Surfing Ruined My Life

August 2015 Surf Sessions

8-31-15 AM Session: 2-4 ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1 hr 45 mins
Waves Surfed: 20
What a schizo session I had on this closer for the month.  In a way with all its ups and downs today’s surf was very reminiscence of August on the whole.  I pulled up a little later then usual thanks to a night at the Wild Cat and with little time figured I would just mess around with the lefts coming in at Indicator.  There were a few wrapping rights, but it was mostly wind swell and from my vantage point looked a bit weak.  Once I paddled out I found the left to be very hard to ride and line up with all the WNW wind swell.  I ended up getting more rights.  I even found a few that wrapped into the point.  Some kid paddled up to me maybe around 18 or so and told me how stoked he was on my surfing and I inspired him to want to rip when he was a grom.  He especially liked how I approached the Cove.  Its funny cause I always felt my most awkward in the Cove.  I guess I must have been doing something right.  As the tide got higher I moved more to upper River Mouth where I found a couple of sick bowly ones.  My time was steadily running out and I just wanted to get one more right before paddling back around Indicator for a left home.  This wide sneaker came running by me and I was in perfect position to back door the peak.  At Rincon especially up at the River Mouth this is how I get my best waves off the crowd.  I dropped in and came around the peak only to find that some ass burned me.   But the pace of the wave was fine for me to keep up and dude stayed out far enough on the face to allow me to get the lip behind him anyway so I figured “Whatever we can share it”.  That was until the piece of shit realize I was back there and began cutting his turns deeper in an attempt to knock me.  Finally after failing at that effort he decided to just do a cut back and ran straight into me.  As it turns out it was the nut job that tried to drown me at Indicator last summer.  You can read “When Will the Fighting End” Blog for that tale of woe and stupidity.   We went under together and he proceeded once again to hold me under water.  Yet he forgot that my level of fitness allows me to hold my breath for some time and luckily the next wave in the set knocked him off of me. He yelled some bull about me being from New Jersey or whatever and paddled away.  I had to go to work and was not about to be late for that jack ass.  Instead I paddled back around the peak to the backside of Indicator and actually lucked into a very fun two turn left to go in on.  Despite it all a bad taste was left in my mouth on the surf from the confrontation.  To add injury to insult I stubbed my toe on a rock on the way in.   It hurt all day at work.  Fuck it you can’t shake a stick a the first WNW of the season already hitting at the end of August.  Maybe El Nino really is coming!!!!!

8-30-15 AM Session: 2-3 ft, Kooks Peak
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 16
It figures the first WNW swell of the season came with shitty tides and hard SW winds ruining any chance of point action.  I headed for Emma Wood hopeful for some high tide kill-able combo bowls.  Alas It was crowded an horrible.  Then I checked an array of random nooks and crannies that sometimes can be fun on such conditions.  Ultimately I just desperation paddled Kooks Peak, which as usual was absolute shit.  It by far had to be some of the worst waves I have surfed this summer and that is saying a lot considering how bad the summer has been.

8-29-15 AM Session: 2-3+ ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 15
Today was all about attempting to build back up a momentum.  I have gotten into a bad place, a lazy place surfing wise.  In California it is really easy to just go into no surfing mode, especially when the waves are average and one is busy.  This is exactly what happened to me this entire month.  In order to break the trend I forced myself to go for a surf.  The day was also about reconnecting with some old friends.  Pat hit me up early about getting a surf in and met me down at New Jetty which was very average at best and a bit crowded for what was on offer.  I had not seen anything better on the way down.  Being the best of the worst New Jetty was the call.  I really didn’t get anything worth while, but I suppose it was nice to just get wet again.  I was stoked to get to catch up with Pat.  Then while I was working I exchanged some texts with Mike, who apparently has been kicking it in Italy at the moment.  I figured that guy was globe trotting it one place or another.

8-28-15 No Surfing: 2-3+ ft
Welll fuck I blew it this morning.  My girl and I got into a stupid fight.  I got angry and stomped off to the Wild Cat where I proceeded to down an entire bottle of rum.  The I stomped home and drank till the sun came  up.  Needless to say I was in no shape to surf and work was a shit show.

8-27-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
I could have found some surf at Ventura harbor, but I was lazy and unmotivated.   Besides I don’t surf anymore anyway.  I guess it came up a bit for the afternoon, but I had to work and it got windy anyhow.

8-26-15 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
Fuck, Shit, Fuck,, Fuck, Fuck why are there not waves.  Fuck surfing, fuck the ocean, fuck California.

