Because of work and client calls we didn’t get down to Linda Mar until about 1:20 pm, which is the latest we’ve surfed in over a month. What a difference a few hours make. We heard reports from some of our friends earlier in the day that said it was pretty awesome there. By the time we showed up it was getting pretty messy.

The waves were rolling in on top of each other with lots of chop. It was kind of crazy. We both managed to catch a couple, and get closed out on a few times. I reality I don’t care what the conditions are like on any given day as long as I go out. Still had a great time! :)

#139 / #45 for 2011 1:40 pm

Tried my new Harbour 9.0 Banana again today at Linda Mar. I caught a couple of decent rides, but nothing to write home about. However, the waves were awesome today. They were breaking right and left, and it was fairly glassy. It could have used a bit more power which would have made the day perfect. Still, there were a lot of corners, and you could get a fairly long ride if you were in the right place, at the right time.

Surfing with my wife, the sun, and the waves – it was an awesome day! :)

#138 / #44 for 2011 10:50 am

Yesterday was not one of my best sessions. However, today was awesome! When we pulled into the parking lot we saw Izzy with a big stoke smile. He recounted how he just got barreled – grinning the whole time. After he gave us his perfect oceanside parking spot we sat there for a minute and stared at the incoming waves. Emily and I looked at each other – smiled and said awesome. The waves were shoulder to head high and glassy. The sun was shining, and the best shoulders at LM were relatively uncrowded.

As our white haired buddy Bruce from Seal Beach would say, “let’s ride” – that’s what we were thinking. And, ride we did. The lineup had a friendly vibe today and the waves were rolling in. Today all my rides were lefts, and Emily’s were rights. We …

Surfed with Emily at Linda Mar today. Caught a couple of knee high close-outs on my new board. Was it crowded on a sunny Saturday? Yes. How were the waves? Meh. BTW, did I mention that the south end of Linda Mar smelled like poop today.

#136 / #42 for 2011 11:45 am

Generally, I don’t measure an epic day by the size of the waves, but more by the shape, and consistency. By those standards today was truly epic. When we first got out to the beach with our boards the waves looked a bit smallish. Also, there were only three other surfers out. At Seal Beach this is unusual.

There was a family of three out with M & M – a father and two sons from Utah. Except Joe, all of the other regulars were missing. Bruce had been by earlier and passed. It would have been even more fun if he was there. He’s an awesome dude!

Emily and I caught more quality waves in one day than ever before. Right, lefts, s-curves, cut-backs – it was all happening today. We even got to touch the wave a few times. …

When I got up this morning my shoulder was still hurt fairly bad from yesterdays session. We had come a long way to surf here so I had to try to go out. Unfortunately it was a very short session.

I suited up and headed out despite the pain. The waves were smaller than the last few days, but the waves were perfectly formed. I paddled for five waves and missed them all. My paddling had no power, and my pop-up hurt so I headed in. Emily had another excellent day, and for once I had the pleasure of watching her from the beach.

I’ll give it another try tomorrow. :)

#134 / #40 for 2011 9:00 am

Yesterday afternoon I purchased a new Harbour 9.0 Banana. This particular board matched the size and shape that my surf instructor had suggested. It’s a thicker version of the board Emily bought yesterday which was a Harbour HP 1. Both boards are high performance longboards. I still love my 10.0 Bruce Jones Noserider, but I wanted something a bit shorter with more performance features for the upcoming winter in NorCal.

The new board really worked out well. It took some getting used to, but by the end of the session I was making most of the waves on it. I caught some nice lefts and rights and I found that the board was very responsive, and turned on a dime. The size and shape of the board plus the high performance fin really made a difference.

Emily was also outstanding …

It was Saturday at M & M Surf School which means lots of students. Instead of one or two other surfers there was over twenty today. It’s definitely fun with more people, but the downside is less personal attention. It was fun seeing some of the weekend regulars that we met last time we were here like Keith and Carl. Plus we met a bunch of new friends which is always fun.

The day started out pretty nice and Emily and I caught a bunch of fun rides. About halfway through the session the dreaded backwash reappeared which makes wave selection critical. We saw a lot of boards flying through the air today, and getting back to the outside took a while. This usually meant waiting for a lull and then paddling like mad to beat the next set. If you …

Emily and I had another nice surf at Seal Beach today. It wasn’t nearly as epic as yesterday but we still both got some great rides. As the title suggests there was a big issue with backwash from the incoming tide. We would see a set rolling in and the waves had some nice size, but the backwash would kill the wave. We both paddled for so many waves just to get denied by the backwash. It was so strong coming back from the beach you could ride it back to the outside in less than a minute sometimes.

We did manage to catch some real nice ones though. At some point I caught a giant left that was fast with a steep drop. My board was skipping across it and left the water three times. I did ride it out …

We started out this morning in our usual spot about mid beach. I caught the first two, and then lost my rhythm for the next two. Then Mike told me to relax and stop thinking so much – which worked perfectly. I started catching wave after wave.

Over the course of the next three hours we slowly started moving closer to the pier. This was significant because before the pier always seemed too big and fast. Both last time and this time we would see surfers catching lefts there, and riding them all the way to the middle of the beach. Also, there is a real line-up near the pier which consisted of a few young folks on short boards, and some old dudes that could rip their long boards like pros.

As we moved down the beach the rides got …