Combo Swell for the End of July

After a long wave drought, not atypical for July, a WNW groundswell combined with a southerly swell to bring us some sweet and fun waves. Sam's trip down from the City paid dividends, as he and everyone else out got a nice helping of small to moderate size peaks and walls.

It never got crowded all morning, max being about ten people in the line-up at any one time. And everyone knew everyone else. Joanna, Barry, Chris, Sam, me, Whit, MikeyB, John S., Sam N., Doug, David, John N. were the usual suspects this morning. Lot's of laughing, hooting, ribbing and good times.

The northerly lines were peaking up at the usual take-off while the southerly pulses would sweep in diagonally across the line-up enroute to peaking up in front of the ladder. Long rides were enjoyed, some down to Al's Reef.

While everyone was getting good waves, Whit was pretty much on fire, getting the nicest set waves of the morning. He also dialed in his 10'8" Angulo Beachboy for noserides. He'd set up for the high line, stall at the top, and run to the nose to trim it up down the line, all the while perched on the tip. Sweet!

Weather this July has been cooler than normal. This morning was no exception with fog and overcast. A light onshore "fog wind" as Sean calls it, was present almost all morning. It didn't mess up the waves, but you could feel it's presence nevertheless.

Consistency was on and off all morning long, with some longish flat spells relieved by a series of pumping sets that lasted 20 to 30 minutes. It seemed that the westerly NW swell would put up a series of waves, and then the more inconsistent south would deliver. The incoming tide also seemed to slow it down and flatten things out a bit by 0900 or so.

My new K2D2 fin finally arrived yesterday, just in time for me to try it out in some decent size surf today. The Bluecoil I was using is 5.5" deep,compared to the new K2D2, which is 4.75 inches. The two fin profiles (Occy sides and new K2D2 center) are almost identical. The fin worked great today, no deficits at all. I can't say that I noticed a real leap up in performance, but I feel like I'm now on a true thruster set-up, with all three fins being almost identical in size. I'll put up some pics in the next post.

Sam brought us good luck and a nice swell today. And on top of that, he bought me brunch at Zelda's after. Thanks bro'! You da kine!

July 31, 2008 (Th)
In: 0630
Out: 0930
AT= 54 to 55F
WT= 54.3 degrees at the nearshore buoy
Wx: Overcast with heavy fog at times
Tide: -0.2 Rising to 3.3
Wind: Light onshore
Sea Surface: Light to moderate wind ripples
Buoy: NWS
0700: 6.9 feet @ 16 S
0700: 6.6 feet @ 10.8 WNW
0800: 6.2 feet @ 16 S
1000: 6.6 feet @ 10.8 WNW
10'4" Angulo SUP with Infinity paddle
Fin set-up: Thruster with K2D2 4.75" center fin and FCS Occy sides
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
CDIP: (0700 hours) 4.8 feet at 10 seconds from 310 degrees and 2.6 feet at 17 seconds from 175 degrees