It has occurred to me that I missed the January version of my monthly surf recap. That is a little sad considering it has proved to be the best month in surfing of the winter season, which is about to close shortly. February was a crazy and rather frustrating month to be a surfer in Santa Barbara. It seemed that for every great day there was a flat day and for ever good run of swell it was followed by a flat spell. Plagued by bad weather, diligence was key. There were plenty of days where a great session went down but only for a short period of time at a certain location.
I found myself surfing a wide variety of spots and even a few rather unlikely places. We had a head high SW wind swell that is unheard of anytime of year. Overall though compared to last February this one was a bit unfortunate to say the least. If you notice, in this surf summary there are a few more stats and that is because I have diligently been keeping track of the number of waves and amount of time of each session. Im not going to get into that here. Look for a blog all about my new wave to time in water stats soon.
Number Sessions Surfed: 21
Days Surfed: 21
Actual Time Spent in the Water: 32.5 hrs
Number of Waves Surfed: 556
Average Waves Surfed per Hour: 17 waves
Spots Surfed:
Rincon: 7
New Jetty: 5
Emma Wood: 2
Santa Claus Lane: 1
Stanley’s: 1
Solimar: 1
Bates Beach: 1
Oxnard Shores: 1
Mesa Lane: 1
Santa Clarita River Mouth: 1
Top 3 Sessions:
3: 2/18/11 PM Session – 3-5ft, Bates Beach
Waves Surfed: 30
Time in Water: 2hrs
South East wind swell in Santa Barbara? And Rincon of all places!!! JD and I sat around all day waiting in vain for the wind to change. Finally by 2:30pm we set off on a wing and a prayer to check every semi north facing spot I could think of. After three less then stellar surf checks in the pouring rain we ended up at Bates Beach (the top beach at Rincon). Turns out there were solid chest to head high lefts peeling down the beach and barreling. I was all over it. JD however was not enticed opting to stay and nap in the car. I however went out there and snagged a hand full a great barrels sandwiched between some pretty shitty beatings. It was a classic New Jersey side shore day although it also reminded me of North East wind swell Frisco.
2: 2/19/11 AM Session – 2-4ft, Solimar?
Waves Surfed: 19
Time in Water: 1hr
This morning was another surf I had not planned on. I thought I would have been too hung over to even get out of bed in time for work at 11, but thanks to things not going as planned I ended up making it an earlier night then expected. As a result I was up early and since the sun was out and there still a bit of that SW wind swell on the buoys I figured I would just head to Emma Wood. JD was awake for some reason even though he got home way later then I did and we gave it a go. On the way down there were some fun looking waves at both Santa Claus and La Conchita. Part of me just wanted to stop and surf either one of those, but I really had faith in Emma. Turns out Emma was terrible, too bowly with the mix of NW and SW swells. We were cruising back to see about the top of Pitas when I noticed that the north side of Solimar right before the houses start if your coming from Santa Barbara, looked punchy as hell. We pulled over and saw a few dumpy, heaving shore breaky nugs with one guy on it. Out of time we decided to give it a go. To be wholly honest I did not think much of the wave while putting on my suit but as soon as we hit the beach we saw this wave wedge up, A-frame and then heave over spitting both left and right. After that we were full on frothing. I ended up getting a bunch of sick left hand barrels and hit a super clean backside indy grab air. It reminded me of the grinds in Buxton, NC on the outer banks. JD had a ball also. It was so good I ended up being ten minutes late to work, but a lot of me thought of not showing up at all. Sometimes you can find waves in the most unlikely of places I mean technically that is not even really a surf spot. Soooo Stoked!!!
1: 2/17/11 PM Session – 4-7ft, Rincon
Waves Surfed: 23
Time In Water: 3.5 hrs
See blog Big Name Pros, Stupid Car Surfing and Aggressive Line Up Tactics
This picture of a kid sliding into a cheese grater pretty much sums up how February worked out for surfing.
Surfing Ruined My Life 
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