August 29, 2015 - The Wall, Hampton Beach, NH

Tried to get it before high tide, but it didn't really matter.  Waist-chest clean long lines, but total closeouts.  Used my WRV, which felt like a short board compared to the long boards I've been riding. This was the right board for this surf which would have been hard and potentially dangerous with a heavy long board.  The rides were total frantic paddle ins where you had to make split second decisions to catch a short, wild ride.  By the time you paddled into the wave, it was already closing out.  Best bet was to catch the edge of a long line and take a left, so it didn't close out on you.  I did get a few good rides and more once I moved south on the beach to any open area with less surfers.  Surfed for 2 hours until high tide and the tide didn't really affect the quality of surf.    Some woman was creating these huge bubbles in photo.

August 21, 2015 - Oceanside Pier, Oceanside, CA

What a fun day!  We drove up from San Diego and met my brother who was waiting for us with two long boards provided by his brother-in-law, Al.  Surf was really small since it was August, but was still in the waist high plus range.  It was somewhat messy but winds were light.  I mostly used Al's 9'8" board, which was plenty big enough for me.  Also used his 8'6" board a bit too.  I caught many nice rides and a couple of nice long ones that reformed.  My most productive day of surfing this year.  Water was warm, at least 70, and used my 2 mil top anyways.  Mike caught some too, but was focusing more on the shore break.  Am still sore a few days later.  Went to Pizza Port afterwards in Carlsbad for some great beer and za.  I could live here.

August 15, 2015 - Jeness Beach, Rye Beach, NH

Finally we get a family beach and surf day.  Forecast was for waist high clean waves and low wind for several days.  Only thing not in our favor was high tide around noon so Jeness was the choice. We actually found a new solution to the parking problem.  Get there by 10 AM and park on the road for free, only a short walk down Cable Road to the northern part of the beach.  I tried out my extra neoprene padding on my stomach beneath my wet suit and it worked pretty well.  I used the McTavish and got several nice rides, rights and lefts.  Had to catch the waves late and avoid swimmers, but it was really fun.  There were a few stray chest high waves, but mostly waist or less and nice and clean ground swell.    It was nice to get some real surfing in finally.  Kids brought their boogie boards and had a good time. I got the kids on long board, which is actually a dangerous mistake, even in the shore break.  This just happened to coincide with the Dick Dale show tonight.  Surfing, then seeing the King of the Surf Guitar in the same day!  Looking forward to more surfing this week in San Diego!

July 31, 2015 - White Crest Beach, Wellfleet, MA

Another post that barely qualifies for the surf log, but I think I will start counting fun boogie boarding days in this blog.  We were visiting the Ghai's at their Harwich rental and had plans to go to the outer cape beaches on Friday.  After much questioning, I convinced everyone that White Crest would be the best bet.  Although it was a little further, Marconi and Lecounts Hollow were the only other beaches that had available parking.  Whitecrest has the very steep walk down to the beach on sand that keeps a lot of people away, but we paid the price on the way back up with all our gear.  Anyways, I love this beach.  It is absolutely stunning and a treasure to have here in New England.  The waves were beatifully formed with just the right amount of wind, however, high tide was killing it.  We waited till mid tide and were finally able to go boogie boarding, but surfing was questionable because the waves were just breaking too late.  Who knows, maybe Marconi or Lecounts would have been surfable.  I did see some people surfing, but it looked tough.  Bummer that I couldn't surf, but the boogie boarding was a blast and Melissa and Evan loved it and actually got some credible rides on the Slick Lizard.  Water was tolerable using the 2 mil top.  Saw a seal out in the water as well.

July 24, 2015 - Second Beach, Newport, RI

I had such big plans for surfing this summer, but so far they have not come to fruition.  Have been suffering from abdominal strain since after the last time I surfed and I think I slightly aggrevated it again on the hard top of the board.  During Mike's visit this summer, we were hoping to hit some surf as I now have two boards, but the forecast was for knee high all week except the small window of waist high that we missed on Thursday.  Nonetheless, we got up at 5:00 AM on Friday morning in Mattapoisett to go to Newport.  It was kind of nice since I haven't been there in a long time.  The conditions were perfect, clean tiny ground swell, but it just wasn't big enough.  I reluctently went out on my long board and was the only one out in the red seaweed.  Beautiful warm morning.  Used the 2 mil top.  Mike wouldn't get wet though.  I caught a few tiny rides and stayed out for only about a half hour.   Free parking if you go early enough.  Photo is from the first beach cam.

June 6, 2015 - The Wall - Hampton Beach, NH

This was deja vu from a year ago.  Surfing before the DSO show at the Casino Ballroom.  The surf report didn't give this day a chance, but it was the most fun I've had on waves in a long time.  It was about 2 hrs after high tide and waves were about knee-thigh high with no wind.  Water was pretty warm, but I wore booties anyways.  I met this other surfer on his way into the water who was totally stoked about the surprise conditions (he called it double push conditions) and lack of surfers there.  So we surfed together and had a blast.  Long board of course and I must have caught 15 waves in the hour + I was out there.  Mostly mid range rides rights and lefts with a couple nice long rides.  There was a sort of pressure to compete, but really we were just having a blast.  Lots of floating seaweed kinda reminded me of Cali.

May 30, 2015 - The Wall, Hampton Beach, NH

First time out this year and end of a spring heat wave.  There has been little surf this spring and not much rain with lots of warm weather.  Just me and the kids went up, so this was an experiment.  Air was hot, but the water was still frigid and I could have used booties but didn't.  The wind was much higher than predicted at about 20 mph S/SW, which made it really tough to paddle into waves.  Tide was going out which worked out well.  Waves were about knee-thigh.  Also had to keep paddling south to maintain position.  I only caught one wave, which was unfortunate.  It think it actually picked up a bit around the time we left, but the wind still killed it.  I had to eagle eye the kids from the ocean to make sure they were OK, but they did well playing in the sand.  All in all it was nice to get back to the ocean on a beautiful day.