Coaching: Putting it All Together (The Hook)

We've had an early and unpleasant taste of winter this week, with a couple of rainstorms sweeping through ahead of a cold high pressure system. That brought sunshine for dawn patrol but also air temperatures only in the upper 40s F (less than 10C). I paddled out with Barry at the Hook just after a beautiful sunrise. The set waves were overhead, clean with a light offshore. It wasn't too crowded, but most of the surfers in the crowd were pretty good.

I caught an overhead right and as I took the drop, I saw someone on the wave behind me, so I bailed, ungracefully. Turned out I could've stayed on; it was only Barry, who said he was blocking for me. The next wave was all mine, a 6-footer in Barry's estimate; I made the exciting drop into an immediate backside turn on the mid-face and rode the green until it closed out ahead. Stoked!

There were long lulls between sets and the high tide was slowing things down. I rode another right, then waited, shivering, for the next one. (I returned my Insulator wetsuit to Rip Curl for repairs, but unfortunately they didn't deign to fix all of the busted seams.) While I missed a few waves I paddled for, spray from the offshore sometimes blinding me, I didn't wipeout during the session.

Finally I saw a wave peaking to my right and moved toward it, turning at the last and checking one more time over my shoulder - good to go - before paddling into it with commitment, popping up, turning fast - woot! I'm getting closer to having the entry steps down, and then it will be time to concentrate more on what comes next.

Surfline: Looking a little shifty/warbly, but offering some good, lined up corners at times. Sets are running 1-2' overhead. SW (205-220) groundswell tops out today as old NW (290-310+) mid-period swell fades. Better exposures are still in the waist-chest-head high range, with sets running 1-2' overhead for top exposures. Conditions are mostly clean with light Northerly winds. The tide peaks around 8:30am, so expect a lot of spots to be a little sluggish early. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 8.2 ft at 10.8 s NW 81 / WIND WAVE: 2.0 ft at 3.8 s NW / WVHT: 8.5 ft / APD: 7.6 s / MWD: 315° (Met) WSPD: 10 kts / GST: 12 kts / WVHT: 8.5 ft / DPD: 11.0 s / WDIR: 330° / ATMP: 56.8° F / WTMP: 57.7° F. Tide: Rising slightly to 4.5' high.