Surfing Ruined My Life

August 2019 Surf Sessions

8-31-19 AM Session: 1-3 ft, Father Johns
Time in Water: 1 hr 15 min
Waves Surfed: 18
Miles Driven: 64
I finally had a little bit of time to surf in the morning and took full advantage of it despite the lack of swell in the water.  There was just enough south and NW to allow me to believe i could find something to grovel.  My first stop was Ventura Harbor where the fog had completely taken over so much that I had to walk all the way to the waters edge to see what was on offer.  New Jetty was small and very crowded.  Considering the wind and tide I didn’t bother wasting any more time on the River Mouth.  Instead I headed back towards home to sort something off of Sea Cliffs. Emma was tiny and poor.  I continued on to Johns where there was less fog and glassy little waist high bowls.  Three guys were on it, but there was plenty of space for me.  I called Robbie cause he said that he wanted to surf if I found something and he met me.  It was just shore breaky lefts and rights with both fishermen and stupid swimmers in the way.   With all of that I still was able to nab a few.  Considering I hadn’t been able to surf since Sunday I was just happy to get wet.  The rest of my day was spent working a wedding that ended up being completely disorganized and then full of family drama where at one point the Mother of the groom and Bride got into a fight over bacon being served with their filet mignon.  Nothing like the annoyance of people. By the end of the night thanks to Alcohol and good food everyone seemed to be having a good time.

8-30-19 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
A slight up tick in the south peaked my interest. I was completely exhausted from the grueling work week and decided to rest up in bed before getting back on the grind at noon for yet another ten hour day. Taking money all over the place.

8-29-30 No Surfing: 1-3+ ft
More meager minor south minor north west wind swell kept conditions tiny. It didn’t matter anyway since I had another fourteen hour day at work including a corporate lunch and a tapas party at the Natural History Museum. All went smooth as usual.

8-28-19 No Surfing: 1-2ft
Though a busy day of work I could habe squeezed in a surf. It was about as small as it gets around here. I decided to work and make money instead. On a happy note Angers surfed for the first time since being injured six months ago.

8-27-19 No Surfing: 1-3+ ft
I could have surfed today if there was swell. It was small in town and windy and small down south.

8-26-19 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
I’m sure there were plenty of left overs to be had, but I had a 14 hour day ahead of me with absolutely No time to surf. My day consisted of a corporate lunch for 200 and a corporate executive retreat for 15 in the evening. Everyone was pleased.

8-25-19 AM Session: 4-6+ ft, Point Mugu
Time in Water: 2.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 20
Miles Driven: 100
I had a day off and what better way to use it then to score the best day of surfing I have all summer. Lets back track though. My boss had scored Jalama yesterday and that was my plan till I woke up and saw how much south east swell had filled in I reached out to Dave my Mugu connection and set up getting there. I worked Ryan into the equation as well. We pulled in and it was solid. Way over head, clean and decent shape. There were still plenty of close outs but the ones that were good were epic. I pulled out a brand new Clarks Surfboards Hacksaw SU in a 5’10 that I designed just for the wave and it held the tube just as good as I could ever have hoped for. It was by far the best I have surfed base in years. What a surf. it was necessary since I have a gnarly run of work this week and the surf forecast looks grim.

8-24-19 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Father Johns
Time in Water: 1 hrs
Waves Surfed: 21
Miles Driven: 56
Yet another day where I was
limited to time constraints as a result of work. With plenty of combo still in the water I was sure I could find waves at Strand but time was not in my side. I cruised Sea Cliffs in search of a smash and grab session. It was packed every where and I mean stupid packed, 30 guys at Emma, 100 at Gold Coast, 30 at Solimar, easily fifty at Pitas. No one was at Johns and I saw a few barreling corners. It was glassy and no one was out. Out of time I paddled and made the most of what was in front of me. I wouldn’t say it was anywhere near an epic surf there but I got a few views. The rest of mt day was spent slinging pizzas.

