What's up with this surf?

[bluenoser]

This is no way a dig on Oregon. The coast here is beautiful and the people are kind, but what's up with the funky surf? I've been in the Lincoln City area since November. I've gone on dozens of surf checks, I've been in the water about 5 times, and I've yet to have a "good" session.

Is this normal for this time of year? It seems the surf is either too big and everywhere is closing out, or it's small, crashing on shore and, well, closing out. Perhaps the big storms have washed a lot of sand off the beaches and that's why they aren't breaking well on the smaller days? Should I expect longer, better rides in the spring and/or summer?

I moved here from Nova Scotia thinking that I'd get more surf and less freezing temperatures. Check on the latter, but that doesn't do me much good without the former. If anyone can tell me something that will make me believe I'll catch a decent wave while I'm over hear I'd love to hear it

[Spent]

welcome to winter in oregon. Have you explored north and south? hopefully you scored that swell over thanksgiving? it was great up and down the coast.

if el nino pans out as some think, it could start getting good very soon but you might have to poke around a bit beyond the LC beach breaks unless you plan on hitting nelscott...

[bluenoser]

Thanks for the reply Spent,

I had to work 12 hour shifts all Thanksgiving weekend so I never made it out. It was just bad timing.

I actually live closer to Pacific City than LC, so I've been going there quite a bit. I've also made it as far down as the south jetty in Newport. I've surfed Agate beach one day. I did surf the beach outside of Nelscott once, I don't think my 5'6 twin fin is quite up to the challenge of the reef

It's a little difficult because I don't know anyone here yet. No local knowledge and I don't really want to go too far off the beaten path to surf by myself in a new area during the winter. I'll keep looking and hopefully the future holds more surfing than driving around. I must say I do miss the long, easy to surf point breaks of Nova Scotia. Although I don't miss the freezing temperatures.

[X-squid]

This winter has been weird so far - except for the aforementioned Thanksgiving swell it seems to have gone from summer slop to XXL slop with out much of a decent fall like we usually. have.

[royalewithcheese]

I feel your pain. Over winter break I was determined to get out to the coast for a couple sessions. Three times I went out, two of which I was the only person on the entire beach and didn't stay in the water longer than 10 minutes as any more time out there would have been a waste.

However, on New Years Day I went out to Shortsands chasing a favorable swell of five-ish feet with a 12 second period and offshore winds. Not to mention a sunny morning in the weather forecast. Sure enough, when I got there there were a couple other cars in the lot with the same idea. Upon first glance at the usually churning cove I couldn't believe my eyes. the forecast was right, and I had the best session of my life at shorties with 10 other people out and 5 foot, not-entirelly-closed-out swell.
So if the forecast is promising (6 ft swell or under with at least 12 sec period) you should be able to score somewhere. Granted, those smaller days are few and far between in the winter, and seemingly especially this winter.
Good luck.

[darinr80]

Welcome to the Oregon coast! I totally agree w/royalewithcheese. I have a two hour trip just to get to Shortsands (I live in Vancouver, WA) and I would go about once every week until this year started...I went December 28th and actually rode a sweet left on my new CI Average Joe board. But the day wasn't great and it was hit and miss. Shortsands is best in my opinion, at high tide. Low tide creates these death bomb waves that just have a lot of undertoe when they crash because all the ocean feels like it's receding out to sea. Anyway smaller days are in the summer yeah, but I've got some sweet video footage of some great waves in the winter here, peeling and all.

Best of luck to you man and I hope to see you out there!

[Major Lazer]

Bluenoser saw your 1st post and meant to warn you, but never got around to it.

Having a fair amount of experience with new england surf and knowing the set ups in Nova Scotia are similar yet more vast and untapped to some degree, I can say surfwise if you were living costal back there with easy access to point surf you probably had it better than living in the valley here in OR. Especially if you ended up in Salem, OR’s arm pit to put it nicely. I know the grass is always greener and such.

There’s really nothing like the point breaks in Nova Scotia here. There’s no Cow Bay and anything that even slightly resembles a point break is localized by often aggressive self-entitled douche bags. Although there’s consistent swell sources it’s often too much with not many breaks holding anything over 8’ unless you have a sack of steel as you are experiencing.

