people along the Waddell line ups than I can recall ever seeing, even when it is pumping. No way I was joining that shit show for a chest high plus wave ever 5-10 minutes or so. Fuck that.

Went back to a NW slab break that typically likes mid period swell. There was a 5@11 winds well still in the water and lots of sand around the slab and it was breaking pretty nicely. Short waves for sure as the swell rolled off the slab quickly, but still found two cover ups and constant, fun, empty waves. There was about 20 minutes when I was literals by myself, at the bottom of a cliff in shark country hoping and wishing someone else would show up.

Wish I could go back out this morning, but it is the first day of school for me, my wife and my kid.