EPIC SUP: Some days are better than others

Holy crap.  Still buzzin' off the awesome SUP surf session we had today.  Ironically, Richard paddled out yesterday into smaller conditions with a whole high school team on their way out.  It was so crowded he couldn't surf. 
Today was bigger, the tide was better, and we had 3-4 of us out there most of the time we were out.  1.6@14 with a 4 ft and rising high tide made the boneyard at Doheny a great option, and Thursday is a day off for the local surf teams.  I caught so many waves today i can't even count, didn't even have a chance to just chill and talk with Richard until we got out of the water after 7:30.  Most waves were knee high, perfect for SUPping but a few big waves came through and I tippie toe dropped in to a couple and made them.  Such a great day, I feel way more outgoing and am starting up conversations with people I usually don't bother with.  Crazy.  Here are some great pics:

Thank God it's Fall: Back at it

Now that the fog and crowds from summer are on the way out, we are back to the best and most memorable time of year for surf.  While we have already had a few nice fall days, today is a good one to kick off the season.  Two swells in the water, 1.8@15 dropping and 1@20 rising.  Clear skies, off shore winds, medium size crowd with spread out waves.  Richard and I were on it, in the water by about 6:10 while still dark but light enough to see down the line.  It was 55 when we got there, so I wore my hood and booties.  Didn't need them, the water is 66 so I was pretty hot.
We were both on our baked potatoes, great call for today.  The swell mix offered varying waves, from nice small inside racers (dropping swell) to head high outside sets with long sections that were clearly the 20 second period. We had a ton of fun on the BPs, even though my surfing has sucked the past month.  My timing is off and I'm racing way ahead of the pocket lately, have to remember to slow down and be patient.  I'll be concious of it next time.  Anyway, mostly the regulars out like Jon, Dave, Nick, Henning, Helmet guy, and a few randoms that weren't getting in the way too bad.  Stoked its fall.  Kids are growing up too

Nicest May Morning I can remember

While May 13, 2013 was an unbareable 102 degrees in the middle of the day, at 5:30 AM it was clear, cool, and crisp.  Awesome sunrise, light offshores, and flawless 2 ft surf.  1.4@14 was the main swell source, since it was so small on Sunday with the same buoy reading, I decided the SUP would guarantee wave count.  While Uppers might have been more fun, Doheny was a great call

. 

.27 low tide right at 6 helped form 1-2 ft. 60 yard rights just in front of the main lifeguard tower and south jetty.  I was out at 5:30 AM, solo, with an effortless glassy paddle to the spot from the boneyard.  Wave after frickin' wave, perfect 2 ft, long, fast, and glassy.  I was in heaven, after every wave thinking how am I the only person out here enjoying this. 

10,000 surfers in south orange county (maybe more) and I'm the only one scoring this right now. 

By 6:30, an older chick in a bikini (air 65, water 68) paddled out way north of me and was catching a wave every 30 seconds.  Nice.  By 7:00 when I left no one made their way to the south jetty and I left that perfect wave all by itself.  I'm sure there were 30 guys on it by 9 AM, but only one at day break.  All time best SUP sesh, now I need to convert Matt and Richard to share these days with.  Coco and Billy were stoked too.

Dora and Booooots!

I'm taking this blog in a different direction.  I found that tracking my surf and mtb sessions was terribly redundant and boring with very little progression, which is why there has never been a good movie made with surfing as the main premise.  So I started thinking of where all the progression is taking place in my life, and its all about the kids and family.  Work too, which I may mention here and there.  But Coco and Billy's progression to toddlerism is fun, frustrating, and fascinating and can make for a good story.  So I'm going to do my best to recap all the rad things happening with the fam, and also throw in a few bits of waves and bikes!
Coco and Billy

Without question, Coco somehow finds a way to say the funniest things without trying.  At 2 1/2, you can have mini conversations with her that may not go very far but can usually provide a gem of a statement.  While I'm going to get better at writing down the funny statements, she said the best thing to me yesterday when I left for work.  Usually she waves good bye and blows me a kiss (which is rad in itself), but yesterday she said "no daddy, you stay inside."  As a dad, it bums you out that you have to go to work and leave your kids for the day, but it is so nice to here that she wants to hang with her dad.  She is very into Dora these days, and makes the Swiper no Swiping comment a few times a day.  She'll also say random things like "now its time to dance" and she'll count backwards 5-4-3-2-1 blast off.  All stuff she learns from her favorite shows.

