West/Southwest Swell Fills In; Rain to Follow

Paddled out this morning at 0640, barely able to see the one guy already out who told me later that he absolutely could not see the wave face on his first wave. I asked him where his U.S. Navy Seal night vision goggles were stashed. It's gettin' lighter later. Regardless, the usual line-up suspects were soon to follow.

It was good to get back in the water after my back injury on the 26th. Got some good therapy, relaxed a few days before starting the stretches again, and today there was no problem with the surfing and the paddling. Picked up an interesting piece of exercise equipment from Brother Jim. It's a knockoff of a little machine known as an ExerGenie (aka The Trainer). Supposed to be able to give a full body workout in 15 minutes using a combination of isometric stretches and full range of motion strengthening pulls and pushes. I like the 15 minutes part a lot.

Swell started filling in yesterday afternoon, a mix of the west swell blown up by the storm that started four or five days ago, and some small background southern hemi swell that's been with us for a while. While this swell had some decent consistency, and size on some sets, it was by no means a real high quality swell. The storm is too close to us and at less than 14 second intervals, isn't even ground swell. I surfed this morning's higher tides which were OK for a while, and then got swamped as we neared the four foot range.

Word is out and it was packed, even early. Paddled past Sarges to Casa Roja and picked up a couple there. Caught a nice triple that took me from CR to outside Sarges, and then a fun wave at Sarges. Lot's of backwash, but other than that conditions were perfect on a beautiful morning. Since my last post we've run the gamut from June Gloom fog, to warm Indian Summer weather.

Another storm is right on this one's heels, and it's packing a load of tropical typhoon induced precip. We're forecasted to get up to two inches Friday night through Saturday. Conditions are supposed to improve then, and a new swell modeled to come riding in Sunday morning, spilling over into the new week with double digits. Should be interesting.

The 2009 Angulos arrive tomorrow! I pick up my new 10-2 when I help Andy unload the shipment. Fifty boards in total and almost all of them earmarked for various individual purchasers, shops and/or events. Andy figures they'll all be gone by the end of the Sacred Craft Conference the weekend of October 11 and 12.

Thanks to Blane Chambers deck pad mosaics, I'll be giving the new board the mosaic treatment. I hope it turns out really nice!
Oct 2, 2008 (Th)
In: 0640
Out: 0910
AT= 56F to 63F
WT= 58F at the nearshore buoy
Wx: Dense scattered clouds
Tide: 2.5' Rising to 3.7'
Wind: Calm to light offshore
Sea Surface: Smooth and glassy with some backwash bump
Buoy: NWS
0500: 6.6 feet @ 12.1 W
0700: 6.2 feet @ 10.8 W
0900: 6.9 feet @ 10 W
1000: 6.2 feet @ 11.4 W
10'4" Angulo SUP with Infinity Ottertail paddle
Fin set-up: Thruster with K2D2 4.75" center fin and FCS Occy sides
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
CDIP: (0800 hours) 5.4 feet at 10 seconds from 275 degrees and 2.5 feet at 8 seconds from 220 degrees