Longin' for a beachie

See the summer southies fidgetin' down below.
Stoked waitin' patiently for the long point fun season.
But a big part of me misses the good ol' beachbreak lumps and thumps.
Like a good thrashin' compared to the mellow vibes. Sometimes.
Guess I better find a good summer beachie spot this year.
There could be worse choices for a surfer.
Can't complain. And won't.

Warm, mellow, fishin' midday go out cleanses the soul and mind in beautiful southern california.

2.1 @ 14secs from 185
All alone and windsunburnt smiles.

Grayish Rouge

Waves were I was today looked exactly like this only in butt gray. Inconsistent but fun on the sets. Lotta rocks showin’ that early but had 2 hours of solo bliss. Caught one of my earliest good waves this season. Time was 5:07am. Laughing and stokin’ before most people are even rollin’ over and hittin’ snooze. Stick around for awhile willl ya Southie?


3.0 @ 14secs from 185

Wooo

woooo!


3.4 @ 17secs from 195

So Cal

So nice. Soulful. Sop it up. Soak it all in.

2.2 @ 14 from 220

Weepy

4am. Buoys at 2.4. Must be risin'. Hop in the car. Allman's on the tapedeck. Pull up to quiet cloudyness. Scurry down. Paddle out. Sit and wait. Spin and glide. Small and boring. Skunked.

2.2 @ 12secs from 195
1st stupid one out

It's a comin'.

Summer.

Southies.

Secret Spots.

Smooth mornin' glassies.

Spliffin' full moon sessions.

Sultry snugglin' barrels.

Swells.

Schwackin'.



Stoked.

Surfin'!!!



Today similar to yesterday and just as fun. Made it out a little later but no one around still. Gray gloomy perfect morning. Low tide solo in the land of people. Fishy is glassed thick and it is showin', no signs of stress. C'mon make it through to Winter Mr. Fish!

6.0 @ 9secs from 305
1st out

Damp

Playful windswell Sunday thru this morning. Second car that pulled up but made it first in the ocean. Got two before two came out. Maxed out at 4 surfers, all cool heads. Hootin' ripper out. Tradin' shoulder high peaks. No hassles. Just stokin' hoots. Love this spot. Swell direction felt a little odd, maybe some of that South sneaking in?

Misty morn'.

Fishin' FUN!!!


6.8 @ 9 secs from 295
1st out!

Negative = Postive

Felt so good waxin' my board last night. Knowin' today would bring some waist high fun. Suuuper neg low tide, about a -1.6, and knew just the spot up north where this little west windswell would hit nice. Loves the super low sandbar. It turns into a mini point break at this tide.

Woke up stoked at 4:15, probably the only one, got to the spot around 5am as the light was just lightin' up the grayness. Small kine peelers.

No one out.
No out gonna be out.
No one came out.

Stoked. My pick of the "set" waves which is a great feelin'. Speed pumps on navel high peelers.

Fishin!!!

Lovely gray glassy morning. Felt SO very good to get salty and stoked again. Man I missed that. Friends and family will be glad to be around me again.


3.1 @ 9 secs from 300
1st and only out

Reunion

The French settled on the island in 1642. Tons of history. Island can best be described as a combination of French, African, Indian, and Chinese cultures all rolled into one beautiful one.

Get a hut in St. Leu. Paddle out to the dreamlike crystal blue water. Pumpin' heavy lumps. Fun lefts in my world of rights. First tropical experience. Unknown. Free. Surreal. Warm. Enjoy the local juice and color that night. Salted stoke chowin' down on some Creole grub. Check out what came out of the water cam sessions.

Sad to see this happen to paradise over last weekend. Hopefully some heads got the goods though. Sorry to see a couple locals parished.

"Waves reaching 36 feet high thrashed the Island , leaving two fishermen missing and flooding homes and hotels, on Sunday. The waves were caused by a storm in the southern Indian Ocean that produced a swell Saturday afternoon, the French overseas department's prefect said in a statement.

Waves reaching 13-15 feet were expected through Sunday evening before subsiding Monday, the weather service said."

Let me go back!!! Back to reality this morning I got some good paddling around time in this morning. Good to feel the water warming up and the light lappin' of the ocean again.

3.2 @ 9secs from 305

Serene II

Nothin' doin' for awhile now. Past and present. Dry. Wet. Soon?

2.5 @ 8secs from 315

RIP

"It was a perfect a-frame barrel located in mainland Mexico. The wave was especially good because it was located at the mouth of the Rio Balsas, which was able to maintain the sand bars, focusing the waves. The sea floor drops off very deeply and quickly due to a deepwater canyon just off the beach here.

