Please Pass the Fish (Linda Mar)

Falling swell, rising tide, and an invite from friends got me to the beach earlier than my new slacker schedule would dictate. Darren, J-Bird and Beanstalk were already riding waves in front of Taco Bell when I headed out with Rocket. After I caught a couple meh ones, Darren asked, "So where's this fish you've been getting such awesome rides on?" I told him it was in the car. I'd actually been thinking of getting it, so when another mediocre wave took me partway back to the sand, and I got out to swap boards.

Just as I rejoined my buddies in the lineup, a right came toward me and I turned quickly to catch it, drop and ride. "OK, now I believe you weren't making all of that up!" Darren said with a smile.

I offered to let Beanstalk, the consummate longboarder, try my 5'4" fish, and was a bit surprised when he took me up on it. J-Bird wanted to give it a go next. (I wish I'd had my waterproof camera, but it's in for warranty repairs for trouble staying focused.) First I passed Nemo to Beanstalk and he gave me his 7'6" mini-mal, then I took J-Bird's 7'8" hybrid Tweety-P while she tried Nemo, and finally Nemo came back to me while J-Bird and Beanstalk swapped boards with a cute watery kiss. I struggled at first to adapt to all that extra nose but rode a couple of waves on both of their boards, while they got some wobbly rides on the fish. Having Nemo under me again felt "so much easier, without all that unnecessary extra board length!" I don't think they agreed with me but it was a fun experiment.

Indeed Nemo was a better choice for this morning's waves than Rocket, as I was able to get into a lot more of them. The ride of the day was a left that held a shoulder open for me to turn up to the top and then bank right off the incoming section. Yew!

Surfline: 2-4 ft, fair conditions. A little tough to see with the fog but surface conditions are smooth and there is still a little windswell running. Surf quality will likely improve a bit with the tide push. NW windswell is down from yesterday, but still showing decent size in the 3-4' range at exposed spots with a few plus sets at best breaks. It's very surfable, although some breaks will worsen with the incoming tide. Buoy 46026: (Wave) SWELL: 4.3 ft at 10.0 s NW 76 / WIND WAVE: 0.7 ft at 3.8 s W / WVHT: 4.6 ft / APD: 7.6 s / MWD: 314° (Met) WSPD: 4 kn / GST: 8 kn / WVHT: 4.6 ft / DPD: 10.0 s / ATMP: 52° F / WTMP: 56° F. Tide: Just over 3' rising to 4.5'.