Birthday Present (Davenport)

My birthday present to myself this year was a new surfboard. After I met with him just over a month ago, Ward Coffey designed and shaped a transition board to help me move down more smoothly from my 8'3" hybrid (which I surf well) to my 5'8" shortboard (with which I've had only random successes). Basically, he scaled the 8'3" down to 7' and added performance features such as a speedier concave. And so, Enhanced Mini-Magic (Emm) was born.

Ward phoned the day before my birthday to say the new board was ready, but alas (!), we were in Hawaii. So I picked up Emm today, and since Ward assured me there was no need to wait for it to cure further, we were off for a surf. But first, Ward took control of putting on the traction pad, using a few tricks not listed in the instructions (lightly abrading the board surface and wiping it with acetone, and heating the pad's adhesive with a hair dryer before mounting it). Then Scott and I drove up the coast, since it was too small and crowded in town. A surf kayak contest was being held on the north end of Davenport but the south end was empty with occasional rideable waves. It seemed the onshore wind was rising and likely that farther north would have worse conditions, so I ended my surf search and finished dressing my new board with nose and tail guards, a leash, and layers of basecoat and cold-water wax. It was unusually warm for November - near 70 degrees - and by the time I finished, I was ready to jump in cold water.

Design by Birdswell

Two guys and a girl paddled out to the empty break just before me. They were a smiling, friendly lot, but as one of the guys pointed out, conditions were "challenging." The chop was 1-3 feet, making it a little hard to see the shoulder- to head-high waves approaching, and I was a bit uncomfortable out there on an unfamiliar board. But after a getting-to-know-you period with several mini-rides and a handful of wipeouts, plus getting caught inside disconcertingly close to dry reef, I nailed a solid head-high right on Emm and called it a day. I think we're going to be very good friends. Woot!

Surfline: Fading NW swell and rising NW windswell combined to keep good breaks in the chest-head high+ range while standouts were a couple to a few feet overhead on sets. Tiny SSW swell was in the water as well. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 7.9 ft at 11.4 s NW / WIND WAVE: 7.2 ft at 8.3 s NW / WVHT: 10.8 ft / APD: 7.4 s / MWD: 315°

Blowin' in the Wind (Davenport)

After lunch in Half Moon Bay, Dwayne, J-Bird and I parted ways with Dwayne's friend Rush and his East Bay buddy and began to meander down the coast on Highway 1. We knew we had time to kill before the high tide stopped killing the waves, so we stopped off to see the latest coastside tourist attraction, a dead 80-foot blue whale and her fetus. Scientists, who carved a chunk out of her body, believe she was a victim of a nautical hit and run. It was very sad, and very, very smelly. The odor permeated our clothes and lingered in the car for hours.

We checked just about all the spots I know along the Lonely Coast between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz, including Tres Rocas, which wasn't getting enough south swell to break properly. Having exhausted the little known, we turned to the well known breaks. The forecasters had lied, and the wind was coming up, but Davenport looked the best of the lot. Unfortunately, there were already about five surfers on it, and four more headed out as we did a surf check. So we continued on south, all the way to Eastside Santa Cruz, which was next to flat. The Hook was was only waist-high but crowded, with other hopefuls dotting 38th and Pleasure Point, waiting for little waves. Arrgh.

C'mon, let me carry your fish!

Back to Davenport we went, since surely the other surfers must be done by now! Indeed they were; the lineup was empty. We felt a breeze where we parked the car and suited up, but it wasn't until we reached the part of the beach unprotected by the headland that we felt the full force of the sideshore wind. J-Bird and I had trouble holding on to our longboards, and Dwayne only laughed when I suggested we swap so I could carry his fish instead. (Chivarly is dead.) We made it out to the break, then struggled against the wind pushing us away from the peak and down the coast. The water was choppy and whitecaping all around us, truly the windiest surf session I've ever experienced. I was beginning to think this might be my first skunking on Magic since I got it a year ago, but then I paid attention to Dwayne.

The last time I surfed Davenport with Dwayne was 3 years ago, and he kept trying to coax me into moving off of the shoulder and closer to the peak, where he was catching waves. Timid on large waves, unskilled on a shortboard, and lacking in confidence, I didn't do it then. This time I observed that, as at Rachel's Point, you had to be at the peak to catch the wave; shoulder-sitting would get you nada, and Dwayne was proving it out. I paddled to the edge of the broken-wave bubbles near him and waited, and sure enough, a wave came to me and I caught it. A clump of kelp near the shallow take-off zone proved a useful anchor against the near-gale. I got a few more waves, some from too far inside, riding the whitewater down on my belly until the spray cleared enough for me see the way forward and pop up, but one nice long right along the cliff to the shallows of the reef, dropping off the back in a flat-fall over sea grasses. Magic's reputation and my stoke were preserved.

