Surfing Ruined My Life

October 2018 Surf Sessions

10-31-18 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 34
Miles Driven: 78
Once again we were graced with the Santa Anna winds on the down slide of the swell.  Angers was off from work so I grabbed Biz and we headed south to do some shooting.  The Ship looked the best and we paddled, though it was packed.  There had to be an excess of over 300 guys from Ship to the north jetty.  I have been out there when the place was firing and it wasn’t that intense.  Believe at chest plus weak NW swell left overs it was far from warranting such a crowd.  A sign of the times I suppose. If any place can handle an obnoxious crowd its Strand so we paddled, Ryan met us.  I was a bit let down with how weak the waves were and how walled the majority of the sets.  There were some really good ones, but they were few and far between and with the crowd someone was either deeper or just in the way when a good one came.  That being said I managed a couple of really good barrels and had one right after the wind switched that opened up for three huge bashes.  It was some good Halloween fun.  The rest of the day was spent getting our costumes together.  Were doing blues brothers and my lady was going to be the crazy stalker mystery woman who tried to kill them.  It was fun night to say the least.

10-30-18 AM Session: 3-5 ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 3 hrs
Waves Surfed: 25
Miles Driven: 44
The buoys had indicated a fair bit of west swell.  So much so that everything in Santa Barbara should have been off the charts.  It wasn’t. I don’t know if our buoys need to be calibrated but something is definitely off.  I headed to Rincon since I heard Strand was rather walled except for the North End where it was pick a choose corners.  Rincon was packed with soft lines through the cove and lots of broken up lines from Indicator through River Mouth.  It was about chest to head high and had the crowd been lighter I most likely would have paddled.  There were easily fifty guys from Indy to River and another fifty or so in the Cove.  Fuck, a 100 crowd for below average Rincon?  I had a look at both Pitas and Little ‘Con, both were already too fat.  Hobsons looked terrible.  Ryan bagged it and I went back to Rincon and just paddled.  I had all day meaning I could float around as long as it took to get my fill.  Besides just being over crowded it was a bull shit no etiquette cut throat crowd.  I got burned six times, back paddled countless and I got yelled at twice for taking off deeper then the guys that burned me.  In one instance the guy went as far as to physical attack me till he knocked me off my board, only after I had already chased him down from Indicator to River Mouth.  That being said I did manage a few decent ones though I had to scrap as hard as ever for them.  All that line up jockeying really takes the fun out of surfing for me.  Tomorrow is another day.

10-29-18 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 26
Miles Driven: 78
Today was about an exact repeat of yesterday.  I looked at Rincon, only to be driven away by lack of surf.  I had positive intel from two sources that it was fun.  Ryan met me and we paddled the Ship. My boy Mike was out as well.  Though a bit high there were still a few nuggets to be had.  I managed one really fun left tube that was fun.  It was worth getting wet.  More west filled in toward the afternoon, but it was still a bit small on the points and SB spots.   The rest of my day was spent in insurance company battles to get my car fixed.

10-28-18 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 28
Miles Driven: 78
Last night we made an attempt at doing the Leo version of Romeo and Juliet, though our costumes were well done I think the film was a little too old and obscure to be understood by the majority of the public.  They over packed the place and still feeling sluggish from the following night my girl and departed early.  We woke up to a strange fall foggy marine layer.  There was still some NW on the buoys.  I couldn’t get a confirmed report form anyone so I just decided to head to Rincon to get my bearings.  ‘Con was about waist to maybe stomach and super high.  I wasn’t motivated to surf what was coming in.  I decided to make a play for Strand.  Worse case scenario I could always go back to Emma.  North Strand was super fat and slow with the tide.  From that vantage it was clear that there were some real waves breaking on the south side.  Stoked I cruised over there and was greeted with some fun looking waves albeit a bit on the high side.  I didn’t really no where else to go and paddled.  It was definitely fat.  I did manage to find a few palatable corners.  The rest of my day was spent doing a deep clean on the kitchen.

