Purely Maintenance (HMB Jetty)

When I arrived just past dawn, the surf at the Jetty was uninspiring, marginally rideable. I came close to turning around and driving home again. But I wanted to get wet, and who knows, I might get lucky.

The paddle out through steady breaking waves took me some time, and twice I stopped fighting it and turned to catch whitewatery rides. Unfortunately my wrist began to hurt every time I pushed my hand against my surfboard. (I'm not sure quite how I injured it last week, but suspect it's another skateboarding strain. On the suggestion of my surf coach, I got a Sector Nine Orange Crush skateboard late last year, and promptly strained the Achilles tendon of my back leg. That took a couple of months to heal, and worried about repeating the same damage, I recently bought a Kahuna Big Stick to land-paddle instead of foot-push. It's likely that using it strained my wrist. I'm beginning to think my body doesn't want to skateboard. And it didn't help that my board got smacked upward as I popped up on a wave at Linda Mar last time, further tweaking it.)

Trying a different path and happening into a brief lull, I made it to the outside, and saw the longboarder who was my sole company catch a quick shoulder on a right closer to the main peak. Well, peak is a misnomer; there really weren't any today, with the swell disorganized and breaking haphazardly. My stay in the onshore-ruffled green water was short-lived as I got caught inside of a couple set waves. I decided to ride the white in to rest my wrist for some hopefully better Santa Cruz surf this weekend. As I changed in the parking lot, the group of older guys who bodyboard every Friday morning in Half Moon Bay pulled in to check the waves. After watching for a few minutes, they went off for a walk instead.

Purely a maintenance session and one of my shortest ever, but there's still no better way to start the day than in the ocean!

Relocated a couple of these from the barren parking lot to some nice grass

Surfline: Good size WNW (270-315) groundswell continues, picking up through the afternoon, and mixes with slow building new SSW (205-180) southern hemi swell. Expect most spots are seeing overhead waves, with double overhead+ and larger surf at top breaks. Winds are light from the South and the surf generally remains pretty mixed up across the region. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 9.5 ft at 12.9 s WNW 27 / WIND WAVE: 1.0 ft at 3.7 s SSW / WVHT: 9.5 ft / APD: 10.0 s / MWD: 299° (Met) WSPD: 8 kn / GST: 12 kn / WVHT: 9.5 ft / DPD: 13.0 s / WDIR: 150° / ATMP: 52° F / WTMP: 52° F. Tide: 3' falling slightly.