I did mention there would be an abnormal amount of monthly recaps in the coming weeks courtesy of my laziness. So September in December? Well its better then a Christmas blog, don’t worry there were no arrests and no stabbings in Lisanti Land this year. (see Christmas Dread Part I, Part II and Part III for more on that) As a matter of fact I did not even make it to the bar Christmas night. Instead I ended up just falling asleep on my couch watching Seinfeld. Very exciting stuff I know.
September is usually one of the better months for surfing in California. Especially up here in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area. All bets have been off this year considering it is by far one of the worst and strangest years of surfing I have ever experienced. September did not disappoint in disappointing everyone. There was a total of one NW swell that was the biggest let down since cheese in a can. One South swell I missed thanks to a non-surfing trip I took to Portland, Oregon for a family wedding and subsequent Vacation. On said trip I managed to get myself into a family squabble impart because of a blog I wrote critiquing the wedding (see Portland Blogs: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV) and further proved to my parents what a fuck up I am.
There was one near epic day of crazy barrels at River Mouth that as far as I am concerned was the only worthy session of the whole month. The city of Santa Barbara decided to close the Mesa Lane steps pretty much denying access to the only really consistently short board-able wave in town. On top of all this I had to make a week long trip New Jersey for my sister’s wedding at the end of the month where I did manage among all the drinking to sneak in a couple of average surfs. To continue with the theme of 2012 September was just another month of let downs and screw ups. Here is how the numbers worked out:
Number of Surf Sessions: 19
Actual Days Surfed: 18
Total Time Spent in the Water: 31.5 hrs
Number of Waves Surfed: 531
Average Waves Caught Per Hour: 17
Spots Surfed:
New Jetty: 6
Emma Wood: 3
Santa Clara River Mouth: 2
The Pipe, Spring Lake, NJ: 2
Manasquan Inlet, Manasquan, NJ: 1
Riddle Way, Manasquan, NJ: 1
Hollywood by the Sea: 1
Little Rincon: 1
Gold Coast: 1
Gudalupe Dunes: 1
Top 3 Surf Sessions (as per Surflog)
3) 9/12/12 AM Session: 2-3+ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 26
New Jetty is back baby. I had heard rumors in my long hiatus from surfing that it was the case. Then on Tuesday my friend Lindsay confirmed it. I decided I would wake up and see for myself if it was true. Expecting a lie and then a subsequent terrible Emma Wood session I climbed the dunes in low spirits. Especially since the wind was whipping out of the west. Sure enough I saw a set of chest high waves break off the jetty and just peel. Stoked I called my boy Ryan and it was on. The crowd was about eight strong but everyone was taking turns. I was surfing really well although found that my lack of surfing had left me out of shape and struggling in the paddling department. Serves me right for nearly three weeks of drinking, partying and sloth. After the session I went to the Ventura swap meet where I scored a boss ass lamp for my living room $15, an alarm clock $3, “Breakfast and Tiffany’s” and “The Young Frankenstein” $1 and Candide and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn $1. What a score. Then I had my dinner party which was ten strong including myself. I served Chicken Parm over Linguine Rigati with garlic bread and stuffed apples for desert. It was a fine evening.
2) 9/17/12 AM Session: 2-3+ft, Gold Coast
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 37
What a fun ass surf courtesy of more tropical action. Its seems like all the best swells this summer were thanks to cyclones. I started at Ventura harbor but it was all swampy with the tide at New Jetty and I could not judge River Mouth. I had seen some good ones at Emma and went back there. As I was checking Emma I noticed some decent looking lines coming in at Gold Coast, which loves these short period tropical swells. I pulled up near the concrete retainer wall in the middle of the beach and picked a really fun peak. For a change I was surfing incredible and the crowd was easy and fun as it usually is there. Some how I pulled a front side submersible reverse. I think I have only stuck maybe three of those in my entire life. Nothing like a good day of surfing even if they are few an far between these days.
1) 9/26/12 AM Session: 5-7+ft, Santa Clara River Mouth
Time in Water: 3hrs
Waves Surfed: 40
Fucking barrel fest. By far the biggest heaviest, most hallow day at the River Mouth of the season. I was a bit slow getting down this morning and very sore from all the surfing yesterday. When I got up on the dunes I could not believe my eyes. All I saw everywhere was spitting huge open tubes. I almost fainted. I ran back to the car, tore on my suit and joined the party. I did not even do a turn till my 7th wave. Everything was just a take off right into the pit. Then the wind kind of got on it and made it a bit harder to get tubed but there were still plenty of heavy double ups that would let you in even if then did not let you out. I had three where I was in a tube so big I could have drove a Mack truck through them. Sooo fucking good. It will make missing a week of solid swell while I am in shitty flat New Jersey tolerable at least.
The only really worthy session of September looked something like this only bigger!
Surfing Ruined My Life 