Double sessions

After a long week of too much work and no ocean, I decided it was high time for a double session. Wavecast was dead on this time, bringing the first "real" south swell since last year to southern California shores. Living less than 5 miles in any direction from world class south facing surf spots doesn't suck.

I kicked it off around 830am at one of my favorite stand up paddle spots. Although inconsistent at times, the waves were cranking well overhead on outside sets. As usual a handful of my SUP friends were there ripping it up with me which makes for an even more enjoyable session. We all continue to challenge each other on bigger waves, taking off later, making more turns and trying to make sections that seemed impossible for us last year. One of the guys in our crew, Marcus, was flying through sections on a new C4. Honestly I have never seen an SUP this fast before. You can find the board here on the Waterman website http://store.c4waterman.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C4SUBVECTOR9-3.

Three times today in the morning session I tried to make sections only to be clobbered by an eye level lip as the bottom fell out from underneath me. Spinning and getting tossed at full speed in the spin cycle isn't usually my idea of a good time. The force of the water is enormous and trying to hold onto a paddle while a 50lb board is dragging you through whitewater is definitely a humbling experience. The great part about all of it is once you catch your breath and turn around, you get hammered by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves of the set. Nice. OK, back to sections...My 10'6 Ron House just didn't have the acceleration to fly through those enraged walls of white water barreling in front of me...so I thought. Marcus gave me some quick pointers, stepping back further to the tail of my board and working it like a short board I was able to gain more acceleration and make the sections. Talk about a break through! For all you guys that have been surfing all of your lives that might technique might appear obvious, for us rookies with only 3 years under our belts it is not.

What a great day! 1 session in the morning 1 session in the afternoon on BIG DAYS. That's how you have to roll when the swell is in!

Now to get that camera work going so you don't think I'm telling stories about overhead wave riding on a paddle board...

out.

Mr. Steady

As much as I would like to name all the spots that I love to surf on my paddle board, I cannot do that in good conscience.  I will always talk about the epic little routes that I love to distance paddle, however there are so few spots that are stand up surf friendly it would be a crime for me to advertise them all over a blog like an idiot.  Therefore, the name of this spot for today's post is Mr. Steady.  Maybe I'll change it next time.  The best way for anyone to figure this out is get committed and start paddling around.  You too will find your own little piece of paradise away from the masses.  These spots are best left for those who earn it.  

I went out yesterday for a couple hours because I heard there was a rising swell coming in. Conditions where fairly windy, however nothing a good paddler couldn't handle.  We aren't talking white caps here people, those conditions are completely undesirable on a 10'6 SUP.  I went out by myself initially, paddled out to the break about 10min offshore and met up with another one of my buddies I paddle with a few times a week.  It was slow and pretty inconsistent but we didn't care as we had the whole break to ourselves.  There was a shortboarder who was having some fun in the shore break about 70 yards away, but he wasn't having nearly the fun we had when we rode our waves 70 yards until catching the barrel near shore.  nice.  The only problem is getting dumped when the sun goes down and you don't have a wetsuite on.  I never plan on falling, but hey it happens.  

So after my buddy left I was out there by myself, being a wave snob, waiting for the "big" ones (3ft or 4ft only) and I see another SUP paddling out in the distance.  It's about a 10min paddle so it's hard to recognize who is coming sometimes.  There isnt that many people in this area that I DONT know on stand up so I was excited to have a fellow SUP partner to close out the session. Sure enough, the guy was someone I met over a year ago at the Malibu Pier.  Here is the crazy part, he was the first dude who let me try his SUP way back then.  A whole year or so ago, hardly anyone was doing stand-up paddle in Malibu.  I would see some guys out there walking on water (so it seemed) and always wondered how cool it must be to actually do it.  Well this guy was the one who gave me my first opportunity.  He paddled up we recognized each other right away and started trading paddle stories and catching up on the latest and greatest in SUP technology.  Race boards, short boards, all wave boards..you name it.  Catching waves the whole time of course, both of us totally stoked.  At any rate, while closing out the session, we talked about all the races that happen here in SoCal for SUP and he directed me to a killer website to keep up to date on the race scene.  I should actually write a whole story on this deal but I will just leave you with the link tonight:  www.eatonsurf.com .  Click on "Information" at the top then go to "Events".  This site is really cool and can't believe I didn't know about it before.  So I've been talking about getting more involved in the whole race scene for SUP, now I don't have any excuses!  

We closed out the paddle session riding close-out shore break all the way back to our put in spot. Dark at this point, both of us totally stoked.  

until next time...

