Notorious (Linda Mar)

"You're surfergrrrl, right?" I'd just paddled over to Boat Docks to try to snag some little lefts from inside the pack of longboarders, when one of their number queried me. I turned and replied with a smile, "Yeah, that's me!" The longboard dude said he follows me on Twitter and he's @Artificehowdy. (Funny, I forgot to ask his real name.) I'd been getting frustrated a bit farther north, out with Marcia, and then J-Bird, Jacob and Luke, failing to ride more than a nanosecond of mostly closed-out rights. I was having trouble keeping the nose of my shortboard up on the steep drops; some positioning difference from my longer board that I hadn't adjusted for yet. @Artificehowdy's infectious and near-constant smile helped to dissolve the vexation (although I wish he hadn't offered the old surfer's adage "you shoulda been here yesterday!"). The inner lefts at Boat Docks were softer and I had more success, getting several whitewatery rides that ended over rocky shallows.

Luke said I probably needed a bigger board today, but the only way I'm going to learn to shortboard is by doing it. Even on meh days like this, I still come to understand more about how to catch waves and ride my 6'2", and fuel my surfing obsession with just enough stoke to keep me going until the next time.

Surfline: 2-3 ft+, poor to fair conditions. Clean long lines with short sections. NW windswell slowly fades through the day today while inconsistent SW-SSW southern hemi swell tops out. 2-4' waves are the norm while top windswell and combo spots produce some larger waves/peaks. Winds are from the SW early with textured/bumpy surface conditions at exposed areas. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 4.9 ft at 10.0 s NW 57 / WIND WAVE: 2.3 ft at 3.4 s SSE / WVHT: 5.3 ft / APD: 6.7 s / MWD: 326° (Met) WSPD: 12 kn / GST: 16 kn / WVHT: 5.3 ft / DPD: 10.0 s / WDIR: 170° / ATMP: 55° F / WTMP: 54° F. Tide: 2' dropping near 1'.