Thursday, June 30, 2011

Hey Hey Hey




It's my birthday and the sun came out! How cool is that!? The surf, however, continues it's retreat. Waist to chest high disorganized wind swell peaks, poor to fair shape, moderate morning sickness, and 12 guys out.

The bump and messiness is from the wind last night cause there isn't any right now. Anyway, looks like is going to be a great day so get out there and enjoy it.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

It's Big Wednesday!




Someplace. But. Not. Here. There are some waves though. Knee to waist high (maybe) small scale windswell peaks. Soft, weak and crumbly. Onshore breeze beginning to build which won't help at all.
On the bright side, the marine layer isn't as thick today so let the sunshine in! Heading off to the fair today and no, I will not be trying the deep fried Kool Aid. Even though it looks suspiciously like malasadas.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Summertime Blues




About the same as yesterday. Glassy, knee to waist high wind swell peaks. Fair shape. 20 guys out. A typical, overcast summer, in-between swells, morning in San Diego. Chuck is out there enjoying it.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Monday, June 27, 2011




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Leftovers




Remnants of the south swell mixed with some windswell. Waist to shoulder high, glassy and fair+ shape. 12 people out. Looks better than yesterday, both conditions and crowd factor. There are some fun ones still out there!

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Big South Swell; The Rhythm Returns to San Diego

This morning found us at 15th street in Del Mar all staring  in awe at a fully mature SW swell.  After hitting Hawaii earlier this week, it began showing hints of it's potential in San Diego late Wednesday.  Thursday and Friday gave us a taste of the honey and like a bear drawn to a bee hive we all wanted more, more, more.  Various web sites were calling this morning 2-3 feet; 4 feet at best.  I don't know what ocean they were looking at or who calibrates their measuring devices, but about the only thing that was 2-3 feet this morning was the white water.  The sets were routinely overhead and the in-betweeners were shoulder to head high.

Screaming, bowling lefts were the soup de jour.  Some makable, some not.  But hey, it's only water; what's the worst that can happen?    Everyone took it on the head at least once, either paddling out, paddling back out after trying to squeeze in that one extra turn (which was one turn too many) or just getting hammered by the outside sets.

But everybody was also grinning from ear to ear when they got out of the water.  It was a morning that will fuel stories of late take offs, steep walls, cut backs, floaters, wipe outs, clean up sets, long rides, adrenaline rushes, near misses, snake attacks, and the best surf in a while. Some true.  Some not.

So, here are some memories from this morning's session.  
Big, fat and sassy.
Can you surf like a girl?
Maybe you should learn how

Chuck on a nice head high in-betweener

Did I mention it was glassy?

On the inside deep in the froth

Luke, slotted again

Captain Kurt, style master

Clayfish powering through

2-3 feet, really?

John, on one of the rare rights
Steve, setting up for...
...a cover up. 
And the wave of the day goes to Kris.  I ask again, can you surf like a girl?
Kris, just back from Bali, dropping into a set wave all to herself getting set up for...

...a 3G bottom turn
Smooth, smooth, smooth.  Great wave Kris!
Have a good one
Aloha
Gary

all photos copyright Gary Erbeck

Friday, June 24, 2011

A Bit Brighter




and a lot bigger this morning! CFE has backed off some and the SW swell is here. Head high and glassy. Lots of west in the swell so it's walled up. Fair+ shape. Typical summer Friday turnout: 20 on the reef ( including Chuck and Luke), 10 in front of the grass and 3 at Restaurants. Try and get out here before the wind does.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Vamanos!




A bit larger than yesterday; waist to shoulder high on the sets. Glassy conditions with an ever so slight NW breeze. Heavy marine layer that is squeezing out some drizzle. High tide and somewhat inconsistent. Pick and choose corners on the sets with the same long lulls as yesterday. 8 guys out at the reef; 3 in front of the grass and 2 at Restaurants. Let's get out there!

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Waist high glass




Occasional chest high sets. Inconsistent and soft with fair shape. Slight offshore breeze but not enough to affect the surf one way or the other. 8 guys out. Eddy is thick this morning; drizzly and wet.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

(A) Ripple




On still water. Dropping tide, glassy, waist to chest high, 2 out (Chuck is one of them), long lulls. Fair shape. Basically a repeat of yesterday but a bit smaller. The lefts on the sets south of the reef look particularly tasty this morning. The reef itself is somewhat lined up with pick and choose corners.

Restaurants has a little more size. 2 out there as well. WTF; the only two guys out and they have to take the same wave? Crowded is as crowded does I guess.

