It’s been a very strange spring for surf, to say the least. Expected are winds and crossover NW/SW swells with the end of one season and the beginning of another. BUT the weather, with rain and cold fronts and incessant trashing winds for most of the month wreaked havoc with the surf for the most part, if you were a working man or woman.
The time change was more than welcome. The afternoon onshores were not. With no glass offs at all, it seemed like most of the time the wind actually picked UP after I got off work and got into the water. And while walking or running to get in the water, everyone coming out usually had something positive to say about the surf – from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m – apparently the surf was dealable – sometimes even good. Then I’d paddle out to half trashed conditions that turned to totally trashed, necessitating a minimum of waves and an early exit from the water, when I did surf. I went to go surfing and more times than not I’d end up driving away because it just looked…awful. Good thing I was into March Madness – and attended a battery of NCAA basketball games, following SDSU to the Sweet 16 up in Anaheim for the Western Regional Finals. Which SDSU lost to eventual national champion UCONN. My uncle and his wife graduated from Connecticut and are die-hard fans of both the men’s and women’s programs there. So at least I had something to have fun with in March to make up for the poor surf conditions.
Poor conditions for me and my session timings. But some people got lucky. I got reports many days from the mid-day sessions saying it was sunny and glassy and nice – which was hard to hear and believe. The early morning crews also reported many poor sessions with the overnight winds lasting through the dawn patrol – then as mentioned before – easing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., then hosing the returning DP-ers and sunset sessionors. I remember this exactly in the winter of 2008. I was unemployed from about September 07 to March of 08. And the mid-day sessions were just epic. After that winter many people said, “The surf SUCKED this winter!” and I was like, “No WAY, it was on fire!” Most of the time, it’s all a matter of timing, but we all know this, although this spring has been acute.
I had three sessions in a row that weren’t that great toward the end of the month after a few early month sessions, that weren’t so great either. But I just had to get back in the water. Here’s the first two. The third session is an entry of its own!
SESSION I, 03/17/11
I think I had been out of the water for about 10 days when the winds were a blowin’, the rain was a fallin’ and the water was a freezin’ and I was drivin’ away day after day and going home to “be more productive.” Then a “three day weekend” seemed to appear with good weather, I believe it was the 24th, 25th and 26. The first session back is always hell – out of paddling shape, not used to the water temp, uncoordinated, off balance, all that great stuff, timing is off. I almost slipped and fell about a dozen times just wading out to the paddle area at the bottom of the stairs because there was so much slime on the rocks. Paddling out wasn’t hard, but arduous and felt slow. First two waves, I knew were just going to be terrible, and they were, but hope appeared on the third wave, a nice right I remember, that seemed to be the “reawakening” of my ability to surf. Paddling back out after a half decent ride seemed to take a half hour. BUT it was a pretty decent introduction back in the water, and not crowded at all. Putting on and taking off the wetsuit was difficult – and if that happens, you know you haven’t surfed in…too long. And COLD after getting out of the water. Some of the coldest conditions all year, seemed to me.
SESSION II, 03/18/11
Was a lot better than Session I and started to get back into the rhythm of surfing after seemingly losing contact. Easier getting in and out of the wetsuit, happier, easier getting off the ledge and into the water, easier paddling (strength), a little more stoked, but still, not the greatest conditions on the planet. I remember hoping it would glass off, but again, the wind seemed to get worse as the afternoon turned to evening. The one redeeming factor is that I caught like 15 waves and it was very consistent with windswell/groundswell combo. Nothing on the outside, mostly in the middle with the occasional dash out a little further to snag a better set wave. But hey, it was head high and I was catching a lot of waves. The one thing that was now pissing me off was the choppy paddling conditions. I absolutely hate getting sloshed around and spray flying off the nose of the board and into my face, then the board just slamming down again like an oil tanker in 50 foot seas, every two seconds. I call it “chop paddling” and I hate it! Chop paddling wrenches my back with so much motion going on, up and down and to the side and paddling to avoid the larger pieces of chop, lifting up my chest off the board to let water go underneath me instead of taking a splash in the face…ugh. It wasn’t this “breakout session” but it was a session that got me back into where I thought I should be.
- cliff
