1.25.2012 Weird Carlsbad Session in front of the Power Plant

I got to Forrest's pad at 6:10 and I suited up. We took off in his ride, briefly checking Tamarack. Forrest kept talking about surfing SoPa (South Palomar) but came to his senses and pulled a U-ie to check Oceanside.

Unfortunately, Oceanside didn't have anything for us. The pier looked surfable, but we weren't excited by the prospects on display. We checked N. Pier, but that looked worse. We decided to check Harbor, but I didn't think it would be working due to the rising tide.

We continued south and spotted a macker breaking in front of the power plant, a place neither of us had previously surfed.

We kept going south to soothe Forrest's need for SoPa so we shot down there. It didn't have anything for us.

We circled back and finally parked. While retrieving our boards, we noticed there was a circle of guys standing just west of the lifeguard tower with their heads bowed. At first, I thought it was memorial, but they were out there for about twenty minutes, so I switched theories from memorial to prayer circle.

We paddled out without issue.

My first wave arrived within five minutes. It was a solid-looking right which had more steepness than I'd anticipated. I popped up off-balance and ended up rolling up one car window. I recovered and did a quick pump, into a cutback. By the time I pulled it around, the wave had passed me by.

I dodged three mackers to the dome. Two of them I barely made, the lips hitting me in the legs and threatening to set me back enough to take the next one in the set on the head. I couldn't remember the last time I surfed waves that hit this hard.

The next wave was a sick one. Forrest and I split the peak! I went left and the wave immediately started bowling over. I did a quick lip analysis and came to the conclusion it was unmakeable. I pulled way into the wave so as to escape out the back unscathed. I was successful. Here is the footy.



The next wave I caught was another left. It was mushier than the last one. I went for a floater but noticed in the footage that I keep doing the same thing at the top of the wave. I start with my arms and chest opened to the direction I want to go, but at the top, my shoulder swings back to my chest. I would imagine this makes my weight swing backwards, thereby explaining why I keep falling off the back. I will have to actively mind my arm position on future waves.



The prayer circle guys started paddling out and made it downright crowded.

Another wave came and I caught it. It was a left which was slow to develop but quick to close out. I kicked my board up and hit the water ass-first, letting the wave wash over me while not giving up too much position in the water.

The last real wave of the day was a right. I managed one turn on it, one I had to cut short due to the cascading lip. The wave then closed out and I finished the wave with a backside version of the last wave's ending.



Forrest had to meet his accountant at 9:30, so we bailed prematurely. While leaving the water, I made note of our crowd of two turning into ten heads.

While putting our gear in the ride, we saw a guy catch a sick right on his frontside, pump several times and EVISCERATE the lip. We hooted him the whole way.

12.11.2011 Carlsbad: North Tammy's/South Cherry Street with Forrest, SUNSET SESH

Forrest wanted to go back to his place to get his 7'0" and get back out there. We kept our wetsuits on, parked at his place and walked out past PCH. I knew I was pushing my luck with my shoulder, but I decided to paddle out any way. Forrest was my ride home and I didn't want to sit around until it was dark.

We paddled out and the conditions were the same, just smaller. The good news is, every ten minutes or so, a set would come through. It wouldn't look like much, but when it hit the reef it would steepen up and start "throwing".

I caught a nice left, but it turned out to be fatter than I thought it would be. If you've had this happen to you on a blind date, having it happen to you while surfing is only slightly less tragic. I faded off the back after being too aggressive with my pumps.

A girl paddled out and sat deeper than me. Another left came through and she paddled for it. She looked like she was going to be too deep for it so I paddled for it. I kept looking towards her to see if she would go, obviously planning on pulling out if she went. She didn't, but the look on her face made me feel like I was being an a-hole. She made a face like she had just realized someone had waxed her board with dog poop.

I popped up with some speed. The wave didn't offer much, but I got a nice float out of it.

The girl paddled away immediately after the wave and we had it to ourselves again. A right came through and I was on it. It turned out to be super fast. I pumped a couple of times and did a floater but I somehow blew it. While underwater, I realized I should have did a cutdown and go for a high speed/low percentage (for me, at least) vertical lip bash. I would have had the speed and the power was there.

My shoulder began to really bother me and I lost my mojo. We saw a HUGE (shoulder-high) set roll through and briefly thought about planting ourselves out there waiting for one last one.

Ah, I forgot to mention how amazing and vibrantly red the sunset was. The waves weren't great but the scenery was amazing.

9.12.2011 SouPa Gutlessness

This morning I trekked up to Oceanside once again, arriving at about 6:20. As I was pulling off the freeway, the famous Scuba flag was pointed due SW, OFFSHORE!!!

My froth was tempered only by my fear, soon to become realized: As is becoming habit for my treasured playground, it had morning sickness and the waves seemed bloated with water. It feels as though Oceanside has the flu and can't seem to recover. It's frustrating considering S swell season is starting its last gasp...

I scooted down to Carlsbad, checking Cherry and stopping for about five minutes at North Tamarack. I was tempted to go after watching a set develop, but it broke so blech that I bailed for "points" (get it?) farther south.

I checked the cliff spot just south of Palomar Airport Road and it looked a bit more promising. After about five minutes of trying to talk myself into going, I finally decided to just go as there were some set waves with a bit of steeps to them. The surface was very clean and the sun was out, which pushed me over the edge in terms of paddling out.