Shivering as I stood on the reef after my last ride, I filmed Dwayne riding, then J-Bird. A windsurfer was sailing out from the beach as we vacated the peak, and he soon took over the spot, using the wind to get onto the waves and surf.

Surfline: Well exposed combo beach-breaks continue to see a fun, peaky mix of mid-period NW swell and old, fading Southerly swell with waist-chest zone waves and occasional shoulder high+ sets. The more sheltered spots are seeing much smaller surf overall. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 3.9 ft at 10.0 s NW / WIND WAVE: 1.0 ft at 5.0 s WSW / WVHT: 3.9 ft / APD: 8.2 s / MWD: 307°

Third Time's the Charm (Waddell)

This morning our little surf posse formed up in Half Moon Bay and we drove in caravan down Highway 1: Luke in his big truck, just-arrived-yesterday East Coast transplants J-Bird and Jacob, me and Scott, and Nikki in her new Subaru. We checked Tres Rocas and Gazos Creek (not necessarily in that order), but neither was tempting and they had some nasty shorepound. Continuing south, Luke pulled over just before the Waddell parking lot, where some tasty waves were breaking beside the road. We suited up, clambered down the boulders armoring the highway, and hit the water on a hot sunny day at the start of Autumn.

The only crowd was us.

Nikki, Luke and J-Bird

For a change Waddell was good to me. Quite good, in fact. It was a bit lully which let me get to the outside without much difficulty. The waves were shoulder- to head-high with decent form, and I rode a bunch of nice lefts. Stokeful! A good time was had by all.

Tyler was already in the water on his orange shortboard when we paddled out. Luke swapped boards with him for a bit but didn't get much joy, and went back to his Strive. I was trying out my brand new Pentax Optio W90 waterproof camera (replacing the flooded W80), but sadly, video of one of Luke's good rides fell victim to operator error, stop/start mixup due to difficulty reading the LCD screen in sunlight. (Sorry, buddy. Next time.)

Surfline: Building new NW groundswell set up head high to overhead surf at well exposed spots, while other areas saw a smaller share of that swell along with a minor mix of NW windswell and trace SW groundswell. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 4.6 ft at 12.1 s NW / WIND WAVE: 2.3 ft at 5.3 s NW / WVHT: 5.2 ft / APD: 6.8 s / MWD: 318°

Feliz Año Nuevo - Although I Didn't Surf There* (Three Mile)

Our new kitten woke me up when the new year was just four hours old, a bit earlier than necessary for the first dawn patrol of 2010. I left my new surfboard on the wall and put my fish in the car. With my iPod filled with new music, I drove dark and empty highways to Santa Cruz to meet my new surf buddy Rus, the DogMan. We watched the clouds turn pink at Steamer Lane as the sun rose on the new year, then made our way out of town to a new break for me, Three Mile. The tide was high and going higher, and a new swell was building in.

Remembering my new resolutions - no, let's call them aspirations - to be more like the new kitten (Take Risks. Be Fearless), I followed Rus on a long paddle out to the right point break, and tried to take off on some head-high waves.

On the first one, I went over the falls and whacked my upper arm hard into one of Nemo's fins. I'm grateful for the protection of 3mm of neoprene plus a rash guard since I wasn't cut, just majorly bruised. I tried for some more waves while Rus rode a handful, including one with a massive drop he happily landed. But despite the cold water, my arm started to protest being forced to do any work, and it was time to bag it for the long paddle back to the beach. My 2010 rides will come another day.   

*Title borrowed from the Stokemaster.

Surfline: Fresh new West-WNW swell move into California for the New Year. A small SW swell will also be running in the background. Wind NNE at 3 kts.

Davenport & Capitola, 29 August 2009

THE DAY IN PICTURES (SOME OF THEM MOVING)

La Roca*

Oops, S2 got the tides backwards; too much water on it this morning. But the three and a half of us - me, L, S2 and his young daughter M - had 11 boards between us, ready for anything, so we kept driving south.

