Small Local Windswell At The Beaches

Today we got one of our fantastic late Summer, heading into Fall, great weather days. Skies were touched by just a few high thin clouds. It was warm and winds were light well into the day. The water is even warming up from earlier in the week, showing a "toasty" 56.3 degrees on the nearshore buoy. I didn't even need my booties.

And I got to test GB2 in small, pretty gutless, low energy (even mushy) beach break, something I counted on the mini-Simmons surfing well. I wasn't disappointed, and had a blast surfing GB2 in the lefts and rights at the beaches, until the rising tide and the increasing onshore wind made it swamped out and messy.

The light weight and float of the EPS is a boon in small, mushy, but rideable waves. There were plenty of slideable shoulders, because the mini just gets up and planing so quickly. Even though it's only 5-11, it has enough glide, lift and speed to make it through sections, and to plane in front of the whitewater without bogging down for rides all the way into the beach. Some of my shortboard brethren were out on their thruster chips just bogging. For them it was no fun at all.

Today's surf reminded me so much, but was even more fun than this day. Only now, I have a real surfboard under my feet. Again, catching waves was easy and because the surf wasn't very good, it was uncrowded with empty "peaks" everywhere. I surfed my own spot and caught a ton of waves.

I haven't figured out yet exactly where the accelerator is on this board. It trims up so well I haven't had to move around much to get it to go faster. It just does it. But there is room to move around on the board which to me is somewhat surprising. In fact, there's not doubt that at the current dimensions, I could have gone shorter...maybe 5-8 or 5-9. But why? For now, it's all good. Another successful day on GhostBuster2. What a fun board!

September 10, 2009 (Th)

In: 1245
Out: 1400
AT= 66F
WT= 56.3F
Wx: Clear and sunny
Tide: 4.82' Rising to 5.2'
Wind: Light to increasing onshore wind
Sea Surface: Semi-glassy with light chop to increasing chop with some whitecaps.

5-11 Freeline Ghost Buster 2 Mini-Simmons
Bathymetry: Sand bottom
Deep Water Swell and Wave Face Heights CDIP Archive
Buoy: NWS (Farshore-Nearshore)
Time NDBC Data (approx.) CDIP Data
1100: 3.6 feet @ 13.8 S - 1.0 feet @ 13.3 WSW (310 and 180) (1-2 ft. wave faces)
1200: 3.6 feet @ 7.1 NW - 1.0 feet @ 12.5 W (310 and 175) (1-2 ft. wave faces)
1300: 3.6 feet @ 7.1 NW - 1.0 feet @ 13.3 SW (305 and 165) (1-2 ft. wave faces)
1400: 3.3 feet @ 7.1 NW - 1.0 feet @ 12.5 WSW (300 and 180) (1-2 ft. wave faces)
1500: 3.0 feet @ 7.7 NW - 1.0 feet @ 12.5 W (no data) (1-2 ft. wave faces)