8-25-15 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
More small surf and even less motivation on my part left me in bed before work this morning.  I just can’t justify the amount of effort it takes to go find grovel waves when I have to work.  Like I said no motivation.  Looks like some waves for the weekend.  Nothing like a weekend swell to bring out the crowds.

8-24-15 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
Today was my official first day at Westmont for the fall semester.  It didn’t matter cause the waves were shit anyway.  I was hoping to go to Jalama for an evening session, but my fellow sous chef’s brother in law died suddenly this morning and I had to stay late to prep out for the morning and lunch shift the next day.  By the time I got home it was too late to run up there for the ride-able at best conditions.

8-23-15 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
My plan was to try and get to Jalama since the wind was offshore early and predicted to stay light all day.  Then my girl and I had some drama ultimately leading to me running out of time.  It really wasn’t a big deal since I am sure it as far from good up there anyhow.  What a shit month of surf this has been.

8-22-15 No Surfing: 1-3 ft
More flatness went down this morning as the cam failed to produce little more then knee to thigh high junk.  Over it I stayed in bed till noon since my lady an I decided to hit the scene hard last night and both of us as a result were feeling a tad lethargic.  Then I had to work a wedding, which was a hectic shit show that kept me on the clock till 12:30 am.

8-21-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
I might have been able to find some summer grovely crap at Ventura Harbor but there were a few extraneous circumstances that made it unlikely.  For starters I lucked my keys in my car last night while I was unloading and since my AAA is expired I have to wait for my chick to make it over tonight before I could get it opened.  Since that was the case I decided to go get loaded at the Wild Cat.  Lastly I had work at 11.  I doubt I missed much anyhow.  Now lets just hope I can get my car open so I can surf tomorrow.

8-20-15 Pm Session: 1-3+ ft, New Jetty
Time in water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 20
I had no intentions on surfing this afternoon.  Trevor was feeling rather ill rendering himself unable to drive home to Ventura.  Bizarro drove him home to Ventura and I followed in my car so that Bizarro could get home.  Since we were already south I decided to give New Jetty a look.  It looked like windy Florida shit.  Fuck I grew up in that crap and who am I to shake a stick at it.  I paddled for a Lisanti 20 and Bizarro shot cause he was along for the ride anyway.  It was kind of fun.  We got a few decent sunset perspective shots from the Jetty.  I was glad I surfed.

8-19-15 PM Session: 1-2+ ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 39
I actually thought today was going end up in little more then a car surf.  Trevor hit me up and said that Indicator was terrible but he wanted paddled it.  Since I was headed back to the Barb with my head hung low I decided to meet him.  It was tiny, but there were a few possible ride-able ones and I did want to try my board despite the meager offerings.  Not to mention the fact that I burned up over ten bucks in gas. We paddled and I managed to find a few tiny bowls in the mush.  It beat not surfing and Indicator is a great place to watch the sunset.  For whatever reason when I surf terrible waves with Trevor I always feel like a grom again.

8-18-15 PM Session: 3-4+ ft, Gold Coast
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 23
The wind decided to stay down again today prompting me to grab some lunch at Lalo’s in Ventura and seek another session.  Any excuse to go to Lalo’s is fine by me.  I love that place.  Ryan and I met back up at the Goldie once again for round two and sure enough it was still solid.  With the lower tide it was a bit throwing a bit more then the morning.  Crowd was still pretty busy with some of Ventura’s most elite including Matt McCay and Dane Renyolds.  I went into scrap mode and got my share, even stuck a few airs.  The current is tough out there and after last nights New Jetty treadmill surf and the morning my arms were feeling pretty burnt.  It took all my strength just to hold position.  On my last wave I stalled for a gnarly little drainer that I miraculously came out of.  Ryan scored a good one right behind me and we both decided to end of the up note.  What a day of surfing.  I needed it.