10-27-18 No Surfing: 3-4+ ft
There was some real west in the water through out most of the day.  Being it was Halloween weekend my crew and I decided to do the cast of Jaws last night at the Wild Cat.  Biz was the captain and the boat, I was the scientist, our neighbor Mike the sheriff and my lady the shark.  I must say it was a lot of fun.  Maybe a little too much fun cause I was in pretty bad shape in the morning and had to use all my strength to get through my work day.  After work I heard El Cap had a fun wave, but the dropping low tide sucked all the swell out.  I blew it.  Call it my once and awhile drinking mulligan.

10-26-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 18
Miles Driven: 56
Another morning where I wasted my time on a Rincon check.  I suppose in hindsight I should have just grabbed my fish and paddled out there.  Whatever the case I ended up at Emma Wood, which had the sand been better could have been really fun.  Unfortunately all of the sand from the beach has been swept out into the line up making the bottom completely flat with no real definition.  As a result its either more closed out then usual are too sectiony at the moment.  Sure there are still a few gems to be had, but we definitely need some rain to get some real sediment out there.  The crowd was about twenty five strong half thanks to a surf program that loaded a bunch of groms into a van and dumped them all into one spot. It was very difficult to find anything really worth while out there.  Mostly I felt like I was just going through the motions out there.

10-25-18 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 20
Miles Driven: 56
Relegated to yet another after work session I found myself scrounging around for waves with only a short window before I had to go work a dinner party.  I had hoped to find a few at Rincon, but it was way too small.  Out of time I settled for drained out Emma.  There was enough South and NW combo to all for the south reef right to break bowly enough to worth a paddle.  This is by far the most tricky wave to surf at Emma not to mention the most rocky almost always ending on dry reef with the low tide.  It was far from what I would call a good surf, though I did manage a few alright ones.  It beat not surfing.

10-24-18 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Oxnard Shores
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 31
Miles Driven: 72
I don’t understand why anyone who surfs seriously would allow themselves to be locked into a situation where all he had available was an afternoon surf.  I feel like except for when the points are working you are dejected to a life of absolutely crap blown out surf.  Luckily for me I only have to put up with it one week a month and it’s definitely a long week.  Actually when I got to the beach it was semi-clean.  The wind was a light WSW and though some texture there were plenty of kill-able south peaks up and down the beach.  Stoked I paddled.  My first few waves were really fun.  Then wind crept on up, as did the extreme low tide till I was left with absolute garbage.  I milked the crap for all it was worth regardless cause I’m a freak like that. Actually I had an ok time.  One more day of this and I will back to having my mornings free again.

10-23-18 PM Session: 2-3+ ft, Leo Carrillo
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 24
Miles Driven: 116
Another morning on the grind lead to another afternoon of absolute blown out surf.  There was lots of south in the water and I was already at Ventura Harbor any way, it seemed silly if I didn’t had further south.  Alright, you got me.  I am a very sick man. I need to surf no matter what the cost or effort.  The tide was super drained and wind all over when I got to Leo.  As a result the crowd was nearly non-existent.  Once I got inside of the rock the faces cleaned up decent enough.  As soon as I paddled out I caught one all the way down the point from the outside.  Stoked I paddled back thinking that would be the tone of the session.  The dead low tide lull set in and out side set waves were few and far between.  I moved inside of the rock and began picking up some smaller, but still very rip-able double ups.  For the first hour and half it was just myself and two other guys allowing everyone to find a wave worth while.  Then a few kids came out in a four pack and crowded the peak.  Following them came an all girls after school surf program with an instructor who took them right out to the peak, some she was actually pushing into waves.  Finally a guy on a windsurfer came cruising through the line up and picked a wave off me.  That was my signal that it was time to go.  I got one more solid one all the way to the beach and called it a day.  I would say it was totally worth the drive.

10-22-18 PM Session: 2-3 ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 18
Miles Driven: 64
I have my corporate client this week.  This means I have to work mornings till Thursday.  There was some fresh south on the buoy after work and the cams down south were still clean.  I bolted to Ventura, but as I passed Pitas the wind was super hard NW.  At that point I was SOL.  The tide was too low for Emma leaving me staring at a very blown out New Jetty with eight guys on it.  I noticed there was one of those damn after school surf camp vans parked down the street and figured the eight pack must have been that.  It was already four and I figured I would just chill and read till they got out.  This plan worked famously.  Though deplorable conditions I paddled anyway since I was there.  It was as bad as it looked.  I guess if you want to have the line up to yourself these days bad conditions is what you have to surf.  I did manage a few fun ones and it’s always better to surf then not surf in my book.

