Paddled out this morning at dawn. It was cold and clear with a light but steady offshore wind. I was in full rubber as I knew it would be cold until the sun came up. I got my first wave in about ten minutes. In 30 minutes my fingers on both hands were numb.
I surfed Gdubs alone until 7AM when Greg paddled up for about 20 minutes. I surfed alone again until an Angulonian posse made up of Scott, Mash and MikeyB paddled over from Sarge's. We had a great time trading waves, talking story, trading boards and enjoying the now warming morning.
It was small and pretty inconsistent but it isn't hard to keep busy on a SUP and have fun whether you're surfing, paddling, hanging out with friends or all of the above. Scott got one of the waves of the day (sequence shots) and was stoked. I was stoked that the Olympus continuous frame shooting was stable and in good focus although I wish Scott filled up the frame a bit more. According to K1 you're better off without the zoom as you lose a lot of clarity so I'm glad I didn't zoom in. I also changed the ISO setting from "auto" to 400. I think that helped.
The red tide appears to be gone. Water visibility has been restored to what looks like normal to me.
The kelp was absolutely brutal today. I had a kelp induced wipeout on an inside section that just dragged the nose of my board under water for the pearl. When I came back up I was bummed to see what I thought was a paint scratch on my right rail. No big deal, a little touch up and we're done. Not exactly. When I got home I put the board on the saw horses to attend to the touch up when I noticed air bubbles and water leaking out of the "scratch." In addition I noticed a pretty gnarly 4" crack on the bottom rail. Needless to say I was stunned. This board was in a violent crash on a four foot wave with another Angulo about a month ago and sustained almost no damage. The wave that forced the current ding was no more than 12 inch high white wash, encountered in a section that was petering out. I've got a call in to Andy to get the scoop on how to make the ding watertight. Hopefully I don't have to take it to a specialist.
Anyone who surfs has to expect some damage every now and again unless one is just sitting or standing around. When I'm out I surf pretty hard and I'm not easy on my equipment, or I'm off for a long paddle somewhere, even if it's just in circles. I invested in the pvc sandwich construction to avoid the kind of damage I got today. I hope the repair is a relatively easy one and I'm wondering (what with all the hype about hi-tech, Tuflite-like pvc construction) if the rails on these types of boards are not particularly vulnerable to damage. Stay tuned...
November 29, 2007 (Th)
In: 0635
1st Wave: 0651
Out: 1015
Wave count: 20+
AT=42 - 55
WT=55
Wx: Clear and crisp with some high clouds
Tide: 3.34 Falling to 3.813 Rising to 3.75
Wind: Steady light offshore switching to westerlies at 0920
Sea Surface: Light wind ripples to glassy to light wind ripples
Buoy: NWS
0600: 8.2 @ 12.1 WNW
0700: 7.2 @ 13.8 WNW
0800: 6.6 @ 10.8 NW
0900: 6.6 @ 12.1 WNW
1000: 6.2 @ 8.3 NW
1100: 6.9 @ 9.1 WNW
10'4" Angulo SUP
Rock reefs
Waves: 4' @ 12 (approx. ave.) Storm Surf Buoy Model
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