Holiday Weekends, Wind and Rough Waves

During the middle of last week, the winds shifted and G-town was flat. I was very disappointed since it was a holiday week, and I would have Thursday off to do some surfing. I opted for my other sports instead since the wind was light and it was flat. The flatness lingered into Friday, but an increase in the south wind caused the waves to get a little bigger by Saturday, and a strengthening of the winds on Saturday afternoon, made Sunday waves a mess. However, waves, at least, had formed! I struggled with whether I should head down on Saturday afternoon or take my chances and wait until Sunday morning. The weather forecast called for rain on Sunday, and I didn't want to be rained out of surfing. Of course, surfing in the rain is not a problem, though surfing in lightning is. After mentally leaping back and forth about whether to head down there or not, I opted to take my chances and wait until Sunday.

Rough and windy

I lucked out! The rain and, more importantly, the lightning stayed away. The wind had picked up and that, coupled with a strong current, made the waves a mess. However, I was itching to get back in the water, so I headed down. Just so happens I ran into a friend/coworker and his son out surfing. They warned me that it would be hard getting to the outside. They had opted to stay a little closer to shore in the whitewater. Of course, I had to give it a try. While the two of them stood on the end of the jetty, I took the rip current to the end of it. I immediately got pushed back by a wave. I tried over and over, but soon tired and decided that I, too, would stay closer to the shore and catch reforms. My friend/coworker said that he had also tried to make it to the outside and couldn't. Of the four or five surfers out, only two were on the outside. I watched a shortboarder manipulate his way past the waves and current by duck diving, which is impossible on my 9' board. I didn't give up completely. At least two other times during my session I attempted to make my way to the outside. Both times I collided with waves and disaster. I had fun on the inside whitewater, but even getting back out into some sort of reform line-up was difficult. All in all, it was great to be back out on the board since it had been two weeks, but I sure wish the wind had lightened up just enough to make it a little less difficult to get to the outside.

Hmmmm....maybe next week...

Quick weekends, even quicker waves

Sunday (4/15) didn't look much different than Friday (4/13)

Watching the weather during the local news broadcast has become even more important to me since I've started surfing. I've watched the weekend forecasts since I started cycling about 20 years ago, making sure that the Saturday morning "atmosphere" was the right one for a good 60-mile bike ride. When I started surfing approximately three years ago though, one of the first things I attempted to learn was what kind of weather would be the right weather to create waves for surfing not just for the weekend, but for any day/afternoon. In Galveston (like most places), waves are very dependent on the wind. If Galveston has a strong south, east-southeast wind, we will have waves. If the wind is out of the north at just the right speed, we will get perfect waves in nice sets. Usually, a north wind blows through too strong and flattens the waves, but sometimes, the wind is perfect. This week, the forecasts on Surfline, network weather, etc., say that the really nice waves might be on Tuesday (4/17) morning. I'm not completely sure it will play out as predicted, because some of the wave prediction sites are changing the winds back to strong east winds. We'll just have to wait and see. All the forecasts for this past weekend, though, were right. Strong winds caused some bigger waves, but forecasters cautioned surfers that the really strong currents would make getting out to the waves (or even staying the whitewater) tough. Since Friday is my day to go surfing, despite some forecast warnings, I loaded my 9' Softop and headed to G-town. I was originally going to take my 8'1" because I didn't want to have to struggle with the wind loading and unloading my board as well as carrying it down to the beach. However, I also didn't want to have to worry about the gusts picking up the board while I was out in the waves and either pushing me off, or, while I'm in the water, the wind picking it up and causing the board to hit me in the face. So, at surf dude's suggestion, I brought my 9'. It was the right choice.

Because of the G-townsurf.com report about the waves, the 43rd Street jetty had six surfers already fighting over the waves when I got there at 3 p.m. So, I went to the 39th Street jetty. Dude B. had recommended it, and I think he was right. The really big waves were on the outside. In fact, one wave-caster suggested that only expert surfers should go out in the waves. I'm not an expert by no means, but I felt comfortable on the outside. The waves made getting out -- even in the rip current -- challenging, but once on the outside, waves definitely offered surfing opportunities. I caught a couple from the outside (and wiped out a few times), but I also chose to practice my turning and board positioning by catching waves in the whitewater. I successfully turned the board multiple times. I still have a lot of work to do though. I need to turn myself on the board much quicker to be able to ride down the line. I've made a lot of progress, but I still have quite a bit of work to do. I need more consistent waves on a regular basis to help me practice. (Today was too rough, so, unfortunately, I was only able to surf one day this week.) Not much I can do about this, but wish...for bigger waves...for more chances to surf.

I love G-town!

Rough winds and seas

Finally, the waves return with a vengeance only the wind is blowing so hard that they are a mess! Even taking the rip out was tough. Because of the horrendous road construction taking place on Seawall Blvd., I decided to surf at 36th street. A handful of other surfers had found their way to 36th also. I had some great rides though; enough for me to think the trip was very worthwhile on Friday (10/22). Friday afternoons are the times I really look forward to for surfing. I can often get to the beach before many people are off of work and get in a couple of good hours of surfing. I took my 9'6", which was good for me in the rough stuff, but not so good for hauling the surfboard in and out of the water. When the wind is blowing so strong, I'm forced to carry my board parallel to the ground, which really stretches out my arm and eventually makes it seem much heavier. If I carry it perpendicular to the ground, which is much more manageable to control, the wind will catch it and blow me around on the seawall. It's almost like having a sail except that I can't use the wind to propel me forward. All in all, Friday was a good surf day -- good rides and, finally, some waves.

By Sunday, the winds had calmed a little and the waves were big enough for me to use my 7'2". However, although the winds had calmed, it was still rough and what was left of the prevailing winds sent us east. This meant that I had to surf on the east side of the 37th street pier, my new surfing hangout since the road resurfacing project is still taking place near 43rd. (I hate parking near 43rd when the lines have been eliminated. I feel vulnerable parking without the lines.) I only had a couple of rides on Sunday, but I got a lot of practice paddling thourgh strong currents on my shorter board, which is a good thing. I still need a lot of practice though!