Just thinking about how much I love my 'Rastafari' board. The actual brand name is a 'Rusty Piranha,' the idea being that the board is a modern day, radicalized fish. Hence, the 'Piranha' label as opposed to the generic term fish.
Here's a detailed description from Rusty:
Our proven, extremely popular, everyday modern fish. Among other things, traditional fish have a long, straight, rail line relative to their overall length and a lot of area behind the foot. The tail area is stepped down with 3 sets of wings. This help to make the board quicker from rail to rail and tighten the turns.
Specs:
Rocker, bottom and thickness are similar to a performance shortboard like the Burnout. Has a full nose with the wide point nudged in front of centre. The triple wings step a fairly wide tail down to about a 5 1/2" inch split.
Fins:
All boards fitted with FCS plugs and come with FCS fins
My board actually has orange and green stripes swirled on the deck, which is why I refer to the board as the 'Rastafari.' Underneath are three super pretty blue FCS fins.
Until I get around to posting a pic of the Rastafari, I'll leave here a generic pic from Rusty:
OK - finally managed to get that pic of the actual board. Here it is:
The forecast had hinted at some good waves to come later in the week. Then the local news started reporting about high surf coming into the County. When Thursday rolled around and people who did not surf were asking me if I was excited about the waves to come on the weekend, I knew the beaches were going to be a complete madhouse. With even the slightest of hype about a swell, everyone and their mother feels the need to get out on the water.
I paddled out to Scripps on Friday morning, but the conditions there were actually smaller and less fun than they had been all week. The swell was hitting North County a lot harder, but I did not have a chance to get up there and back before work.
I caught some decent waves at Scripps then I jogged back to my car and headed into the office. After a full day of writing letters, filing motions, and other nonsense, I was finally liberated for the weekend. Headed to my car at 6 pm, I was anxious to find a way to make the most of the next few hours of daylight.
Surfshot reported thirty surfers at Cardiff. Forty at Swamis. Forgetting about going North, I decided to look at the waves by the office but area around Scripps was too overrun with tourists. I drove south and headed to Bird Rock but could not even find a parking spot . Finally, I decided to go to the trusty PB Point to see if I could find better luck.
The crowds were usually a little lighter at the Point. Although the staircase had recently been repaired, getting to the break required a long walk across an uneve bed of rocks, followed by a paddle out to the break in between the dry reef which jutted out in several places. As I had hoped, these obstacles had managed to keep most people away. I looked out and saw no more than ten surfers scattered about in the water.
I paddled out past the guys sitting on the inside and a little ways in front of a longboarder sitting on the outside. The one guy next to me was resigned to catching lefts because he was too nervous about the rocks on the right. This left me in the perfect spot to catch the rights that were coming in at my own peril.
The sets that came made the paddle out and the five days of work that came before all worth it. Mushy, flat takeoffs led to a sweet, open faces that allowed a freedom of movement not usually provided by the beachbreaks that I usually frequent. Some discretion was needed to avoid the rocks on the inside, but as long as I pulled out by the time I saw the water shimmering over the reef I was fine.
The lefts were the polar opposite, starting off with steep punchy takeoffs that tended to close out. I found myself holding the rail from start to pull out, only to be catapulted into the air over the lip as I exited. Still having a hard time getting my board to come up with me on those.
The few people that were out there were easy enough to share the waves with and friendly enough to talk to in between sets. This made the time go faster while we waited for waves, but as the tide filled in that time grew longer and longer until the waves stopped breaking altogehter.
By that time, I had rode my fill and felt completely stoked. It was time to go home, grab some dinner, and rest up for the next big day of windsurfing lessons with the wife!
I took the wife out on a canoe ride on the gorgeous Mission Bay. We hauled the vessel from the sandbar on which it's moored in San Juan Cove and paddled out to Paradise Point. We then beached the canoe on the sand and walked onto the sand to relax on dry land for a bit. Quite a bit of water traffic was flying by in front of us in the form of sailboats both large and small, some luxuriously crossing the bay and some embroiled in the mad frenzy of one of the weekend races.
Pretty much every time I had the opportunity to take out a sailboat I would manage to find my way directly in the path of one of these races. The way the races are set up for the dozens of boats to dart back and forth right right across Sail Bay I was always taken aback by how furious the racers were when we crossed their path. Did they expect the several non-racing sailboats to simply leap into the air and fly over their precious little race? Or perhaps they would have preferred if we took our sailboats and simply submarined ourselves under the water until we were out of their way.
Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is a surf report. After the canoeing and the lunch that followed, before I knew it the sun was fast setting and the waves were still up. I rode over to the end of Verona Court to paddle out with JC. The board that was made available to me this evening was an eight foot epoxy longboard. I was cautioned that the board did, in fact, suck and that I should take the 9 foot epoxy longboard that had a piece of duct tape strategically placed on one of the corners. I took the admonition as a personal challenge and decided to take it out.
The waves were fantastic. 3-4 ft, plentiful open faced rights, that were decent enough to stay open long enough for a couple turns. The only curiousity this evening was a group of 4 guys in wetsuits who were attempting to catch waves on a giant, inflatable raft. I say attempting because they did not end up riding much of anything. I had to assume that none of them were surfers. And it's not that I have some kind of prejudice against riding giant, inflatable rafts in the waves. The ordeal actually looked somewhat entertaining. I would just think that such experiments were better suited for days when the surf was not as good - especially considering that in summers around here the good surfing days are few and far between.
June 23 Session Report - Took out the Craig - 8" slim longboard to Pacific Beach Drive. The water was metallic, glassy and grey underneath the clouds where golden rays of light shot through into the distance. I found myself wishing I had brought my rastafari hybrid fish because the waves, while not that big, were somewhat bigger than I expected. Toadstomper paddled out with me which was good because I needed to vent to someone about my broke down boat. In between sets, I explained how after a full day of sailing, a glorious maiden voyage for the Wavemobile, shortly after I decided to take the boat back in, I noticed something was wrong with the mast. It swayed around until a cable suddenly snapped, sending the masting plunging directly at my amazed face. I was too stunned to move but luckily I wasn't smashed by the collapse.
Rode my bike out after work to Pacific Beach Drive. I was pedaling fast to get in there before the tide rose too high and killed the small amount of swell energy we were enjoying.
Under my right arm I was carrying one of my first boards, "Driftwood," a classic single fin surfboard that I had recently restored this year. The session was nothing too special but I felt good to get back in the water after being land-locked the past week.
The only notable points of the session came from my last wave where I dropped in going right, determined to take the wave in spite of the guy to my right who was looking to cut me off. To my surprise, instead of cutting me off, he dropped in and headed directly at me, passing under me as he scored a quick left on the same wave. Since that also happened to be the best wave of the session I decided to call it a night and head back to my bike. Walking up to the boardwalk I stole a couple glances at the guys doing the "Fire Show" on the beach, comprised of a variety of fire-related balancing and juggling acts.
RSS Feed