Saturday AND Sunday Surf Session - WHAT!

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

That's right!  I surfed Saturday AND Sunday this weekend.  I was down south in Northern San Diego County.   So, I went surfing at one of the best spots down that way, Cardiff by the Sea. 

Saturday's session was on my Infinity Phoenix V4 SUP.  I love my asymmetrical board.  I did the paddle thing for an hour.  It was fun.  I'm starting to get it more and more.  It is definitely harder to paddle into a wave than the Walden Magic Model I had before.  At the same time, it surfs so much better.

After an hour or so of that I ditched my paddle on shore and prone surfed for another hour.  Again, I love my Phoenix.  It surfs so well.  It is confidence inspiring even in powerful surf.

This weekend's surf was not powerful, but it was a lot of fun.  I think both Saturday and Sunday ran about waist-high for most sets.  Every now and then a larger set would roll through. 

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

The tide was a bit of an issue because it was really low mid morning and didn't really push in for the following high tide.  Cardiff is a reef break (rock reef - not coral) and a low tide brings a lot of the rock really close to the surface, but not quite out of the water.  There's usually just enough room for your surfboard fins and not much else as you get closer to shore.  It also makes stepping off your board at the end of a wave weird.  You have to be careful not to just step off because it might be rock, it might be sand, it might be shallow, or it might be deep.

On Sunday, I surfed my 8' Grain Surfboards Steamer that I built back in October of 2013.  It was finally done at the glass shop, Moonlight Glass, last week and I picked it up this past Saturday from Surfy Surfy in Leucadia, CA.  It turned out SO good.  It looks AWESOME.

I purchased a Progress Project Board Bag and a wood Rainbow Fin for it in the mean time.  The bag is made from a repurposed surf competition advertisement sign.  It is heavy duty waxed tarp like material.  It is very well made and I am equally stoked on it as I am with the board itself.

The Rainbow Fin is cool because the wood pattern matches the board itself very well.  Plus, at 9" it handles the heft of the board in surf no problem.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

Surfing the Steamer was such an awesome experience.  It is a really heavy board, somewhere in the 30 pound range.  I was worried that the heft would be an issue, but the opposite was true.  Paddling was tough to start, but once the board was in motion, it was easy to keep momentum.  Turtle diving the board was equally easy.  The weight helped keep the board under the wave and going through the wave.  Paddling to catch a wave was again tough to get going, but once motion started it was easy to continue.  Once in a wave, it bottom turned like a dream and tracked down the line like a freight liner.  I'm not anything to write about when it comes to my surf style, but I was styling it up as much as I could on this board and those waves.  SO MUCH FUN!!

So, needless to say, I am happily sore and tired from all of my surfing adventures this weekend.

Until next time,
Clayton

No sleep 'til. . .

Original photo by  Brian Roberts

OK, I'm not really going to Brooklyn, but the song was stuck in my head.  So, you're welcome.  Just a small service I provide free of charge.

Any way, TWO WEEKS, it's been two weeks since I've surfed.  I've been doing other things, but I honestly miss the water.

Last weekend, the 25th and 26th of January, was an epic weekend for swell on the west coast.  We had a strong W-NW ground swell charging in that was the right period (time between waves) and angle (direction towards the beach) for most of California.  From Mavericks all the way down to Imperial Pier it was head high or bigger.
 
Speaking of Mavericks, they had the annual contest there on the 24th of January.  It was HUGE to say the least.  Mavericks did not disappoint.

Seal Beach, which is one of my local breaks, and Katin Surf Shop also held a contest the previous weekend.  Seal Beach experienced some very large surf and the contest had great waves.

I wimped out and skipped surfing both Saturday and Sunday.  Wah wah wah.  I live in the Huntington Beach area which is all beach break.  We haven't been getting a lot of rain (nothing significant since Thanksgiving) so the sandbars are not set up like they usually are in the winter.  As a result, the swell was more powerful than the beach could handle.

I did go to the beach that Sunday the 26th and watch guys hopelessly paddle out only to get pile-driven into the sand once they actually dropped into a wave.  It was both awesome and scary to watch Mother Nature doing her thing.

Original photo by Kristine Paulus

Now, let's move on to this weekend the 1st and 2nd of February.  Happy Groundhog's Day, by the way.  Sorry to anybody living outside of California.  Even if we get six more weeks of "winter", California winter is really weak.  It may as well be fall or spring compared to anywhere else in the country.

This weekend the swell and tide were all kinds of weird.  The swell activity went from epic last weekend to non-existent this weekend.  Plus, the tide was going through very large swings.  Really high High Tides and negative Low Tides made the surf hard to come by even with the little bit of wave energy we were getting.

Instead of surfing, I purchased some TRX goodies.  I purchased the TRX Pro suspension trainer from a local dude off of Craig's List.  It is awesome and holy cow, body weight exercise is a lot tougher than I expected.  The other TRX goodie I purchased is The Rip Trainer.  It is a stick-and-ball type training device.  The resistance is attached to one end.  It creates a dynamic off-balance load.  The idea is to use it to help with my SUP paddling.  I also purchased an Indo Board trainer to help with my balance out in the water.  My new Infinity Phoenix is stable, but has different characteristics than the Walden Magic Model I had before.

I've been using my new toys and boy, are my muscles tired.  I really enjoy the workouts.  I'm ready to get back in the water though.  I need to man-up and just get out there the next time we have a good swell event.  Hopefully, all the TRX training during the week will pay dividends on the weekends.

Until next time,
Clayton