Have a good one

YouTube Video

Aloha
Gary


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Monday, June 20, 2011

Monday's Offering




Clean conditions, slight offshores, waist to chest high and dolphins in the lineup getting all the best waves (of course). Low tide, fair shape. One guy out. Not a lot of juice but it looks like some fun waves out there if you are in the right spot at the right time. Just a little more tide will help the shape a lot.

YouTube Video

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Friday, June 17, 2011

South Swell is Showing




And so is the 4-6 knot south wind. A pronounced crumble on the water this morning. Shoulder + sets that are walled up and dumping. 12-15 guys out. Poor conditions; poor + shape. Rising tide. CFE needs to go away!

YouTube Video

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Monday, June 13, 2011

CFE




Another grey day with some grey green waves to match. High tide, slight eddy conditions but still clean. Knee to waist high; Luke and Chuck already on it. Fair shape. Moderate lulls, 3 people out. Good sting ray water. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle!

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Saturday, June 11, 2011

June Juice

This is not what it looked like this morning at 15th street.  I took this at Pipeline in February of 2010.  Sunny, warm water, great conditions and some rather large waves.  This wasn't even one of the sets.
This is what 15th was offering up this morning.  Gray water, battleship gray sky; no horizon. Glassy, cool air, cool water and waist high slow rollers.   A bit inconsistent, so there was a fair amount of waiting around, but there were some sets that had everyone jockeying for position.  It was what one would call a "fun" session.  The southwest wind came up early and quick, so for some folks it was over before it began.  

Waiting and hoping

Clay hooked into a nice little right

Lay that thing over!

Sets every 15 minutes or so. 

  Steve and Clay call this sharing; looks like a snake move to me!

Ed setting up for a roundhouse cutback...

...and there it is!
Have a good one
Aloha
Gary

All photos copyright G. Erbeck 

Friday, June 10, 2011

Long Lulls




But boy are they nice when they do roll through! Shoulder high sets; with some juice. Lefts better than rights. I think that is Chuck on the wave in the photo Classic California glass, no surface bump at all. 20-25 guys at the reef. Zero at Restaurants. Good day to call in sick, especially before the wind comes up.

Have a good one


Aloha
Gary


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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Looks Like




the wind blew most of the night. Not as clean as yesterday; moderate bump on the water. Waist to chest high, poor to fair shape. Short period NW wind swell is dominant. Big crowd. 25 guys out on the reef, 4-5 out at Restaurants. Some lulls but not as long as yesterday.

Has a "so-so" quality to it. Not that great. Not that bad.

Going to Doc today for a skin check. Might have to undergo some liquid nitrogen treatments. Could keep me out of the water for a few days.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Inside Outside




Lead grey skies, liquid grey ocean and glassy. Inside stuff about waist to shoulder high; outside stuff about head high. Long lulls for the sets, which, when they do show up, are big , fat and walled up. About 16 out at the reef. 4 or 5 at Restaurants. Most sitting just far enough out so that they can scratch to get over the sets but still be in position for some of the inside stuff too. Hedging their bets as it were.

Couldn't ask for better conditions, well maybe some sun would be nice.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Fairly clean




Generally waist high with some head high thumper close out sets. The larger longer period swell is out there but the shorter period wind swell is in front of it, next to it and over it. Light variable winds right now. Some shoulders here and there. About 8-10 guys out. Tide is about 2 hours from bottoming out.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Monday, June 6, 2011

Still Some Swell Left




But the storm front that moved through late last night and early this morning stirred things up a bit. Waist to chest high crumblers (bigger sets) pushing through the morning sickness on the water. Poor shape with a shoulder here and there. 3 guys out.

So, while not much is happening here, if you can find a spot with some kelp or other type of wind dampener, it could be ok.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Friday, June 3, 2011

Same Same




Still a freakin' mess! Short period westerly wind swell, shoulder to head high, rips everywhere. Large sets Poor shape. Top that off with a minus tide and you get a real fun zone.

Seriously, I think someone has mixed up a batch of voodoo and is stirring it up every morning. It can't be this bad without some help, can it?

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Thursday, June 2, 2011

With Apologies to Jon's




Bowl of oatmeal, it's still a lumpy, bumpy mess this morning. It's also one of those "it's bigger than it looks" days. Chest to head high. Disorganized with no swell focus whatsoever. Messed up bottom contours and westerly swell direction are contributing factors to the ultrapoor shape.

Not a surf day here and I don't have the time to trek up to Terra Mar again.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Lumpy Bumpy Mess




And it's low tide too. Short period waist to chest high waves are pretty much it this morning. Poor to fair shape; mostly poor. Giant rips everywhere. 8 guys out at the reef, probably a dozen at 19th street. Nothing much happening at Restaurants.

Think I'll head up to Terra Mar. It was good there yesterday.

Have a good one
Aloha
Gary


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