Surfing Ruined My Life

April 2016 Surf Sessions

4-30-16 No Surfing: 3-5+ ft
The wind was pretty shitty down south and surf rather small up north.  I had pulled an all nighter partying and found myself less then motivated.  I had some obligations helping a friend move in the afternoon taking up the rest of my day.  All in all I doubt I miss anything wonderful.

4-29-16 AM Session: 3-4+ ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 18
Well there are good days and bad days and  there are just days are one big pain in the ass.  Today qualifies as the latter all impart to my friend and eternal black sheep of luck Kooky Kyle.  Being it was Kyle’s last day with me I really wanted to find some fun waves for my boy.  There was none and Kooky, Ryan and I settled for a hate session at Ventura Harbor which was as bad as it gets. The surf was blown out, the waves were closed out, there was a bad rip and the backwash was absolute bull shit.  It was so bad I couldn’t even do my usual twenty and done .  When we got back to the car the key was not where I usually hide it even though I know I had asked Kooky to put it there before we paddled out.  As it turned out someone either found the key or it had fallen out where I put it because it was not hidden correctly.  Either way we got robbed and took all of our money, phones and our jeans.  They even took the spare pair of jeans I keep in my surf box for emergencies.  They also kept the key so now I have to worry about being robbed again.  I had to call AAA to come get my car open.  Luckily I had two pairs of baggies in my trunk so that we didn’t have to walk around in our suits.  It reminded me of Travolta and Samuel’s characters in Pulp Fiction.  Then AAA had to tow me to the dealer to get a new key made, which my boy Ryan was nice enough to loan me the money to pay for considering that I didn’t have any means of currency.  Finally I am going to have to get my entire car re-keyed for over $1000 because I don’t trust whom ever still may have my key.  What a bull shit day. Fuck surfing it sucks.  Three will not be any session photos for the next week or so till I get my new phone in the mail.

4-28-16 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
Kooky and I car surfed the bulk of the day and found absolutely nothing.  New Jetty may have been the best of the worst, but it was still very bad.

4-27-16 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 2.5
Waves Surfed: 39
Kooky and I set out once again to hopefully find him some better waves then the day before.  Ryan had said the Strand was fun, though by the time we got there it was a bit too high, the wind was on it, it was small and very peaky.  Over it we headed to Emma Wood on a wing and a prayer.  Sure enough there were some fun bowls coming through with a light crowd.  The sand was still not great but we made the most of it.  I had a few fun ones and so did Kooky.

4-26-16 AM Session: 2-3 ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves surfed: 21
It was blog all star Kooky Kyle’s first day in town since coming back to American after being over in Tanzania with the Peace Corps for the past two years.  You may remember some of his writings here in the category “Kooky’s Korner”.  If not feel free to pursue them at your leisure.  There was some minor NW wind swell in the water that was unfortunately once again coupled with south winds.  We saw a few do-able chest high runners in the Cove and with only a few people out and decided to paddle hoping it would get better.  As it turns out it was about as bad as the cove can be and still be surf-able.  I did manage one or two sick ones none the less.

4-25-16 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
A friend of mine invited me to her family’s ranch in the Santa Rita Hills.  I have never been on a private ranch here in California and considering that the wind had sucked and waves were small any way I jumped at the chance.  I must say it was a rather fun day.

4-24-16 PM Session: 3-5+ ft, Little Rincon
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 15
Wind decided to stay rather strong out of the south this morning once again jumbling up what would have been a rather good NW swell at the points.  I decided to sleep in till noon a most welcomed luxury.  After which I had a leisurely breakfast before cruising south to have a look at the points hoping for the best.  Rincon had a solid crowd and was rather soft looking though bigger then the previous day.  I decided to give Little Rincon a look and sure enough it was solid with only three guys on it.  The wind had put a bit of cross chop on the face, but if you waited for the second or third wave of the set they were steep enough to clean up the rivets.  Turns out the current was terrible and thanks to the windswell ground swell combo the sets were rather consistent making it quite a bit of work out there. I found a few gems, though overall it was pretty savage out there and way bigger then I had initially thought.  It was definitely a lot of work out there.

