Humpback SUP

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Whales!  Oh My God, they’re every where.  All up and down the coast.  They’re out at sea, they’re in close.  My son saw them at Princeton Harbor Jetty in the surf zone.  That’s almost on shore.

Yesterday the surf were gloriously small with a fresh offshore breeze that cleaned up the faces of the waves and brought smiles to the surfers.  It was overcast, and faintly smelled of fish that brought in the birds, that brought in the whales.

There were Humpback blows all over the bay.  Several at a time.  And humps showed by the minute, sometimes side by side.  Paddle boarders headed out for a closer look.  A colleague, Denise Crawford, was shooting with a 600mm telephoto lens right next to me and she had it dialed in.  Check out this image of a close encounters of the Humpback kind.

Linda Mar SUP up close and personal
photo by Denise Crawford

SUP San Francisco

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Driving up 9th near Irving we passed a Muni bus stop where I could have sworn I saw a Standup Paddleboarder gracing a large ad on the side of the bus shelter.  I got tied up with errands and missed shooting it, so it rumbled around in my head overnight.  What would SUP and transit have in common.

So yesterday I got out in our first rain.  Yes, RAIN in the bay area.  Enough for wipers and a poncho.  There were a lot of wet pedestrians pounding the pavement to get out of the wet wind.  Wrapped in my poncho I shot a photo of the SUP poster.  It was an ad for Hawaiian Airlines.  Still, it was fun to find a paddleboarder in the Richmond on a rainy day.

IMG_0001

Gratitude

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WHAT SUP?  Well, my friend Jeremy is beating cancer and looks great. I met my wife at he and his wife’s place long before I’d heard about standup paddle boarding, back in my surfing days. But yesterday I found myself pitching SUP to his daughter who talked about leading adventure tours. I’m grateful for Jeremy. I’m grateful for the heroic efforts of his wife and children to support him through the crisis.  I’m grateful for my health. I’m grateful that I live at the ocean with all its unpredictable mood swings.

Standup in Iceland

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While reviewing the October issue of STANDUP PADDLE MAGAZINE I came across an article that started out interesting and then stopped me dead in my tracks.  A European crew had taken surf boards, paddle boards, and kite boards to Iceland, along with VERY THICK wet suits, in search of cool places to paddle and surf.  Sort of a search for the endless winter.

I was familiar with the terrain having spent a year there with the Air Force in 1968.  I was stationed on the south east side of the island.  I worked in a power plant supplying the only power the site had.  We called the place, Hofn-by-the-sea.  Just before I returned state side, a surfer from California showed up with board and wet suit.  Both board and wet suit were locked up by the base administration so he’d still be alive for his year of duty.  Here’s a photo of the installation shot from one of the Air Force jets.

Hofn002

The STANDUP PADDLE MAGAZINE article was well written, and had photos of surfing and paddle boarding with icebergs in the water. One full-page spread showed a black and white image of a standup paddleboarder riding a left with an extremely rugged rocky backdrop. The caption read, “Franz does a bottom turn. Hofn gives the word ‘solitary’ and entirely new meaning.” I had the same experience there though I never put my toes in the water.

Iceland SUP-002

This shot below is from the north side of the air base where I worked. The base, as I knew it, closed in 1992. It’s now a civilian-run air traffic control station.
Iceland SUP-003

GoPro, Pelicans, & Paddling

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The surf in Pacifica was Labor-Day-weekend crowded with a bit of west wind wandering our way. So we put in at Princeton Harbor for some exercise, after a solid breakfast at 3-Zero Cafe.  I spent a bit of time setting up my new GoPro Hero 4 Silver for its maiden SUP voyage.

The harbor was jammed with tourists, but the water was calm and bright blue. Boat flags flew, so the wind was a matter of minutes from getting us.  We paddled through the lovely calm in front of Half Moon Bay Kayak, then turned around a jetty toward the pier where the west wind hit.  It was just enough to chop up the surface, but not enough to thwart the scent of a few hundred Brown Pelicans lining the jetty.  During our trip to the pier we were visited by harbor seals, sea lions, and plenty of folks on paddle boards and kayaks.  We met a stand up catamaran guy who had paddled up to Moss Beach and back.  It’s pretty much into the wind all the way there.