Billy has thick block feet that look like little bricks.  Shoes do not fit him, and he has to wear moccasins because that is all we can get on him.  He still grunts and hasn't said a clear word yet, but clearly understands what we say to him.  He is pretty independent and can play by himself pretty well, but also likes whatever toy Coco is playing with and cries a lot when she won't share.
Lina
Lina is so cute.  She just got her new F1.4 50 mm lens and is all about photography.  She is starting to plan out a little side business/hobby where she'll go to bday parties and take pics for real cheap, just needs the right equipment.  Stoked the kids lives will be well documented.  Here are a couple pics she took with her new lens.

Work
Epic week of work.  I was nervous going into GOKOM trying to prepare for the 2 days worth of discussions we were planning.  Warren helped me a ton, and we used the turnpoint questionnaire system that lets users vote with a remote and give us instantaneous feedback.  What a hit, all the brand managers loved the dialogue driven meetings, where one question would develop into an hour discussion between ALL the brand managers.  While I am not getting all the credit (nor do I deserve it), every BM commented on how well executed this event was and all told me I did a great job.  First step to proving I'm the right guy for the job, now its time to tackle all the action items we came up with.
Ride
Couple more cool pics from Marie Calenders and Hawk Drop:

 

I lost my Go Pro?!

This week started off like crap, south winds and windswell chopped up the waves through Wednesday, and I finally made my way out to Uppers on Thursday.  Man was it crowded, the usual Uppers characters + a bunch of randoms, and the waves were broken up with short rides.  I caught a few fun ones, and the morning was awesome so it was still pretty worth it.

 Friday saw longer rides with mostly smaller waves, but it was still pretty solid and fun.  Pretty much the usuals out there, including Matt this time, and some random ripper kid.  Makes sense since the NSSA contest was this weekend. Got out early to fix my chain, which seems to fall off every ride down.  In its defense, it is so rusty I'm surprised it moves at all.


Saturday woke up to another beautiful morning for a paddle surf at Doheny.  Tide was high so the boneyard was the spot, just me and this cool old guy for a while.  I put the Go Pro on the tail which sucked, the pics look like crap and as I was trying to switch from pic to vid, the cam flew of the clip and into the water.  It was only 4 ft deep but it was 6 AM and dark and high tide with plenty of waves.  No way I was going to find it then. 
So I stayed out another hour and some more people came out but it was still manageable.  Except this 12 year old kid who was trying to SUP surf but couldn't and ended up being in the take off zone over and over again. 
Came back at 10 with the fam to search for the cam.  I remembered the spot I lost it but was having a terrible time seeing anything, it was murky and the waves were still breaking.  Then I started searching a touch more inside and there it was, face down in some rocks in about 8 inches of water.  Still worked, no scratches, halleluiah. 
Sunday got my ride on, having trouble finding people to go with so I end up going solo.  Going mid-day kind of sucks cuz its hot and you end up running into locals you don't want to see, but luckily I only saw one.
 Got an hour 15 ride up Pine Crest with its epic views, 3/4 down OE and back up OE, then down TNA where I got a neat shot in the trees at the bottom. 

All and all, a decent week of surfing and riding.

Stiff offshores suck for paddleboarding

Last week's surf was not bad, didn't go until Wednesday thanks to the strong onshores on Sunday and Monday, which kept the surf bumpy on Tuesday.  While Richard was scoring the waves of his life in Kandui, Matt and I met at Uppers for some windswell waves.  Water was warmer than expected and skies were clear for a change, crowd was chill, just one other guy for the most part, and we got an hours worth of short lived 1 turn waves.  A few longer ones connected and Matt caught the best ones, it was nice to catch up and talk about the kids.  He's planning to go for a third anytime now, yikes!  We both agreed, while not great this kind of session is 100x better than head high and 60 guys. 
On to Thursday, decided to paddle surf since I expected it to be 2 foot and we were leaving for Paso at 9.  Got to Doheny at 5:50 and it looked awesome, low tide, 2 ft and offshore.  Turns out offshore is bad, I felt like a kite out there, my hands were freezing, and the wind blew me off of several waves.

  A few sets came through at about chest high, bet those were head high + at uppers with nobody out. The wind backed down with the sunrise and I caught some good ones, as the big sets were very sporatic and 2 ft was the norm.  Put the gopro at a new angle, not sure I like it but it shows a little more of the wave.

Got home from Paso on Sunday to south winds, fog, and mini combo windswell.  Gave strands a shot on the body board to try and get some barrel shots.  Haha, that didn't work!

To surf or to ride?

