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Big Wednesday. It happened the other day: one of those weeks where the buoy graphs are flat except for a sharp peak right in the middle of the week. Some storm from some far-off place sent a burst of energy our way, then stopped.

I got up a little late and saw that the bridge was jacked-up. After texting and sitting on the fence a while, I decided to just go and do it.

The paddle-out was TOUGH! I haven't been surfing nearly enough to be in shape. Also I don't remember exactly what happened on Tuesday night, but something I ate for dinner (or possible second-dinner) wanted to let me know that it was still hanging around.

I paddled for about 45 minutes, nearly barfed once, nearly gave up once. Somehow I was able to recover, find a little riptide and get outside (where I could sit and recover further).

Anyway, eventually I got lucky with a pretty sweet wave. I got luckier a few days later when someone pointed me to this:

Sweet!

Oh that was a good one. Merry Christmas!

It was pretty big out there today. I made it outside and caught a few. At one point I found myself sitting away from a group of guys when a set came in. The first two waves were nice looking and I was about in the right spot, but I let them go by. A few of the nearby guys were paddling toward me as the third, biggest one of the set came through.

A little voice in my head said, "I think I could make that."

Then I heard a loud voice from outside my head saying, "GO! PADDLE HARD!!!" That was the winning vote. I turned, paddled, and made the drop.

Yeah, I got munched right after that picture was taken. I'll figure out how to make the most of those barrely sections at some point...

Thanks Brien.

Like all my boards, this one came to me via Craigslist. Unlike the rest, this green 10-footer is a magic board. The 'magic board' is a special match-up between the traits of a surfboard and the style/strength of its surfer. Swaylocks is loaded with posts about magic boards.

I found the ad on CL while I was travelling. A quick email and call to a friend arranged a pickup. J & J completed the transaction for me. They met the seller at his house in SF who told them that he had used the board for tandem surfing. He was leaving SF and didn't want to bring the board along. J & J squeezed it into their hatchback (somehow) and brought it over when I got back to town.

The brand is SF, a small board-making operation and surfshop in San Francisco. It's a sweet-looking board: Nice green tint, 10' x 23" x3.5", triple-stringer, big fin in the finbox. Big, round rails and lots of volume. Kinda heavy though: lots of glass. When it gets into a wave, it really screams down the line. I've taken it to Linda Mar on small days, Ocean Beach on big days: the board works amazingly well in all conditions. Magic.

A few years back, I experienced a mishap. I paddled out at Linda Mar for a rare midweek after-work session. The waves had some energy and the paddle out took timing and paddle-energy. One incoming wave brought a surprising payload toward me: some hairy dude mis-timed his duck dive and ended up catching the wave backwards. The dude's fin jammed into and cut through the nose of my board. Sure, better the board than my shoulder or neck -- still I had a hole about 'that big' in my heart. Would this kill the magic?

I took the board up to the SF surf shop for repairs. Let John Schultze the board's maker fix it and it'll be good as new. John did a great job with it. When I picked up the board, he remembered making it. We talked about it a bit:

John: "Have you tried it in Bolinas? I made it for that wave."

Me: "Why yes, I have. In fact this board seems to really sing on the waves at Bolinas. It's a perfect match."

Me: "Can you make me an EXACT replica? 3-stringers, single-fin, resin tint? that and the magic. Don't leave out the magic. Oh yeah -- and a tail-block."

John: "Nope. Can't work with giant blanks like that anymore."

Me: gasp! "Then I better take care of this thing."

Today, the board is mostly watertight. Lots of little dings and spider-cracks put this thing at risk for getting waterlogged and eventually destroying it (not to mention hairy dudes who can't duckdive). Each year around my birthday I wax this thing up and drag it up to Bolinas for some magic.

I meant to post a rocker-shot too, I'll do this later.

The deck has the dimensions and says 'For Scott at Ocean Beach'. Who is Scott? Why did he sell the board? What's he surfing now?