at Sarges, ready to walk to the wetsuit guy's house and back. Ran into Sam in the lot. Took him down to Dave's so he could try the Angulo 10' noserider. I haven't talked with him yet, but everyone who tries it likes it.
Saturday/Sunday. Hopefully things will clear out by Monday and bring some surfable waves by Tuesday.
today's ongoing wind was from the E, then SE then dead onshore from the south. The only consolation was that the wind calmed about a half hour before dark. Tide was very low, and kelp abundant.
Fortunately the fog was not nearly as pervasive as yesterday so visibility was good. Wind was chill, the great hall was the gunmetal gray color of Winter and it felt good to be in the nascent change from Fall to Winter.
and trying different things, your missing 60% of the value of your boards versatility. You definitely have more boards hidden in your one board than you think. Try it, you'll like it!
out, take three waves and three guys are floating around in the white water, directly in front of the most critical section of the wave. What! Hey...that's surfing. It was still fun, and beautiful and healthy and great exercise and so much better than GOLF!
hell. Finally, the WQS gets a shot at fame in big surf, and the fog rolls in so thick you can't see who's wearing what color jersey. Go figure.
during the big sets. Fun. Challenging. Work. Lumpy, lots of backwash, not a flat piece of water in the two hour session.
Very tracky. They're coming out asap. Thinking about trying a 2+1 set-up for tomorrow afternoons session. It'll be a good contrast with the tri-fin config.
is definitely in the water, just seemed to miss my spots. Meanwhile a well known, WQS class surf contest was going off across town, with o-head waves ripped to shreds by the pros.
picked off a lot of inside waves inside the main point. Take-offs were steep, the board handled it well, and while there were some walls to nose ride, most waves were mushing out inside. Bigger waves would close out and the 10-foot custom would glide underneath the sections smoothly and without incident. The big, high volume fin works great for nose riding, and did not impede the looseness of the board, but it was a major kelp catcher in the small surf. A little more size would help things and lift the board over the veggie tentacles.
Coast. Everything was where it should be, all in it's place, all inviting, all for the pure enjoyment of this fleetingly special gift that is ours for a few days.
mellow combo NW and SW swell showing this morning and continuing into the day. All the spots are working pretty well with the exception of the down coast reefs, the tides are just too much for them to work very consistently.
surf.
not quite as good insiders and off-peak waves. Surf was pretty consistent with good sets swinging wide and putting up some head high bombs that mostly closed out. Did however get a couple multi-waves from In-Betweens to Sarges, to the Nudie Beach. Long, slow, delicious paddle back out to the take-off spot.
"relocate" last night on a fluke. Looking forward to more surf this week.
conditions and decided I could sleep in until it was time to head over to the Expo. This was a good move 'cause I could use the rest after SUPing three to four hours a day.
guys like Steve Sales though unless you meet them in person. Steve's been involved in every phase of surfboard design evolution and construction. He's like a walking encyclopedia of surf knowledge. One can learn a lot with a closed mouth and open mind at times like this. And you learn too that these guys, as famous as they are, are just folks like you and me. Good folks too, and it was my good fortune to get to know them.
blown mess, we were greeted by crystal clear skies, cool temps and a light Santa Ana condition. We were on it early and had made arrangements for another "demo day" but this time at Cardiff. Surf was smaller than last Friday, but the beach break was clean and fun with lefts and rights and an easy paddle through the shore break.
Angulonians didn't do too bad either with the full quiver of 2009 Angulo's on hand. As a matter of fact, it was a blast and, as usual, we all caught a boatload of waves.
there. I knew that the surf was going to be small to smaller, but I didn't care for two reasons. 1) I was actually going to get to surf this place. 2) SUPs always get waves!
because he couldn't get into a kneeling position without extreme pain. This limited his prone surfing too. So we're out there whooping and hollering, having a great time, giving each other waves and kudos, you know, the whole thing. So Dan gets out, and we all thought OK, he's done for the day.
Thursday, October 9
Me and the Mrs. rolled into Ventura last night about eight, unloaded and headed straight to the Aloha for grunts. Famished, downed a couple beers, all the bread and gobbled the entrees when they arrived. Whew! Blood sugar back up, time for bed.
I'm up at 0500 this morning thinking there can't be very much going on, maybe I should just sleep in. Wrong! Irony of ironies, I checked the surf cam on line and it was attached to the hotel where I was staying! Got a tide reading and a not half bad surf report before I checked the models. Four feet on the wave heights, but 16 second periods from a fading south. Hello! I'm out the door and down to the car to suit up (3/2 full) and shoulder carry the new Angulo 10-2 "Perfect Wave" down to the cement stairs.
I proceeded to surf for the next two hours in very consistent and fun waist to shoulder high clean waves, in light and warm offshores and in water temps hugging near the mid-60's. Life is 
good!
C St. is home to fossils like me and newbies. Fun soft waves in a near perfect setting. Pier to the right, mountains in the background, and the Channel Islands filling the landscape out to sea. The sunrise was drop dead perfect…does it get better than this? I suppose it does if it's really firing, but this morning was good, good enough for me.
I was the only guy on a SUP and I expect to get hassled. But, the crowd was pretty mellow. They either didn't say anything, or they were friendly. Cool! The only negative was an old lady who, as I was paddling back out to the line-up through an incoming set, paddled right in front of me to take off on an incoming wave; stopped, pivot turned on her butt, and told me to get out of the way…"please." Lady, I was getting out of the way before you stopped in front of me! No
problem, no hassle. I paddled down toward Surfer's Point.
This is a great spot to surf and it holds a pretty big crowd because there are so many little reef, sand bar breaks from the point down through the s-curve south towards the pier. I didn't go out to the point itself, there being a number of shortboarders there. But I found a nice little shifting A-frame peak put up some nice steep take-offs and fast walls down the line into these little channels that were all over the place. It was a blast! Did that for two hours, caught a shizizit load of waves and I was done.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel is a great place to stay. We weren't sure where we'd end up that night 'cause we had no reservations. I pimped them for the cheapest rate and they offered AAA at
$152. I said can I get the internet rate? The concierge gave me a computer room key card and said go make a reservation. Long story short, I couldn't do it online because of short notice, so…she gave us the room for $118. For future reference the place is dog friendly so we can bring the Cloudy-Boy. Also, you can't beat the location. Close to everything. Surf, pier, beach, fairgrounds, jogging, walking, Main Street, it's got it all.
Plenty of time to check out after a nice walk, and shower. Hit the road about 11:30, bound for
Encinitas and the Moonlight Beach Motel. Arrived around 3:30P and absolutely no hassles checking in. Chin gave us (and I was hoping for this) one of the ocean view rooms of Moonlight Beach! Unpacked and headed over to the Leucadia Pizzeria, which is across the street, on the corner. Couple drafts and two really good salads and we were set for our afternoon nap. 
The units in the Moonlight have little kitchenettes, so after a quick snooze, we're off to Trader Joes to stock up on a few items for the next couple days. Ed and Andy are enroute after working late last night, and then making some drop-offs in Pismo and Santa Barbara today. We meet up tomorrow at San-O. So far, this trip is 110% and getting better.
