Jacob and I went up to Bodega Bay for the weekend to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. We surfed Salmon Creek and camped at Doran beach for the night. Our friend, Heather gave us the idea! The whole weekend we kept saying that we need to do this trip with our surf crew. 

Salmon Creek


Doran Beach Campground

We were hoping to go surfing the next day, but the surf was non-existent. Our anniversary tradition is to put a layer of sand from our travel adventures in our unity sand and drink a bottle of wine that we picked out the year before.

Bodega Bay is close to Sonoma so we decided to go to Ledson Winery and Deerfield Wine Cave. We tasted lots of wine and bought 3 bottles. I highly recommend Ledson Winery. Beautiful mansion, great service and delicious wines.

Ledson Winery

I brought my ukulele and made up a fun song about our weekend. Jacob helped me with the lyrics!

8.15.12
Time: Dawn Patrol
Surfed with: Jacob
Swell Height: Chest High
Swell Condition: Rights and Lefts
Board: Maroon Platoon 9'0

Session Highlights:
I am starting to wonder if I should say where I surf only because the crowds have gotten heavier lately. Maybe I guess that is the curse of good swell action.

Crowds were heavy, but we got a lot of really nice glassy waves.

8.16.12
Time: Dawn Patrol
Surfed with: Jacob and Luke
Swell Height: Chest - Head High
Swell Condition: Mostly Lefts
Board: Maroon Platoon 9'0

Session Highlights:
Another crowded day but the swell was really nice. Fun head high drops into clean lefts. JJ chilled out on the beach because he realized it was above his surfing ability.

8.19.12
Time: Late Afternoon
Surfed with: Jacob, JJ, Emily, Max, Noah, Darren
Swell Height: Knee - Thigh High
Swell Condition: Rights
Board: Maroon Platoon 9'0 and Max's Orange 10'0

Session Highlights:
We headed down to Santa Cruz to meet up with Darren for his birthday. It was also our friend JJ's birthday. We planted a tree for him in our garden.

Elephant Heart Plum Tree

The swell was really small, but it was a really fun long boarding day. We finally surfed with Max and Emily! Max brought a 10'0 board and he let Jacob and me try out. It was very floaty and felt like a boat. I was able to walk up to the nose and back. It was fun to try, but I am going to stick with 9'0 and smaller. Jacob loved it! I spent most of my time on my 9'0 and walked on it a lot. We all caught a lot of party waves and shared stoke with a lot of grommets.

Jacob, JJ and me waiting for small waves (photo taken by @maxkiesler)

Ride Waves and Spread the Swell,

J-Bird

8.1.12 - LM 

Time: Dawn Patrol
Where: LM
Surfed with: Jacob
Swell Height: Chest
Swell Condition: Rights and Lefts
Board: Tweetie P 7'10

Session Highlights:
Started out at Montara to find out that the inside was too intense. We ended up at LM and the waves were actually really good. LM redeemed itself from the last time I surfed there. Caught a lot of fun waves!

8.9.12 - Bunnies 

Time: Dawn Patrol
Where: Bunnies
Surfed with: Jacob
Swell Height: Thigh - Chest
Swell Condition: Rights and Lefts
Board: Beth's Board 8'2

Session Highlights:
I took Beth's board out and hadn't ridden it for a year. We saw two dolphins and a sea lion. The surf was not that great but hadn't been in the ocean for a week due to traveling.

8.11.12 - Dillon Beach 

Time: Afternoon
Where: Dillon Beach
Surfed with: Jacob, Chris, Perrin
Swell Height: Waist - Chest
Swell Condition: Long Lefts
Board: Maroon Platoon 9'0

Session Highlights:
Chris the Red invited us to go up to Bodega Bay for surf and go to the Sebastopol Apple Festival.

We searched for swell and found a great sandbar about a mile off shore at Dillon beach. It was definitely worth the paddle. We went to the apple festival and devoured pie, fritters, and a turkey leg. We also enjoyed some Bluegrass from Old Jawbone.

Jacob also bought 60lbs of apples!

8.12.12 - LM

Time: Mid Morning
Where: LM
Surfed with: Jacob, JJ, Tamara, Jade
Swell Height: Thigh - Chest
Swell Condition: Rights and Lefts
Board: Tweetie P 7'10

Session Highlights:
JJ, Tamara and Jade arrived at our house on Friday night. They cycled from Boston to San Francisco for 70 days and through 14 states. They stayed over our house and Jade and Tamara expressed they wanted to learn how to surf. JJ use to surf with us in Boston.

We were suppose to meet up with Cynthia, Darren and Luke, but they went to Montara with bigger waves not good for newbies.

We ended up at LM and they did great! They paddled out into the lineup and caught white water.

