Surf's UP!

[Scott Douglas]

Pretty big waves down at Huntington Beach this morning.

[porsche4life]

Will it hold through the weekend? We will be in Laguna this weekend.

[Nostril Cheese]

[Jim Richards]

My son's probably out surfing now.

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Will it hold through the weekend? We will be in Laguna this weekend.

How long are you going to be there Sid?

[porsche4life]

Just for the weekend Jim. Leaving on Monday

[Jim Richards]

Crap. We're arriving Friday AM, but have a side trip for a few days. Won't be at our house until Wed.

[R K T]

This morning at The Wedge

[R K T]

Even Cabrillo Beach in Pedro got surf......

[campbellcj]

Well it really fuched-up traffic on PCH the last couple of days! This morning it took nearly 2 hours from Pepperdine to I10 (around 15 miles). I think that's a record, and not in a good way.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Will it hold through the weekend? We will be in Laguna this weekend.

Today was the peak, but it should stay up for a few more days. If you're a newbie though, think twice about going out. Some seriously heavy water - a guy died at Malibu Tue and many places are double overhead. Not for the faint of heart. That said, much of the south bay is manageable. But OC, north SD and north LA/Ventura is going off.

[porsche4life]

Good to know Todd. I'll check reports before we get in the water.

[R K T]

As big as it was today....nothing compared to Mavericks up north!

[Scott Douglas]

Yeah, it was pretty interesting seeing all this big surf and not a soul was in the water yesterday. I think they closed the beach as the rip was really churning. You could see it in the brown water. Really kind of weird seeing surf this big and weather this nice as we usually only get big surf when it's stormy.

This was the view from the pier looking north.

[Cajundaddy]

Wow, it is the biggest SoCal surf in a long time. They logged 25 ft waves in some areas. Whew! The cross-current is just screaming too.

Back when I was a college athlete, I surfed 9-12 in the winter storm swells. That was big enough to scare the pee pee out of me. Watching some of these guys going over the falls in this stuff puts a lump in my throat.

[Craig T]

I was really surprised how sensationalized this swell was in the media. Yesterday, Ventura Point and the breaks from Pt Magu to Will Rogers were almost impossible to access due to the crowds. Everybody from Needles to Bakersfield with a flotation device they could attach a leash to was at the beach. Most changed their minds when they got there

At Ventura Point, there were flocks of surfers milling around, but very few in the line up. It was a little scary. The closeouts were VERY effective at thinning the crowds. ...Accept at Malibu Point. I checked it out in the afternoon. Five guys dropping in on every wave. In 42 years surfing, I've NEVER seen that many people in the water.

[Craig T]

Cool vids from yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c92NsSAf0Ic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-NtNKBfjgY

[Scott Douglas]

There was one idiot in the water yesterday. While on the pier a couple asked me if I knew what happened to him. I didn't know at the time he was in the water. Turns out I actually got a picture of him without knowing it.
You know the waves were pretty big when the rescue boat would disappear in the trough between waves, and this was from a vantage point on the pier, not the ground level.

[nostatic]

The ability to make the waves is highly break dependent. With many spot, it isn't riding the waves, it is being able to paddle out to get to them in the first place. Reef point breaks are usually viable (like Malibu) but beach break - fuggedaboutit.

Back in the day we'd charge big waves. I gave up a hard board for a sponge in my teens, using an original Morey Boogie that was build from a kit that Tom started selling out of his garage in Carlsbad. The biggest I rode was Sunset Cliffs (Indicators) on about a 10-15' day. Reef break with plenty of channels to paddle out in, but about a 3/4 mile effort to get to the outer reef.

Some serious speed down the face but not the nastiest I rode. That would fall to either Marine Street (which is a reef with a shore break that is similar to The Wedge) or Horseshoes, which is a reef just north of Marine. I remember on day that was a solid 5-7'. Easy to paddle out to, but I dropped into a wave, lost my edge, and got drilled by the lip down to the shallow reef, then around and around. Finally popped up just in time for the next wave of the set to land on my head. Lather, rinse repeat, with the 3rd and last wave of the set. Dazed, my buddy paddled over to me and I swam into shore and spent the rest of the morning laying on the sand trying to figure out where I was with multiple gashes in my wetsuit and some lumps on my body.

Hardest place to surf was Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Very cold water, no paddle out channels, and often very heavy surf. I remember watching 25' waves from the parking lot on many a day. The paddle out was daunting whenever it got over about 4', and there was always a side current from the bay tidal flood so you had to paddle constantly in the lineup to keep your position. That said, probably the best wave of my life was had there in Oct '94. A late season santa ana came through and coincided with a clean 4-7' swell. I got a bunch of sick waves, but one in particular was a "my hair doesn't even get wet" tube that went on for what seemed like forever. But was probably about 3-5 seconds.

I don't charge big waves any more, but after 3+ months of daily swimming laps I'm back in shape to at least hit things up to about 5-6' I think. Have to go out this weekend...

[Scott Douglas]

Craig - the guy in that first video must have landed in what, about two feet of water? Ouch!

[tevake]

Yep, and it looked like he was on his way out when he got tossed up and back to the beach. Tough place.
Big swell, there was a video yesterday of a guy riding from the point thru the pier on a set wave at Malibu
Stay safe!