The classic argument for me every weekend.  Do I go surfing (or paddling) or mountain biking?  I only can do one per day, as I need to max out my time with the fam before the workweek starts where i'm gone for 10 hours a day.  MTB provides consistency, better exercise, and a bigger thrill (or chance of impairing yourself).  It also provides more solitude for you and your friends, as even busy trails are nothing like a crowded day in the water. 
But, while I love MTB, it isn't surfing and I have been leaning towards getting wet lately.  Today felt like it would be a packed day at the beach and the Doheny cam had easily 50 guys on it, so I opted for ride. 
Couldn't find anyone to go with, so I went solo.  I usually don't like Solo because all the climbing can be boring, but I have plenty to think about and can get a lot more riding in at my own (efficient) pace.  Today's ride was marie calenders, an epic hour+ long adventure across all of laguna wilderness park. 
Lot of undulations make for hard work and some short rocky decents make for plenty of fun.  An adjustable seat post is a must, luckily I have a new reverb.  Good day out, I always feel better after a hard ride.  I'm hungry, exhausted, and feel like I accomplished something.

Nothing great

Didn't surf much this week, swells were mostly weak W windswell and south winds were on it on Monday.  Richard and I tried to surf Tuesday, and there were a few OK racers at uppers but it was generally pretty weak.  But only 4 of us out and partly cloudy skies made up for it, and was definitely worth it.  Wednesday no go as I didn't have my car and the tide was filling in too much for a Doheny Paddle.  By friday, a new South swell filled in.  2ft@20 and a surfline forecast of 3-4+ means summer crowds.  It was pretty busy by 6:15 and these kind of days are my least favorite.  I would rather have Tuesday's weak day rather than bigger inconsistent waves with lots of people.  I plan to start visiting church again.

Another great week of Spring surf

This time of year is awesome, somewhat similar to fall as we get combo swells from north and south, we also maintain lighter crowds similar to winter.  Conditions can vary though, as we start getting a lot of fog, and eddy conditions, strong south winds can mess everything up.  But this week had the fog without the wind, and the swell was on from the south.  This thing hit last Friday and even today I caught a few south swell lines on the paddleboard, one week later.  Lets review:

Monday was macking, head high to over head sets at uppers.  Descent size crowd but manageable, Lowers looked like a zoo with 150 monkeys all fighting each other while Uppers had 20-25 guys and was spread out. 

Caught some great waves, a couple bigger sets that the beard had trouble on, and couple chest high insiders that the beard loved.  Richard was on his shred sled lighting it up and burying the rail, getting ready for his epic trip to Kandui. 

Tuesday was BETTER, smaller crowd with cleaner waves and less sections. I felt like i was ripping off the tops and sharp carves, GREAT DAY. The inside peaks were working a little better and it feels like this will be an awesome spring. 

By Wednesday I was good, but Richard and Matt talked me into another day in a row.  While the waves were fun on Wednesday, it wasn't like Tuesday (classic uppers) and I kind of wished i was with the kids and Lina.  I'm not balancing as well as I should.  But it was still a fun day with a light crowd and beats any day in the middle of summer with 30 guys.  Plus when its good its hard not to go.

Finally on Friday I hit up Doheny for a 2 foot paddle sesh.  Was solo most of the time and scored anywhere from 1 footers to over waist high set waves.  SOLO!  And I'm getting some nice control of the 12'1.  This was a good week to remember for surf, and to remember in the heat of summer when there are 50 people out before dark that the rest of the year can be all time with just your friends. Still have a black eye, 10 days after getting hit in the face!

South Swells and Black Eyes

Back in the groove, after an awesome week of fog filled paddle surfing, spring is now in full swing with south swells, south winds, long rides, long lulls, unpredictable crowds, and slightly warmer conditions.  After waiting through Monday's south wind sloppfest, Richard and I were first out at uppers on Tuesday.  Nice long lines and steep faces that were pretty ripable, but the crowd got thick with some summer time faces and with the long lulls it felt like a cold summer day.  Still fun.

Wednesday was awesome, hit uppers myself at 6:30, first one out with clear skies and perfect waist to chest high lines driving through.  Only 6 or 8 of us out with plenty of waves, and I caught several fun ripable ones just up from the bay. 

Caught a rail to the face after a floater gone wrong and am sporting a cool fight club black eye.  Didn't want to get out with only 5 guys in the water and great conditions, but the thing started swelling and impeding my vision.  Here is my eye, a day and a half later.  Today I was exhausted, and not that psyched to go but Richard was amping and a new swell was showing, so I went.  The waves were a little mixed up, so I was kind of wishing i stayed in bed.  But then I caught a few fun ones, and the crowd never got out of hand.  Todays cam even caught one of my better waves on it and although i wasn't surfing my best i still got a couple good turns in.