Watch: Raw Days / Ocean Beach, San Francisco
Beautifully groomed peaks pushing into Ocean Beach, perfect for a mind-surf on this Tuesday morning.
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Comments
6:57, noice.
Nice fun
My First thought was Lewis Samuels.
Spent a bit of time watching these breaks on a recent trip. Even mid summer It is so cold and very heavy. Great diners though!
Looks like fun waves - and the paddle from hell.
The Raw Days vids are quite good on a big screen on a lazy Sunday arvo type of day. Much like watching from the beach without commentary, music, slow mo and rewinds. Don't waste them on your mobile when in 2 minute attention span mode.
Ocean Beach looks like an open, uncrowded wave feast at size if you can make the paddle out. A lot of beach breaks are like that - one last refuge from the hordes if you are fit - even in California.
It is also interesting how when away from the hype in solid waves, a lot of surfers simply take off, trim and flickout and are more than happy with that minimalist approach to wave riding. It is especially true when you have to have an exit plan to dodge the set behind on a beach break. Shorebreak re-entries and risky moves come with a price.
Well said. Very good analysis Frog.
So nice but so cold for the middle of summer. I watched this stretch of coast back in the 90s and was amazed at the consistency of multi-overhead peaks and the resilience of the crews who got smashed paddling out. Me, I took into account the size, the paddle out and the water temp and headed to those diners (cheers Spiggy)
Great chapter in Barbarian Days about Ocean Beach too. - discusses the cojones necessary to surf big beach breaks. Surfed there early summer in 1984 at only 3 foot on my Murray Bourton-shaped channel bottomed quad (twinnie with trainer wheels if I'm truthful) - bloody cold without booties, seals in the water and just a couple of kms up the road Height Ashbury approaching an AIDS nightmare. Ahhh - the memories of a well-spent youth ;-)
Alongside the Jardim do Mar chapter/s the Ocean Beach chapter/s of Barbarian Days were the best I thought - interesting characters, place and relatable insights into how surfing can morph from this fun pastime to something more obsessive and compulsive, and then back again ...
been curious to see Ocean Beach ever since reading that book - great to see it - reckon the cold would defeat me - can't take too much cold and folks saying it's next level cold ... urghhh shiver
Yeah mate!
How good are his recollections of sessions at Jardim! Never been but it sounds like the dream when he was there and in the 90's to boot when surfing in Europe was gaining rapid traction.
Looks like the sort of break where it’s a fine line between being either over or under gunned. You’d want the length for the initial entry into waves and to have the paddle speed to chase down peaks, but it’d be a liability when duckdiving and riding. Particularly with how rapidly the wave tapers.
Good to see it’s not overrun with skis at that size.
What size board do crew generally ride out there?
Water there is colder than you can imagine...
Looks like it's about 17C at the moment. Or a good 4C warmer than here in Wellington. Luxury.
Blowin, I was thinking the same re length. Looks like a few are on 9ft guns, while others are on 6'10 stepups.
16degs in summer, 10degs winter...
Very cold with a tough paddle out and peaks that are shifty and unpredictable. I read a bloke saying he only discovered surfing could be fun when he surfed somewhere else other than Ocean Beach. Those surfers earn their good rides.
Looks glorious fun on a big board. Love to have a crack one day
That clip resonated with me.
Surfing without the bull shit.
Nat Young (the other one) at a Norcal beachie:
17º is not cold, must get colder than this with everybody whingeing about it around 12-14º perhaps. A mate I went to uni with many moons ago surfed here in the late 70's and said it was the best surf he had on his trip to the Americas. Stayed for a few weeks.
It's as cold and colder than Tassie, where water of 9-10C is common down south.
Would say the water flows in and out of San Francisco Bay would be bringing those real cold temps.
Upwelling when the northerly blows.
Ah yes. That as well.
Awesome clip, no frills, best in a while
I spent the last 4 years of the 90’s living just south of OB.
Can confirm:
The water is cold...real cold. 14-16 in summer, 8-12 in winter but had it as low as 6 with snow on the beach.
The paddle is hell...can break a loooong way out when big and horror rips and water movement. Can be ok breaking like a shorey when in the 3-4ft range and high tide.
You almost always feel like you’ve got the wrong board...either too big or too small.
You WILL get caught inside. Every surf. I’ve never surfed a wave with such a pronounced difference in or out of where the waves break...even the same size waves.
It’s a great experience surfing there though and a great area/city.
I’ve got some amazing memories and stories from that place :-)
Unreal!
Whats with all the rhino chasers on good 6ft+ day?It happens down here in Vic all the time. Bells gets double over head and the car park is full of people waxing up these freaking 9'0"s......
Nothing a good 6'4 Forget Me Not wouldn't handle.
was thinking the same thing. Nice take off then hits deep water
I would happily paddle out on my 7’6” in the waves in that video
Most likely to cover ground and handle water movements as mentioned above. Agree though, once on the wave, the actual cup of the wave looks pretty negotiable on a smaller board.
You gotta wonder, though, is there any good reason to be on a 6'4 or 6'6 out there? Only one I can think of is duck diving. Getting out of the way, or getting onto waves that are moving quickly, is so much easier with more board.
If you're super fit and young and a top notch surfer who knows the place inside out, then go shorter. Others are probably well served with bigger boards, and the locals' board choices seem to indicate that.
Its all horses for courses - board choice is like a relationship - so no one can tell you what is best for you. This little cynical voice in my head says that some people pull them out so they can say "Took the 9'0" out the other day!!" - leaving the listener to marvel and wonder at their obvious Bierke like commitment - not realising they are actually cruising straight on overhead waves, while wrestling their rhino chaser into cutbacks that make one think of a medieval knight wielding a broadsword.....