Another unique aspect of the beach that makes the wave ride able when it was very big is that the curved beach faces south to southeast. This means that the prevailing onshore winds were side or offshore most days. All of these dynamics made a wave that was consistently big, hollow and perfect.

This wave was practically destroyed by development. A construction of the largest steel mill in a third world country. The large development of the mill was significant enough to change the name of the city. This development resulted in a hydroelectric dam upstream.

The dam impeded the necessary sand flow for maintenance of the sand bars severely. The final nail in the coffin was the harbor and its accompanying jetties located to the north of the break. The jetties allowed a large south swell in August of 1975 to strip the beach of so much sand that wave was ruined forever.

It still breaks occasionally when conditions are just right. However, the present wave is rare and does not compare to the perfect peaks that frequented the beach with surprising regularity before the dam and harbor. Most days it is now an a-frame shore pound without any shape.

2.3 @ 8 secs from 310
Nope

So Very Cal

What a fun windswell and groundswell combo.
Friday lumpy and frumpy and jumbled and gettin' big.
Cinco De Mayo large playful waves and the water was a movin'.

Sunday was the day it all came together.
80 degree morning weather.
Perfect tide.
Clean ruler edged reef lines.
Slightly offshore.
Glassy and oily.

Only me and a couple others throughtout the whole weekend. Cool heads. Everyone super happy and amped. Overheard stories of far off vacations recently. Pros ripping a point before the Teahupoo contest. Slater doing unreal 720 flips. Surf stories. The fish was LOVING the spot I picked for the weekend fun. Gettin' it wired. Gettin' into to everything. Super speed around sections. If I could rip, I coulda ripped harder. Long speed walls to five on the nose. Perfection in the warm Southern California sun.

Paddled out this mornin' tired and sore but for no other reason than knowing it would be a clean warm sunny session. Only one out. All of the barrels and big speed walls gone. All of the rippy locals gone. Just me and some glassy navel high peelers. Stokin' session. 80 degree beach weather. Bikinis at 9am. What a 96 hours its been!

2.9 @ 9 secs from 320
1st and only out

Serene

Puuuuuuuuuuumpin'. All the reports calling for round the clock winds. Thrashed surfaces. Victory at sea. Hmm. Don't feel it. It was calm in my yard at 10pm last night, wake up at 4:30, still calm, even a trace of E winds, swell up, stoked. Let's go!

Pull up to the workin' sandbar from last swelly and there are lines everywhere. Looks big. Waves reelin' down the line. What? Two out already. Damn. Paddle out into the glassy lumpy consistent swell. Know the heads. Local ripper and his buddy. Another joins us but all are cool. And good. Us all trading waves and hooting each other.

Thick schwacks and heavy barrel time. Deceivingly speedy waves and thick thumpings. Whoa, where'd that come from? And give me more. Laughin' to myself at all the people that are sleeping in thinking it is onshore and nasty. Opposite. Sunny and calm. Beautiful.


8.0 @ 12 secs from 295
3rd out

Dry

Fixed my board all night. Beers. Pain in the ass after working on it for so long. Who cares, tried to keep up the stoke while I fixed the dings. More beers.

Found my mind wandering and lusting over my next board sometime in the future. How I would change the curves. Would I glass it myself again? Could I get better? Maybe shape it and have a pro glass it? Does that still count as homemade?

Dreamin' how I would make it a single fin. How I would keep it under 6'. Never go over that number. Roundish nose for toes over? Pointy nose for "non-kooky" look? Does that even matter? Ponderin' Dreamin'.

nothing @ nothing from nothing
no one out

Ms. Lady Ripper

EDIT: Guess I got on the wrong side of some photog with these pics. A Mr. Randy Wright who shoots great pics daily it seems. Sorry man, the internet is a big and wonderful thing and I guess I can't put a picture that I didn't shoot in my journal on the internet. I see a lot of the same shots on many sites, but they must all be getting paid. What a gig! What is the difference if you grab a picture from the web for your collection of "cool surf shots" and play it as a screensaver? More people probably see that than this dumb little journal I keep. Is that wrong too? How do people put up music songs on their sites? I guarantee they are not paying the artist. I am all for you getting as much money as you can for your photos, you deserve it, but to cry and complain over a little surf site where I write my ramblings seems a little extreme. Oh well. Sorry. I apologize. Don't need your snaps.

Most people would be stoked to see their picks show up on some stoked surfers site.

Off to get a sunset seshy as the swell seems to be still here!!




Photos: Randy Wright

This girl was r.i.p.p.i.n.' the other night in the windswell mush. Stylin' bottom turns to quick snaps. Using every part of the wave. Big floaters where I would have punched through the wave. Grace. Flow. Beauty. Smilin'. Schwackin'. In love.

3.1 @ 11 secs from 320
no surf. fixed dings into the late night.