Can't believe it rained for a week

Finally back in the water after another week long hiatus due to the rain. The water was exceptionally cold today and the high tide made things a bit weird.

You actually had to catch them pretty close to shore and wait until the deflection made the wave "pop". Once you got in and if you were in a corner, the rides were actually pretty decent.

I had a nice left where I thought I could smack the lip. But as they say, "sometimes you smack the lip and sometimes the lip smacks you." We smacked each other.

Played 3 hours of flag football after surfing for 2 hours. I'm beat. Will try to get some more surfing in before I take off for vacation.

A little smaller today - and definitely still cold

Got out this morning at about 6:20 and it was pretty cold. I opted to go southside since I had so much luck with that area yesterday. Unfortunately, there were a lot of big lulls, so I got the "grass is greener" syndrome and ended up paddling North side then eventually back south. There is actually a pretty good sandbar about 50 yards south of the pier.

Got a few good rides, but my best ones were the ones where I waited way outside for the cleanup sets. Those were nice and meaty and gave me a lot of face to move. I actually had a few off the lips that I thought I was going to get crushed on, but landed.

Every wave I got I always thought in the back of my head, "does my style look rank?" Probably does, but whatever - I'll just keep working at it.

There's an Australian dude (a few of them actually) that surf Venice pretty regularly. Those guys have awesome style whether it be on a longboard or a fish. I'd like to get to a point where everything looks super smooth and easy.

The only way to do that is to just keep surfing.

F-f-f-f-f-reeezing c-c-c-c-c-old

You know it's cold when every person that goes in the water screams and then paddles up to you to say, "It's so coold!"

Definitely some waves out there this morning. You just had to wait for a bit for the good ones to roll through. There were also some fun cleanup sets if you were in the right place.

Great day for the fish/fun board/long board.

I am definitely glad to be back in the water after another flat spell. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as fun!

VENICE!!!!

Venice is on fire today.... Shoulder to head high sets rolling through and a few plus set cleanups. I actually drove out to Sunset first and it was pretty crappy because the tide was too high. The way he swell direction was and the way the waves were hitting led me to believe that Venice was going to go off.

Sure enough when I walked up to the pier Bob told me to get out there. There were a ton of rights rolling through that were more than makeable.

I opted to go Southside because there was a channel in the middle of the beach - just in case it got too gnarly. Paddle out was pretty easy but far - I was glad I brought the fish instead of the 6'0".

Took me about 30 minutes to sack up and paddle into one. My first wave sucked and was closed out. My second wave and succeeding waves were pretty sick. It was really easy to pull ahead of the waves, so you had to do a cutback and get back into the curl. The whole thing today was getting over the mental hurdle of paddling in.

There were a bunch of people out and the dudes that were posting up by the pier were getting some sick, sick rides. They also got punished if they pulled in too late.

"Lots of water, dude. Just make sure to relax when you get hit," someone told me while we were out there.

So worth it to be out today. Lots of paddling, lots of gnarly sets and some big sneaker sets that roll through. But trust me, when you catch a wave, you will be stoked to last for a few days.

BIG, but not quite Big Wednesday

I decided to go jogging this morning to check out the swell. I could see the whitewash from Pacific, but I didn't see rows of sets in the horizon.

When I got to the pier, I saw that it was open and there were a lot of people out there checking out the surf. The surf looked to be about 15'-18' because it wasn't touching the bottom of the pier; just missed it by about 5 feet.

Compared to Big Wednesday, the sets weren't as gnarly because (if I remember correctly) Big Wednesday was a SW and this one is actually a NW. Some of those sets looked makeable with a tow in setup, but who the hell would want to tow in at Venice?

I also saw 3-4 people at breakwater. It looked like a hell of a paddle out because they had to make it past the sets and past the rocks. I didn't see anyone catch anything.

It's supposed to back down a bit tomorrow. I wonder if it's going to rain on Friday?

The fun before the storm

Got out this morning at about 6:00 and there was definitely some swell in the water. It looked really soft but there was definitely some size building.

When I first paddled out, it was pretty soft and I was actually thinking I should have brought the fish. I actually had to wait for the bigger sets to roll through to get me going. As the morning progressed, however, the sets were becoming more frequent and bigger. I figure it should be really awesome at about 10 - 10:30.

I got a few rides, but the bigger ones didn't open up all the time. They would usually just close. I saw people south and people by the jetty getting some pretty good rides.

Tomorrow looks to be pretty big. Most likely, someone is going to get the bright idea of paddling out.

I'm bringing a camera.