Ride Waves and Spread the Swell,
J-Bird

7.24.12 - LM 

Time: Dawn Patrol
Where: LM
Surfed with: Jacob, Cynthia, Luke, Marica
Swell Height: Thigh - Chest
Swell Condition: Closeouts
Board: Tweetie P 7'10

Session Highlights:
I am starting to understand why some of my surf buddies don't like surfing at LM. I have figured out that there are much better places to surf. I caught one decent ride but everything else was closed out. I was really frustrated, but like any surfer will say, "Surfing crappy waves is better than not surfing." I guess so…mumbles.

7.26.12 - Topanga (LA)

Time: Afternoon
Where: Topanga in LA
Surfed with: Jacob and Shiva
Swell Height: Thigh - Waist
Swell Condition: Mushy Rights and Lefts
Board: Shiva's Board - 7'6

Session Highlights:
Jacob and I went down to LA for the US Open of Surfing. We arrived a couple days early because I had a design meeting in Venice and met with the organizer before the event. We met up with Jacob's cousin, Shiva and went surfing at Topanga. With low expectations, we went surfing in 70 degree heavenly water. Even though it looked flat, our session turned out to be a lot of fun! We caught tons of fun sized clean waves off the rock reef.

7.28.12 - Huntington Beach Pier (LA)

Time: Morning
Where: Huntington Beach Pier (LA)
Surfed with: Jacob
Swell Height: Waist
Swell Condition: Clean Rights and Lefts
Board: Rental 9' Single Fin

Session Highlights:
Caught a bunch of great waves and got up to the nose on a couple waves. An angry dude got mad at me for catching waves and told me to relocate. Everyone else in the water was really nice and had great conversations. The water was so warm and I really wanted to take off my wetsuit. I love surfing in warm water sans booties and gloves. Next time I am going sans wetsuit too.

7.29.12 - Huntington Beach Pier (LA)

Time: Afternoon
Where: Huntington Beach Pier (LA)
Surfed with: Jacob and Shiva
Swell Height: Waist to Chest
Swell Condition: Choppy Rights and Lefts
Board: Rental 9' Single Fin

Session Highlights:
We went out a little later and the waves were already wind blown. We caught some fun waves, but it wasn't as fun as Saturday's session.

Ride Waves and Spread the Swell,
J-Bird

7.17.12 - Magnificent Montara

Time: Dawn Patrol
Where: Montara
Surfed with: Jacob, Dolphins
Swell Height: Shoulder High
Swell Condition: CLEAN
Board: Tweetie P 7'10

Session Highlights:
I usually bring 9'0 Maroon Platoon, but I wanted to ride Tweetie P because I haven't ridden that board at Montara very much. I like challenging myself and trying new boards. I was a little rusty at first, but then I caught a nice right. I paddled out for more and it seemed like the swell was getting better. Fun morning!

Montara. Photo by taken by Jacob

7.18.12 - Magical Montara
Time: Dawn Patrol
Where: Montara
Surfed with: Jacob, Cynthia, Marcia, Luke, Tracey, Chris and Dolphins
Swell Height: Shoulder - Head High
Swell Condition: Clean and Slabby
Board: Tweetie P 7'10

Session Highlights:
Cynthia gathered the troops for dawn patrol. Easy paddle out but the waves were a bit tricky. I thought I was far enough on the outside to catch one of the steeper slabby waves, but my judgement was incorrect. I got smacked down by the wave. I learned my lesson and paddle out further and caught some really nice lefts.

We caught our last wave, but Tracey and Chris showed up. Jacob said, "Let's catch one more wave" and I paddled back out again. I immediately caught one, but didn't want to wait on the beach so I paddled out again. The swell was dying and it took me about 30 minutes to catch "one more wave."

Montara and J-Bird playing ukulele. Photo take by Jacob.

7.22.12 - Sloppy JT

Time: Mid Morning
Where: JT
Surfed with: Jacob, Cynthia, Luke, Heather, Perrin, MJ
Swell Height: Waist to Chest high
Swell Condition: Sloppy and bumpy
Board: Tweetie P 7'10

Session Highlights:
It is becoming a tradition to surf on Sunday for "Church of Surf" with the crew. Sometimes we have a large attendance and sometimes few gather. Today we had a great attendance.

Each of us did a surf check on the our way. We checked Montara and it was super heavy, Cynthia said Bunnies was decent but might not be good for a beginner, and Luke said JT was small but doable. We drove by the JT and it was flat. We didn't wait for a set and decided to meet up with Cynthia at Bunnies. Luke, MJ, (Luke's friend) and Heather had already paddled out at the JT. We decided to join up with them since we planned on meeting.

The surf was not great and there were a lot of people out. It was windy creating a lot of bumpy swell. I caught a nice left but the other rides I got were subpar. I took off late on one of my waves and decided to ditch the board and body surf instead. It was actually really exhilarating!

This is not the JT. A picture of the California Coastline.