Yeah we all knew not to expect much from this coming NW season, but then fall kicked into high gear with plenty of although not epic very consistently fun surf. November opened up strong with a handful of days at Rincon and the first signs of town breaking. The first half of the month I found plenty of surf to entertain myself with. Then in the back half the flat spells from summer we all thought were past came back. It was not just Santa Barbara that was flat, I mean that is a given since SB is the only water front town that might as well be surrounded by land as far as surf goes. The whole fucking state was pretty much flat.
Hopefully December will pick things back up a bit and with the incoming forecast at least it looks like the week should be rather fruitful here. Maybe it will get the ball rolling and we can get a few more fun days this season and I wont have to kill myself. Here are the numbers for the Month of November and the top sessions.
Number of Sessions – 20
Days Surfed – 19
Average Wave Height – 2-3+ft
Surf Spots
Rincon – 8
New Jetty – 3
Emma Wood – 3
C Street – 1
River Mouth – 1
Santa Clause Lane – 1
Oxnard – 1
Little Rincon – 1
Hammonds – 1
Top 3 Sessions:
3: 11/10/10 PM Session – 1-3+ft, Santa Claus Lane
Local wind swell in Santa Barbara is so aberrant it makes finding the right place to surf a little mission. One day Rincon will be head high the next flat. The thing about wind swell is that the angle is always changing making certain spots that never break fun and the standards poor. It all comes down to how hard you want to search. Today I was not in the mood nor did I have the time to go on a proverbial goose chase. I headed straight to Rincon after observing some solid swell at Santa Claus yet when I got to Rincon the wind was South although it was NW and offshore up at Santa Claus. I decided to just drive back there and see what there was to surf or if it was just a freeway mirage. Turns out it was offshore/side shore three heads spread along the three mile long stretch of beach, waist to stomach high with the occasion chest high nug. Overall it was mostly walled with some racy corners. I had one really fun Backside tube and brought down a good backside air reverse and a front side ally oop that I was pleased with.
2: 11/5/10 PM Session – 2-4ft, Rincon
As I was driving back from the previous session below I saw tons of waves peeling down Rincon with a very light crowd, maybe fifty guys along the entire point. Needless to say I pulled off the highway got dressed and powered a second session. The cove although fun looked pretty long boarded out and smaller then the top. I went up to Lower Indicator/high River Mouth and snagged a bunch of great five to six hit waves. I even managed a back door barrel through lower River Mouth. Then after about an hour and a half that south wind caught up with me and so did the crowd. It was all good I was pretty much over it by then anyway.
1: 11/6/10 PM Session – 3-5ft, Rincon
What a day. I could not believe my eyes when driving by Rincon this afternoon that it still had waves and better waves then the day before with better conditions. I started up top at River Mouth looking for the barrel but although I found some pretty ridiculous ones that I managed to connect from River Mouth through middle Cove I did not find that barrel I was hunting. After an hour up top I made my way into the cove which courtesy of the negative tide was pretty much flawless with plenty of consistency and only about forty heads out. Most were visitors giving me the local edge. I only got about a little over an hour and a half but my legs were spent from all the long rides anyway. As I got out of the water towards dusk I contemplated the fact that every wave I caught this session even my throw aways (meaning I only got eight turns on them) could probably have been the best wave of someone’s life, but for me it was just another day at Rincon. Im pretty fortunate to have the life I live.
November was all about getting Skunked!!!!!!!!!
Surfing Ruined My Life 
UCB favorite cartoon from childhood.