4-23-16 PM Session: 2-4+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 2.5 hrs
Waves Surfed:  28
With some new NW groundswell and a healthy dose of local windswell I was banking on getting some fun waves at Rincon this afternoon.  The wind decided to come up out of the south again instead of the usual NW.  This season has been a bitch.  It wasn’t very hard and only causing a bit of bump and crumble.  In the Cove there were still some real cherry ones especially if you knew what to pick.  The crowd as nonexistent so I paddled.  Right off the bat I got a couple of fun ones.  I guess they were good enough to stoke up anther ten to fifteen guys to paddle out.  There were plenty of waves for everybody.  For some reason in the middle of my surf I got out of rhythm and kept picking the wrong ones.  Then as the tide began to fill back in some really sick double ups began coming through and I had no problem capitalizing on it.

4-22-16 AM Session: 2-3 ft, Gold Coast
Time in Water: 1 hr 45 mins
Waves Surfed: 27
The CStreet cam was showing some swell and favorable winds.  I cruised early hoping for the best at the Harbor.  Unfortunately the wind came up just as I was getting to Emma Wood, which was flat.  I was going to bag it when I noticed a few scattered peaks on the Gold Coast.  It was far from anything inspiring, but I did make the drive and if I drive I surf. As bad as it was I still managed to find a few fun ones.

4-21-16 AM Session: 3-5+ ft, Leo Carrillo
Time in Water: 3 hrs
Waves Surfed: 38
Initially I wanted to go up to Jalama to have a look at how the sand bars are doing.  After checking the cam and conditions I didn’t trust the wind to hold up.  I did my usual pilgrimage to Ventura Harbor, which although had some pick and choose corners was all jumbled with channel chop and all signs pointed to the threat of wind.  My boy Angers called me up and wanted to surf and since he lives in Oxnard I swooped him up and we did the trek south once again.  With the wind on it Leo Carrillo was the only real option.  There was a healthy crowd on it, but the tide window was long and we had all the time in the world thus we paddled with an open mind and patience.  We started in the Bone Yard just to fuck around on a few close outs over dry reef to test our metal before making our way around the rock to the line up.  From there it was a full on rip fest where we basically dominated.  On my last wave which I got the entire length of the reef I thought about paddling back out, but my arms were shot.  Then I thought about walking back up, except that my legs were shot.  What another fun surf.
 

4-20-16 AM Session: 3-5+ ft, Zeros, L.A.
Time in Water: 2.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 31
Once again Ventura Harbor failed to deliver anything inspiring and neither did any of the other south swell waves I frequent in the area.  The buoys showed enough swell for some of the south Ventura/North L.A. county spots to be fun.  Sure enough as soon as I got around Point Mugu conditions were a lot cleaner and there was plenty of south swell in the water.  Pumped I had a look at Leo Carrillo, which looked rather fun though a bit crowded and mushy.  I looked south towards Zeros and saw a few breaking outside despite the tide. Being it wasn’t very far from Leo I had a look.  Sure enough there were some really fun lefts coming in with a rather light crowd by L.A. standards.  I paddled and had a fucking ball. I was in sync with everything I did and managed to get a bunch of great waves.  I think It was one of the most fun surfs I have ever had a Zeros.  I surfed till the wind came up and then bailed.  Good times.

4-19-16 PM Session: 3-5+ ft, Oxnard Shores
Time in Water: 3 hrs
Waves Surfed: 31
I actually started out bright and early expecting to find some really fun bowls at the River Mouth.  It was all walled out there with minimal pick and choose corners and way more work then I wanted to do for maybe one good ride.  I thought I saw a few good ones at the gate to Emma Wood, but that was a flash in the pan.  Ryan said he was paddling C Street so I had a look there.  It was pretty solid in size but rather crowded and on the mushy side.  I was thinking about going to Malibu, but I decided to give one fast look at the Shores before making that trek.  There were some decent south peaks rolling in and the wind was light.  The tide was way too high.  I waited it out about an hour and a half and things were just what I wanted.  There some enticing barreling lefts with no one on it.  Stoked I paddled and though very inconsistent with a little bit of patiences I managed to get a few draining tubes.  Found a few beatings as well.  It was another clean afternoon.  No complaints there.