8-23-19 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1 hrs
Waves Surfed: 17
Miles Driven: 56
I had to be at work by 11am leaving me not a bunch of time to surf. The combo swell was exploding With SW, WSW, NW wind swell WNW mid period and a rising tropical SE swell. The channel looked like a flushing toilet. Unfortunately there was a stiff south wind cutting up most spots especially the points which would have been fun otherwise. With my limited time Emma was the best I was going to do. It was a bit crowded and wonky. Most waves either closed out, sectioned or died out. I tried my best but was barely able to find anything worth the effort between the conditions and crowd it was a rather frustrating surf. I heard the Ship was fun and that New Jetty was solid mid day. As for me I had prep and a pizza gig at Firestone vineyards

8-22-19 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 26
Miles Driven: 78
The wind swell had filled in over night and was looking solid.  Considering how steep it was I headed back to Strand.  If it was surf-able yesterday it had to be bigger there today.  Ryan was headed there too.  I pulled up to a solid head high seven wave set unload at the Ship.  There was even an alright looking A-frame in the Bowl.  With that in my sights I didn’t hesitate to run back to my car and tear on my suit.  Right off the bat I grabbed a few close out tubes.  As the tide filled in the waves began to get more shore breaky and dumpy and not good dumpy.   The swell felt like it was dropping too as big sets became more and more scarce.  It seemed that I jumped into the worst scenario, the backslide of the session.  The rest of my surf was a real grind trying to make wave count and find a few ok rides.  I did manage two decent left tubes that I made and a two turn combination right worth something.  After the surf I had to high tail it back up to Santa Barbara to unpack all the food orders for this coming weeks jobs.  The Grind begins tomorrow.

8-21-19 AM Session: 1-3+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 40
Miles Driven: 78
I noticed a slight up tick in the wind swell today and surfline had a weak hope of a building SE tropical thing, which usually means nada.  There were some errands I had to take care of down south anyhow and since I hadn’t surfed since Sunday I figured I would go have a grovel and get my shit done.  Everything was rather small on the way down.  The Harbor had disorganized walled wind swell peaks at Knoll and River Mouth.  New Jetty was small, gutless and had about nine guys on it.  With nothing to loose I decided to have a look at Strand.  The ship had a shore breaky bowl coming in.  There was a bit of wind on it and it was some what dumpy, but I saw a few corners and at the very least no one was out.  It was pretty much exactly as described.  I did find a few close out barrels that were worthy of a view.  Every so often a real left or right would come through that was good for two to three turns.  It was a nice sunny summer day, the water was warm making it just a nice day to be in the water.  Starting tomorrow I am back on the work grind for the next six weeks or so.  Got to make that money!!

8-20-19 No Surfing: 1-2+ ft
Looks like the flat spell came home to greet me.  The cams and buoys looked pathetic.  That was fine cause I needed the day today to catch up on lots of things I got behind on that I was already behind on when I left. Isn’t it funny how that always works.  The gardeners hired by my land lord were trimming ivy in my yard and subsequently fucked up my garden, as per usual when I’m not there to yell at them so I needed to spend some time there.  Oh the fun of adult life.

8-19-19 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
My plan was to head south down the PCH till I found something to surf.  The problem with this seemingly fool proof plan was that the pacific decided to be absolutely tiny, coupled with a full moon high tide mid day.  I pretty much checked everything south of Carmel.  San Simeon had some ok looking peaks on the beach break, but the wind was already up and it was smaller then I would have liked it to be for all the surface chop.  Moonstone had lots of wind and was way too high.  I could have paddled if I was jones’n but I wasn’t.  Pismo Pier may have been the best.  By that point I was completely over it, exhausted from a hard week of work and travel, thus called it a day.

8-18-19 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Asilomar
Last night I was woken up to a text at 3 am wondering if I wanted to come into the restaurant to work and help get the morning air line stuff out.  Now I had already agreed to come in at 6 am as it was and was not about to ruin my whole day by trying to work that early.  I didn’t respond as if I was still sleeping and went in at 6 am as originally planned.  First thing I had to run out to the store and find an array of random things for the private jets including a blank greeting card with butterflies on it and a chocolate hazelnut Hersey’s symphony bar in full size among other very annoying specific things like such.  I suppose if you can afford your own jet you can afford to be picky.  The rest of my day was spent putting together platters and meals for jets.  At 5:30pm I decided to call it a day, hang up my hat to close out another hectic year up at Car Week.  Back to Asilomar I went one last time.  The swell was definitely waning making sets inconsistent.  It was crowded too, more people then I had ever seen out there.  There had to be easily forty to fifty surfers on it spread up and down the whole beach.  I have come to realize that Asilomar is the C Street of Monterey.  I jumped in way to the south of the crowd and sat next to some grom who was ripping this fun looking inside right hander.  We frothed that for a bit till the tide got a little high seemingly causing the right to run away a little to fast.  By this time most guys had gotten out and I paddled outside and focused on the left, which though a burger on the outside had a solid inside end section to contend with.  Minus some dude with a funk had snagging every wave that came in, another older dude going ballistic.  Maybe the surfing fountain of youth in up in Monterey cause this guy was catching two waves to my one and I catch a lot of waves. Once again I almost got stuck out there past dark though I lucked out and found a two turn right to quit on.

