I've been slacking on my postings, but frankly my surf sessions have not been too spectacular. In the last week I've surfed a total of 4 times! ZOMG! Since i'm pretty much a full time study-er, I've been able to take a lil more time off for the fun stuff :)
Sunday, 1/8/12. 26th. This was after the tumultuous Dockweiler day, but this time I went to 26th street with da guys again. The waves were slightly smaller and I was able to make it out to the line up no problem. The waves were breaking funky, close to shore and fast. I think the tide was high. I brought the fish again, so it was kind of like starting from the beginning, so I wasn't expecting much today, just time to practice. The best thing about my small board is I can duck dive! What a nice break from turtle rolling a long board, oy. This session was most memorable because I made a new friend. Her name's Allison, and she paddled in with Dais, Khang and DK. They met in the parking lot so I thought at first they knew each other already. But turned out they had just met! Anyways she turned out to be cool, she long boards mostly and surfs around 26th, porto, the cove and she just discovered topanga a few days before. I told her about Sunset and how I was thinking about going the next day. So we exchanged info and planned on going! yay new friends.
Monday 1/9/12. Sunset. The plan was to surf sunset when the tide was low, around 3pm. Silverton was up visiting and he agreed to try surfing! He's tried once before a while back, but did pretty well that first time. The plan was for him to borrow my dad's long board, a 9'2", and use my old wetsuit. He's only a few inches taller than me and the wetsuit was pretty stretched out so I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Turned out that Allison lives in Hermosa, and driving up and back to Sunset in Malibu would be in the peak of traffic, so we opted to re-schedule. So silverton and I arrive at Sunset, the waves are teeensy and it looked like negative tide. Not the greatest conditinos, but there was one little break that looked rideable, and there were only a few SUPs out. More room for silverton to practice, perfect! Well, we get into our wetsuits, and I didn't account for silverton's shoulders to be too big for the suit. I had to force the zipper closed and velcro the neck on quick before the zipper would shoot down again. I should have taken that as a sign, but we came this far, he'll work around the fact his arms were slightly stuck in abduction . We're in the water and I instantly caught a nice small wave into shore. We are the only people at this peak, the SUP's decided to trek a little south, it was glorious! Another wave was coming toward us, and silverton was in position. I called out, "Paddle! Paddle hard!" He paddles, i don't see him pop up, but he rides the wave on his stomach for a little while. He paddles back to me eventually, slowly and with only his right arm. I asked him what was wrong and he said he paddled hard, but on the 2nd or 3rd paddle, he suddenly felt a pop in his shoulder, and not a good pop. He said because the wetsuit was so tight it didn't allow him to get a full stroke motion, his shoulder blades were too restricted. He paddled, over-using the shoulder joint, which ended up straining his muscle. Mann....what a giant BUMMER! Note to self: don't try and paddle when you don't have full range of motion of your shoulder joint. As PT's, we probably should have seen this coming, but now we know. So he went in right after that. I felt really bad, we had just gotten in! As he went to the car, I stayed in to catch a few more waves. A few more surfers joined me out there, a couple newbies and a couple really good surfers. I caught a few nice ones, but the tide was so low, I had to ditch the wave early so I wouldn't wreck my fins on the rocks. A hard lesson to learn, and a bad intro to surfing for Silverton. If he agrees to try again, we're definitely finding a wetsuit that fits.
Thursday 1/12/12. 26th. I met up with Allison this time, and ran into Khang and DK in the water. I brought out the long board, because the report said it was 2-3, but the sets seemed a lot bigger and I just remember being caught in a rip for a good amount of the time out. I remember it was pretty frustrating, and I didn't catch one wave this day. Khang and DK left pretty soon after I got there, and Allison introduced me to her friend Akiko. She's a petite Japanese surfer mom, who rips! She was riding a Lost, 6' quad fin, thruster, I think, and was really good. Allison came to the beach with her boyfriend, who also surfs, but he had to leave early for work, so I agreed to give her a ride home. We had breakfast burritos at that mexican joint down the ways...i forget the name but it was some prime post surf grub. Dropped off Allison at her nice (and affordable) apt only blocks from the beach, and headed home. On my way I picked up new double D-Ring surf racks, that don't whistle when I'm on the free-way! Yee-Haw! more travel surf for me!