10-21-18 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Jalama
Time in Water: 2.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 36
Miles Driven: 126
I didn’t know where to go this morning.  My girl left for Seattle for a conference late last night, which inadvertently threw off my usual routine.  The buoys were on the small side and reports far from promising.  Jalama was my best bet for size and the wind was predicted to stay light all day.  It didn’t.  In classic fashion it came up as soon as I walked to Cracks and was setting up my umbrella.  In a way I was ok with it.  The crowd was twenty or so strong and with the wind it steadily decreased to four.  It was at that point I paddled.  At first I couldn’t get into a groove at all.  I seemed to be on all the wrong ones.  As the tide dropped the faces began to stand up more and then I began to score some really fun waves despite the chop.  I ended having a really fun time.  I hung around for a bit after to see if the wind seemed like it was going to come back down.  It was still wailing at 3:30 so I packed it in.  Sadly as I was pulling into my building my neighbor decided to back out with out looking and smashed up my car.  That’s a new pain in the ass I have to deal with.  Fuck, if its not one thing then it’s another.  Things just can’t ever go hundred percent for me ever.  Whatever, its nothing major, but an annoyance and a bit costly cause I forgot to get my deductible lowered from $1000 it now stands.  I will try and go after his insurance company for some of it, but with no witnessed and the nature of the crash I couldn’t hope for better blame odds then 30/70.  Fuck…

10-20-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Oxnard Shores
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 15 
Miles Driven: 72
The Santa Anna’s came back in full force this morning.  The tide was a super fat early and not having to work till three I took my time getting down south.  River Mouth was super small, inconsistent and crowded.  Angers had a look at Shores and gave it the green light.  It was solid chest high with larger sets and somewhat consistent.  It was also rather crowded with five to ten guys to every peak up and down the beach as far as the eye could see.  One thing about Shores its very shifty allowing for everyone to get waves.  We paddled this peak with a few body boarders.  Most of the time I was able to get whatever came to me with little hassle.  Unfortunately with the wind the only waves really worth while were the largest set waves.  There was SW/NW combo and the NW was mostly closed out on the bar we were sitting.  That is what led to such a low wave count.  for me.  I did managed a few really sick collection of tubes.  My last wave was my best and as I came out of the barrel the wind had turned on shore. Rather then be greedy I bailed.  I hate quiting on a bad note.  That night I worked a Lesbian wedding and what a fun group they all were to serve and cook for.  Its parties like that, which make me feel good about what I do.

10-19-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 16
Miles Driven: 30
My time was super limited thanks to a day of both prep and a dinner party in the evening.  The NW swell had filled in a little more from the previous day.  This time of year when I’m short on time I always start at Rincon.  There was a waist to chest high wave coming through up at the River Mouth with a somewhat heavy crowd for what was out there.  Still I saw enough go by that I knew I could get a few.  When I got out there it turned out to be a crowd of mostly ‘Con novices meaning I was able to pick off most of what I wanted.  It was not good Rincon by any means, but I had my fish and a good mind set and made the most of it.  I had fun.  My last run of waves I caught a string of fun ones from River Mouth all the way through the Cove.  I guess the wind was off shore most of the day down in Oxnard making the beaches super fun and I heard Jalama was solid too.  Like I said I had obligations and these days I have remember that surfing doesn’t pay the bils and do the responsible thing.  Hey, I still got to surf right?

10-18-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 25
Miles Driven: 78
There was some fresh WNW on the buoy and my first thoughts was that Rincon proper might be fun.  I may have been fun for my fish earlier in the morning while the tide was lower.  By the time I got there it was a bit fat, slow and had some channel funk on it.  The wind was also on the rise.  I decided to gamble and have a look at North Strand.  I had the day off and I figured worse case scenario I could definitely find some waves on the points as the tide dropped.  I got there and there was a chest plus wave that looked fun enough to surf.  Ryan showed up and it was the first time I have got to surf with him since his injury over two months ago.  The Jetty kept the wind at bay enough that there were some defined lefts and rights to nab.  I ended up getting a few really fun ones.  The rest of my day was spent running errands.  Later in the evening I attended the opening of my girlfriend’s new show at the Museum.  I would say it was one of her best yet.  She is really beginning to come into her own in the world of collections management.

