After finishing up a bunch of family commitments earlier in the day we arrived at LM rather late in the day. We knew the tide was low and the swell was rising so we wore our helmets just to be safe. We started paddling out in front of TB. By the time I was on the outside I was on the north side of the pump house. I was defiantly being pull rather quickly to the north. I sat on the outside through three sets, and by this time I was almost lined up with the condos on the north end.

As I sat up on my board I couldn’t see any other surfers to the north, or to the south all the way past the pump house. At this point I knew it was time to get back in. The …

As we drove down to LM today we figured the break and beach would be packed as it was a sunny weekend day. As it turned out there were very few surfers in the water. This was probably due to the low tide and mostly closeout conditions. We came to get wet so we suited up and headed out.

The paddle to the outside was fairly easy today. The sandbars seem very different than they were. One minute the water is chest high and if you take a few steps it can be knee deep. Anyway, I sat there for a few minutes and the first set came in. I passed on the first two waves and then went for the third. I caught a fairly nice ride from the outside to the beach and then headed right back out. Within …

When we got up today and looked at the conditions at LM we were about ready to pass, however, we have a new household rule where you can’t go 5 days in a row without surfing. This was day 5 – so we headed to the beach. By the time we got done with work and got to the beach it was dead-on low tide. The waves were small, jumbled and crossed-up. The cool thing was it was sunny and there were only a few other surfers in the water.

We paddled out between the pump house and TB, and got totally caught in the wash. At on point I counted 14 waves in a row with no letting up. No matter how hard I paddled I couldn’t make it to the outside. At some point I told myself – it’s …

After going to an afternoon movie (The Green Zone) Emily and I headed down to Linda Mar for a quick sunset session. As we were driving down Highway 1 the surf looked a bit bigger than we had expected. The parking lot was not very crowded and the surf looked sloppy, however, we suited up and headed out. We ended up somewhere between the pump house and Taco Bell where it looked like we could get out between sets. The surf was sloppy, choppy and bumpy, but sometimes we just want to get wet and paddle around for a while. Which is exactly what happened today.

As always the surf was better earlier in the day, but it was also very crowded. At 5:30 there was hardly anyone left in the water except a few other maintenance surfers. While I …

Had a nice sunny surf at LInda Mar today. Emily and I got to the parking lot about an hour after high tide crested and the surf was still looking good. The air temperature was in the 70′s and this was the first time since fall that there were more beach goers than surfers. It made for sort of a festive atmosphere.

After we suited up we stood on the beach for a few minutes to sum up the surf. To our surprise there was very light wind and very few close outs. The surf was small but everyone was getting rides, one after another. Also, it wasn’t very crowded – at least by normal Linda Mar standards.

We both caught some nice waves and Emily got the longest ride she’s ever gotten at LM. I went sans gloves and hood …

After weeks of work, big surf, storms, and too much poop in the water we finally got out today. After some morning meetings we headed down to Linda Mar for a late afternoon surf. It was in the upper 50′s and sunny when we got to the beach. The tide had just bottomed out and was starting to head up again, so the conditions were less than ideal. Still, the waves were starting to look pretty good with several nice corners and, as a bonus the wind light.

The conditions got better over the course of the session and, while I got denied Emily got a nice ride right as we were going in. When we got to Linda Mar there were only 3 other surfers in the water. By the time we left there was 30. It was nice …

It’s been a while since we paddled out at our home break in Northern California, but today was the day. It was sunny and about 50 degrees, however, the water was cold, but it somehow it felt familiar and very refreshing. As it turns out we didn’t pick the best day to head back out. We’re used to surfing the south and the middle and they were both flat. There were some nice sets coming in at the north end, however, we’ve never surfed there, and didn’t want to start on our first day back. So we paddled.

At all of the breaks we’ve been to in Hawaii have had long paddles to the outside. In Nor Cal the breaks we frequent have very short paddle outs. We’ve found over time we really like the long paddles. So, paddling up and …

We finally got to see our first NorCal winter swell this past weekend. The buoy readings were going crazy, rising from 14.4′ at 20 seconds at 8pm to 27.6′ at 16.7 seconds by midnight. We couldn’t surf waves of this size so we went to Linda Mar to photograph the largest waves Emily and I had ever seen. Because the storm was so crazy there was no experienced surfers in the water on a sunny weekend day. A very strange feeling at Linda Mar. Glad we got to see it.

Maybe this post should be titled “Surviving Linda Mar” as we had a rough day out on the break. The day started off awesome with sunny weather and the start of a nice WNW/NW swell mix with a swell period of 13.5 sec. Lots of surfers were showing up for the predicted afternoon swell so it was starting to get fairly crowded by the time we hit the water.

Had another nice surf with Emily today at Linda Mar. We got there right at low tide which is never good at Linda Mar, however, by the time we waxed our boards and suited up the waves were picking up a bit. Also there was only about a dozen other surfers out there which was awesome.