Under Cover

Had a layer of fog this morning preventing swell assessment from the Basilone offramp.   A good thing since the small south swell showed up early.   The waves were head high plus on the sets and only a handfull of guys out the first hour and a half.  A few soft shoulders due to the tide but really nothing to complain about, I caught a dozen waves before 7:30, my last wave in was the best - 25 yards past the shack.  Didn't have time to wait for a real set to take good pics, this is all you get.

Winding Down

Strong off shore breeze this morning with belly to chest high waves.  Nonetheless, it seemed to have just little too much water under it making for some soft shoulders.   Worth the effort but not nearly as fun as the last two days.

The Boarder Patrol was out in force today.

Wrong Again

All the forecasts were predicting south wind for the morning.  But it didn't happen until after 8:00.  From dawn to 8:00 it was smooth as glass.  Air was in the 50's and water felt like 60.  I recently promised my wife I wouldn't paddle out alone anymore.  I had to wait until 6:15 this morning before Brady showed up.  We definitely saw head high plus sets just like yesterday while on the beach, but it must have been the tail end because once we were out there it seemed to drop in size.   All in all a good morning, not too many takers and plenty of belly to shoulder high waves.  Some soft shoulders but some that reeled into the bay too.

At Last

Wave count = 10
Donkey count = 0
Obviously a good day for JD. After a week out of the water anything was possible. Plenty of overhead waves for everyone. As the tide dropped so did the size and consistency.  The pictures don't do it justice.

It does look like I missed a good week of surf last week.  I'm told Wed and Thus were epic.  You can't always get what you want but.............you know the song.

That spec in the bay is Pat O'Connell landing an air.

Work Work Work

I guess if I had to get slammed at work, it couldn’t have come at a better time since the weather turned all stormy and shit.  I went back into my archives and took a look at pictures from a year ago this week (see below).  Tomorrow looks like a possible surfday before the next rain, I'll be in the office workin like a fool.   Hopefully, things clear up by the weekend.

 

Undulation Friday

It was actually kind of fun for the first hour or so after dawn; that is until our friend moved in again.  Playful belly to chest high windswelly waves were had early on with a stiff off-shore breeze making for a damn cold morning, my hands were really aching after I got out of the water.  Should have brought the gloves, but I packed them away for the season last night; smart.  At the first sign of undulatory action and I was out of there, I’ve had enough of that this week.

The burm is disappearing little by little

The Good Old Days

Imagine living here back then, only with a nice quiver of modern boards.   I just need to borrow that time machine from Napolean Dynamite's Uncle Ricco. 

Main Beach, Laguna 1930's

Dana Point - 1940's

Scotsmans Cove 1950's

Tricky Dick

The Consequential Effects of the Backward Movement of Water

No more whining about the tide, it’s part of the deal.   The surf definitely popped up a little today and a few set waves actually pushed through the tide.  Stayed out way too long a little further up the point from everyone else waiting for that last FAT one.  A head high wave came out of nowhere at the peak of high tide and peeled all the way to the beach about 25 yards past the shack.  Just what I needed to go in on after a couple of backwash related donkeys.   Patience is a virtue.

More Erosion - This burm is going fast

High Tide Blues

Way too much tide for the amount of swell this morning.   The sunrise was cool, conditions perfect, but backwashy belly to chest high waves just isn’t cutting it.  I’m sure when the tide drops it’ll be pretty good, it seemed like there was a little more oomph today than yesterday on the set waves.   Caught a couple of OK waves inbetween all the junk and called it quits early.

Richard

The sand is slowly being eroded

Back in Time

Found some more old pictures of South OC while crusin' the internets.

Dana Point 1960

Strands 1956

Dana Point 1930's

Laguna 1939

Trestles 1960 - Nice Swell Too

Doin' The Swamp Thing

Too much tide this morning.   Nice off shore breeze with soft belly to chest high waves.  Almost turned around but you know how it is; had to get wet.   It did get a little better as the tide dropped, which is what I was hoping for, but because of that stupid daylight savings time I was robbed of an hour of surf time.   If I was the benevolent dictator I would immediately abolish daylight savings time.   Wait a minute, if I was dictator, you would all have to find somewhere else to surf…… J

A Real Photographer

I don't consider what I do as real photography.   Point and shoot documentation of the surf at uppers; pretty basic.  I came across this blog of a street photographer from my parents generation:  http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

Vivian Maier was a street photographer from the 1950s - 1990s. Vivian's work was discovered at an auction in Chicago where she resided most of her life. Her discovered work includes over 100,000 mostly medium format negatives, thousands of prints, and countless undeveloped rolls of film.

Something to aspire to.