10-17-18 PM Session: 1-2+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 21
Miles Driven 30
I had a lunch to work thus I was not able to get a morning session in.  I heard there wasn’t much more then what had been coming in all week anyway.  I got out and wanted to surf.  Angers was down at County Line where there was an average chest high wave coming through.  I had a look at Indicator on the way down and saw three wave waist to stomach high set.  Figuring I wasn’t going to find much better then that at Emma anyway I paddled.  That must have been the last set before the low tide lull set in leaving me shit out of luck and stuck scrapping for micro knee high bowls breaking in one foot deep water over the reef.  I pretty much spent the entire session being a star fish.  Somehow my board and body managed to come out unscathed.  God I miss the days when I didn’t have to work.  Don’t let the photo fool you cause that set sure fooled me into paddling.

10-16-18 AM Session: 1-3 ft Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 21
Miles Driven: 64
The winds appeared to be off shore again thus I headed to the Harbor.  By the time I got there they had already subsided and even began to blow a bit on shore.  It was still rather small, maybe even a tad smaller then yesterday.  I saw a few at Emma and headed back there.  At the very least It would easier to find a proper take off zone.  Emma had some smallish south sets about waist high plus, but very rip-able.  There was some kook stand up guy not getting into anything a two long boarders on the farthest south peak.  I sat just south of the life guard tower and found a few hit-able nuggets.  I even managed two little shampoo tubes.  It was nothing special, but definitely was nice to get a few before work.

10-15-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Surfers Knoll
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 8
Miles Driven: 64
The Santa Anna’s final have begun this fall.  Luckily sans fire this time around.  Unfortunately sans surf as well.  Considering the wind I went straight down to the Harbor.  The tide was still in its perpetual high tide for most of the day mode leaving everything really fat.  There were occasional chest plus sets coming through that despite the deep water were throwing out rather hallow.  Out of time and nowhere else to really go anyway I paddled, Angers met me.  Knoll appeared to have the best looking wave.  It was really inconsistent out there and I was hard pressed to get a good wave for the first twenty minutes of the session.  Then I lucked into a super deep tube and found my out of it.  At that point my little peak got mobbed by like ten guys.  I paddled down the beach and managed another sick tube.  Sure enough everyone followed me there.  Then the wind got gusty up to 35 knots and it got super lully.  The clock was ticking and nothing had come in.  Just as I was bout to paddle in a set wave came right to me and I managed to luck into one more fun tube before work.  There were a few fun ones, but overall it was micro was all hell.

10-14-18 PM Session: 6-8+ ft, Jalama
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 20
Miles Driven: 126
There was a super shadowed south swell in the water making Ventura super small.  I had to work a wedding brunch in Montecito but knew there would be enough time to sneak up to Jalama and get a few before dark.  My gig ended at 2 pm, I collected my girl friend and we headed north.  On the way I kept passing guys with boards leaving.  This usually a sign of it blowing out.  At that point where else was I going to surf, thus I continued.  When we got to the beach it was solid overhead plus.  There were long south lines well over head.  I am talking 8 to ten to even 12 foot bombs.  There was a bit of NW on it, but not nearly enough to tear up waves of that caliber.  Cracks had about eight guys out and T’s another ten.  T’s looked fun, but I wanted to shoot and it was avalanching pretty far out.  Cracks had some fun looking runners going from first crack to second crack.  Just as Jalama has been all season even though it was macking the waves were still pretty mushy.  Mushy and pushing double overhead is still rather fun.  It felt like I was snow boarding on a few of them.  That has been three Sundays in a row of really really decent surf.  Score!!!!

