Me on a fun wave. Photos by Max.
Last day to surf before a big rain and wind storm blows through from Marin down to Monterey for the next four days. When we pulled up at the beach, conditions looked almost epic for Linda Mar. Smallish in size but clean lines rolling through and lefts and rights on two main peaks. One more south right in front of our Jeep and the other closer to the pumphouse where a back hoe was clearing sand (in prep for the storm we guessed). A group of guys were out with old, yellowed longboards, one had a big d-fin and riding leashless. Three of them were catching catching wave after wave and riding down the line right into the sand. Lots of waves and rides. The south winds were blowing at more than 12mph. They’ll get up to 35mph this weekend. As I suited up, I was unusually cold. Max’s foot was weird so he wasn’t heading out but hung out on the beach to take photos. I paddled out with the pressure that he was watching but forgot about that pretty quickly. It was so windy! And choppy. Looked and felt completely different in the water compared to land. Current was pushing everyone north. Waves were angling in at a curve and with the texture on the water, it was tricky to know where the peak was. Still, I lucked out with a fun, fast right early on. Max got the shot to prove it. Thanks, babe. Had a few pull-backs on closeouts. Had one where the wind blew off the back of the wave. Had and a board slip where it hit my front tooth. First thought was to head in and I actually started to. Then felt around with my tongue and it seemed ok. No blood. Pain eased and I thought, well, if I go in and it’s cracked, then the session’s over. I better get a couple more waves before finding out. Stoked to get a few more fun rights, and one at the end on the way in that was a bigger drop but mostly straight. Super active session. Wind picked up even more and blew my Mitsven right off the rack as we put it up. It rolled and almost hit the Revolver on the other side. Day of close-ones ;) Also saw a windsurfer after we got out who was zipping from south to north and back again going faster than a speedboat. He even got some waves at the north end. Amazing to see.
Shots from the day:
The windsurfer on his way out
Mini sequence of my wave:
#382 / 12 (1) / 4′ dropping / 7′4 Mitsven Egg
2-4 ft
Fair conditions
Afternoon Report for SF-San Mateo County: WNW swell continues to fade as a fresh run of shorter-period, mid-sized WSW swell joins in along with rising S/SSW winds. End result is sloppy looking surf in the head high to overhead zone at many exposed spots.
6ft at 5s SSW (191°)
4ft at 1s W (279°)
3ft at 6s WSW (232°)