4-18-16 PM Session: 4-6+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 14
I had an important meeting in Montecito with a couple business coaches in the morning relegating my surf to the afternoon. Luckily for me the wind decided to stay down allowing me to have half a chance at getting some decent surf in the afternoon.  I cruised to Silver Strand on Ryan’s recommendation and being that every place else was flat it was the best option anyhow. The Ship was flat and so was the bowl.  The North end had a few solid sets coming through with an average crowd. I started out on the left in front of Tower 2.  With the rising tide and inconsistency of the waves that proved to be a fruitless effort.  I worked my way inside to Tower 1 where I managed to find a palatable left and and right.  It didn’t take long for the crowd to take notice and clog my little piece of mind. Then the after work crowd followed suit thus I was over it.  I am not a big fan of the North End anyway.  After that I decided to take a drive up the 33 to the hills above Ojai.  I had heard the wild flowers have been rather beautiful up there and I was not disappointed.  New 805 experience number 2 out of the way.

4-17-16 AM Session: 3-4+ ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1 hr 45 mins
Waves Surfed: 20
Once again we were dealing with the same NW, SW combo swell.  The difference was that the wind was off shore.  Stoked Gabe and I headed south with thoughts of sick barrels in our minds.  As it turned out the only place that was really getting the wind good was Ventura Harbor.  Unfortunately the shape was pretty bad.  New Jetty was deemed best of the worst and Gabe, Ryan and I paddled.  Right off the bat I snagged a nice set wave that I managed a few decent turns on.  After that the wind decided to switch SW and the sets began to close out a bit.  There were a few good lefts still coming through you just had to be choosy.  The current and rip were both shitty.  I got my twenty and called a day.

4-16-16 PM Session: 3-5+ ft, The Wedge at South Jetty
Time in Water: 1 hr 45 mins
Waves Surfed: 26
Gabe and I headed out at around ten this morning on mission to find something to surf.  I would like to make a quick note about our night last night downtown.  Bizarro, Gabe and I began the evening at a private champagne event at the Bob Cat Room.  From there we rolled over to Indocine where our buddy Cody made it rain $1000 in singles into the crowd at the club to prove that he wasn’t stingy.  After that we ended the night at the Wild Cat dancing up a storm.  It was a super fun evening to say the least.  We started at Rincon where we almost paddled though passed cause it was a tad small, weak and inconsistent.  From there we pretty much car surfed every thing down to Ventura.  We decided to allow for more tide to fill in and in the mean time went gallivanting around VTA for a few hours.  Finally we decided to surf the Wedge deeming it the best of the worst.  though torn up by the wind there were a few fun ones on offer.  Unfortunately I tweaked my back on an air reverse gone wrong.  Im getting to old for that kind of shit.  Gabe almost stuck a solid fs air.  I brought down a macker of a bs air injury aside.

4-15-16 PM Session: 2-4+ ft, Mesa Lane
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 16
Gabe came in to town early evening and I figured he wanted to get wet.  Since there was plenty of wind swell and a high tide I knew we could find something to ride in town.   Mesa Lane is the closest most consistent wave to my home so we started there.  Surf enough there were plenty of little wind swell bowls coming in.  It was a little bit on the choppy side with the wind but looked kill-able enough.   Turns out the line up was a bit more shifty then we wanted it to be.  Still I managed a few money lefts, found a little tube and one sick backside hack I was stoked on.  I have been surfing like a grom lately.

4-15-16 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 3.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 37
The wind was offshore at Rincon, which believe it or not is rather rare.  Unfortunately the swell was a bit down from the previous few days.  I did a bit of car surfing before deciding that ‘Con was still the best option.  Ryan and my boy James met me and we paddled River Mouth.  Actually on my first wave I got a sick 50 yard barrel I was so deep in I couldn’t even see out of. Pumped on that one I carried my momentum all the way through the rest of the session.  As frustrating as my surf was yesterday that is how much fun this one was.  I surfed the entire point from Indicator to Cove twice.  This time of year you can’t squander any days at Rincon proper cause you never know what NW swell will be the last.