As far as surfable waves, I’d say the average surfer back there prob gets more days and higher quality than the valley surfer here in Oregon even with the long flat spells the Atlantic often has. I’m a quality over quantity guy and would take 1-3 quality sessions a month over 6-12 crappy sessions. And as for cold, I know it’s really cold back there, but you didn’t choose a place much warmer. Just wait until you feel the summer water temps.

Your new reality is beach break and being able to catch the windows especially in the winter time, which are often brief with abundant low pressure systems and short days. While the last 3 winters have been abnormal, this winter is fairly standard. Without a flexible schedule it only gets harder. That said it can get good and occasionally you will find a really good sandbar that produces comparable surf to what you were familiar with in NS, but a solid drop and occasional barrel or 4 legit turns on a wave is pretty good here.

You have to be very hungry to score good waves esp. from the valley and will have to put in time and a lot of effort and often make the best out of marginal waves. Upside is outside of surfing, there are many recreational activities you can’t do back there. One being snowboarding or skiing in the Cascades, which has been exceptional this winter so far.

Not to make you home sick, but sounds like it’s been a pretty good winter back there and was one of the warmer early winters in recent memory. Even the B.C. pros are stoking on it back there.

[X-squid]

Wow, this place picked up. I thought I had left it for dead several months ago.

...the forum that is.

[Major Lazer]

Must be lack of rideable surf.

I have to agree it was not the best fall and has not been a good winter for surf. Had some really good days late Oct and Nov, but Fall was average at best. 2015 started off freakishly good (and actually ended really good) but kinda went lackluster after March.

[darinr80]

No shite man...this forum got me all excited until I logged on and started looking at the dates. I figured everyone who wrote back years ago was already retired; it's good to see some people are...current!

I live in Vancouver, WA and I feel like the lone wolf out there sometime. I'm addicted to surfing and I admit it, but sometimes it would be nice to build a larger social network around it for car pooling, having a beer after a session, or just going out and agreeing it sucked @ss or was epic that day.

Anyway hit me up if anyone's interested. I go once every two weeks minimum.

[X-squid]

Yeah this place was all but dead... Agreed though, there's not really a good pacnw surf forum online anywhere.

Anyways, Saturday has potential- going to check some low key spots but conditions look favorable for the Cove. I love/hate the Cove, especially on Saturdays...

[Major Lazer]

low key spot

Can we even make that statement in this day and age? (at least on the north coast) Well maybe this time of year you can.

Check yer tides. Full Moon wonkey-ness. Winds changed LOL. Not ideal for the location you and a bunch of old men would more than likely end up as well. Might need a day to clean up. Who knows.

Buenos suerte.

[X-squid]

Yeah there's a few places tucked away here and there on the N.coast that haven't been completely overrun. It's as low-key as you can get I guess.

And in the summer it sure beats slaloming all the flotsam (or is it jetsam?) floundering about in the impact zone on soft-tops and rented NSPs at SS.

[Major Lazer]

Fun yest. Got up earlier than I like to these days, but wanted to beat the tide and crowd. Typical scenario of to much coffee to early and almost shitting my drawers on the way over. After a 10 mile struggle blew up up the Klootchy Creek port-o-poties and SO glad there was TP.

Opted for consistency in wave choice and ease of paddle in board choice on the HP groveler. Had a nice 4 day run from Boxing Day through New Years weekend, but haven't been in the water since mostly due to El Ninos irritable bowl syndrome in Oregon. Not to mention still carrying some extra lbs from the Holidays.

Clean WH to CH peaks. Felt out of breath and hot after the 1st few waves, but eventually came around and got in a rhythm. Some ran really nicely allowing the occasional love tap. Crowd got thick quick, tide got fat, and unintentionally (sort of) burned a few wobbly LB'ers. Sorry dudes. Called it a sesh and watched football the rest of the day. Snowboarded and surfed within a week, which I haven't done in years. I'll take it.

[darinr80]

Nice work Major Lazer...pardon my ignorance but where did you end up surfing? I just had LASIK on my eyes otherwise I would have been out. The Cove over at Seaside looked nice from what I saw in the webcam. Man alive. Glad someone got to make it out. Sounds amazing to surf AND snowboard in the same week.

On an unrelated note, but because I have some other Oregon surfers attention, what do you guys do for surf exercises and staying in shape?