10-13-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 29
Miles Driven: 56
Turns out all the hard work that I put in the past two days had put us way ahead and in great shape for the gig tonight.  That being the case my morning was freed up for a surf.  I headed south hoping to get a little bit of the left overs of the south swell that was on the decline.  The tide was super high and wind already up.  Considering all the elements Emma was my best option.  Actually there were some really decent south sets coming in with a somewhat light crowd.  Of course as soon as I paddled out another ten guys showed up and clogged it.  Still there were enough waves and sections to go around.  It was just good to get a few waves after missing the good days.  As far as the event goes though an ordeal we managed to plate 250 dinners in just over 12 minutes. The client was pleased and it was a good deed done.  Tomorrow I have to work at wedding brunch at 8 am.  Nothing like going back to back.

10-12-18 No Surfing: 3-4+ ft
Yet another 11 hour day of straight prep left me with no time to surf.  I heard there were some good ones at River Mouth and Shores.  I had to get paid.

10-11-18 No Surfing: 3-5+ ft
Oh man did not getting to surf today hurt.  With light off shores and plenty of combo swell I am sure the beaches were pretty darn fun early.  Unfortunately I had one of my biggest charity dinners of the year, 250 for the Boys and Girls Club.  The prep was rather involved, plus I had a canopy event later in the evening.  The end result was a 12 hour day and absolutely no time to surf.

10-10-18 AM Session: 3-4+ ft, Surfers Knoll
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 13
Miles Driven: 64
I feel like we have been perpetually stuck in high tide for the last month now.  I had heard that while I was at Emma yesterday River Mouth was all time.  No making the mistake I made the previous morning I headed straight for the Harbor.  Of course the tide was already super high when I got there and I had a later start then usual cause I overslept. It was also packed.  I mean there had to be easily 65 guys out from Knoll to River Mouth, on a fucking Wednesday.  The Ponderosa is truly lost.  I saw enough to lead me to believe I could get a few and Emma looked like shit and was crowded on the way down anyhow.  With the fat tide the best peaks were by the Knoll and rather then waste the little time I had I just paddled there.  Sets were really inconsistent, easily fifteen minutes apart.  There would be like ten waves in a set when it happened, but with the high tide there were few to no inbetweeners.  This also made it very difficult to be in position when a set came too.  That plus the crowd is what led to my very meager wave count.  I did get one really good deep barrel and a few hits on a couple that I suppose made it all worth the effort.  I hate when working makes surfing annoying.  From today my schedule only gets more intense.  I don’t really know if I will even be able to surf till Sunday.

10-9-18 AM Session: 3-4+ ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 19
Miles Driven: 56
After yesterday’s score I was sure the points would still be solid.  I headed straight for Rincon.  The wind was south east causing a bit of chatter on the face.  The swell had dropped a bit and with the high tide it was looking small and sluggish.   My time was now very limited before work.  A Rincon check easily eats up a solid fifteen minutes or so and I lingered for nearly thirty.  At that point Emma was my only option and it would be a make it or break it kind of situation.  I raced down there and Emma was about as good as Emma gets.  The wind was off shore. Sets were chest to head plus and there were spitting barreling A-frames up and down the beach.  Seriously, every where you looked someone was getting shacked.  Stoked I jumped in and got super deep right tube that I just got pinched on coming out.  Then I found a few draining lefts that were sick as well.  The crowd kept growing making getting the good ones tough.  Then Angers paddled and by then it had gotten very busy out there.  Finally Dane showed up as did all of the rest of the Ventura pros. Killian was out leading the charge for SB.  Luckily for me I was out of time and needed to get to work.  On my last wave I grabbed the other side of a close out Dane was on.  I banged out two shitty backside hits, while Dane threw a six foot frontside air behind me.  Good times.

