California Buzz

We left for our trip to Southern California on Nov 8 and got home early morning Nov 14. The trip was fantastic. There are many stories, waves, experiences and more during the week that we were there. I took in all, about 2900 pictures. Pictures of surf, countryside, birds, campground anything to help remember all that the trip was. There is some fantastic talent in the water on the west coast and in posts yet to come I will give credit to some of these unkown surfers. Come back often for many updates as I cannot add everything now. To start with, here is a picture of what we had to put up with early morning every day.

Cardboard Surfboard?

One of the guys from work asked me the other day if I had ever seen a cardboard surfboard. I was thinking "yeah right." So he showed me a youtube video of a cardboard surfboard that the guy made. He cutout many pieces of cardboard with a cnc machine to make a cardboard blank. Its pretty cool stuff, I am interested in making one of these unique boards. check it out at http://foundout.blogspot.com/, and the website at http://www.sheldrake.net/cardboards/.

The tempermental Lake.

Once again the lake has chosen its own path. The wave forecast was a little bit incorrect. It turns out that we ended up surfing Saturday late afternoon at O road. I can briefly describe the conditions, Major current, Captain Mush, and Corporral no face. All members of the inconsistent and unpredictable army of waves that met us face to face. Winston had an idea to go up the shore were he has been before. The surf proved to be consistent, peeling and some size. It was a very good session. We rode into the night until we could not see the waves anymore. Headed home tired and satisfied...for the next 8 hours at least.

Possibly Epic?

Looking at the forecast for Sunday... well it has potential to be epic as long a the North wind stays out of the picture all day. I think that it needs more south in it for the spot I am watching to go off perfectly. Here's hoping it gonna be sweet... see ya in the lineup.

"...you can't surf the lakes!"

The forecast was calling for a heavy SW to churn up some nice swell for our surfing pleasure on Sunday. Loaded up the car with gear, gas and the guys to make the 5am dawn patrol session a couple hours up the north shore. We checked several spots, but the forecast looked better than it actually was. The decision was made to hit up old faithful. The sound of waves pounding was resonating through the trees. We suited up and hiked the short trail to the beach and found some overhead sets coming in. We surfed for hours, caught some good rides, met some people, took some photos and headed back home with intense thoughts of the Surf road trip approching quickly.

Spectacular

Wave buoys showed 10.8 feet on a SW and W wind. An adventure was underway to find some good waves. I went to a new spot and found 10 foot plus shore pound. The force and energy of the waves could be felt 100 feet away. The ground shook from the impact and I could feel pound in my chest. below is a photo of the shore pound.

I surfed for about an hour and a half at the down the beach at the pump house. The waves coming in were chest/shoulder high and jacked up nice and steep. After my session I went to the west end of the beach past the pumphouse and got some photos and video of the waves. I have surfed there before on a large day such as today. the waves wrap around the point and produce some nice and perfectly smooth waves to ride. Though the waves are small, about waist high at the most, the wave breaks with a peel and are glassy clean.

I then ventured to another beach to see what kind of waves were coming in. I found a wave that had extremely long rights and lefts. the wave has to be at least 7 to 8 feet for it to work, but when it does it looks like some nice long rides. below are some more shore pound photos.

Ahhh Summer

Most of our time when not at work is spent enjoying the summer months. Out camping in the new tent trailer or spending the weekends out at camp. Warm sun, warm water great family makes for some good times. Spent the weekend in the water, tubing behind the boat, snorkling for fish with the kids, water skiing and paddling the surfboard preparing for the upcoming season. Caught some fish Saturday night. Most people are out for the largest fish. The photo below is smallest bass ever caught. If you think he is small you should have seen the hook I used! The dogs watching the fish swim by, a favourite pastime. The buzzing and whizzing of the humming birds fighting over the feeders. All of these spell summer. Hopefully tommorrow will provide some excellent photos of the perseid meteor shower, heres hoping.

All photos taken by John Marchant