8-17-19 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Asilomar
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 24
Miles Driven: 12
Chef Micheal had to leave after the job Thursday night due to a personal emergency.  This left Enrique and I to fend for ourselves and pick up the slack at the restaurant.  Mostly it was back up prep for the gnarly weekend rush that continued.  This left us a little freedom in our schedules and after working two eleven hour days in a row we decided to just do an easy eight hour day.   Of course that all changed when poor planning on a in house party lead us into crisis mode.  Being the professionals we are we stayed a little later and handled it.    There was still a bit of day light left  so I headed to Asilomar, my home break for the week.  The same south swell/ NW wind swell combo prevailed making it rather peaky up and down the beach with the best peak being to the south end.  The crowd was a bit heavier then last night making finding the already tricky waves even harder to be on.  It seemed that some one was always deeper.  I moved into the inside and scrapped a bit.  Then the crowd started to calm down and I got back outside and found some fun ones.  This dude showed up a bit older then myself, a good surfer mind you and decided to get in my face and paddle me like we were in a heat.  I haven’t seen someone try so hard to out surf me in a while.  Normally I thrive on this sort of thing, but I was fucking exhausted and not really having it. Still to my credit I held my own and if being scored I’d like to think I won it.  Then it seemed to get dark really fast and I got stuck out there trying to get a last wave in during peak shark feeding hour.  Luckily I got a left that closed out in almost complete darkness and headed in to live to surf another day.

8-16-19 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Asilomar
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 25
Miles Driven: 12
My goal was to wake up early and score some waves before heading over to the restaurant. My body was exhausted from the 23 hrs I had out in over the last two days. I slept in till 8am and had a quick look at Carmel beach but the sand was shit and it was just shore break. I went into work where my day was spent butchering meat all day for eight straight hours. Though utterly spent I mustered up the strength to fight traffic chuck full of high end cars and headed over to Asilomar. The wind was side shore off shore and looked fun enough. The crowd was a healthy twenty five but spread out. I got into a real grooved and went to twin dismantling everything that came my way. I even got a sick little backside tube on my last wave. The Car week grind continues tomorrow.

8-15-19 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Asilomar State Beach
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 22
Miles Driven: 12
Since we worked hard and got ahead on all of the prep for the parties we had I didnt need to be at work till noon. This left me ample time to get a surf in. There was some wind swell/sw swell combo in the water and I decided to take full advantage of the crossed up peaks at Asilomar. In regular fashion for that spot it was all over the place with no rhyme or reason why waves decided to break where they did. I think the best strategy at Asilomar is to just stay in one spot and wait for the waves to come to you. I managed a few fun ones despite the fact that crowd was rather heavy with easily thirty guys out. The rest of my day was spent schlepping and working my event at the 30 million dollar estate. It was yet another 11 hour day.

8-14-19 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
After driving through the night I made it to Carmel to work Car Week once again. Every time I come up here I say I’m not coming back and then here I am back at it. Is it the money or prestige that brings me back all the time? A mix of the two I think. Turned out that I was on a twelve hour grind right out of the gates today making surfing out of the question. I do have the opportunity to get some waves tomorrow morning though.

8-13-19 No Surfing: 1-2+ ft
More of the same tiny conditions prevailed.  I had a gig in the evening to work and after that have to make my way up to Carmel to cook for Ferrari at the Concourse at Pebble Beach.  I will be back in Santa Barbara Monday 8/19.

