South Swell 2S - Day 4 Road Trip Remnants

Pics and some video coming later...when I figure out how to edit VOB files. But for now, I'm gone surfin'.

Andy, Dave and I loaded up Andy's truck for the drive south as invited guests to the secret spots for a day of surfing with Ricky and his family. We were outta here by 0530 and arrived at the spot by 10AM. Off loaded everything and were paddling out by 1100. A light side shore breeze was in charge, blowing in from the point, miles away from our current secret spots.

The crew opted to paddle up coast a half mile to the section of reef they wanted to surf, and I said I would catch up...it always takes me the longest to get going, mainly because they're all board shortin' it, and I'm in my usual layers of wetsuit and clothes. Even though the water temp at the spots is right at 60F, I'm still in my 4/3 and geeked out surf hat...no sun on my funny forehead bumps and blemishes please.

I got down to the beach just as Dave picked up a nice little peak at Spot One. It was a short ride that started with a steep drop off a peak that just jumps up from practically nothing. On a small day like today the take off is everything and it's best when you can pick up a double peak and right through the second peak by backdooring it via the first peak. Those were a little tricky to find, and to time, and today it wasn't breaking like clockwork. Peaks were moving around over the reef, some coming in one peak at a time, others (the best ones) coming in two peaks at a time. Sometimes you'd think you were right in the zone only to have the peak move away from you, driving in to the beach in a horseshoe shape before throwing out over the inside reef instead of the outside reef where I was located.

After the steep and fun drop you'd have time for one giant cuttie back into the foam and then a gentle, sloping shoulder that flattened out into a deep channel off the side of the rock reef. I surfed there for two hours before the wind came up and literally drove me into the beach.

I brought both boards but only surfed the SUP. I was just having too much fun on it in the small waves. The Angulo custom SUP surfs like a performance longboard, and these were definitely longboard waves today. But one thing about SUP and wind is that your body is a sail, so when the wind comes up, you do a lot of exercising just to stay in one spot. You get tired out fast if you have to paddle into a brisk headwind just to get back into the line-up.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to paddle almost a mile up coast to where everyone else was surfing, not in the headwind that was in my face. So I thought I'd walk up there with my board. Not a chance. I was barely able to carry my board back to the truck without the wind picking me and my board up and throwing me off the side of the uphill dirt road to the park. So I put my board in the car and jogged down to the crew, just in time for sandwiches and drinks.

The wind really was in control. It was howling and the surf was blown out, the sea surface full of white caps and the fine sand lifting through the air making for some crunchy bites out of the chicken sandwiches. But the good news in all this was the fun and fast downwind paddle when we headed back to the put-in spot. Five of us grabbed SUPs and made the leisurely mile paddle in about ten minutes. Once we got back to Spot One, we kept going, down one more spot to secret Spot #2. Here we found the best SUP surfing of the day.

By now it was about two o'clock and the wind was still on it. But the spot is a true gem and was putting up fast, barreling rights into a shallow, flat reef that was full of fish and other critters. Around 4:30P it went dead glassy, everyone had come it, so Dave, Andy and I hit it for one last session. Waves were smooth and fast with pitching little lips that were waist to chest high. We got it like this for about 20 minutes before that pesky sideshore/onshore wind blew back in, and by 5 o'clock it was blowing whitecaps in the line-up. Andy said he was done and headed upwind back to the truck. Dave and I were having too much fun to quit so we hung out and rode some more. Then the wind started to die, and it went glassy again to brisk offshore in about ten minutes. We surfed by ourselves in perfect little peelers for the next hour and a half. I don't know if I've ever surfed a more perfect wave of that size anywhere. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a longer wall to ride.

I surfed for a total of six and a half hours at two spots for three sessions. We were all beat and moving slow. We headed back home around eight and I was unpacked and asleep by midnight and thirty. Yeah, I'm ready for the next road trip to the secret spots.....starting next week.

June 8, 2009 (M)

In: 1100
Out: 1900
AT= Mid-60'sF
WT= 60F
Wx: Cloud cover on and off, ending with a clear and sunny late afternoon/evening
Tide: It went out, it came up and it went out again
Wind: Mild to strong offshore/sideshore to calm to offshore
Sea Surface: Glassy to light wind ripples to white caps in the line-up and back again
10-0 Angulo EPS/Epoxy Custom SUP with Infinity Ottertail carbon fiber paddle

Fin set-up: Thruster with K2D2 4.75" center fin (fourth mark up from back) and Future Fiberglass YU (actual fin not shown)
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
Deep Water Swell and Wave Face Heights CDIP Archive
Buoy: NWS (CDIP Only)
1000: 2.5 feet @ 14 185 degrees (2 - 3 ft. faces)
1100: 2.5 feet @ 14 190 degrees (1 - 3 ft. faces)
1200: 2.5 feet @ 14 175 degrees (1 - 3 ft. faces)
1300: 2.8 feet @ 14 180 degrees (2 - 3 ft. faces)
1400: 2.6 feet @ 14 175 degrees (1 - 3 ft. faces)
1500: 2.4 feet @ 14 185 degrees (1 - 3 ft. faces)
1600: 2.5 feet @ 14 175 degrees (1 - 3 ft. faces)
1700: 2.9 feet @ 14 190 degrees (2 - 4 ft. faces)
1800: 2.6 feet @ 14 200 degrees (2 - 3 ft. faces)
1900: 2.4 feet @ 14 200 degrees (2 - 3 ft. faces)
2000: 2.5 feet @ 14 195 degrees (2 - 3 ft. faces)