74-Inch Stoke Machine (Montara)

My surf posse met up at Montara for dawn patrol, based on J-Bird's good report from yesterday. Marcia and Luke paddled out a few minutes before me, J-Bird and Jacob were just behind, and I saw Tracey and Chris in the parking lot after.

Itching to shortboard again, I'd brought my 6'2" Rocket. The waves were mushy chest-high+, and you had to be on the peak to catch them. My first wave was a sweeeet right that made me fall in love with my shortboard all over again. I think about turning and it turns, fast and tight. I was dancing all over the face of that wave. So stoked!

After seeing photos of myself surfing in Sunday's contest, I resolved to work on my body position. I need to keep my torso more parallel to the board, instead of facing forward. (And on my buddy George's advice, I'm reassessing my paddling position to make sure I'm not too far back, though I didn't have waves to waste before work to push it to intentional pearling as he suggested.) It felt stiff and unnatural to ride with upper body in the plane of the stringer, but I expect that's just because I have to unlearn my habitual stance. By the last wave, it seemed a bit better, and I used my arms to swing my body into turns, taking a zig-zag all the way into the beach ahead of rushing whitewater. Maybe it was the low tide or maybe sand has filled in near the creek mouth, but the nearshore trench wasn't there today, making for an easy exit.

Though I rode a handful of other waves, just like my last session, the first was the best. I am stoked-smilin'!

Surfline: 3-4'. Small, clean mix of local NW windswell and some SSW Southern Hemi swell (190-200) this morning. The better exposed breaks to the swell combo are in the waist high'ish range, while standouts are a touch better. The surf quality is fairly low simply due to small size, but there are very rideable waves showing and clean conditions. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 4.6 ft at 10.0 s W 55 / WIND WAVE: 0.7 ft at 4.0 s WNW / WVHT: 4.6 ft / APD: 8.8 s / MWD: 273° (Met) WSPD: 4 kn / GST: 6 kn / WVHT: 4.6 ft / DPD: 10.0 s / WDIR: 10° / ATMP: 56° F / WTMP: 58° F. Tide: Zero rising to 1'.