8-18-15 AM Session: 3-4+ ft, Gold Coast
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 22
Fuck, there were waves today!! I think hands down today was the best day of surfing I have had in about a month.  The best part was it was a mystery swell.  Nothing was in the forecast or expected.  When I woke up this morning the buoys were reading sold, all the cams looked good and the report was calling it 3-4 ft.  Pumped I cruised south to the south end of the Gold Coast right before Emma Wood since the swell was very short period south easterly and that place loves that angle.  It was firing.  solid chest to head with bigger sets, glassy and barreling.  There was a light crowd, but that spot is in clear view of the road and rather well known.  I knew it wasn’t going to last.  Sure enough people kept coming till it was a solid twenty shoulder to shoulder including Bobby Martinez and his crew.  The thing about this wave is that the take off area is very tight so twenty guys are literally on top of one another.  Bobby was killing.  Its too bad he had to become the martyr of the ASP in order for them to make important changes at his expense.  Watching him surf he is still in that top tier of guys and could easily kick some ass on the WSL.  I had some choice ones myself, though I always find that my performance on this spot is a bit lacking.  Part of it is due to the constant jockeying for position makes it tough for me to set myself up, some is a little stage fright cause everyone down the line is just staring at you waiting for you to blow it up or just plain blow it.  Part of it is that I suck at surfing front side.  All that being said I did manage a few incredible rides and got the best barrel I have gotten since the end of June.  I managed a deep drainer off the crowd and just pulled in for the Hail Mary.  I was so deep I couldn’t even see out of it.  I held on high and tight and right as the curtain was about to come down on me I slid to the bottom and came out clean, even ended with a solid hit.  It made my fucking day.
8-17-15 PM Session: 2-3 ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 39
I had to do some brief organizational stuff up at Westmont and I must say I that it may actually be a good year this year.  After which I checked the surf and the cam looked clean at C Street prompting me to take the gamble and head south to Ventura Harbor with the hopes of scoring a few nuggets.  Sure enough there were a few solid ones at New Jetty with no one out.  Stoked I hit up Ryan and paddled.  Too bad the current was absolutely terrible and then a few of the Ventura pros paddled making the few offerings available a bit less then easy to catch.  At first I just couldn’t build momentum and kept falling and picking off the shit ones.  Then at about the half way point everything turned around and I found all of the winners and actually landed some cool shit.  Good times, so stoked to be surfing again.

8-16-15 PM Session: 2-3 ft, Jalama
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves surfed: 35
I know Jalama is quite the mission for only an hour and half session but with the terrible track record I have had on surfing lately I wanted to get wet.  With Sunday traffic going south is no better either.  Earlier in the day I was bogged down with tons of other bull shit.  Bizarro wanted to shoot and the lighting and conditions looked good so off we headed.  It was a tad smaller and weaker then I would have liked, but I had Cracks all to myself and managed a few nuggets.  Even got one really sick money shot.

8-15-15 No Surfing: 1-3 ft
Well I found my way to Fancytown rather fast last night.  Maybe eating nothing but BBQ Wings was a bad idea before going out.  History as always proven that when I go out on an empty stomach I end up a complete shit show.  From what I heard I made a huge ass of myself.  Alright!!!  Party!!!  Whatever the surf sucked anyway and I didn’t have work till 3 pm.  The wedding went off decent enough other then the fact that the kitchen and hall were hot as all hell.  I don’t sweat and I was ready to pass out.  I want hazard pay for that one.

8-14-15 PM Session: 2-3 ft, Jalama
Time in Water: 2 hrs
Waves Surfed: 48
Needing a surf and getting out of work earlier then expected Bizarro and I cruised up the the “J” in the hopes of scoring some fun wind swell/south swell mix.  The wind was NNE with all signs pointing to it going straight offshore.  Unfortunately it was a tad smaller then we would have liked and less south making the surf mostly scrubby weak wind swell.  It was too small to really get the outer bar going thus I found myself making to most of the waist to chest high shore break.  The wind did go off shore so at least I had that going for me.  God this month has been deplorable.
8-13-15 No Surfing: 1-3 ft
More shit surf left me with out a surf again today.  Trevor thought he saw some wind swell on the way home, but then rescinded the sentiment.  Instead I sat around my apartment after work and did absolutely nothing.  I need a new hobby.

8-12-15 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
Once again the surf decided to quit on me.  I checked the cam and it looked meager at best with lots of channel chop on it. I didn’t need that noise.  I had work at 11 anyhow.  This is by far the worst August for surf ever.  Seriously I have only surfed twice the entire month.  Fuck shitty California summers.

