Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patty's Day Gale

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2012!

This year St. Patty has brought a nice gale to Southern Cal, along with strong winds and rain for the weekend.

Excellent downwind conditions on the Palos Verdes Peninsula today and gusts up to 30-40 kts are expected...

Some of the boys are getting a DW together now...
Git some!!!














Saturday, October 16, 2010

April 29, 2010 - Downwind Paddle - LA to Long Beach


Downwind Paddle from L.A. (Cabrillo Beach) to Long Beach (Belmont Shores)

Conditions

Wind Speed: 20-35 mph, gusts to 40mph+, Gale Warning
Direction: 280-300 degrees, West/Northwest

Wind Waves: 3-5'
Ground swell: 6'+, West

Water Temp: 55-56 degrees F
Total Distance: 9 miles
Max speed recorded on GPS: 14.2mph

This was as good as it gets... Gale Warning and small craft advisory... Four of us set out from outter Cabrillo Beach on our Bark Stock boards. After a 1/4 mile paddle to get out of the lee of Point Fermin, we were immediately catching fast and fun runners outside the LA breakwall. 14 mins to get to the LA Lighthouse from outter Cabrillo Beach; we were flying.

When we passed the LA Lighthouse, we continued west along the middle breakwater surfing from one runner to the next... It was all time.

Once we reached the opening of the Long Beach Harbor, we had showdown with a Princess Cruise Passenger Ship. As the four of us crossed the entrance, we could see the cruise ship in the distance heading our way. We thought we had plenty of time to cross the channel entrance, but those ships move a lot faster than you think narrowly missed us by a couple hundred yards. A close call, but a memorable paddle.

April 22nd Downwinder

Abalone Cove to Cabrillo Beach

Conditions

Wind Speed: 12-20kts, gust to 25
Wind Direction: West/Southwest, 255 degrees
Wind Swell: 1-2'
Ground swell: 2-3', WNW
Total Distance: 7.36 miles
Elapsed Time: 1h 19min

Max speed recorded on GPS: 11.4mph

April 20 Downwinder

Conditions
Ab Cove to Cabrillo
Wind Speed: 15-20kts, gust to 30 kts
Wind Direction: West, 265 degrees
Wind Swell: 2-4'
Ground swell: 4-6', WNW
Total Distance: 7 miles
Elapsed Time: 1h 10min

Max speed recorded on GPS: 13.8mph

March 30th Downwinder

Conditions
Water Temp: Chilly
Wind Speed: 18-25kts, 30 gusts
Wind Direction: Southwest, 245 degrees
Wind Waves: S/SW 3-5'
Total Distance: 6.749 miles
Elapsed Time: 1h 1min
Max speed on GPS: 9.3mph

Conditions fun, but a little sloppy and slower today due to too much southerly direction in the wind for this particular course. Snapped a few shots when we got out of the water at Cabrillo Beach.

Friday, March 26, 2010

March 11th Downwinder

Wind Speed: 20-25kts, 35+ gusts
Wind Direction: Southwest, 255 degrees
Wind Swell: 2-3'
Ground swell: 3-4'
Total Distance: 9.1 miles
Elapsed Time: 1h 5min
Max Speed on GPS: 14.6mph

The winds were howling and I couldn't have been happier. When others are sulking over the crappy surf conditions, I couldn't wait to get into the water for a downwind paddle. Winds were sustained at 25+ mph, gusts at 35+! Peter and I met at Cabrillo Beach and the plan was to start at Abalone Cove for the downwind paddle. We loaded up our Bark Stock CT's and headed to Ab Cove in my pickup truck.

Laura was nice enough to drop us off at the gate at Ab Cove, so we didn't have to jockey cars later. The wind was so strong on walk down the old asphalt road to the beach that we had a difficult time holding onto our boards. The pain and discomfort from the tiny shards of glass and tiny painful rocks on the soles of our feet from the road didn't matter anymore as soon as we caught a glimpse of the horizon from the shore... 2 to 5 foot choppy frothy downwind whitecaps, mixed in with a NW ground swell.

When we got to the waterline we noticed it was low tide and a lot of sand had eroded exposing rocks... lots of them, like land mines just waiting for you to stub a toe and ding your board. All the El Nino fueled winter storms have sent us plenty of surf this winter but while it's been a blessing, it's also a curse causing all the beach erosion in the area. After dodging the set waves and rock piles through the surf line on a normally sandy bottom, we were met with a nasty side chop coming from the west. Peter and I had to paddle straight south from the beach at least a mile and a half in order to get a nice angle on the wind waves.

As soon as we turned our back to the wind and waves, we were off flying down the faces of the waves. Runner after runner, my GPS max speed reading was getting higher and higher. I was catching bursts between 9 and 12mph.

As we got close to Whites Point I caught a bigger runner bursting up 14.6mph! Just after I caught that runner, I turned around to check out Peter and all I saw is Pete flying down the face of a 4-5' runner and barreling right towards me, with his eyes the size of saucers. I froze and Pete narrowly missed me by inches as he flew past me. We were stoked and nothing else seemed to matter in the world.

We made it to Cabrillo in 1 hr and 5 mins and covered 9 miles. When we got to shore Peter and I knew we had just had an amazing session.

Normally this is about a 7 mile trip, but we had to paddle out further from shore at the start to get the good angle on the wind. My fastest time for this course had previously been 1hr 10mins, which was at the Akolu Race last year.

Can't wait for the winds to pick up again...