Satellite Beach*

As a blond surfer who was leaving said, "Big and gnarly, dude!" (OK, he didn't really say "dude." But he did say "gnarly.")

Davenport

The waves were a lot bigger and more powerful than I realized looking from the beach. Although mushy on the high tide, they were going up to 2-3 feet overhead. I got in some duck-diving practice on the fish, and had a couple oh-shit moments in the face of huge breakers when I just ditched my board and dove under (after looking around to make sure no one was nearby, of course), but I was too scared to try to catch anything. I lost track of L for a bit but when we reconnected, we both agreed it was a good idea to follow his original suggestion that "if it's too big, let's try Eastside Santa Cruz."

The Hook

Can you say "party wave"?

Capitola

Having abandoned the more skilled S2 at Davenport (and we hope he got some good ones), L and I landed at waist- to shoulder-high Capitola, my favorite longboard break. I borrowed his wife's new board (thank you B) since I hadn't packed Big Blue. A sunny Saturday brought out all the fair-weather surfers, but L and I sat next to a clueless clump of surf-schoolers close to the jetty, inside of what he aptly named "the kook line," and picked off the waves they were missing. Putting into practice S2 and L's advice that I need to dig deeper when I paddle, I quickly dialed in to ride about five nice waves. Re-stoked!

*Pseudonyms. You can try to guess, but I ain't sayin.'

Four Mile, 22 August 2009

Another south swell started building in yesterday, and I was looking forward to catching some lefts this morning. A little surf posse coalesced, including L, J, S2 and me. We met up at Gazos Creek and did a surf check at a secret spot (big and a bit blown), then kept heading down the coast in search of something better. We checked a second secret spot (huge closeouts)... and Waddell (packed)... and a third secret spot (meh)... then thought about checking yet another secret spot well off the road - but a few of us had had enough searching and just wanted to get wet already! Almost from the start, J seemed to have her heart set on Four Mile, her favorite and frequent break. So we drove south some more, nearly to Santa Cruz, then geared up and hiked in without so much as a look-see from the bluff across the highway.

I hadn't been to Four Mile since my old surf buddy D moved to SoCal almost two years ago, but it was much as I remembered. A pretty spot, but crowded; a couple dozen people were in the water. The aggro surfer who maligned me on a past visit has been replaced by a pack of white trash in beach chairs at the base of the cliff, who drink beer and holler at the surfers. This does not improve the ambiance. Unfortunately our long surf safari had delayed us until the tide was getting close to a high, and the break wasn't working well. I saw J get a nice ride, but the wave count for S2, L and me was 2, 1, 0. The spot needed less water and less crowd. And maybe swell from a different direction. According to Surfer Mag's Guide to NorCal Surf Spots, "at least one local surfer contends that Four Mile 'sucks piehole on a south swell, mushier than a plate of whipped potatoes.'" Yep. Shoulda tried secret spot #4 instead.

The one consolation - aside from seeing a dolphin - is that I had a chance to play with my new waterproof camera, a Pentax Optio W80, and try out the surf camera case in undemanding point break conditions. The upper chest-mounted case works fairly well, although its tightness makes it hard to insert and remove the camera. Attaching the case required poking two holes through my wetsuit so I'd tried it on an old one first, but last year's suit is so leaky I honestly couldn't tell if the new holes were contributing. I had the camera's video resolution on a medium setting, supposedly "suitable for viewing on a computer," which I obviously need to increase for next time. On the current settings, zooming all the way in made the picture badly pixelated. The color also looks off, although I'm sure there's an adjustment for that to be found somewhere in the 270-page manual. But I didn't have any trouble using the control buttons while wearing gloves, and the large LCD screen was easy see. Once the kinks are out, I think the setup will work well. And the case has a window, so I'll be able take hands-free video while I surf - waaay cool.

Meanwhile, though it's always nice to get wet, I am seriously jonesing to ride some waves!

Waddell Creek, 15 March 2009

I've been a bad, bad girl. In the last 3 weeks, I've only been swimming maybe two or three times, and I've done yoga and stretching exercises only several more times than that. Oh, I have great excuses for being such a slacker: travel, work, DST, frigid mornings. But it caught up to me this morning at Waddell.

