After two and a half weeks of sunny days, warm water and great surfing it’s time to head back to Nor Cal tomorrow. While Oahu’s South Shore has a lot of advantages wave height in the winter is not one of them. Norther California may have very cold water but you can always find some great surf somewhere between Santa Cruz and Ocean Beach. So, I’m looking forward to getting back to San Francisco, putting on my wetsuit, hood, gloves and booties and heading out on my new board.

Today was the first day where it was totally overcast all day. This actually turned out to be nice as the sun wasn’t always beating down on your back or in your eyes. Also, I’ve grown to like the overcast and foggy days when surfing in Nor Cal. The south swell was still hanging on so the waves were awesome. Wave wise this was one of the best days we’ve seen so far. The outer break was going off and the sets were coming in every 15 minutes or so. Each set had about 8 waves with the 3rd or 4th being the best.

I caught several rides, and my wife Emily caught about twice as many as I did! We both had a great time. My only downside was that I got ran over twice by 14 foot soft tops. If you find yourself surfing Canoes my advice is either paddle back out in the channel between Canoes and Queens or wait until the set is over. All of the times I got run over were when I was paddling back out in the middle during a set. It’s very hard to see people coming in from the outside behind the waves you’re paddling through. Most people are still learning, and can’t turn yet also, most good waves have several surfers on them. This makes for a dangerous paddle out. You just have to remember there’s a lot of people learning to surf here and their all out there to get the stoke – just like you. My advice is always be considerate, respectful and nice when surfing Canoes, or Queens.

All in all this was one of the best vacations we’ve every had. As we left the beach for the last time we were filled with aloha and totally stoked. A hui hou Oahu.

#42 / 2 pm

Surfline surf report for today – 2-3 ft + knee to chest high occ. 4 ft. – Merry Christmas for all the townies as Santa has served up another out of season swell for southern shorelines. Waves are in the knee to waist high range with some chest to shoulder high sets rolling in at select locations. Light tradewinds are blowing to provide ideal side to offshore conditions for southern shorelines.


Pre surf food –Bean tacos, and a banana.

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