Saturday 1/14/12. 26th. CLOSED OUT! Man was today closed out. It was so deceiving! On my way over the waves looked soooo nice. The conditions were prime, super glassy with a slight off shore breeze. Well, I guess it had something to do with the swell direction, but man was it just walled. However, there were some little shoulders here and there, but you had to be choosy, or else you'd get screwed. I found Khang, DK, and Dais, and apparently had just missed Klaude. I think he went in as I was paddling out. Allison left for Kauai that morning with her boyfriend, lucky duck! Christina was out sick still, she's been struggling with a cold for the last few weeks. Matt was on a roadtrip up to Santa Cruz, hopefully finding some sweet point breaks up there. Oh, and I heard Francis was there earlier, but me being the late riser, had missed him too. Anyways, to the waves. Frustrating to say the least, however I caught 2 standouts. The first one was a drop and 2 seconds of face time before I ditched my board landing straight into the closed out wave. I could've gone straight but these 2 foamboarders riding the white water were right in my way and they almost got hit by my board. It's fine if you're going to practice out here, but do it closer to the sand and not where you can get run over! The second one was after chatting with long boarder local man, Glen. He had just got a really nice long wave and said the rising tide was helping improve the shape. So I took this as a good pep talk, and I got the next wave coming in and rode it all the way to shore, going right and then doubling back going left. I figured this is going to be my one good ride of the day, I'll make the most of it. Well, I was right. The paddle back to the line up was hard, it wore me out, and soon after I got stuck in a set right at the impact zone. I was held under water a little longer than I liked, with my leash wrapped around my foot. Two more waves crashed on me and well, that was enough for me. Man was it cold this morning too. The breeze just chilled me to the bone, and even with booties I started to loose feeling in my feet toward the end of the sesh. I was shivering and it was a bitch taking off my wetsuit with numb fingers. Winter seems to have finally hit. Goodbye freak summer weather, you were nice.
And just because:
:D :D :D :D :D :D
Sunday, 1/8/12. 26th. This was after the tumultuous Dockweiler day, but this time I went to 26th street with da guys again. The waves were slightly smaller and I was able to make it out to the line up no problem. The waves were breaking funky, close to shore and fast. I think the tide was high. I brought the fish again, so it was kind of like starting from the beginning, so I wasn't expecting much today, just time to practice. The best thing about my small board is I can duck dive! What a nice break from turtle rolling a long board, oy. This session was most memorable because I made a new friend. Her name's Allison, and she paddled in with Dais, Khang and DK. They met in the parking lot so I thought at first they knew each other already. But turned out they had just met! Anyways she turned out to be cool, she long boards mostly and surfs around 26th, porto, the cove and she just discovered topanga a few days before. I told her about Sunset and how I was thinking about going the next day. So we exchanged info and planned on going! yay new friends.