8-11-15 AM Session: 2-3 ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 2hrs
Waves Surfed: 28
Holy shit I finally went surfing today.  Its only been like ten days.  Between poor conditions, windy Jalama, Fiesta and a visit from my lady’s family what could I do.  Let’s face it it were epic you know I would be there.  Anyhow I was surfing no matter what today despite the meager forecast.  Jalama looked small and not worth it so I booked it south to New Jetty.  Although rather small I saw a few inconsistent south lines that looked do-able.  Of course when I got out there I realized that all the groms were barely four feet tall making it a bit smaller then I had thought. I grinded out a surf. Once you get out of surf mode its super hard to get back into it especially when the surf is so bad.  I forced myself to just paddle and get back into surf mode.  At the moment I don’t have a computer cause mine took a shit on me so if updates seem a bit untimely that is why.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  If anyone at home has an old one they want to hook up please feel free to contact me.
8-10-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
Trevor claims he got barreled though it was all he managed to get out at New Jetty.  Ryan said it wasn’t worth getting my girl all angry at me considering she had some family coming to visit and wanted me to take part.  Instead of surfing my day was spent doing the tourist thing with her sister, mom and her sister’s four kids.  Minus fighting my hang over all day while trying to look up beat and happy I believe the family liked me.

8-9-15 No Surfing: 2-4 ft
Oh fiesta nights and lazy hung over fiesta days.  Bizarro, Trevor and I had to work a wedding which minus a semi smashed wedding cake (not our fault) went off with out a hitch.  Later that night it was Tuxedo night for Bizarro and I at the Wild Cat.  Whoot Whoot Whoot Party!!! Fiesta!!!

8-8-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
From what I heard Ventura Harbor had some waves. Fat lot of good it did me though.  With all the booze I consumed the previous night there was no way I was squeezing a surf in before work. I also had to go look at two potential living spots in Summerland.  Both ended up being a bust.  One had a room that was full of dirt.  Literally there was a pile of dirt that was leaching out of the foundation.  Then there was a random room that was all different levels.  I don’t know if it was Krammer inspired or what, but I was not having it.  I am sure my cat Alfie would have loved it.  Lastly the advertised half bathroom was nothing more then an out house with three and half walls and a couple of laundry hook ups.  I guess the view was cool too bad all the rest sucked.  All that for the lovely bargain price of 2200 a month.  Santa Barbara is insane.  Surfing after work was out since I had more fiesta activities with my lady who wanted to enjoy the Flamenco dance show at the court house.

8-7-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
There appeared to be a few little ones coming in on the cam though I over slept and had to go to work not allowing for anytime to surf.  I made an attempt to get south for a quickie after work, but fiesta traffic was nuts and ultimately the meager windy offerings were not persuasive enough to bother.  As far as fiesta night two went, what can I say.  I wore all white, Bizarro wore all black.  As per usual we were the best dressed out.  Many drinks and shots ensued.  Whoot.

8-6-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
Another lie of a flat 2-3 ft day courtesy of the pacific and Surfline.  Opening night of fiesta was solid. I wore my new blue suit, everyone was out and the crowd was the best I have seen on an opening day in years.  Take two tonight.

8-5-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
There might have been the occasional south set this morning, but I watched the cam at Cstreet for over fifteen minutes and was at a loss to really find anything to justify the drive.  Jalama was still windy and I had to work.  Looks like maybe a slight bump up in swell for the weekend.

8-4-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
Surfline was calling it 2-3ft but I highly doubt that was really what was coming.  The cams and the buoys looked exactly the same as yesterday’s failed car surf and rather then throw away more money I didn’t really have I decided to bag it.  Jalama was still way too windy as well.

8-3-15 No Surfing: 1-2 ft
I had me a good old fashioned car surf today.  I drove around everywhere down south and Jalama was too windy to take the risk.  If I can’t find any waves you know its fucking terrible.  Its too bad too cause I really needed a surf and didn’t have the gas money to waste.

8-2-15 PM Session: 1-3 ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1 hr
Waves Surfed: 19
Oh what a grovel I had at Ventura Harbor.  My girl had some Ventura errands to run an afterward we decided to hit the beach.  The surf was deplorable, bout the same as what I left behind in Jersey.  The weather was nice and I wanted to get wet.  I managed a few waves though nothing notable.  Afterwards We looked at a cottage just above Rincon which was actually one of the originally houses to stand on the point dating back to the 1920’s.  It was a rad spot though ultimately we decided it was too small for us.  The hunt for a place to live continues.
8-1-15 No Surfing: 2-3 ft
It was my first day back in town and the waves were very average.  Since I was missing my baby really bad I decided to give her the day and just hang.  Also I was exhausted.  Air travel is not the decadent thing it used to be in the old days.  Back in the day you got a meal, a pillow, blanket, all the refreshments you could handle and a warm moist towelette.  These days you don’t get shit and barely have enough room for your legs.  The divide between the rich and the poor has become even more evident in the friendly skies.