Thursday, October 9Met up with Ed and Andy at Dogpatch in San-O. I got there early and first, and there was already an unpleasant southeast wind blowing, putting up light chop on the sea surface. There was a noticeable change in the weather going on and our hopes for a super sunny Santa Ana vacation were soon gone.
Shortly after Ed and Andy arrived, a bunch of
stand up paddle surfers, anxious to try the new Angulos showed up. Luis, Jed, Bob and Andy all took turns trying out the new boards, and to a man they were stoked. Bob and Gary bought boards on the spot. Andy took them off the trailer, put the deck pads on, they cut out the hand holds and went surfing. Very cool.
We surfed San-O all day. The wind only got worse although there was no shortage of rideable (sort of) swell in the water. Conditions were really challenging and when I first paddled out, although I had no trouble standing and paddling on my board in the bumpy sea, I could not adjust to the bumpy, cross-wave, double wave-face takeoffs, that were routinely humiliating me as I fell time and time again. I felt like I'd never done this before. Exceedingly frustrating!
Finally after about a half dozen waves I started to get a feel for these kinds of conditions and managed to start surfing. By that time I was really pissed, and determined to get it together, so I guess you could say it was all good. Which in a way, it was. Challenging conditions make us better if we stick with it, and I wasn't about to let this "opportunity" do me in.
After my session, I hung out on the beach with different folks, talking about the new boards. So, actually I surfed in the worst surfing window of the day, after everyone else had taken turns riding the new boards. Around 2PM the wind backed down a little bit, and Ed, Andy and Gary went back out for their second session. By that time I was just coming in, and was pretty tired. One thing for sure, it lends new perspective to have a nuclear power plant for land side background.
Headed back to the motel around 4P, followed by Ed and Andy. Ed is a major sports and Dodgers fan, so we had dinner at Yogi's in Cardiff, home to 10,000 TV's all blasting the Phillys v. Dodgers game. but we all had a good time, talking over the day's events, stoked that the new boards had received such a positive reception from the surfers.
Tomorrow we surf Cardiff.
Friday, October 10
Andy and I were out the door for coffee at 0600. We brought Ed back his wake-up dose and headed out for Cardiff Reef. Once again conditions were lousy, but there was a small windswell still moving some waves ashore. After all, how often do I get to surf with Ed Angulo? I'll take all I can get. Not only is Ed fun to hang out with, but he's a veritable history of surfboarding, wind surfing and stand up paddleboarding, all rolled into one guy. And, he's a super nice guy. Oh yeah...he knows a lot about baseball too.
The wind was still on it from the southeast, putting a pretty unstable bump on the sea surface. Not as bad as San-O in the afternoon yesterday though. There was sand bar runing longitudinally to the beach which put up a hefty shore pound during sets. It's always worst when "you're" paddling out right? So, I finally just gave up trying to crash the white water on my feet, and just tucked my paddle under my chest and prone paddled out to the line-up. Why didn't I think of that sooner says I? Much less tiring.
Tom English was out in the water on his stand up quad. I've read a lot of Tom's posts on the Stand Up Zone and it was good to finally meet him in person. He's another really nice guy and a good SUP'er.
Andy and Ed were on the 10-10 and 11-11 respectively, and as far as I could see they got the stand up wave(s) of the day. Sweet long walls into the shore break. We surfed for a couple hours and then opted for breakfast at Pipes in Cardiff. Then back to the Moonlight Beach Motel 'cause after all, the game was starting in a hour. We set up the Angulo booth at the Sacred Craft Expo this afternoon.
Nice story.
ReplyDeleteYour photos of choppy surf look like east coast glass.
We never see the ocean as glassy as your everyday photos.
NC is one windy place.
That photo of Ed shows some nice nose scoop. It looks just like a windsurfer's nose. I noticed a lot of Naish SUPs also have the windsurfer nose scoop. Cool stuff.
hey -- can you tell me the size of the center fin on this angulo? it's looks pretty darn long to me, esp with the sider biters. got any idea what ride characteristics the setup provides? thanks!
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/3flnzl
That's the fin set-up that comes with all three 2009 models. And it is pretty long at 10.5", but maybe not for that particular board, which is the 11-11 Big Buggah. The sides are FCS SB1 at 3.6" height. My friend Andy rides the 10-10 Gu'd Ride and he replaced the 10.5 center with an 8" RFC center that he really liked on his 10-8 Angulo. I've ridden that board (2009 Angulo 10-10) and it is fast and turns very well for a bigger SUP. The swing weight has also been reduced on the 2009 line of Angulo's and that has made a big difference in maneuverability.
ReplyDeleteI rode my 10-2 with the stock set-up just to see what it was like and it was too stiff. Besides, I like a thruster set-up so I switched everything out for a 5.25" center and two FCS JC460 (old style) fins with a height of 4.6". It loosens up the board so that it rides like a shortboard, i.e. it turns from the middle of the board. When I get back home I'm going to swap out the 5.25" center for my 4.75" center. I'm sure it will work even better and still maintain the wave face bite and speed that is the Angulo hallmark.
All that being said, let it be known that I am a fin freak and love playing around with different fin configurations. Besides the thruster set-up on the 10-2, I'm going to play around with smaller sidebites and a 9" RFC cutaway, just to see if it pivot turns off the tail like the 2008 10-4.
I'm mostly into trying to learn how to noseride on a 9-8 starboard, so I've been trying to find the ideal configuration for that. The best I've come up with so far is a couple of GL sides and a 10" pivot fin for the center. But I'm still not overly comfortable and confident with it, mainly because I suck with my cross-stepping and noseriding. I hear that the Taks are the best noseriding SUP boards around but I'm not sure even they could make me any better than I am. Anyway, thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteTrouble with the Taks is that while they are good surfing SUPs, they are real tippy, and will wear you out just trying to stand on it. Recently I've had access to a 10' Angulo prototype "noserider" which is 30" wide, very stable and nose rides really easy. I'll try and post some pics of it in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI'd heard that about the Taks as well -- tippy tippy. Actually, I'm pretty sure my 9-8 is a great noserider (it's 30" wide, like the Angulo prototype you mention), and I'm sure anyone with a modicum of skills could get to the tip on it vvvvery easily. So, it's probably practice that I need more than some magic-bullet fin configuration that doesn't really exist. All that said, love to see some Angulo noserider pix. Maybe it's the answer after all!
ReplyDeleteI will definitely get some Angulo noserider pics asap. It's just a matter of being in the same place at the same time! I blew it yesterday. I could have gotten some good ones but I mind-infarcted and left the Oly in the car, and it was too far to paddle back from our spot to get it. Let's just say..."Coming Soon!"
ReplyDelete