SURF REPORT ( The DIP)

SURF REPORT


8 AUGUST 2009


We have credible data resources that assist in obtaining waves. Take “the dip”. We look at CDIP - AKA “the dip”- continually, for knowledge, to be reassured, and for a surprise. CDIP started on the computers and now its an icon on the Iphones. Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego operates the dip, which takes wave measurements at the buoy off Point Conception, then paints a revealing picture of what’s striking the Southern California bight.

Scripps is running a survey currently plumbing user comments. One of the questions I would pose is: “ Do you have CDIP as the start page on your browser?”

Or: “Do you have a special folder for all the CDIPs you have saved from specific swell events you have surfed?”

You’re basically hoping for yellow on CDIP, just a little yellow, though green is always good and because bronze would be too much to ask for, and red just might be more than you can handle. More on these colors, later, perhaps even in this report.

At a recent dinner party, Phaneuf sneaks a peek at the DIP between bites of sweet corn, then shows a seething 4.1 from the 175 to all interested attendees. Whoa ! The lemon fingers of Hurricane Felicia are reaching out between Anacapa and Point Mugu so seductively. We know better than to move forward into full prattle. One picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

The pros said she would not send it, but I knew she would when she stalled at 144 west and then did a little northerly wobble. It must be Felicia. there is only a ten second period between waves.

I should point out now that we A: speak in a number-infused jargon. And B: We have already written a comic piece based on the jargon, including tides, wetsuit thicknesses and water temps and all the rest. The 175 is a compass reading, in that if you go 360 you will hit the North Pole, a 180, the South Pole. A 175 is coming straight up into the south-facing Pacific shores of North America, and there are not many of them.

We know from Friday that small swells from the south are striking and forecast to peak over the weekend. The dip is going 3.1 from the 185. We know we have to pick for the farmers market early, but can finish up the onions and sort the potatoes after we surf. I get the basil out of the way, and acquiesce to parsley. Its been awhile since we took parsley, and we know we should haul a bit more variety to the market. We look so boring behind our commonplace mounds of potatoes, onions and squash. I have three hundred pounds of vine ripe tomatoes, but they’re so so what? We are not known as tomato people, and Cadwell has been selling the best heirlooms in the world since April. My little gestural tomato pile will add a bit of flash next to the cippolinis.

Phaneuf is already down by ten thirty watching that 185 strike the high tide Nucklehead bar and he wants to know what the hell is taking us. He textplains that the beach is packed with Winnebagos and Renegades sporting Jolly Rogers, so he actually is more towards Trader Joes than the Nuckle, but as Otterbein heaves to at the dusty riprap, we can see that we better grab what we can park in and that the whole beach has shoulder high peaks peeling sweetly left and right. There’s folks, but probably more waves than riders.

Water warm, waves frequent, tide perfect, glad I cut that old 3/2 off at the knee.