S and I met M in the parking lot under threatening clouds. The wind was already coming up at late morning, and it was sloppy wind-choppy with a serious north drift. M and I headed out on the smaller north end, since the middle was running head-high closeouts, sucking up sand. Happily it was not hard to get outside on the fish - either my duck-diving is better or Waddell didn't have it in for me as usual. Of course, I should've brought the shortboard instead, although I don't think it would've made a big difference. To my chagrin, my back started to hurt from an old surfing injury* shortly after I reached the lineup, and it kept getting worse until I had to bag the rideless sesh, bidding M a fun time on my way back to the beach. But conditions were deteriorating and he came in soon too, as did most of the crowd. It was a shoulda been here earlier, shoulda been here yesterday, kind of sesssion.

*Backstory: In July 2006, I went over the falls at Linda Mar on a 4-5 ft wave. I feared landing on my funshape so I pushed it out of the way, but ended up hitting the water head first, with the lip of the tubing closeout continuing to push my feet forward. This hyper-extended my back into a C-shape reverse bend, squashing a disk in my lower back between two vertebrae. When I reached the beach I couldn't straighten up. I couldn't even sit in a chair for a few weeks and missed a lot of work. My back got better to a point but I have never fully recovered. After nearly 3 years and a series of doctors, chiropractors good and bad and horrible, physiatrists, physical therapy, massage therapy, various useless drugs (prescription, of course) and a normal MRI, I've given up hope of ever being able to comfortably slouch in a chair again or do anything that involves bending near the ground, like gardening. So I've learned to avoid any activities that cause lower back pain (on the plus side, there are many household chores in this category), and for the most part have been stable within that limitation. Except initially, it hasn't affected surfing...until now.

I didn't take the wristcam in the water since after only one session plus some indoor messing around, it was already warning "low battery." But I managed to try the video mode, although for some reason this looks much darker and gloomier than it really was:

A big glass of wine (okay, it was two), has dulled the pain somewhat. And I promise to be a good girl and swim every day and do my exercises, just please please please let me surf!

Waddell Creek, 29 June 2008

With a south swell filling in, S and I headed down Highway 1, destination Waddell Creek. On the way, we stopped for a picnic on scenic Whaler's Cove beach by Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

The Surfline forcast for Santa Cruz was 3-4' with the tide pretty high all day and the cams showing small, so I decided to try a more exposed spot with easier high-water entry. I'd forgotten, though, that Surfline lies, and Waddell was more like 4-6', pushing the edge of my comfort level and better suited for the Xanadu. Serendipity again, I ran into N as I was checking out the surf and he was leaving the beach. As he said when I told him what board I'd brought, it would've been a good day for "not-the-fish." Maybe now that I have two shorter boards, I should start bringing them both, just in case, but I was with fish only, couldn't go anyplace else, and hadn't driven for an hour just to watch, so I was going in anyway.

Fortunately the swell was long-period with lulls, so Waddell didn't deny me entry as it has sometimes in the past. Unfortunately, it was more crowded than I've ever seen it. The parking lot was nearly full and there were several dozen surfers in the water clustered around a handful of breaks. I paddled out to one just north of the creek, with the sun thinking of emerging from the overcast sky. The waves felt powerful, reminding me of Hawaii. Glassy peelers intermingled with mushy rollers and slightly overhead crashing closeouts. When I tried for one wave, my instincts said "no go" and I attempted to back off, but the wave had my board already and took us over the falls. I don't know if it was the beaminess of the fish or just the power of the waves, but it seemed like I really should've been able to abort that one.

The size and power of the waves were intimidating, and maybe I wasn't trying as hard as I could've out of trepidation, but I got none. I'm still working out my paddling position on Nemo too, trying to find the sweet spot between too far back, stalling - where I usually am - and too far forward, pearling. The waves were fast too; surfers were racing down the line with the skilled ones getting in some nice turns and lip-smacking. D would've had a blast. But with the crowd and skill level, I had to give way often. And some of the good people were just jerks too. One shortboarder was paddling for the same wave as me, and I'd seen him riding and knew he was pretty good, plus he was arguably closer to the peak. So okay, I let him have it, thinking for pretty sure he'd get a ride, which he did, while my chances were... less. But later the same thing happened with our positions reversed, and he cut close in front of me so I had to back off. Dude, that was just rude. It was one ride of many for you, but if I'd gotten it, it would've made my day. So next time, think about sharing, OK? To counter him, there was a longboarder encouraging me to "paddle, paddle, paddle!" and another guy, who looked like he'd been in a cream-pie fight (it was sunscreen), telling me I shouldn't have yielded another wave to a dude who was on it farther down. At least there are some nice folks out there, but maybe I am too timid.

