Clean and Fading Westerly Swell

Thursday January 14, 2010

After some careful research I pulled the trigger this afternoon on a new McTavish (PU) 9-3 Fireball longboard. (Click here for the review.) I was fortunate enough to try it out for my first surf in clean and glassy head high waves at Sarge's in the late afternoon until dark.

I paddled out a hair before 4PM and surfed until about 5:15. In what turned out to be a mistake at first, I tried to stay out of everyone's way and catch a few wide insiders just to get a feel for how the board worked. But the best waves were so perfectly lined up off the rip-rap point, I should've just gone there straight away. So after two waves (one of which was an unintentional take off and wipe out in front of another rider) I moved over to the right place and caught three perfectly lined up and long wall rides, each of which yielded up a kick out almost at the Yellow House. That's about a 400+ yard ride...each. Not bad.

It was one of those days when the crowd was fairly light, and everyone who could surf halfway well was getting good, long hooked up rides. So everybody was happy. Paddling back out to the line-up was like watching a good surf movie. The ride of the day came on Ross's long and ripping backside run from Tweenie's all the way to the Brown House. That one, a good 500 yards.

I've long been an admirer of Bob McTavish. Owning one of his shapes is a great addition to my quiver, and a chance to surf a board with tons of experience and knowledge built in. My research also included another possibility, the Walden Magic. Steve is another great surfer, designer and shaper. Known as the "Father of the Modern Longboard" by some, his basic Magic shape (created and refined in Hawaii in the early '70's) hasn't changed all that much. A testament to a board the truly must be "Magic." But more on all this in the review.

January 14, 2010

In: 1555
Out: 1715
AT= 62-58F
WT= 55.2F
Wx: Partly cloudy.
Tide: 1.14' Falling to -0.47' Rising to -0.44'
Wind: Variable and light
Sea Surface: Glassy

McTavish (PU) 9-3 Fireball
Fin set-up: Two plus one: 9" McTavish center; FCS G-X sides.
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
Deep Water Swell CDIP Archive
Wave Hts. (Faces): 4-6 ft.