More Sand Bar Action

Friday, January 29, 2010

The new swell was forecast to continue increasing in size today, so I hit the beaches early before it got too big. Sure enough, wave hts. were twice the size of yesterday, and with the new 17 second swell, wave energy was two to three times yesterday's 10 second period energy.

At 0815 two shortboarders were already on the California Bar...and they were ripping in the 3-6 ft. wave faces. The bigger sets were well overhead, and getting caught inside was too much work for me on a shorter board. (Besides, my back was pretty "worked" from yesterday's session.) But there was another sand bar just north of the CB. It looked smaller and longboard-able, but didn't quite have the clean and racy down the line shape of the Cali Bar. No matter, no one was on it and the longboard was a more stable platform for me this morning.

Again like yesterday, one had to wait for the sets. The inside waves looked good, but they were really slow until you got into the shore break. And taking the risk of being caught inside by a group of 4-6 ft. set waves just wasn't worth it. So, I waited outside. The McTavish with the DeTemple single center fin worked well. While it is more stable, the big single fin doesn't provide the maneuverability that a 2+1 set-up does. But, I wanted to surf it that way again. The take-offs were mostly soft and the ride into long walls with a couple sections to bank off were fun. It didn't seem like the rides were really all that long, but by the time I kicked out, I was way down the beach and ready for a decent paddle out the back.



As per forecast, the wave hts. continued to build as the tide came in even further. Early the wind had been calm to offshore, but by the time I was done around 0930, the wind was shifting to sideshore/onshore and there was a little more unfavorable wind chop on the sea surface. Overall a really fun morning surf, squeaking in a session while the squeaking was good.

January 29, 2010

In: 0830
Out: 0930
AT= 49-50F
WT= 55.6F
Wx: Overcast and low clouds to partly cloudy
Tide: 6.7' Rising to 6.73'
Wind: Offshore to variable and light
Sea Surface: Glassy to some surface wind chop

McTavish (PU) 9-3 Fireball
Fin set-up: Single 9" DeTemple
Bathymetry: Sand bars
Deep Water Swell CDIP Archive
Wave Hts. (Faces): 4-6 ft.