Every so often, an outside set would roll through, head high+ walled up closeouts, and somehow I managed to duck-dive them adequately. I was pleasantly surprised when one broke right in front of me and I thought I blew it, had the board ripped from my hands and rolled, but when I surfaced, I hadn't lost much ground. I count that as a success, even it if wasn't pretty.

After a while, I started to get discouraged, but then I have to remember why I surf. It's not just to ride waves, or I would've quit long ago since I don't get to do that too often. It's the feeling of being in the ocean, floating on a massive untamed body of liquid filled with unseen creatures, some who might look at you curiously and others who might eat you. It's the sensuous flow of water around my body, the sun on my face and the sea spray in my eyes, the view of the shore from outside that few see, the encounters with dolphins and otters and kelp. It's paddling hard at a wave about to break and feeling the power of the ocean as it lifts me up at the crest and drops me safe on the other side, and the thought of the sea's indifference as tumbles me like a bit of flotsam when I mess up. And it's having to set aside my worries and cares and live in the moment.

N said he'd been out for 3 hours, but I don't know how I could possibly last that long. After an hour I was getting chilled, due to inactivity as the lulls were getting long, and perhaps it was the two duck-dives in a row, but suddenly I feel nauseated. (I've been going out with just the seasickness wristbands - psychosomatic wristbands, according to S - and that's worked pretty well, but maybe I need to add the earplugs back in too. Unless it's just seawater ingestion, in which case I suppose I'm screwed!) So I paddled toward the beach and caught some whitewater, which was surprisingly difficult to ride prone, very rough and hard to hold onto the board, but it pushed me fast to shore. In trying to stop before my fins smashed the sand, I executed a 360-degree roll over my board, which S said looked like I'd done on purpose. Uh, yeah...right.

And now, my first attempt at video. Obviously next time I need to increase the resolution, but if you look real close, there's a guy going left.

Davenport, 18 February 2008

Skunked! No surfing today. With Surfline calling conditions for the weekend "good", I decided to wait for President's Day and hopefully smaller crowds. Probably a good call on the latter, since Surfline Sunday said it was "fun but crowded". Unfortunately, by the time I reached the beach, there was too little swell and too little tide. Damn, shoulda been there earlier! It's doubly bad because we're heading to the mountains this weekend, so I won't be able to get wet until next week sometime. Heavy sigh.

I first checked out my new fav spot, Indicators, but there was nothing going on there. A clot of longboarders were hoping for a passing ripple at Cowells, and a dozen folks were crowding the occassional shoulder-high rollers at Steamer Lane. Not that I'd have the balls (ha!) to venture into the Lane, even on a small day.

It was a little breezy even in town but I decided to drive up the coast to some full-frontal beaches that ought to be catching more of the remaining swell. Davenport had a few guys out, but the tide had just gone negative and it didn't look too enticing. Although definitely this was a time that if I had a surfing buddy with me saying let's do it I would've gone out. But on my own, I just couldn't overcome the inertia against getting in 50-degree water on a cool breezy day with so-so conditions. And with it getting more and more drained, soon all the surfers had left, so I felt at bit better about my call. At any rate I would've been uncomfortable in the water all alone. Da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum...

Anyway, S and I took the opportunity to explore the tide pools and try out the macro setting on my new camera.

Four Mile, 29 Nov 2007

Last surf sesh with D before his move to LA. S rode with me and I met D at the break after finding in-town spots were too small. It was a beautiful sunny day, damn cold at first but warming. I got just a single three-nanosecond ride on my funshape, but it sure beat being at work!

Davenport, 2 November 2007

D and had I checked Davenport a lot of times before, but always ended up driving farther north for better surf. It was becoming a bit of a joke that we would never get to surf there together, especially now since D is moving to LA at the end of the month. But finally today conditions looked pretty good, so we suited up and walked south on the beach a ways before paddling out to the reef break, which we had to ourselves. It was bigger than it looked from the beach, over my head. D was getting some decent rides but for a while I sat too far out not catching anything, till he talked me closer inside near him. Just as I paddled near enough to explain that, with my pitiful duck-diving skills (or rather, lack thereof), I was afraid of getting pounded by the occassional big outside sets that were coming though - you guessed it, here comes one of those big waves ready to break on me. The results were sadly predictable, right down to again smacking my lip on the Xanadu, so I surfaced with a bruised lip and a little blood in my mouth.