8-12-19 PM Session: 1-2 ft, Father Johns
Time in Water: 45 mins
Waves Surfed: 16
Miles Driven: 64
I was ready to just let the day burn as far as surfing was concerned.  Buoys read shit as did the cams all the way to Malibu.  Gabe really wanted to get a surf with me before he went back to Santa Cruz and I can always find something to ride if it is necessary.  We stopped by the work shop first to fill out the glassing paper work and go over the batch.  Everything was in order and looked good.  New Jetty had a very small gutless left.  It could have been grovel-able, but no one was on it.  At one of the busiest summer spots around that has to mean something about the quality.  I heard Strand had some wind swell. I had to be back to work by 4 pm and time was already waning.   The call was to head back towards SB and sort something out off of Sea Cliffs.   Father Johns had  wedgey little crossed up knee to thigh high crossed up peaks, clean with no one out.  We jumped in for a couple.  The water was warm and it was a nice enough beach day, why not?  It was a full on grovel.  We were stoked to have gotten a little bit of surf time in together.  The rest of my day was spent getting prep down for an event at the Lobero Theatre tomorrow night.

8-11-19 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
Miles Driven: 126
With Gabe working on boards down at the shop in Ventura I wanted to just head that way, check in on him and find something to grovel.  Sunday traffic back to LA was insane.  My GPS said it would have taken two hours to get there.  I had a look at the Jalama cam and it looked glassy with a bit of south and NW wind swell combo.  The report was calling for evening off shores.  I headed up there only to find that by the time I got to the beach the wind was easily 15 knots NW tearing it up a bit.  On most summer days the last hour of light shows either the wind dying or switching off shore.  I decided to lay camp at Cracks and play the patience game.  Instead of the usual pay off this time the wind got insane.  A gale picked up out of the NW easily gusting up to 40 knots.  My girl and I had serious difficulty walking back to the parking lot and got sand blasted the whole way.  I am still picking sand off me at the moment.

8-10-19 No Surfing: 1-2+ ft
Meager conditions not worth the hassle of weekend crowds kept me out of the water today. I could have drove over a hundred miles round trip to find a waist plus wave, but I just didnt deem it necessary. It’s been a very tough summer. Instead my girl and decided to be tourists at home and went up the clock tower at the Santa Barbara Court House. Later in the evening I got hired by Fire Fly Catering to help make wood fire pizzas at a wedding at Chase Palm Park. As usual the event went off without a hitch.

8-9-19 PM Session: 2-4+ ft, Malibu Surfrider
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 30
Miles Driven: 148
After a week of groveling and a very bleak forecast for the next few days I needed to find some waves at whatever means necessary. I met Robbie at Rivermouth for yet another depressing view of small closed out walls. Considering he scored Pt. Dume yesterday we decided to make the LA pilgrimage. All the west spots were small and had a funky wind on them. We pressed on. Both Dumes were less then inviting. Out of options we parked and just desperation paddle 3rd and 2nd Peak at Surfrider. As it turned out it was quite rip-able and the crowd very manageable. It was definitely the best surf I had in over a week. I was supposed to be back in Santa Barbara for work at 4, but Friday afternoon traffic was so bad it took me almost three hours to get home making me an hour late. It was only a prep day so it wasn’t really a big deal.

8-8-19 AM Session: 1-3 ft, Hobson’s
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 20
Miles Driven: 72
Today was yet another day of let down at The Harbor. I cruised to Shores but it was stretched and mushy there. In desperation mode I headed back north to sort something out along Sea Cliffs. Hobsons had a south bowl at the north corner of the reef. When a south swell gets in there it I’d rather rip-able and often over looked by the hordes of surfers abound these days. There were a few long boarders and sups out but there were enough waves for me to join the fold. I pulled my Pop Fizz fish to deal with meager size and inconsistent sets. Once again it was a full on grovel, though I definitely found my groove.

8-7-19 AM Session: 1-2+ ft, Pitas
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 20
Miles Driven: 64
In the hopes that I could get some south swell at Ventura Harbor I headed south instead of north to Jalama. When I got there the wind was wailing out of the NW just tearing everything up. Thinking outside of the box I headed to Pitas where there was a small but fish-able wave coming through the Faria session. It was with out a doubt great moments in groveling but my Clarks Surfboards Pop Fizz fish allowed me to make the most of it. Rest of my day was spent prepping out food for a small dinner party on Thursday.

