NZ Gale Swell - Day 2

Loaded both boards into and on the vehicle this morning. Surf check at Sarges in the near dark showed smaller lines than yesterday. Not a real surprise as I think this swell made landfall about twelve hours earlier than forecast. Cool, I'll surf the Coffey 6-10 at Roots. Wrong.

The swell wasn't pushing into Roots as well as I had hoped. It was breaking too near to shore, the tide was super low again and Scimi's on down looked OK. I headed out to GDubs at 0550. Kelp was unbelievably thick. The rides were short as this swell was even more wally than the last one. Take-off, one bottom turn, one top turn, close out. I did that for a while before paddling down to Sarges to check it out, stopping at Middles on the way. But, the story was the same. There were some slideable corners coming through but they were in the vast minority. So I paddled back up to GDubs.

Things seemed to improve a bit...two bottom turns, two top turns, close-out. I caught a few good ones and the crowd was friendly and light. Finally I just got tired of fighting the kelp. Paddling through it was more like crawling over the top of it. Scimi's second bowl was seeing some nice lines with only one guy surfing, so I headed there. A giant lull set in and I got only one wave. I rode that to the beach and walked down to Roots which had picked up. The best waves were putting up a nice peak with a little barrel section that was (for me) impossible to make. But there were still a bunch of fun waves to be had.

Alex was out on his longboard, surfing a peak up from Roots. He was putting on a backside, pig dogging clinic, driving his longboard into the first barrel section and getting completely covered, pop out and into the second barrel which I never saw him make. He would just power into the barrel and get slammed. He must have had more water in his sinus than Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Still, really a pleasure to watch him ride...smooth, flexible and stylish.

June 11, 2009 (Th)

In: 0550
Out: 0815
AT= 53F
WT= Not available
Wx: Partly cloudy to full cloud cover
Tide: 0.28' Falling to -0.44' Rising
Wind: Calm to light south westerlies
Sea Surface: Glassy to Light wind ripples
6-10 Ward Coffey EPS (Marko Styrolite)/Epoxy Custom

Fin set-up: Thruster with Future Fins AM1 and Future 350 sidebites
Bathymetry: Sand bars
Deep Water Swell and Wave Face Heights CDIP Archive
Buoy: NWS (Farshore*)
0500: 3.0 feet @ 16 SSW (215) (2-3 ft. wave faces)
0600: 3.0 feet @ 16 SSW (220) (2-3 ft. wave faces)
0700: 3.3 feet @ 16 SSW (215) (2-3 ft. wave faces)
0800: 3.0 feet @ 16 SSW (205) (2-3 ft. wave faces)
0900: 3.0 feet @ 16 SSW (205) (3-4 ft. wave faces)
1000: 3.6 feet @ 16 SSW (215) (2-4 ft. wave faces)
1100: 3.0 feet @ 16 SSW (215) (2-3 ft. wave faces)