We chatted up some folks visiting from the city who’d built tall slender rock sculptures.  We paddled back toward the pier and then down wind to our put in location.

The GoPro captured our journey and gave us feedback on our paddling form.

Warm Windy Waves

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There are days, like yesterday, when the sun is shining, the water is blue, but the wind, though embracing, simply dominates the surf into chaos and chop.  Surfers, up and down the beach, seemed oblivious to the horrid conditions.  Their gills were sufficiently dry to warrant a collective charge to the waves.  And they found them. They road them.

I walked to the creek where a tiny wave broke in multiple peaks on small 2 foot faces.  I tried to imagine getting wet; getting through the incessant sloppy surf, then trying to stay vertical on the SUP while the ocean moved out of rhythm.  A wave smoothed out a frothy stretch and washed the chop right out, leaving a slick surface for the next wave. In the blink of an eye it was gone.

creek sea gulls-1
Click to enlarge image

The Guy Who Paddles Fast

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You remember the post about Golden Rules.  Well, one of them is to learn from those with more experience.  Like the other day, it was sunny and warm in Pacifica. The surf was mushy and quite crowded. I saw a standup paddle boarder in board shorts out at Round House. I hurried to the water and walked along the beach with my long lens, a 70-200 f2.8 on my Canon 5DMII. The guy I’d seen earlier was paddling back. Fortunately he paused at each peak and caught a few waves. After each ride he paddled south to the next peak. He was paddling faster than I was walking. It was impressive.

After he’d ridden a maybe three waves he got out of the water just south of Taco Bell. I chatted him up and learned that he’d been paddling a few years. I told him that he paddled much faster than I could and how did he do it. He asked if I’d taken any lessons, which I had not, other than watch others and watch YouTube videos. He gave me a few tips and said we’d have to get together for a session some time.
Here’s a short photo montage of two waves.

They Paddle They Pedal

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Some days we paddle and others we pedal.  Saturday we paddled into a stiff Santa Cruz west wind from New Brighton toward Capitola.  Well, to be clear, which the water and the sky were, Donna paddled all the way to the Capitola pier.  It’s simply work paddling into that wind.  I sat on my F-One Manawa and paddled like a kayak.  I even bent forward at the waist, stuck my paddle in the water, and used my stomach to pull back.

I was more out of the wind than Donna and got to my destination more quickly, but I wanted to save energy to ride some waves at a little reef between New Brighton and Capitola.  A place where I could lose my board and not worry about it hitting anyone.  The tide was on the rise so I knew my time was limited.

It took maybe 20 minutes of pretty steady paddling to get out to the reef, and another 15 or so to catch the first wave.  It was hard to know where the wave was going to break, so I guessed. Another friendly SUPer paddled out. While chatting it up I discovered that he and his wife had just had a baby; a nine week old girl named Lucy.

Donna was returning from the pier at a pretty good pace. I bid Lucy’s father farewell and headed in.  That’s when the beauty of down-wind paddling got to me.  It was a different ocean, no work, just stroke and cruise.  It seemed that the wind kind of disappeared. We saw Otters and Harbor Seals on the easy ride back to New Brighton.

Sunday we stopped into Mavericks Paddlesports to check out some gear, and to try out my new GoPro Hero 4 Silver on a short bike trip with Donna.  We saw humpback whales, thousands of Shearwaters, and a fair number of folks out enjoying the warm sunny coastside.  Check it out.

First GoPro-HD 720p from Tom Adams on Vimeo.

Golden Rules

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Golden Rules
I reviewed a YouTube video by Bic Sports, you know, the folks who make pens, called Stand Up Paddling – Taking Your Sup to the Surf. This guy went over what he called the golden rules when learning to SUP surf. I think they make a lot of sense. I think some of these apply to regular surfing too.
1. Do not go where there are others in the water.
2. Always wear a leash.
3. Hone your paddling skills in flat water before attempting the surf.
4. Learn from those with more experience.
Of all these I’d place staying clear of others at the top of the list. I surfed from age 14 to 62 and have spent an awful lot of time upside down in the surf zone on my SUP. But I’m getting better. I’ve shown a bit of impatience getting into the surf and do not have great paddling skills, but I’ve totally stayed clear of others, always wear a leash, and talk with any SUPer who will give me their time. Most are quite generous.

Like the Guy Who Paddles Fast.