8-6-19 No Surfing: 1-2+ ft,
There was suppose to be some new south swell in the water though the buoys were not showing and the cams looked meager. I could have looked around and maybe found a waist plus wave some where, though the wind was up. Instead I gave my garden a well deserved overhaul that took nearly five hours of weeding, pruning and planting.

8-5-19 AM Session: 1-2+ ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 20
Miles Driven: 64
What a mistake driving down this morning was.  I had hoped there was still enough south swell on the buoy for the Harbor to at least be palatable.  There was already wind on it ruling out River Mouth.  New Jetty had some very weak looking lefts coming through, but with only two guys on it I decided to save my gas and time and just paddle.  Bad waves are bad waves after all.  Some days when it looks bad its way more fun then it looked. Today was actually way worse then it looked.  I struggled to even get my board going.  I found one or two, but it was a real grind out there.  Looks like we are supposed to see more SW swell fill in tomorrow though the buoys are not indicating anything as of yet.

8-4-19 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Jalama
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 36
Miles Driven: 126
Considering the obnoxious crowds and traffic from Saturday I decided to head north and get away from all the bull shit.  With a little bit of south swell and NW wind swell showing I knew I would at very least get something to push my fish around.  When I got there the fog was still hanging around with an ugly WSW wind.  I walked to Cracks and there were about eight guys out.  It was around waist to chest with the occasional south plus set.  I hung out for a bit watching it slowly glass off and the crowd trickle down.  I jumped in and found some fun shore break double up tubes on the inside.  Then the four guys who were still out decided to drift into the peak I was on all by myself.  Not wanting to deal with a hassle I paddled further up the beach.  One of the guys decides to come sit right on me and then back paddled me for a decent set wave.  When he came back out I went off on him.  There were five of us out and I was keeping to myself the whole surf.  He paddled in hopefully due to shame, but I am sure he was just tired from surfing all morning.  Rest of my surf was fun for what it was.  The sand is definitely getting better up there.

8-3-19 AM Session: 2-3 ft, Father Johns
Time in Water: 1 hr 15 mins
Waves Surfed: 23
Miles Driven: 78
Finally some south was on the buoy and along with it came the throngs of hungry surfers looking for their weekend fix.  I counted seventy plus guys from Knoll to River Mouth and another thirty at New Jetty.  Nothing looked all that spectacular and the sand is currently trash out at Mouth anyway, so I bailed.  I thought there was enough wind swell for Strand, but I guess it has to be at least eight feet on the buoy to produce chest high waves there.  Regrouping since  I had to be at work by one  I  figured I could sort something out along Sea Cliffs.  Emma was shit cause the tide was still a bit too low.  Father Johns had some fun looking waist to chest crossed up peaks with only two guys on it.  I didn’t hesitate to jump and though my session started out slow as the tide pushed in it got more and more fun.  I found a few little tubes and stuck a clean bs air reverse.  Phil and Carlos paddled out and each got their share.  I wish I didn’t have to get out for work or I would have just surfed till it went bust.  I had a taco party to work in Hope Ranch, which with exception of some minor employee drama went off with out a hitch.

8-2-19 PM Session: 1-3 ft, Pitas
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 24
Miles Driven: 85
I got some bad report that Strand was fun, which was the only reason I set out to surf in the first place.  Of course when I was just about to enter Ventura sitting in fair traffic, after battling Fiesta traffic getting out of SB I got a call that Strand was small.  I looped back and headed along Sea Cliff in search of some wind swell peaks.  Pitas had a wave but it was pretty close to the rocks.  I figured maybe I could find a few on my fish at Indicator.  Though a wave was there, about ten long boarders and a SUP were out clogging the meager offerings.  All of a sudden rock dancing at Pitas seemed like the best option.  I made the most out of what little was out there and managed to not mess up my board or body on the rocks.  Summer needs to end.

8-1-19 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
More flatness abound, which worked out since we had all planned on going downtown for Fiesta tonight.  As usual we had no idea what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go.  With out a plan we ended up at the Wild Cat as usual.  It was fun to cut loose for a change and party with our friends.  It was the first time Bizarro stepped out in nearly two months.