10-8-18 PM Session: 6-8+ ft, Pitas
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 16
Miles Driven: 44
Wow, talk about a sneaker NW swell today.  One thing I do love about the 805 come NW swell season is surfline’s inability to accurately forecast swells allowing for us locals to get ours on occasion.  Today was one of those days.  Reports were calling for dropping NW swell and a rise in the SW swell today.  Last night we ended up having an impromptu dinner party where we served Asian BBQ  ribs and Chicken legs.  After a little wine my lady and I decided to head out to the Wild Cat for a little bit of dancing considering that we were both off today.  Starting tomorrow I am on an easily 85 hr plus grind till Monday.  Having a moment to cut loose made practical sense.  I woke at around 7:30 and all he reports that I was getting was that every place was below average and the 6 ft high tide at 9:30 am was just about killing every place.  Not to mention that there was more funky south wind to contend with at the points.  I had a work meeting at 12:30 to go over some new procedures moving forward.  After that my girl and I headed south to the points.  I wanted to check Rincon, but the bottom lot had no spaces in it.  On the drive by the Cove had solid head plus runners coming through.  I wanted to get some photos and Rincon is one of the hardest places to shoot or get anything worthwhile.  Pitas was my next stop.  It was macking up top.  When I walked up I saw a six wave ten foot plus set team roll in.  It was a little stretched, but totally do-able.  I hit up Angers and paddled.  I got out there and found it too be a tad on the fast side and there was also this south warble on the face that was just enough to make it hard for me to get a proper bottom turn and was constantly slowing down my drive.  I got really frustrated.  Then some guy landed on me attempting to air drop way too deep on a bomb.  Luckily for me my board got ripped out of my hands on my deep duck dive and I got sucked to the bottom or I may have been killed.  I did completely run out of air.  It was likely the worst hold down I have experienced in quite some time.  Then there were a handful of guys who kept paddling around me and sitting way too deep, basically blowing all the the good ones.  Over it I finally drifted down the point and found some really sick ones up at White House.  I managed three from there all the way to mondos.  After that my legs were completely burned out from a summer of surfing small beach break.  On the way in I ran into a clump of submerged rocks and ripped the fin completely my right rail fin out of my board.  Talk about a session of ups and downs.

10-7-18 AM Session: 4-6+ ft, Silver Strand
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 21
Miles Driven: 78
I didn’t really know where to go this morning.  I had mixed intel from everyone on where to go.  My plan was to get to Rincon and figure it out from there.  My usual winter routine.  I got there and the wind was all shitty south and absolutely horrible.  As i was about to make a noose out of kelp and hang myself I got a text from my boy Dave that the Ship was going off, over head and bombing.  I hit up Angers and we reconvened at the Ship.  Though solid, it was super wonky and once we hit the water it was way harder to surf then it looked.  I got few but ultimately it was far from good and good from far.

10-6-18 No Surfing: 3-4 ft
Last night we all decided to let loose at the Wild Cat couple that with a very deep morning high tide, ugly south wind on the points and a very short window to surf before work and I had to let the session go.  I had a wedding in Goleta up in the hills that I hoped would have had me done with enough time to grab a few waves before dark, but as it turned out the event ran till 8pm.  I am off tomorrow and back in the water.

10-5-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1 hr 15 mins
Waves Surfed: 23
Miles Driven: 30
Rincon may have been a poor choice.  Once again I got taken a fool by the Harvest buoys, which read 5.9 ft @ 15 seconds from 270.  With those numbers the ‘Con should have been crazy fun.  Then I was further fooled when I saw a solid chest plus four wave set break at the River Mouth.  Short on time I figured with the steadily dropping tide it could only get better.  Truth be told I should  have just went to Emma Wood, where all the combo and the fat tide would have done some good.  Turns out most of the surf was The SE swell from Sergio and it was super broken up.  So much so that backside was way to bowly to be fun.  I found a little niche just inside the River Mouth section where there was a kill-able right bowl good for three solid turns.  I had this with only one other guy out.  Considering that I would say it was fun enough for the short window afforded to me.

10-4-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Santa Clara River Mouth
Time in Water: 1 hr 15 mins
Waves Surfed: 24
Miles Driven: 64
Another rainy morning with more fun beach break cross up tubes.  Angers met me at the Mouth, but brought a wonky south wind with him turning conditions less then desirable.  Actually within an hour it pretty much went to complete shit.  Between the wind and tide it just about got to be un-surf-able.  Still I got a few alright tubes right off the bat.  Angers got a sick right hand tube that was super stoke.  I have been trying out a new board shaped with a different blank company Artic Foam to see if we should make the transition over from US Blanks.  So far it feels alright.  More feed back as I get to surf more varied conditions on it.  One the way to work I guess Santa Barbara got hit with some gnarly torrential down pour.  I missed the rain, but got stuck in traffic getting in from Carp as a result of a line of automobile carnage stretching from Carp through Montecito with everything from fender benders to over turned ventricles.  Glad I missed that shit.

