COVID Sessions

[Major Lazer]

Got the weekend off from the fam, so set myself up for a hans solo multi sport mid life weekend. Needed a physical challenge and still trying to burn dat quarantine 15 off. Started with an 8 mile gravel grind, then a 2 hour surf, and some hiking to boot. Capped it with a couple beers and slept like a baby! Woke up feeling alright yesterday.... after a couple Advil had a decent 2 hour sesh. Lumpy, but thumpy. Window of fun slashable HH left bowls. Decent amount of swell and SB felt spicy. Refreshing dip in the river on the way home. Mission accomplished

[Howly Wolf]

Currently recovering from a 5 day saltwater bender. Stars aligned for decent runs of swell ranging 5'-7' for majority of the trip albeit muddled at times by howling winds from out the S or N. No shortage of surfables though-- lucked into some HH/slightly OH milk glass rollers, as well as settled for punchy criss crossed wedgies. Went searching for ghost ships in socked-in beach pre-dawn and soaked up sun-crisped afternoon deep water sessions under observation from tourists and surf cams alike. Stoke and floggings were doled out in equal number for a good balance of contentment and humility. Wrapped it up dawn patrolling 3' closeouts on Duke's birthday, a bit fatigued and perhaps crankier than the occasion called for. Mind/body/spirit was just maxed out...

Worth mentioning that I hit one particularly gothic spot that I consider relatively low key and, well, that no longer seems to be the case... I'm talking out of state plates, summer surf lifestyle crews, and inflatable SUPs. Never seen it like that and don't know whether to attribute it to Covid restrictions, FB chatterboxes, or just the inevitable course of things as surfing grows in popularity. At one point, I witnessed a hipster admonish his sponger girlfriend for having the audacity to speak to him while he as videotaping the break for his insta-stories; when he was done she tried to rally him to paddle out with her, but he came up with a litany of excuses not to ("what if you lose a fin"? lol) before they both drove off in his dumb prius. Take this as a warning, ladies and gentlemen-- this is what we're up against.

Anyhow, some autumn pangs in the air the past few mornings and, as illustrated by the previous anecdote, not a moment too soon. I for one am ready and willing to freeze for some waves.

[Howly Wolf]

Oh, also this happened:

https://www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/ ... tate-park/

[INTERN]

Sounds like you got it good Howly. I got an ok Wednesday evening at SS, using the log to pull in early. Didn't get as much water time as I would have liked, but did land a 12lb King, so all was not lost. Also did a little scouting in the FC rd. area just to get a mental map.

[Major Lazer]

Woulda been cool to see this! The Feds are alright sometimes

[Tex]

Labor Day weekend...and zero interest in hitting central or north coast due to the hoards....the cams are depressing. Holiday weekends ruined from here on out.

[buoyhead]

Surfed Saturday, Sunday and today at a place on the North Coast that is easily accessible but one can’t see from the parking lot. Nothing great (picked up today) but one could be missing a digit or two and still count the “crowd” on one hand. Go figure

[Major Lazer]

Locs at open carry march?

Coped one at a classic late last week otherwise Kate said to stay home and we did......

10 day looking small Stay safe out there.

[Howly Wolf]

Air quality warnings up and down the coast today (central/south are especially bad). Not sure if 1' waves, albeit perfectly groomed 1' waves, are worth inhaling hazardous levels of particulate, but maybe I'm just making excuses

nws satellite 10 am 9-8-2020

EhaJvliUcAANOEs.jpg (81.54 KiB) Viewed 2987 times

[Major Lazer]

SARFS UP!

[Howly Wolf]

Did some calculations, parsing usual forecasts and now satellite imagery & AQI data in order to game out a session reasonably low on smoke. Dialed in a plan, prepped my equipment, loaded up the gear, awoke so very early, brewed some coffee, checked my email and... all hope of stoke was dashed. Confounded devil winds! Seems massive wildfires require me to work.

Anyhow that's my anticlimactic no-surf report. Figured the downside of offering up surf reports on an online forum is it's only fair to note when you get completely assed over... A bummer, but a minor one all things considered. Please stay safe or at least score a perfectly groomed 2' wave for me out there.

[Major Lazer]

Offshore wind great for sarf, not so good for fires. Crazy to hear some of the coast is burring. Hope everyone is staying safe. As a public servant I get busy as well during natural disasters, but saw the smokeless window too. And with impending sock in with wind direction change today, I knew I had to blast. Took my end of the day debrief call on the way out making sure my evacuation route data updates were pushed to the public facing apps and got the thumbs up and was done for the day.

Hottest I've felt on the coast in a long time, was even sweating as I was suiting up. Ocean was groomed and a little pulse was pulsing every 10 minutes at an open beachie. Water was hand stinging cold. Some HH but mostly WH to CH. Some ran, some didn't but it was fun to try and pack into the mini close out tubes. This beach usually packs a nice little punch, but wish I had opted for fish vs SB as the tweeners were the ones that ran most often. Tide killed it after about an hour and got pretty cold in an old suit waiting. Wish I coulda gotten out there earlier, but at the least an OK blue collar sesh before the smoke screen. Had some slight respiratory irritation post surf and probably my last session until it totally clears. Bring on the rain!

[Howly Wolf]

Good on you for rallying an after work surf, Major, and more so thanks for helping to develop evac.resources!

Anyone else a little weirded out by folks sarfin’ under orange skies or in the middle of a haze? No judgement here— just that in the best of times I’m not really inspired by the ankle biters that have been on tap for most of the week much less scrambling for them in the middle of a smoke cloud. That’s just my opinion though and can appreciate the “novelty” at least. Mark my words, some future surf industry guru is going to make a mint marketing a neoprene n-95 or waterproof respirator or whathaveyou.

Anyways, here’s a couple dystopic screen grabs for posterity. Stay safe, breathe shallow.

90AB2D3C-F397-4791-AFC4-B53A84CE9F43.jpeg (118.84 KiB) Viewed 2749 times

7F957C3A-D15B-4B6B-9517-9AA9153D0697.jpeg (58.77 KiB) Viewed 2749 times

53368A19-6143-451A-A7C4-FB3C9528BFC7.jpeg (44.68 KiB) Viewed 2749 times

[X-squid]

Fire got within a couple miles of our LC house - level 2 evac. Some of my fam was out there and got up and out 101 to Tillamook before they shut it down. 18 was already locked up.I drove out Saturday to assess damage - all the skylights blew off the house but minimal damage otherwise. Our general contractor (lives in Otis) lost everything (house, truck, tools) Word is seven bodies pulled out of Otis so far but can't confirm.

Dying here in the valley, choking on the air - no words for how effed up everything is... COVID, riots, now wildfires... election next and then maybe an asteroid.

[Tex]

Snuck out yesterday, assuming crowds at SS on a Sunday was going to be real, my plan was simple, be there first.

I was not there first but only a few folks. No wind, ground swell but fairly low tide and not much bigger than waist high. Water was warm and for the first hour probably got 8-15 grovelers.

Did see a number of sites that were firsts/rare so go ahead and guess which one I didn't see:

1. 5 car crash at the public rest stop in the middle of the coast range
2. 35 cars with boards strapped heading to the coast after 11:00 AM
3. Jet Ski parked on the beach at SS
4. Only 3 surfers out in Cannon (spot name withheld)
5. Jumping salmon just past the line up
6. Motorized Foil Boarder outside the line up
7. Bald Eagle perched on the roof of the restroom in the N. Parking Lot