Hot August nights and the summertime blues ... no decent swell in SOCAL since July however things usually pick up by September. "Well thank you all very much" ... here are a couple of recent exceptions.
Can you nose ride a Fish .... Yes!
Was out surfing the dawn patrol on the sandbar at the San Gabriel river mouth by Seal Beach (Ray Bay) the past week riding my MR design 7'2" "Super Fish". Knee to waist with occasional chest or better set waves ... glassy summer conditions, 70F air ... 70F water.
Of course its stingray breeding season so tread lightly!
Anyway was doing the short board snap snap pivots coming easy off the bottom and setting up a big smack off the top when a knee high long glass wall popped up across the inside bar ... why not go high, step up and cheater five like my 9' 0" ... yeah it worked!
Once I discovered it would work ... fun fun fun .... of course you can't stay up there as long.
Best wave of the week ... was sitting outside with a couple of buddies by Cuda's (North Wall) when the wave of the day (clean head high peak) rolled through ... party wave .... everyone paddled ... I yelled going left ... Tony who was on the other side went right leaving my buddy River Bob the meat in the sandwich.
Bob took off right ... saw Tony and changed his mind ... my Fish has a tendency to hang high and needs a steeper face to drop in so Bob was already at the bottom of the trough when I dropped down at max speed .... saw him out of the corner of mr eye and launched out and up like a rocket coming up in the perfect spot right under the lip ... a couple of pumps and a big arc cutback as the wave hit deeper water .... Bob was left to get swallowed by white water ...
"Nice bottom turn" he said "was following your track but did'nt make the section".
Sorry Charlie ....
4th of July:
Independence Day is upon us tomorrow with the largest fireworks display south of the Mississippi (have your kids spell that one) down at "Surf City" Huntington Beach, Steel Pier. PCH closed from 7PM to 11PM and traffic will be a bloody nightmare!
Temp this morning at 9AM was a sizzling 90F water temp 70F with big combo mix of SE Hurricane/SW Southern Hemi ground swell and NW wind swells. My ex pat Sydney mate Stuart Blake (Bruce) and I were out at northside Seal Pier by 6:30AM DST to beat the crowd ... bigger than yesterday with overhead sets but not as good shape ... a little walled out.
The 4th of July: Independence Day is upon us tomorrow with the largest fireworks display south of the Mississippi (have your kids spell that one) down at "Surf City" Huntington Beach, Steel Pier. PCH closed from 7PM to 11PM and traffic will be a bloody nightmare!
Temp this morning at 9AM was a sizzling 90F water temp 70F with big combo mix of SE Hurricane/SW Southern Hemi ground swell and NW wind swells. My ex pat Sydney mate Stuart Blake (Bruce) and I were out at northside Seal Pier by 6:30AM DST to beat the crowd ... bigger than yesterday with overhead sets but not as good shape ... a little walled out.
The swells all merge into big peaks that refract off the pier breakwall into what we call "Harvey Wall Bangers". The wave suddenly jumps up to one and a half times its size like The Wedge" at Newport ... you free fall down the face and if you make the drop your in a cannon barrel churning over the shallow inside sand bar!
Yesterday picked off a beauty ... paddled outside as a big set popped up off the end of the pier ... let the first couple go to clear out traffic and the shortboarders hanging out inside ... spun around and stroked in hard as a shoulder high peak jumped to head high ... dropped in at an angle, top turned laying the board on its sidebites, thrusting out and up with the peak feathering over my head and pumped up and down from the middle of the face racing the barrel as we hit the inside sandbar ... yeah! A shortboarder inside was most impressed ... "cool that was a standup tube dude"!
This morning the word was out the swell was building so did the crowd but got lucky and was in position to pick up a giant outside peak that rolled through the middle section ... thought twice but had to paddle in to it, late take off or not... everyone inside was yelling go! go! go! ... take off was like jumping off a roof ... barely made the drop without getting buried under a ton of white water, carefully carved up and down the face until it reared into a nasty wall and discretion being the better part of valour straightened down and out hard!
Bruce said "that one was a bit steep thought you were history mate"!
PS Not as big as the pix above but fun, fun, fun ... who says there are no super waves at Seal!
Harvey Wallbanger
1 oz Grey Goose® Vodka
1/2 oz Galliano® Herbal liqueur
4 oz Orange juice
Pour vodka and orange juice into a collins glass over ice cubes and stir. Float Galliano on top and serve with a twist of orange peel.
