South Swell 2S Fills In

Finally! After almost a month of waiting for a genuine ground swell, and nearly a year since the last genuine south ground swell, we got some SPAC waves. It's been so long since we got any decent waves to ride that everyone was in a great mood, jubilant even. The vibe in the water was super positive and everyone was stoked. Too bad we don't see that more often. Whatever...I am NOT complaining.

The first pulse of 17 second swell hit the reefs a little after 4AM. I paddled out to one of my favorite low tide spots at 0536 on the Coffey 6-10. I was late. I got held up at home taking a dump. I'm gonna have to retrain my colon since it's been so long that I've been up and at 'em this early. Even my old eyes can see in the line-up at 0515. I'll aim for that tomorrow.

Surfed up coast of my usual SUP spots and it was good and fun. Roots is a minus tide place and it just stops working in around one foot of tide. It's a quirky place and the takeoff zone is all over the place. It's best when you can back door the second peak, but that happens only every once in a while depending on wave size and direction. The Coffey shaped 6-10 is a perfect board for Roots. Not only because it paddles so well, but with the shortboard rocker and bottom config, the board fits into the contour of the wave so it moves out fast without hanging up in the face. At this spot, the take off starts out very soft until the wave hits the underwater rock reef. Then it jumps, throwing you forward into a pretty square trough and vertical face. This is probably the best part of the ride unless you can backdoor that second peak. When it's right, this is a tube riding section. Then it either closes out on you, or puts up a relatively mushy but bankable wall that you can ride into the shory. I've always like this wave even though it doesn't break very often.

I surfed for two hours, got a lot of waves, and learned even more about the 6-10 surfed as a quad. I was out for an hour by myself before anyone else showed up. Granted, most people were paddling up coast, right past me, because Tres 8's was going off nicely. Overall, this was the better wave, with Scimi's coming in a close second, or trading off as the premier surf location today. Usually south swells are pretty wally, and this swell was no exception. Tres 8's was a race track on the right waves. Mostly a longboard place, the shortboarders, while in the minority, were taking down some long, and fast rides. There was the occasional tube but the low tide peelers were too fast to make all the sections when I was out. I didn't see anyone consistently making the tube sections. Kirk of L41 Surfboards was one of the shortboarders this morning, surfing in his standard exceptional style...definitely one of the best surfers in "Surf City," and one of the most enjoyable to watch ever.

This was the first morning since May 17th that we haven't had solid overcast with fog, and there was a light NE breeze throwing foam off the wave tops. A first rate surfing day...for sure!

June 5, 2009 (F)

In: 0536
Out: 0730
AT= 54-56F
WT= 54.7-54.9F
Wx: Partly cloudy with broken cloud cover
Tide: -0.9' Rising to 1.4'
Wind: Light NE offshores to light to moderate south easterlies
Sea Surface: Glassy to light wind ripples late
6-10 Ward Coffey EPS (Marko Styrolite)/Epoxy Custom

Fin set-up: Thruster/Quad with Future Fins AM1 and Future 350 sidebite quad set-up.
Bathymetry: Sand bars
Deep Water Swell and Wave Face Heights CDIP Archive
Buoy: NWS (Farshore*)
0400: 3.3 feet @ 13.8 SSW
0500: 3.0 feet @ 17.4 SSW (3-4 ft. wave faces)
0600: 3.3 feet @ 17.4 SSW
0700: 3.3 feet @ 17.4 SSW (3-5 ft. wave faces)
0800: 3.6 feet @ 17.4 SSW
0900: 3.9 feet @ 17.4 SSW (3-5 ft. wave faces)
1000: 3.6 feet @ 17.4 SSW
1100: 3.6 feet @ 17.4 SSW
NOTE: For south swell, the farshore buoy is more accurate than the nearshore buoy. The opposite is true for North through West swells.