Suddenly the Wind Just Stopped

The sun came out, the south swell showed up and the cold water tribe was on it.  Pico Creek.

The wind came back up, the sun stayed out and the south swell backed off; the cold water tribe was on it.  Just have to be ready for all sorts of conditions up here.

Booties, hats & gloves

End of June and it's still 5/4s, booties, hats and gloves! Pretty clean, waist to shoulder high. 6 guys with brass balls out. These guys have to be constantly dreaming of warmer water and climes; I do and I surf in SoCal!

Off to explore the coastline further north of here.

Luke, you're right, that wasn't a pebble.

Have a good one.
Aloha
Gary


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Location:Moonstone Beach Dr,Cambria,United States

Still Winter Up Here

Cold, dreary and drizzly. Waist high, calm and good surface conditions. Poor to fair shape. Nobody out.

Buzzards feasting on a dead harbor seal washed up on the beach. A strange sight, buzzards on a beach. Very large colony of harbor seals here. A veritable white shark cafeteria.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary


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Location:Moonstone Beach Dr,Cambria,United States

Sorry about the late report but it took a while to get up here. The entire Santa Barbara coastline was flat; but that's summertime in SB, island wave shadow.

Cambria is knee to waist high wind swell junk. Air 55 and I'm sure the water is not much more than that.




Staying in a cool place right on the water. Hanging here for a few days then over to sequoia. More later.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary


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Location:Moonstone Beach Dr,Cambria,United States

NICE!

About the same as yesterday but NO WIND! Waist high, good shape, clean and 4 out. Get out there if you can.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary


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Location:Coast Blvd,Del Mar,United States

Clean

Super clean this morning. Windswell has backed off leaving us with some actual lines and decent shape. Waist to chest high, best on sets, 14 (including 4 sweepers!) out.

Now if the sun would come out this would just about be perfect; except for the janitors everywhere.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary


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Pretty FUNKY

Waist to chest high junk. Poor, poor shape and a south wind on it for good measure. Makes yesterday seem epic! 2 out with 1 or 2 more suiting up in the parking lot. Not a surf day here.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary


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Location:Coast Blvd,Del Mar,United States

Ride Natty Ride

More great surf music from Bob Marley! Looks like a couple of small scale swells are colliding to produce some here and there peaks but not much in the way of shoulders. Smooth, glassy conditions. 2-3 ft, fair shape. 7 out including Clay and Sergio. Clay, the style master, just picked off a nice left. Looks like it was his go in wave too.

Southwest wind is beginning to pick up.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary


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Location:Coast Blvd,Del Mar,United States

The Search IV - A Series of Flats Can Make a Curve

Shaper Robin Prodanovich made my day.  I met him at his shaping bay for the shaping session on my new South Coast board.  Robin has been shaping boards since 1968 and besides South Coast has shaped for Gordon & Smith, Linden, Rusty, Nector, Local Motion.  He also has his own line of surfboards, RP Surfboards.

In all my 47 years of surfing (yes, I'm that old) I'd never watched a shaper do his magic.  So I asked Robin if I could hang out while he shaped my board and he said sure, come on over. He met me out front of his home and we walked back a narrow path to his workshop.  Located at the back of his home, his shaping bay is neat, organized and completely, totally coated with foam dust.  But that's to be expected; mowing foam is what he does.  Most everyday from 9am to 6pm.

We spent about a half and hour getting acquainted before he dug my blank out from a stack next to his workshop.  A triple stringer US Blanks blank.  It was ugly.  Glue all over it, stringers sticking out the back and front ends.  It looked a lot like a soft top COSTCO board.  I kept thinking, "my board is in there?"











One last question from Robin, "how thick do you want it?" (I go for 3.25") and at 9:30am he's on his way.  First some measurements like length and width.  Next several curve templates emerge from the stacks near the wall.  Robin traces the curves defined by the templates on the blank, looks at the result from several different angles and goes back for some refinements and does that several times till he is satisfied with the lines and symmetry.

Now the first cut!  With a handsaw.  He used to use a sawzall but explained that the thinner blade had a tendency to wander during the rough cuts.  His handsaw has a wide blade which gives him a much straighter and flat cut.  He expertly cuts to the template lines on the blank and squares up the cuts with his surform.

Now it's time for the Skil 100 power planer.  Face mask on?  Check.  Ear plugs in?  Check.  Here we go.  With his practiced eye and knowing hands, Robin deftly guides the plane up and down the length of the board with long, flowing, connected strokes.  First one half of the board then the other.  No wasted moves, no wasted energy.  There, the bottom of the board has taken on it's rough shape.  He flips it over and starts on the top.  Same fierce concentration, same fluid motion.  Totally in the moment.  Hey, this is starting to look like a surfboard!  And there is foam dust everywhere!

Next Robin uses his power sander
to further define the curves and starts to link up his "series of flats" carved into the blank by the power planner.  As Robin explains, he can't create curves during this initial run through.  What he can do is expertly create a series of flats that can be further worked with his sander, his surform, hand sanding and block planes into perfectly foiled rails, rail transitions, v's and concaves  It's pretty cool to watch how the flats begin to merge and curve right before your eyes.

After the power sander Robin goes through a series of hand sanding steps utilizing different grits and sanding forms (hard block, soft foam block, no block) to further coax the shape into being.  Finally, an incredibly sharp plane is used to fine tune the curvature and profile of the three stringers.  He is just as interested in the aesthetics of the board as he is in the symmetry, edges and things that make a board work in a wave.

Around noon Robin flips the board bottom side up and writes the board's vital stats on either side of the center stringer and we're done.  2 1/2 hours from ugly blank to a thing of beauty and grace.  The board will now go to Mark and Nikki's Custom Surf and Sail glassing shop for the fin boxes and the glassing.  About 2-3 more weeks and this board will be in the line up at 15th street!  Give me room!

                                  


                            







Here is a short video of Robin creating the nose concave with the power planner.
t.

Cleaned Up a Lot

Clean low tide lines. Offshore breeze. 2-3 ft, 14 out. Fair shape and it looks like the sun is about to come out. Think I will head out and see what's what.

Yesterday's board shaping session was awesome. Story, photos and video later.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary





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Location:Coast Blvd,Del Mar,United States

Get Up.....Stand Up

Ok, now that Bob Marley song is rattling around in your head! You're welcome.

Max ebb tide (-.8) right now. 2-3 ft, very inconsistent closeouts. And a moderate southwest wind adding some much needed texture (not). 15 guys out. Not a surf day here.

What's with the egrets cruising the tidal flats? Haven't seen them here before. There's a whole flock at Blacks but first time at 15th St. Connected? Related? Migrated?

Well, I'm off to see the wizard. More later.

Have a good one.

Aloha
Gary





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Coast Blvd,Del Mar,United States