4-14-16 AM Session: 3-5+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 3 hrs 20 mins
Waves surfed: 28
Once again the NW was still holding solid this morning unfortunately there was a south bump on it making it less then stellar and rather disorganized still there were some real keepers out there.  Killian was killing it as always.  Actually the regular foots were dominating in general as there was an extreme goofy disadvantage with all the chop on the waves.  The first half of the surf I was getting tons of great waves.  Then the second half I continuously kept picking all the wrong ones.  They either closed out or died out or some very considerate person decided to burn me.   I got burned six times all on good ones.  Then I missed like five airs in a row and blew a few sections.  Finally taking my own advice to Gabe a Strand once I stopped beating and dead horse and got the fuck out of there.  It wasn’t before I accidentally hit some guy who I tried to burn cause he back paddled me on a sick double up.  I hit the dude so hard across the shins I thought he might have broken them or cut at the very least.  As it turned out dud was fine, just a little bit shaken up.  Once I found out he was fine I yelled at him for back paddling. Still I had quite the time.

4-13-16 AM Session: 3-4+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 3 hrs
Waves Surfed: 31
Holy shit Rincon was solid today.  I expected it to be fun, but I didn’t expect to see the Cove going off when I walked down the trail. Sure enough it was firing.  I ran back to my car suited up and jumped in.  My first three were screamers all the way to the freeway.  Then the crowd got on it forcing me up top.  It was still super fun up there as well and I ended up getting more then my share in the River Mouth.  Then I made my way back to the Cove where it was still super fun.  I was so tired when I got out I could barely walk up the trail.  Good times.  Later that evening we hosted a three course meal at the Lisanti Palace where we did meatball stuffed mushrooms, pasta alla rossatto and cannolis for dessert.  What a day.

4-12-16 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1 hr 15 mins
Waves Surfed: 15
I hadn’t surfed in a few days and considering how marginal this spring has been I must say I was just about jonsin’.  Surfline had predicted a steady rise in swell through out the day, though early on nothing had shown despite the fact that Morro Bay was already getting solid north west action and the buoys were increasing exponentially through out the day. Bizarro and I decided to cruise down the Ventura and take care of some business related to the restaurant.  After which we headed back up the coast.  Things were still really small and the wind was on it. Figuring there was no chance I decided to just have glance at Rincon, maybe go for a little walk.  Sure enough there were some solid little NW lines pulling through the Cove.  Normally I would have passed on it, but like I said I really needed a surf.  I started up top rather then deal with all the long boarders in the Cove despite how good it looked there.  It was a bit closed out, though boost-able.  Finally I worked my way down to Cove where I managed a few really good long ones.  My last wave I ended up sharing with a pack of four dolphins whom I raced all the way to the freeway. That was the first time I have ever rode a wave that long with dolphins the entire way, was cool but a bit intimidating.

4-11-16 No Surfing: 1-3 ft
Tiny surf was about all that was happening in the area.  It was fine I ended up grabbing a leisurely breakfast with a friend.  Later we cruised up to Lizards mouth above San Rogue where the views were breath taking. I decided that I am going to do one new thing a week to keep my life from getting stagnant and allow myself to be a bit more enriched.  I almost died of hypothermia as the night set in.  Turns out it gets cold as fuck up there in the hills at night.  I would say it was a rather splendid day even if there was no surf.

4-10-16 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
I had to do a post wedding brunch and then take care of all of the clean up for the weekend’s festivities as a result I was left with no surf time.  I heard Ventura Harbor was decent.

4-9-16 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
Threw a little after party last night that steadily escalated to borderline out of hand.   I drunkenly stuffed myself with too much gnocchi thus ended up paying my dues to the porcelain gods as well.  Got to pay to play sometimes or just about every time.  I woke up and checked the surf.  The tide was a bit drained and the wind wonky.  I had a wedding to cook for at 3 thus I decided to bag it for the day.