10-3-18 AM Session: 2-4+ ft, Santa Clara River Mouth
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 19
Miles Driven: 64
I woke up to rain, RAIN!  I knew the it in the forecast, but around here you never believe it till you see it, especially this early in the season. Sure enough it was dumping.  I was really stoked I didn’t get my car washed yesterday.  Sometimes being lazy does pay off, although at the moment my ride looks absolutely terrible.  The wind was off shore down at the Ventura Beaches and with the south swell/ WNW swell combo I figured there could be some good ones.  On the way down I thought I saw a solid set at Emma and did the U-turn only to find that whatever I saw was a flash in the pan cause it was difficult to even see anything surf-able.  Very short on time I headed for Ventura Harbor and went straight to check the River Mouth.  Immediately I saw barreling A-frames up and down the beach with a very light crowd.  It looked a little fast, but totally worth a shot.  I was out of time anyway.  I jumped in and my first few waves were deep suck out tubes.  It was heaving out there.  I had my share of beatings too.  The waves were so hallow you couldn’t really even do a turn.  Other then being a little backwasy with high tide and a bit walled I’d say it was a mini score.

10-2-18 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, Leo Carrillo
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 18
Miles Driven: 116
I woke up this morning to a 3 ft low tide at 9:30 then going up to 5.2 ft at 2:30 basically making it high tide all day.  With the dropping swell there were not too many options abound.  Once again it was windy in Ventura.  Against out better judgement Angers and I headed back to LA ready to deal with stupid crowds.  Leo was our best bet and when we pulled up we saw enough sets to believe there would be enough waves for everyone.  The tide was perfect for the Bone Yard when we first paddled and we got a few fun ones there till the approaching high flooded the very small window that spot has to be good.  We paddled over to Leo.  It was shit show crowded for how few waves there were.  Half the crowd were Israeli tourists and they were clueless thus clogging the place.  A third were the usual kooks and the rest regulars. The sets went from consistent to non-existent as well.  It wasn’t long before we found ourselves scrapping the rock for chest high garbage.  When a real set wave did come you had to dodge a line up full of boards and bodies ruining your wave.  It sucked.  Angers managed one of the better waves of the set and bailed.  I hung in there another half hour scrapping.  I got a few and it was most likely the best of the worst since we checked Hueneme on the way home.  Why has surfing become so difficult?

10-1-18 AM Session: 5-7+ ft, Point Dume, Malibu
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 14
Miles Driven: 134
The Rosa Swell finally filled as predicted.  There was some solid south swell in the water.  Unfortunately for Ventura and Santa Barbara the swell went a little too south to be of any real consequence.  In Ventura the wind was ugly from sun up.  With little other option Angers and I headed to LA despite the fact that we knew it was going to be an  absolute zoo.  There hasn’t been any real significant swell in two weeks and Surfline had been hyping this up since last week.  Everything was super crowded on the way down.  The west facing spots were all torn up with the same wind that was plaguing Ventura.  Since there was plenty of swell we went Dume.  The tide was good for the Bay and so was the size.  Too bad fifty plus guys were on the same page as us.  All of us were in a line up with three peaks at best.  The first forty five minutes Angers and I capitalized on the inside double ups that were running to close in for the pack to get.  When the next wave of new comers showed up they all had seen us frothing on it and clogged our little insider right.  At this point it became the usual crowded LA line up chaos of people back paddling, front paddling, burning, and just getting in the way cause of their lack of surfing competence.  We both had to be back in Ventura by 1:30 and if not for the crowd sucking so bad we most likely would have missed this deadline, since we both failed to bring a watch.  Somehow I managed to get my foot impaled by a small rock spire that broke off and got stuck in my heal.  I went to work at an event for five hours and my foot was killing me. Low and behold when I was in the shower I noticed a piece of rock sticking out of my heel.  I got out some tweezers and peroxide and handled it.  Good to surf and fight the obnoxious crowds of southern California another day.