Saturday, January 25th, 2020

“Definitely not ‘ 1–2ft’ ”

Location: South Venice Beach ( near Driftwood st. tower)

Time: Morning (7:45–8:30am)

Conditions: Solid 2–4' ( occasional 5'? ) WNW swell, high, rising tide ( 6'+ @ 9am ). Lot’s of energy, backwash, wonky surf conditions. Poor — fair surf quality

Equipment: 8' Almond R-Series

Company: Joy, Cherilyn, Josh ( briefly), ( Sophia, Josh, Addy were on the beach briefly but apparently decided against paddling out)

In my experience, Surfline tends to overestimate wave heights in most cases, however, it often seems to overlook certain spots in it’s report — the beach near Venice pier seems to be one of those places. Anyways, this ended up being a rather brief surf session. Periods of relative calm were interrupted by chest high + set waves that packed a surprising amount of energy — energy that none of us cared to get caught inside of. The waves weren’t gigantic but they packed a punch. Powerful close-out sets coupled with a high tide backwash prompted Joy, Cherilyn, and myself to pack it in pretty quick. On my 8 footer, I managed to catch 2 ok waves ( both rights) — the second of which I decided to ride in. Cherilyn and Joy got out shortly after, with less successful last ride attempts. I caught a couple waves, no one got hurt, and I managed to avoid a major pounding so I’ll consider it a successful session.

I walked to the pier afterwards and watched the surfers there for a while. Some of the better guys on shortboards managed to get some pretty impressive rides. Larger set waves continued to pound surfers on either side of the pier. Hopefully tomorrow the conditions will clean up a bit for us.