Surfside surf report

Went out to the free beach this afternoon, down near the stranded buoy, and caught a few waves in the kayak. The surf wasn’t as good as yesterday but it was good enough to wipe me out a half dozen times. That takes a lot of fun out of the adventure. Makes you damn tired too. I usually try to keep the wipe-outs to a minimum.

Forecast called for 2 to 4 feet surf but if a fellow was patient and a bit lucky a five footer would roll through in a set every now and then. The southwest wind was kicking it up at 15-18 knots making it a bit choppy, but amplifying the swells too.

Though I wiped out on the conversion several times today, which makes me kind of cranky, I did catch two perfect rides that planed me out on the face for several seconds, well above the level that my paddle could touch the water, and I was able to convert for the secondary ride on the breakers. A few nice rides makes the whole trip worth it.

Whats a conversion? Well, when the breaker first hits the kayak, the kayak tends to go parallel with the wave. When I say it goes parallel, I mean the kayak is suddenly slammed with about a ton of rushing water that causes it to move from a perpendicular position to a parallel position in about a fraction of a second. You have to be ready for the sudden force of the water so you can lean into the breaking wave and brace or into the drink you go. Quick grab your boat before it gets away. Successfully maneuvering the kayak when the wave breaks is what I call the conversion.

As I mentioned in the previous articles about kayak surfing, there is not much control in a 12.5 foot fishing kayak loaded down with a big dude like myself, but if you get your initial lean and brace into the breaker to stabilize the ride, i.e. not wipe out, and then at the right moment lean forward to get the nose of the kayak pointed back towards the beach, and then get some strokes in with the paddle you can get back in front of the wave and ride it some more. Being planed out on the face of a big swell is a nice rush, but converting through the breakers for the secondary ride is the biggest rush. Well, for down here anyway.

On a day with some punchy surf if you can get out in front of a good wave you can ride it all the way to the shore from beyond the third breakers. Three swells, three breakers. That’s better than anything they got at Shlitterbahn.