Escondido to Paradise

I  put in at Escondido today for a quick paddle with friends to the P-cove pier and back.  Luckily we finished up just before the wind really started to pick up.  There was a huge pod of dolphins, maybe 20 or more cruising about 50 yards in front of us looking for food in the protected, reefy inlet at Pt. Dume.  Very cool to watch and a very relaxing paddle with good friends.  Days like today are always good to talk about business, ideas, family, check out the scenery or just enjoy your time in the water on your board.  The swell was definitly showing signs of picking up and according to the reports it's moving in this afternoon.  If the wind dies back down and the swell shows itself, it might be good for an evening paddle at a south/southwest facing break.  One can hope..Let's see what the afternoon brings. 

Back to work on a beautifil day in Malibu!  

Gear is key...

So I have new gear ensemble that you should try if you paddle in the winter here in Malibu, CA. This gear is meant for sunny days on a stand up paddle board when the water is freezing. Wetsuit shorts, trunks over top of those (this is to keep 2 things warm, that's it), a long sleeve rash guard to help with the sun (saves time not putting sunblock on my arms) and finally a farmer john wetsuit top that's 3mm. Why farmer john? because if you go with a full top or a full wetsuit, I find it very constrictive and you get chaffed raw in the pits! Trust me on this one. If you do standup in the winter you want this outfit. If you don't believe me, have fun sweating your ass off in a 4.3/3.2mm wetsuit or if you just want to be the cool guy and go out in shorts with no protection you will end up a shriveled miserable prune if you end up getting wet. Enough of that, I should just put another entry in about SUP attire.

I think I might have to update the gear section for every season and every possible combination. Don't worry about, I will do the learning on what gear to have the HARD WAY. All you have to do is sit back relax and read the blog.

SUP Gear baby! that's what I'm talking about...

Zoom ahhhh....

No pic today unfortunately, however I am hoping to make up for it with very descriptive vernacular! I gotta get a waterproof digital camera for sure. Every single moment of every single day that I am NOT paddle boarding, I think about paddle boarding. The only time I do NOT think about paddle boarding is when I am actually paddle boarding. Drugs? Don't need them. So anyway, after making a few phone calls to my normal SUP crew and realizing that I could not get anyone to play hooky for an hour on a beautiful afternoon, I went at it by my self today. My girlfriend and I have been taking some great walks at lunch over at Westward Beach and the waves have been pretty solid for the short borders. Given I rarely paddle Zuma and I was looking for a challenge, I decided to give it a go. I figured high tide was at 1030am, which would allow me some time to actually ride waves that don't close out. I put in at Tower 14 up by Trancas around 12noon. Man was the water COLD!

After waiting for the shore break to die down a little, I threw my board in the water and barely made it over a couple sets. One thing you don't want to do in the winter before you have had a chance to warm up is fall in the freezing water right away. All your muscles tighten up which is not good for balancing on your board. It's not good for back spasms or a number of other sports related injuries that can happen by not being loose. So I headed down the coast towards Westward beach and got a good 30min work out paddle in. Turned around and started heading back around 1230-1245 and decided that just paddling wasn't going to be good enough for me today. I saw some pretty nice sets rolling in so decided to give them a ride. Well, seemed like a great idea until I realized I am in shore break with a 10'6 paddle board that is 30' wide and 4' thick! Yupper...nose down, dug right in and mr. wave man threw me for a good one. Good thing I'm not a quitter, becuase I attempted to ride waves for another 30-40min all the way back up the coast. Mostly unsuccessful, but had fun non the less. I wasn't around any surfers when I was dropping in but they looked at me like, "dude are you dumb or something"? I looked back at them like, "or something".

I caught the last wave in...stood all the way at the back of my board so I didn't get throttled and rode the whitewater to shore.

sweet!

until next time...

Space between...

The good news is I set up this blog about a month ago with full intention of updating every time I went for a paddle. Unfortunately, it is harder to write these mini posts than originally anticipated. I do however have 3 blogs to keep up with so maybe that's the issue. Lucky for all 6 of my readers, I am most passionate about this one so it gets updated most.

2009 will be a great year for this blog and a great year for SUP surfing!

stay tuned

Welcome to the "NEW DEAL"

Politics aside of course...

It's official, I have taken the plunge into the blogosphere and I am bringing my paddle board with me. Given this is my first (test) post, I will make it a short one.

In the days and weeks to come this blog will document my SUP adventures in Malibu and other parts of Southern California. I am super excited about this sport and even more excited to watch it grow and mature nationally.

So grab your board and paddle and enjoy the ride!