Knowing your idiosyncrasies is important to having a good time in the water… at least for me it does.

Yesterday I surfed for about two and a half hours. A pretty long go out for me in the winter. Usually an hour and a half is enough of the cold, but yesterday wasn’t to cold so I hung for awhile longer. Reason being, it was way to crowded for the consistency, 3 or 4 slightly overhead set waves every five or eight minutes is not enough waves to fill the needs of 25 guys in a very uniform lineup. I kept hoping the crowd would thin out so I could get a little more action than I was getting…. It just didn’t happen.

One idiosyncrasy, I didn’t paddle out where I had a view of the line up. When I go out at the point or pipe when there is surf of decent size and I don’t get a view of the line up as I’m paddling out for some reason my timing gets off. Funny, even though I’ve surf these places thousands of hours I still get disoriented sometimes if I don’t get a look at the line up a certain way.

At the point if I don’t paddle out going up into the line up I just don’t get a good enough feel of the oceans rhythm to be set up for a good surf session. Yesterday I paddled out at the top of the point. Aside from getting picked off just as I reached the impact zone, another bad omen, I still never got a good look at the line up.

I didn’t catch a wave for at least 10 or 15 minutes either, which is another idiosyncrasy. I’ve got to get on my feet within the first few minutes in the water or my rhythm gets off. As well, the tide was dropping, I do better on a static tide or in coming tide.

So after two and a half hours I got a few OK slides and finally caught a wave that took me far enough down the point to call it quits. I don’t know… maybe the surf wasn’t as good as it looked.

Oh well, I sure have been enjoying the 7’0 stubbie quad I’ve been riding though!

D.R.

D.R. photo by David Puu.

My story post 32

As a teenager I read stories in the surf magazines about guys in Hawaii surfing big waves and being out when the horizon would disappear. I always wondered what the heck that meant…. It sounded ominous.

In winter 1967 I went up to Santa Maria with my sister and brother in-law Jerry to visit my Dad. My bother in-law surfed and we both thought that we would take our boards on the trip. Santa Maria is not that far away from Pismo Beach and some other spots. With our boards we could go look for surf on our weekend visit.

So Saturday morning we set out from my Dad’s house to surf and ended up at Morro Bay. I’d never been there but we found our way out to a spot at the giant rock that sits at the head of the bay. And what we saw when we drove up was some pretty good looking surf… a nice peak that broke into what looked like deep water along the rock where there was a deep water paddle out zone.

Though from our vantage point which was some distance from the surf zone and above the beach the surf looked good, and there was nobody out. So we got on our wetsuits, grabbed our boards and worked our way down the rocks to the waters edge.

When we jumped into the water we where surprised to find that we didn’t have to paddle because the water along the rock had a big rip current that took you right out to the line up. We really didn’t know where the line up was but when we got out to where it looked like the surf was consistently breaking we paddled out of the rip and over to the surf.

One thing for sure was the surf was much larger in the water than it looked like from the car. As well the current along the rock very strong and the size of the rock was spooky…. Then a set came.

So there we were, in the water all by ourselves and no one on the beach at a place we’d never been and looking at an on coming set that was much larger than we’d thought we’d seen from the beach… As the first waves came at us Jerry took off. I watched to see how Jerry had done with the wave but couldn’t tell because the surf was to big to see a rider from the back, he was gone and I was by myself.

I turned around only to see another set coming at me, but further out than where we were lined up for the previous one. I started paddling out as fast as I could and as I rose up the wave face of the first wave reached its top and looked over it to see what was next all I could see was feathering waves all the way to the horizon. I couldn’t see the end of that set and I couldn’t see the horizon. The wave right in front of me was feathering and so were the waves behind it.

I paddled as hard as I could to make it over the next wave. I thought if I’d get picked off by one these giant waves there was no way I’d be able to stay with my board and without my board I’d be done for sure. As I stroked up the wave face it capped just to my left and I thought I’d made it over. But the blast off the breaking wave caught me and bounced me completely around and somehow I was sliding down the wave face. Now prone and sliding down the wave I thought the best thing was to stay that way because if I stood up and then fell I’d be with out my board and in more trouble. As I slid down the wave scooting back a bit so I wouldn’t pearl at the bottom. I held on for dear life as I reached the bottom and prepared for the white water blast.

When it was over and I was on the beach I knew what it meant to see the horizon disappear.

D.R.

Surf breaking outside the Ventura pier

Care and feeding of your surfboard.

Over the last few times I’ve been down at the beach I’ve noticed a few guys do stuff with their boards that just rubs me the wrong way.

There are plenty of recommended care procedures for EPS / Epoxy boards like ‘don’t leave them in the sun or hot car etc. but in reality about every recommended practice for the EPS and Molded boards is what we all should have been doing with our traditional Polyurethane / Polyester boards.

No matter what kind of board you have it’s best to follow certain do and don’t practices that will help keep your board in good health and give you added use.

If you travel to and from the beach with your board in racks on top of your car always have the board in a good bag or board sock. Without the bag your board will be exposed to the sun for whatever length of time you have it on your car. Even on over cast days the UV exposure is not good for a surfboard.

When you get to the beach never put your board on the pavement…. Unless it’s still in a bag. If you absolutely have to put a board on the pavement turn it bottom up so contact with the ground is only on the nose and tail.

Absolutely never wax your board with it laying on pavement… I saw a guy doing that a week or so ago and from across the street I could hear the sound of crackling fiberglass from the small rocks the board had been set on. Geez… made my skin crawl.

If you hang at the beach for several hours don’t leave your board in the sun between go outs. If there’s no shade and you’re close to your car put the board in it’s bag and set it under your car. If you can’t do that put a towel over it on the beach while between go outs.

Strip the wax off your board every couple months. Give it a complete cleaning and when it’s all clean give it a good look for any small cracks or shatters that may need fixing. Check the fin boxes and plugs to make sure there are no cracks around them. It’s real common to see cracks at the front of the long box on a long board, or 2 plus one set up. Always keep your board water tight.

If you take care of your boards they will give you much more lasting enjoyment.

D.R.

Early 90's surf trip