Changes in the air.

Could it be? Could we see some NW swell in the water this weekend?  Could Venice start to not totally suck everyday, day after day?  There is a little “system” moving through this weekend which could bring some good waves.  Trick is to find the window before too much rain and runoff ruin things.

On another note, just got word from a friend in Mammoth that snow is also on the way and they may open the mountain early?  Ooooh. Snowboard season is upon us, too.   I love sideways sports!

Beautiful day.

Still boycotting Venice, but it was such a beautiful morning that I decided to grab my skateboard instead and go for a skate. Awesome.  Love me some skating along the boardwalk in the early morning. The air is fresh and cool, and it just feels so good to carve it up. Did a surf check and, actually, it didn’t totally suck.  It was pretty small – about 2-3 foot – and the shape was kinda ok.  Not good by any means, but I saw some corners.  Hmmm.  May rethink the boycott.   Only maybe.

What a weekend.

Ton o’ fun. Surf was great.  Probably NOT in Venice but thankfully, I didn’t even look!  Went down to Bolsa on Saturday and had a great time.  Surf was head high and generally really good shape.  We paddled out right at high tide and waves were breaking kind of soft, so it took awhile to get into a groove. But eventually I found a rhythm and caught a handful of really good, long waves. There were lulls in between the sets and the current was running very strong, so it was impossible to stay in position.  Constant paddling.  About halfway into the session, I caught a really long left all the way to shore and stepped off the board and onto the sand to get out and walk back down the beach.  Paddled out near the rivermouth and in less than five minutes had drifted back up the beach.  Still, awesome session.

Went up to surf Malibu second point with BP on Sunday morning (nerd #1 went to Yoga), and we had another fun session. Sets were still about head high although the lulls in between were longer.  BP said he caught more waves at Malibu than at Bolsa, but I had more waves on Saturday. This was his first time surfing the ‘bu so he had a good time. After about an hour-an-half, we drifted from second point down into the pack of longboarders at first point.  It was typically crowded there.  We each caught one wave in and called it.

Weather was perfect. Water temp still not too cold.  All in all a very good weekend.  I love surfing!!!!

Whew.

Thank God it’s almost the weekend.  Definitely need to get away for a good surf.  Should be a really fun weekend for surf.  Heading south.  Still boycotting Venice.

Crap!

Paddled out at VBW this moring.  Fucking crap.  Fucking CROWDED crap.  Fucking crowded close out crap.  Even the beautiful morning could not save the session.  And I surfed the fish despite my recent declarations of the board being crappy for steep close out conditions.  Well just in case there might have been any doubt to my assessment of that board, I reconfirmed definitively that the board sucks in steep, close out conditions.  I nose-dived almost every wave I caught (three) except for one.

I hate surfing.  And I hate Venice.  I think I’m boycotting Venice until the NW swells show up.  How many fucking walls of water can one girl look over before she loses her mind?  Really.

Conflict of Interest?

BP (aka nerd #2) is here now and he’s blogging about surf in Venice.  Hmmm.  Not sure how I feel about this turn of events.  He assures me that there will be no competition, but I’m not entirely convinced that this isn’t a direct conflict of interest.  Look. He already posted about our surf session at El Porto on Saturday.  Is there really room for two Venice surf bloggers?  Oh I suppose it will be ok. Competition is good.  It will keep me honest.  And besides, I might retire (again) soon so there will be a back up blog to follow if I take a bow.  Besides, I’m the OG venicesurfergirl and he’s, well, British.  Totally different.  But I AM hoping for a dawnie tomorrow before work.

Pleasantly surprised.

Despite forecasts for terrible surf conditions this past weekend, I atually ended up having two really fun sessions.  Really fun! Paddled out at El Porto both mornings to small crumbly waves, and ended up having a blast.  On Saturday, went out with nerds #1 and #2 on my regular thruster shortboard.  It looked like total crap from the beach – onshore winds, mushy, textured, small waves. We talked ourselves into going just for the paddle, and once we were out, we all caught a bunch of fun little waves with many that held up with decent shoulders.  I felt like I was back in a groove and definitely prefer surfing small mushy waves to steep close out waves.  We all had way more fun than we expected.

Talked Erin into going back to Porto on Sunday morning, although I was very careful to downplay how fun the session was because I didn’t want to oversell it (I’ve been known to be a bit too enthusiastic once or twice in my life). Decided to bring my 6′0″ retro twin fin fish out because that board is perfect for small mushy waves. Perfect.  And thankfully, the conditions were still fun and surfable. We both caught a bunch of waves and switched up surfing the fish.  Erin had one really good left on the fish where it held up really nicely and she surfed it so smoothly and fluidly.  Her turns were just so smooth – like Donovan Frankenreiter rather than, say, Andy Irons.  Well she paddled back out with the hugest grin on her face so it felt as good to her as it looked to me.  I love seeing my friends get a good wave like that and see their surf stoke on their face when they paddle back out to the line up.

That little fish is so awesome in the right conditions.  It is fat and skaty and super responsive.  You just have to “look” in the direction you want to go and it responds.  But it has no rocker in the nose so it is a very hard board to ride in steeper waves. Much like a longboard, on a steeper drop, you have to angle it hard down the face or it will nose-dive at the bottom of the drop.  But on a mushy, soft wave, it is like, hmmmm, butter. So smooth and sexy feeling.

Anyhow, I definitely feel like I got my groove back this weekend post Fiji and am loving surfing again.

Only a thought.

Thought about getting up early for a quick session before work, but it was only a thought. As 6:00 am rolled around, I turned the alarm clock off before it even went off and rolled back over to sleep for another hour. Just wasn’t feeling it. I did a quick surf check at VBW around 8:00 am and it was another beautiful morning. Really, Venice is so beautiful this time of year. Waves were semi-decent with the usual mix of close outs and corners. VBW looked pretty crowded though…probably about 20 people out. Tomorrow? Maybs.

Beautiful day.

Paddled out for a quick session at the pier this morning. It was a spectacular morning with the full moon over the horizon, crisp and clear sky, mountains (and smoke) off in the distrance.  Just beautiful. Surf was, well, just kind of….eh.  Erin and I paddled out to the first peak on the north side of the pier and had it all to ourselves for an hour.  Usually, this peak is packed with the local rippers, but for some reason, no one was on it this morning.  And it wasn’t like it was a bad day.  In fact, it was typical Venice….mostly close outs with a few corners here and there. Erin got the best waves of the morning.  She got at least three good waves that held up although she will argue with me that she only got one really good wave.  I beg to differ.  I pulled into a couple of close outs but did not really have any good waves. Haven’t found my groove since I’ve been back. Still, it was really nice to paddle out, enjoy the morning and get a bit of exercise before work.  No complaints.

p.s. The water isn’t THAT cold.  Didn’t need booties yet.

Cold and Windy.

Went down to Bolsa Chica yesterday for a surf since size was down and we kind of figured Huntington might be the place to pull in some waves. Well, there was definitely some waves with good shape, but the winds were howling offshore and the water was cooooold.  Erin snapped a few pictures.

The problem was getting into the waves. They were breaking very slow on the high tide, and the offshore winds made it really hard to paddle into the wave and see anything with the spray flying into the face.

Erin sat on the outside and caught a couple of set waves – one really long left.  I sat on the inside and caught a couple of white water take offs with short drops.  I was definitely out-paddled by longboarders who were also having a tough time catching waves. Wish I had some more board because once you were in the wave, it looked really fun.