Small New South Swell

A low energy westerly south swell registered some pretty good numbers this morning, but the readout on the cams and in person didn't seem to correlate all that well. Perhaps it was the influence of a nearshore windswell that jumbled things up, but the CDIP image vastly overstated the reality in the water. I wasn't going to surf at all until I saw some good numbers at 0900 hours. The wx was good too, 67 degrees air temp. I thought, if there's no waves I'll paddle in great conditions.

I arrived at the beach ready to SUP surf in my 3/2. After intial warm-ups it was back to the car to change into my 2mil shorty and board shorts. I paddled out into a windless morning at 0957 and surfed low energy and inconsistent waves for an hour and a half. MikieB (who was done SUPing and was into his jogging mode) said it was better at the lower tide and he was probably right. Dave C. was out on his standup, finishing a long morning session. Gentleman that he is, he gave me my biggest wave of the day, even though he had position. He also took a nice pic of me using my cam for the Angulo website. The spirit of Aloha is alive and well in my SUP Brother Dave. Mahalo!

The waves generally were mushy, and had a windswell quality to them in that waves in the sets were very close together. I got two very good waves and on one I was able to do a legit floater without catching the outside rail. Nice!

Got some pics of Jay and Blue to round out the day. Finally after days of smoke filled skies, everything has cleared. In the pic to the right you can clearly see the Basin Complex Fire in Big Sur. It started to blow up again about 0900 when things heated up. By later in the day when the northwest winds turned up, it blew the comlumn flat and way inland. 25 miles of Highway 1 in Big Sur are under mandatory evac. Pray for these peoples homes and property but living there...fires go with the territory.
July 3, 2008 (Th)
In: 0957
Out: 1115
AT= 71.3 - 70.8 degrees
WT= 55 degrees at the nearshore buoy
Wx: Bright, sunny and clear blue skies
Tide: 2.3 Rising to 3.6
Wind: Calm to moderate SW
Sea Surface: Glassy to moderate wind ripples
Buoy: NWS
0800: 3.6 feet @ 17.4 SSW
0900: 3.6 feet @ 9.1 WSW
1200: 3.3 feet @ 9.1 WSW
10'4" Angulo SUP with Infinity paddle
Fin set-up: Thruster with Bluecoil 5.5" center fin and FCS Occy sides
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
CDIP: (1000 hours) 2.4 feet at 8 seconds from 255 degrees and 1.7 feet at 14 seconds from 180 degrees