I scampered down the cliff, paddled out and caught a wave almost immediately. As I started leaning back to start a cutback, I had very little push from the wave and so aborted it and turned into my famous slash. I recovered and kicked out.

I caught a second wave and had the exact same experience! After kicking out I looked north and I saw a sick right barrel and thought, "Hmm..."

The next wave I caught was a right and steep. I got into my kneeboard stance and bounced down the face on my board. There was no barrel and I detached from my board, diving under the wave.

I caught a left did a sharp bottom turn and tried a snap. I threw some spray, but had no speed and did not recover. The waves got even less tantalizing and I was over it after about an hour.

9.1.2011 North Tamarack, BIG swell!

This morning I woke up and shot down to my stuff, grabbed and put it in the car.  While doing this, I thought about putting my seldom used "step-up" board in the car.  It's not much of a step-up board, as it's only an inch longer than my normal board, though it makes up for that a bit in width and thickness.  I decided against doing this as I wanted to try my "new" board in bigger waves.  I had a feeling that Oceanside would be closing out and I was right.  I thought that Harbor might be able to hold it a bit better. Nope!






There was no one out from Tyson to Harbor.  A rare occurrence!  There were some bombs coming through, but it wasn't worth the paddle-out.  As soon as you made it out there, you could whirl around for a wave, catch it, kick out because of the close-out (nowhere to go) and get hammered by the next one, all while getting yanked down the beach by the current.  No takers...!

I drove south to Carlsbad thinking the waves would be more shapely there.  With such a steep swell in the water, the less direct the coastline is to its angle, the more the wave has to refract and decay in order to break.  Since Carlsbad is almost all beach break, I was hoping that it would make the waves less powerful so as to make them more than just a drop followed by a beating.

I almost paddled out at Cherry Street.  There was no one out and I was jonesing to try some roundhouse cutties on what appeared to be six foot faces with juice.  I talked myself out of going there and kept driving.  Tamarack looked makeable, but there were a good thirty people out.  I went down and checked the cliff spot just south of Palomar Airport.  The coast bends more west there and the surf reflected that.  It looked about shoulder-high and decent, but I wasn't about to waste a double-overhead day on a shoulder-high spot!

I circled back north and finally settled on North North Tamarack or South South Cherry Street depending on your political inclination.  There were only a couple of dudes out and the waves that sectioned off were a whole new peak in that spot.  I was on it.  The waves didn't look that big from the cliff (altitude tends to make waves look bigger than they are) so I was glad I didn't stray from my normal board.  On the way down the stairs, I had to wade through a peanut gallery of about ten guys.  I said, "Excuse me" to one as I was having trouble getting through and I couldn't understand what he was saying but his tone made it sound like he was talking ish.  I bounded down the stairs and paddled out.

I didn't take any real beatings on the paddle out.  I saw one of the two guys I'd been spying from the cliff take off pretty late.  Judging by his posture and composure and the radical drop, I thought he was toast.  I have to hand it to him because he made the drop backside.

I wasn't gnarled out by the waves.  When there's this many people out, it can't be all that heavy.  I set up a little deeper than the two guys and heard one say, "Yeah, this is my big wave board. It duckdives really well but still catches waves blah blah blah".  I was thinking these are not big waves.

I caught a left a little late and rode it for a ways.  A roundhouse cutty crossed my mind but seeing so many closeouts I decided against it.  I kicked out and caught air with all the speed I had.

I paddled back out and I had two waves that were almost exactly the same: Quick drops and quick kick-outs.  After paddling back out from these, I noticed that the main peak which had been plagued with dudes had thinned out, so I went for it.

Unfortunately, there was a lull that lasted about a half-hour.  During this time this kid who'd had a mad-dog look on his face before, paddled past me and said what I thought was, "Let's get a fresh one out here."  Not understanding why he would say that to a stranger I asked him to repeat himself and he said, "I'm the only Freshman out here."  I gave him a smile and a "Niiiiiiice!"

I was getting a bit bored so I paddled in a ways.  I had noticed that there were some juicy waves breaking a bit inside of me.  I start paddling and about fifteen seconds later, I happen to look back mid-paddle and I see a massive black line on the horizon.  I turn and scratch furiously.  As it and I came closer together, I thought, while paddling ferociously, "I'm toast."  I keep paddling and as I'm submerging for the duckdive, I see the lip crashing down.  I make it under and through but I can definitely feel the power of the wave through the slight turbulence I feel and how the wave's energy pushes me down and then past me.

I surface and let out a hoot, all while seeing the next wave of the set start to jack up.  I start paddling at about 75% of max speed, knowing that it isn't as big as the one that just narrowly missed me.  A third wave came through and closed out, all three of them went unridden.  The first wave of the set is the biggest wave I've seen break since that massive winter swell that hit its peak on 12/21/2005 and the most gnarled out I've been in the water since my sole Pipe session almost one year ago..

About two minutes later I caught a right, did a couple of pumps, went way down the wave face and had a decision to make.  I can either try for an off-the-lip which most likely will end up in disaster or I can kick out and try to salvage my place in the lineup.  I opt for the latter, but my fins disengaged on the bottom turn and I fall.  Somehow I manage to avoid going over the falls, but my board and my body are pulled inside quite a ways.  The same result would've probably happened with an off-the-lip, though my trajectory would've been more towards the trough, meaning I probably would've gone over the falls!

I jump on top of my board and see lines of whitewater.  I duckdive the first couple, and then decide to bail.

What a way to start the month!