Still, in some perverse way, I get a thrill, a rush of dopamine to the brain, from getting tossed and rolled like so much flotsam by the ocean. One thing I love about the sea, even just looking at its vastness, is how small and insignificant it makes me feel - not diminished but that my problems are not so big as they might seem. I also love that surfing forces me to live in the moment, because the ocean demands constant attention; if I fail to focus on the here and now, it will remind me, often by whacking me upside the head with a wave.

Waddell Creek, 28 Apr 2007

Swell direction: WNW
Tide: Rising, just past -0.9 low
Wind: Windy
Air/Water Temp: 60/52 degrees

Waddell kicked my ass this afternoon. When D & S and I arrived, it was borderline too windy; the kiteboarders were getting ready to go out. But as it was a gorgeous warm sunny Saturday, all the more sheltered town spots were packed wall-to-wall, so we went out anyway. No one else was out, so it was hard to judge the size from the beach, and it turned out to be bigger and stronger than it looked. I gave it my best shot several times trying to get out and damn near made it once before another short-period head-high wave broke in front of me and laughed at my attempt to duck-dive under it. I ended up being pushed far south, gave up and paddled back to the beach, then walked north again, to where newbie S was practicing in the whitewater. Defeated, I caught a few broken waves too, just to get up on the shortboard. At least D got in a few decent rides, but for me, it totally sucked and left me unsatisfied. I still want to go surf...

Four Mile, 21 April 2007

Swell direction: NW
Tide: Rising, 3 hours past -0.9' low
Wind: Light
Air/Water Temp: 52/52 degrees
Wildlife: Aggro guys

By the time we reached the coast in the late morning, Davenport looked like it was on its way to being blow out, so D and I didn't bother checking Waddell and headed back to Four Mile. It's a pretty spot, and the waves were 4-5' and near glassy. Unfortunately the sesh was marred by the handful of mean guys already in the water who were sending out a ugly vibe and owning the peak. Even paddling out, they'd cut right in front of me like I was invisible, forcing me to stop paddling to let them pass. People like that should just join a fight club and stay out of the water; that's not what surfing's supposed to be about.

D and I traded boards so he could try my new 5'8", and he had fun on it. Unfortunately, while I was on his fairly new 6'3" Lost, I wasn't able to get out of the way of a mean blond guy who was trying to catch a wave. I attempted to paddle out around him on the right, but didn't quite make it over before the wave started to break. What pissed me off is that he kept coming straight ahead without even trying to avoid me. Asshole. The wave tumbled me hard and in the process his fin apparently impacted the board, making a linear blue dent in the deck. Shit! I felt really bad and of course am paying for the repairs, but D's without his board for about a week, so I'll be sharing my shortboard with him.

On the bright side, after we switched back, I caught a wave on my new board and rode it for a split second! Luckily D was on the same wave because my leash came off (maybe I didn't lock it down sufficiently?) and my board headed in toward the reef without me, but he was nearby and able to grab it. So stoked to have caught/ridden a wave, however briefly, on my shortboard! Woo hoo!

Surfline forecast is for "Good" conditions in Santa Cruz all week. (Although interestingly, after the fact, they revised today from "Poor-Fair" to "Good." Hmmm.) Hope to get in a few sessions!

Waddell Creek, 11 Mar 2007

Swell direction: NW/SSW
Tide: Rising, 1 hour past 0.8' low
Wind: Very light
Air/Water Temp: 75/54 degrees
Wildlife: A distant seal

A glorious summery day in NorCal, and a fun, uncrowded sesh at Waddell. D and I checked 4 mile and Davenport first, but the crowd factor was high. I'm glad we pressed on to Waddell, because there were less than a dozen people in the water, spread out along the beach break. Getting out through the whitewash was a bit of a problem - turtle-rolling never seems to work out for me and I wish I could duck-dive like D on his little potato chip - but eventually I made it out during a brief lull. It was pretty glassy and the waves were 4-5', a little inconsistent but there were fun rides to be had. Once I got re-acclimated to my 7'2" funshape (after snubbing it for the new 8'0" longboard for several months), I snagged a few decent rights.

Waddell is a beautiful spot, but within view of Ano Nuevo. Fortunately the water is murky, so if there were any sharks, I couldn't see them. And of course I do have SharkCamo on my boards, so no worries!