danny on board: winter surf '06 down south and OB

Hi Ya'll,

Well we had our first big swell the

weekend after my birthday. It was predicted to be as big as 17feet at 20 seconds which is too big to get out at Ocean Beach (even if you wanted to).

So Dave and I planned to go south. Simon and I surfed four mile one year at 14 feet @ 17 seconds and it was epic (we were the only ones out ). So Dave and I left in the dark, arriving at four mile for sunrise.

We surfed for 2 and half hours and it sucked. Way smaller than we expected and mostly mushy. I caught the wave of the day from the outside which Dave said was double over head. It was cool riding along and looking way up at the lip pitching out way above me. The swell was supposed to peak at noon so we hung in hoping it would suddenly get better, it didn't. I talked to a local oldie and from what he said the swell Simon and I surfed must have been a west swell which would hit much more directly.

On our way home we stopped at a spot I won't name but locals should know. It was noon, the swell was peaking (it peaked at 11 feet @ 17

seconds) and the reef was going off. I took some photos from my car with my new camera and after watching a few sets I could not keep myself from going out to try and get one (even though I would then be running late). A super quick suit up and I was out for a one hour surf. I set Dave up with the camera to watch the surf and take photos but he fell asleep... So no pics of the the three waves I caught. It was hard to get a waves since the local crowd ripped. I got one set on the outside, dropped in, saw I was too deep, bottom turned, came up as high on the face as I

could, and then raced down as the lip chased me. The lip landed right behind me but instead of knocking me off it bounced up all around me and I was engulfed by 15 feet (at least) of whitewash. Jumping off I got washed all the way in and to had repeat the horrible paddle out.

Second wave, same as the first except I made it around the first section and got closed out on the second section. Third wave was a slightly smaller one and I rode it all the way in to shore (lots of carves and cutbacks).

The coolest part of the session was watching the local rippers totally killing these large waves, and seeing my old friend Digger (who I met in Nias) in the lineup.

The next day the swell dropped to 8 to 11 feet at 15 seconds. It was on shore at ocean beach and no one was out but I figured I would go for it anyway. I paddled at riviera and surfed between there and Pacheco. It was double overhead and very solid still but the onshores made it super bumpy. They were the kind of waves you could only catch if it seemed like the wave was going to land on you. Unfortunately the onshores made them crumble early so they often did land on me. But I caught a ton of waves (at least ten in an hour and a half). Most were so bumpy I felt like the tow in surfers when they are catching air on the chops. Each turn was a challenge just to hang on, either by looking for a smooth spot between chops or by burying the rail so deep that you could cut throught the chops.

On my first wave I did a big bottom turn, came up high on the section in front of me, and

carved a big turn off the top. The second I was headed back down the wave, I hit a ledge created by the windswell off of which I caught air, landing half way down the wave. Allthough most of the waves were choppy some sucked up and had smooth steep faces with long walls and bowling shoulders. My last wave was such a wave and It held up all the way in, allowing me to get at least ten turns in.. big cutbacks, turns off the top, racey sections, it was just about as good of a wave as you could want.