I get your point. Somewhere in between 6'4 and 9'0 looks good for those waves.
I'd want my 6'8 and 6'3 or 6'5 for the smaller ones.
Nice relaxing vid.
Coz I watched this I just got their latest Rincon video on my feed. Could only watch 3 minutes, too many drop ins.
Nov - Dec, a good paddling board and 4/3 with a hood. Remember your paddling arms! I have great memories of my trips there over 15 years.
pretty sure someone on here posted this link but seems like a good place to remind everyone - a great long read for those inclined
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/08/24/playing-docs-games-part-o…
Good stuff... "Everyone who surfs has a limit to the size of the waves he will venture among. The surfers in an area come, over time, to know one another’s limits. In San Francisco, this mutual knowledge creates a dense little community, nervous and drawling, in the beach parking lots on big winter days—men pacing back and forth, fists plunged in pockets, discussing the matter with dry mouths, laughing too loudly, while, out at sea, frightening waves rear and collapse. We study the waves, study the channels, trying to decide if the surf is within the range we can conceivably handle. That range is as much psychic as physical, and it is inseparable from the group: if X goes out, that doesn’t necessarily mean I have to go out, but if Y goes out, I’ll have to follow, because anything within his range is, I know, within mine."
What a perfect summary of my surfing existence.
Barbarian Days is essential reading for any surfer who enjoy seeing surfing as more than a sport and wants to peer into the deeper existential importance and meaning of surfing. Its brilliant.
Just got my mitts on it.
It's a fantastic read Craig!
Bet ya knock it over in a week or so. Really hard to put down.
Totally- I smashed it in about 4 days.
I liked the Oz bit and Honolua Bay sections. Actually, not a weak spot in the whole book I reckon.
Yep, possibly the best ever surf yarn squeezed between 2 covers.
These guys can spend half an hour getting out. Diving under freezing thick whitewater, ice cream headaches, tossing the board cause it is too big to duck dive. A totally different and more hard core surf than a big reef break.
The inside banks/shore break thump-can get pitted or blasted depending on your position or luck. Then deep water gutter while watching the outside shifty peaks and finding a channel to hopefully get outside. It’s cold and harder than it looks!
Was supposed to be doing a trip there amongst other places last year but of course COVID took care of that. My mate who lives there reckons it's a super long beach and you can always find a spot to yourself. I think I'd rather put up with the difficulties of paddling out etc and not have to deal with crowds rather than surf somewhere like Rincon.
I came very close to downing out there. Freezing cold big day in the middle of January. Was almost out the back after a 20 minute paddle and got the biggest wave I've ever seen right on my head. Worst situation. The set was relentless and sent me in a long way, mostly underwater. Scary place.
The occasional pulled back shot of OB on big days shows some sort of outside bank or reef way out that bends the swells around. Hence the A frame peaks. A pity more beaches don't have those.
They're already paddling before their chest hits the deck on the kickouts.
Northeasterly has the word: Scary. Even though it is Bondi distance from the heart of one of the world's most dynamic cities, it feels empty, lonely, always challenging there, even with the sun shining and 4ft of what look like easy waves. It is huge for a city beach, with dense housing right behind the dunes and somehow more sketchy than 45ks of sharky sand island beach, remote rarely surfed cold water coves at the bottom of the world or sail only ocean reefs. Maybe its the proximity of a bustling city but 20 metres offshore it's definitely down to you, and you alone. Nobody has described this better than Bill Finnegan, author of the best book ever written about a surfing life.
O.B.,one can no be......an easy paddle out.as crg previously mentioned 'a hell paddle!'.noreasterly 'scary'.
i'm looking forward to reading Finnegans book.
best beach break i've ever seen.SF locals say Puerto is gnarlier.
anyone knows who's been there knows that on occasions you will deal with rejection.
you will do 'the walk of shame' back to your car failing to make it out the back.
i'm no big wave surfer but somedays you make it out and its big.caught a few 8-10 ft. cold heavy waves in the early 90's.i got flogged like a convict on the chain gang!somedays i was on a short boards,bigger days on 7'10.guys had 9'6''s if you were man enough for them days.
somtimes not so big with crew out the back up n down the beach and still rejected?!
happens to eveyone i've ever met thats spent time there.
you change out of your wetty a mere shell of your former self,sitting in your car a shattered man!
humbled you then smoke some humbolt,eat a burrito then drive south to some softer Santa Cruz r.h. points.
That looked unreal and very difficult all at once. I was buggered after watching it for 5 minutes, let alone paddling. Need a rest after that. No wonder they freak out when they get to the Ments in shorts with a big channel next to the waves!
Here's a good example of a humbling and shoulder busting paddle at OB.
18ft? Faces perhaps...? Still looked like hell in neoprene....
Yeah! Craig's top Vid earns them great comments.
Yep! Did notice the guys caught inside...also a tough gig for basher to escape that soup bowl.
Craig & the crew deserve an even more raw, prehistoric surfing companion...
All looked out to the horizon & thought what a weird isolated place to lump an Island.
tbb invites the crew to take a closer look at a Real Wild Surf Reserve...not too close as it's very sharky!
No Spoiler...We'll keep this primitive big wave Surf Reserve a Secret Spot.
Bookend Historic Wildlife Vids refer to giant waves crashing & shaking the Island.
Can you surf there...pretty sure you'd need a wildlife ranger permit.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba540857fdcb8616bd167ee/t/5bbcf…
Sharks! Yep! Got them to keep away the Surfers!