16 July 2011

Waited All Day for That Wave (Windansea)

Bare feet, so sweet
Surfari! Luke and Nikki drove down to SoCal in Luke’s truck with all of our surfboards, 10 boards for 5 surfers, including my 7’0”. J-Bird and Jacob flew to Orange County last night and Scott and I followed this morning. The plan was to meet up at 3pm at The Grand Kahuna, our rented triplex less than a block from the Windansea break in La Jolla. I’d hoped to surf someplace on the way down, but Luke wanted to hit Topanga in north LA County, so Scott and I meandered down the coast toward San Diego. In Laguna Beach, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at one of the original BJ’s (which still retains some uncorporatized charm), and then walked on the sand, dipping our toes in the warm ocean.

With traffic we didn’t reach La Jolla until 4 pm, but learned the rest of the posse had surfed late at Topanga and wouldn’t arrive until around 6. We strolled into town, which was much farther than I realized, and got some Thai food for dinner before our long walk back to Windansea. The crew had landed and was just heading out to surf. I hastily waxed my naked board, applying basecoat and warm-water wax, pulled on my 3/2, and darted to the beach as the day started to fade.

It was so nice to surf barefoot. But the waves were mushy, disorganized and shifty under a light onshore breeze. I had trouble being in the right spot and getting into them. When I caught a left, my foot slipped off the front of the board; I hadn’t waxed far enough forward. Doh! Finally an energetic right came directly to me, and I popped up and made the drop for a long ride. Woot! I waited all day for that wave.
The sun set into the warm ocean in a blaze of color, a nice start to our long weekend surfari.
Surfline: Just a weak mix of small NW windswell and leftover SSW (190-200) energy for mainly waist high and below surf this afternoon. Top breaks occasionally see an inconsistent waist high+ set. Building westerly wind now for some minor surface bump and texture @ most spots. Buoy 46231: (Wave) SWELL: 1.6 ft at 13.3 s SSW 56 / WIND WAVE: 2.6 ft at 5.9 s WNW / WVHT: 3.3 ft / APD: 5.5 s / MWD: 193° (Met) WVHT: 3.3 ft / DPD: 13.0 s / WTMP: 67.6° F. Tide: 3’ rising to 4’+.

1 comment:

  1. Make sure you check out Adam's reports on surf.solspot.com next time you're in the area. He gives a pretty good run-down of the conditions based on the eddy and such.

    looks like you guys had a good trip nonetheless.

    ReplyDelete