Monday 1/9/12. Sunset. The plan was to surf sunset when the tide was low, around 3pm. Silverton was up visiting and he agreed to try surfing! He's tried once before a while back, but did pretty well that first time. The plan was for him to borrow my dad's long board, a 9'2", and use my old wetsuit. He's only a few inches taller than me and the wetsuit was pretty stretched out so I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Turned out that Allison lives in Hermosa, and driving up and back to Sunset in Malibu would be in the peak of traffic, so we opted to re-schedule. So silverton and I arrive at Sunset, the waves are teeensy and it looked like negative tide. Not the greatest conditinos, but there was one little break that looked rideable, and there were only a few SUPs out. More room for silverton to practice, perfect! Well, we get into our wetsuits, and I didn't account for silverton's shoulders to be too big for the suit. I had to force the zipper closed and velcro the neck on quick before the zipper would shoot down again. I should have taken that as a sign, but we came this far, he'll work around the fact his arms were slightly stuck in abduction . We're in the water and I instantly caught a nice small wave into shore. We are the only people at this peak, the SUP's decided to trek a little south, it was glorious! Another wave was coming toward us, and silverton was in position. I called out, "Paddle! Paddle hard!" He paddles, i don't see him pop up, but he rides the wave on his stomach for a little while. He paddles back to me eventually, slowly and with only his right arm. I asked him what was wrong and he said he paddled hard, but on the 2nd or 3rd paddle, he suddenly felt a pop in his shoulder, and not a good pop. He said because the wetsuit was so tight it didn't allow him to get a full stroke motion, his shoulder blades were too restricted. He paddled, over-using the shoulder joint, which ended up straining his muscle. Mann....what a giant BUMMER! Note to self: don't try and paddle when you don't have full range of motion of your shoulder joint. As PT's, we probably should have seen this coming, but now we know. So he went in right after that. I felt really bad, we had just gotten in! As he went to the car, I stayed in to catch a few more waves. A few more surfers joined me out there, a couple newbies and a couple really good surfers. I caught a few nice ones, but the tide was so low, I had to ditch the wave early so I wouldn't wreck my fins on the rocks. A hard lesson to learn, and a bad intro to surfing for Silverton. If he agrees to try again, we're definitely finding a wetsuit that fits.
Thursday 1/12/12. 26th. I met up with Allison this time, and ran into Khang and DK in the water. I brought out the long board, because the report said it was 2-3, but the sets seemed a lot bigger and I just remember being caught in a rip for a good amount of the time out. I remember it was pretty frustrating, and I didn't catch one wave this day. Khang and DK left pretty soon after I got there, and Allison introduced me to her friend Akiko. She's a petite Japanese surfer mom, who rips! She was riding a Lost, 6' quad fin, thruster, I think, and was really good. Allison came to the beach with her boyfriend, who also surfs, but he had to leave early for work, so I agreed to give her a ride home. We had breakfast burritos at that mexican joint down the ways...i forget the name but it was some prime post surf grub. Dropped off Allison at her nice (and affordable) apt only blocks from the beach, and headed home. On my way I picked up new double D-Ring surf racks, that don't whistle when I'm on the free-way! Yee-Haw! more travel surf for me!
Saturday 1/14/12. 26th. CLOSED OUT! Man was today closed out. It was so deceiving! On my way over the waves looked soooo nice. The conditions were prime, super glassy with a slight off shore breeze. Well, I guess it had something to do with the swell direction, but man was it just walled. However, there were some little shoulders here and there, but you had to be choosy, or else you'd get screwed. I found Khang, DK, and Dais, and apparently had just missed Klaude. I think he went in as I was paddling out. Allison left for Kauai that morning with her boyfriend, lucky duck! Christina was out sick still, she's been struggling with a cold for the last few weeks. Matt was on a roadtrip up to Santa Cruz, hopefully finding some sweet point breaks up there. Oh, and I heard Francis was there earlier, but me being the late riser, had missed him too. Anyways, to the waves. Frustrating to say the least, however I caught 2 standouts. The first one was a drop and 2 seconds of face time before I ditched my board landing straight into the closed out wave. I could've gone straight but these 2 foamboarders riding the white water were right in my way and they almost got hit by my board. It's fine if you're going to practice out here, but do it closer to the sand and not where you can get run over! The second one was after chatting with long boarder local man, Glen. He had just got a really nice long wave and said the rising tide was helping improve the shape. So I took this as a good pep talk, and I got the next wave coming in and rode it all the way to shore, going right and then doubling back going left. I figured this is going to be my one good ride of the day, I'll make the most of it. Well, I was right. The paddle back to the line up was hard, it wore me out, and soon after I got stuck in a set right at the impact zone. I was held under water a little longer than I liked, with my leash wrapped around my foot. Two more waves crashed on me and well, that was enough for me. Man was it cold this morning too. The breeze just chilled me to the bone, and even with booties I started to loose feeling in my feet toward the end of the sesh. I was shivering and it was a bitch taking off my wetsuit with numb fingers. Winter seems to have finally hit. Goodbye freak summer weather, you were nice.
And just because:
:D :D :D :D :D :D