4-8-16 No Surfing: 1-3 ft
I woke up downtown at a friends house.  It was raining and the surf absolute shit.  I decided to bag it and sleep in.  Looks like there should be a little more surf over the weekend.  Fuck this shit spring season.

4-7-16 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
I wanted to get up early and grab a surf before some catering obligations I had.  Unfortunately the dirty water I surfed in at Ventura Harbor had other ideas.  I woke up with the worst sinus infection. My eyes were all teared up and itchy.  My nose was full of shit and my head throbbing.  Fuck you dirty water.  I decided to pass on the surf.

4-6-16 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Surfers Knoll
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 30
Initially I had planned to go up to Jalama to see how the sand and kelp were doing up there.  Then Ryan called and said Ventura Harbor looked fun and less dirty then usual.  Rather then spend the entire day up north since there were other things I had to take care of I decided to just go for the easy session.  Sure enough there were a few really fun sandbars thanks to the harbor dredge project.  Of course it is a real double edged sword considering the garbage they are pulling up makes the water so dirty its sickening.  The pump was off when I checked it and the water was just a murky green instead of black like it usually is when they are pumping.  I paddled and nabbed a bunch of fun lefts and wedgy rights.  I would have surfed longer but they had turned the pump back on and the water once again turned black.  Fuck our society and its mess.

4-5-16 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 24
I woke up around 8:30 and was all ready to go for a surf down south.  Ryan called me and said the Harbor was all messed up and Emma Wood small.  He thought it wasn’t worth my gas.  The budget being super tight these days I took his advice. Instead I began mobilizing for a long day of errands considering that I wanted to go up north tomorrow and the rest of the week I have catering stuff.  As I was getting ready to leave I get another call from Ryan claiming there was some little bowls at The Ship down at Strand and that he was paddling. I wanted to surf since I missed basically all of the first south of the season.  I had not surfed with Ryan in quite a while.  Taking all this into consideration I changed my plans and headed south.  Strand was a bit smaller then I would have liked and had known it was going to be that size I definitely would have saved my gas.  Ryan was all by himself and there was the occasional glassy fun looking chest high set.  I made the drive so I was going to paddle somewhere, may as well be with my bud.  Although small and gutless I ripped the shit out of whatever came my way.  Even stuck a huge alley-oop.  It was nothing to write home about, but I am glad I paddle, plus it was a beautiful day at the beach.  I still got all my errands ran when I got back to Santa Barbara too!  Then while I was at the dry cleaners I got a money idea for a dish: prosciutto and anchovy ricotta stuffed manicotti in a tomato sardine ragu.  I cooked that shit up for dinner and YUM!   If that is not a productive day I don’t know what is.

4-4-16 No Surfing: 3-5+ ft
I didn’t get to bed till 5:30 after an impromptu after party ran late or early depending on how ones wants to look at it.  Ryan had said the surf was all jumbled and nothing special. I had some other things to do in the afternoon.  I wasn’t too frothy on it anyway.

4-3-16 No Surfing: 3-5+ft
I slept in a little later then I wanted to this morning thanks to the drunken insanity of the previous night.  Then I had a brunch thing at 2 pm and had to help a friend move (yeah now that I move on a regular basis everyone wants my services) after that.  What I thought was going to be an easy two hours took more like four due to lack of organization or planning.  I got two free meals out of it and all I was really missing was average at best Mesa Lane anyway.

4-2-16 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Mesa Lane
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 22
I dropped my dad off at the airport at 5pm and I had noticed on the way that it appeared that there were some waves in town.  The south swell must have went very wsw cause sure enough the lane had a waist to chest high kill-able wave coming in.  I jumped in for the last hour of light and enjoyed a rip fest like no other.  I always go nuts when I have not surfed in a few days.  This was all despite my body being super sore from all the gnarly moving gigs.

4-1-16 No Surfing: 3-5+ ft
More south swell was running, but I still had my dad in town and I felt a bit guilty cause I took a last minute moving gig the day before that was suppose to be an easy 2-3 hours but ended up being a 5 hour nightmare.  No to mention I got black out drunk the night before and didn’t get to sleep till 5am.  Good times.