Lose Track Of Your Timing Tuesday Surf & Culture Report



Lost Boys & Co...

We joined the esteemed biologist José Bacalläo this morning for a surf at Cabrillo Beach.  Photo #1 shows the Spanish Steps and the rocky promontory just inside of the seaweed lined outside rocks.  Bacalläo, now works at the Cabrillo Beach Marine Museum, just steps from this break and took some time to show us the line-up and where we might be most successful.  #2 shows the sweep of the beach and the second peak to the south of the main point.  It was relatively uncrowded with only five of us in the water initially.  There were two guys left when we got out of the water and then a couple of SUP-ers paddled out at the second peak.  This was a straight west swell and it would be interesting to see how it might work on a south swell.  It's a soft wave, so get ready to paddle a bit...

10 Miles visibility under partly cloudy skies.  Winds were offshore by 4 to 6kts and the sea surface was smooth almost glassy, tempered by the seaweed.  The air temperature was 50.5º and the water was a chilly 59.0º.  Low tide was at 9:42am +1.4' and high tide was at 3:17pm +2.8'.  The buoy showed a west swell out of 271º at 3.9' and it was 2' to 3' with some nice right rollers along the sweep of the beach.

So we were prepared to go on a bit on how Cabrillo (#3) is actually pronounced Cab-rill-o and not Cab-ree-o because Cabrillo was Portuguese and not Spanish.  That is until we consulted the archives of the San Diego History Center.  There seems to be quite a vigorous academic discussion about whether Joaõ/Juan Rodrigues/Rodriguez Cabrillo was Portuguese or Spanish.  Part of the argument focuses not on the Cabrillo name, but on the Rodrigues patrimony.  Of course someone named Joaõ Rodrigues is the Iberian equivalent of "John Smith."  The squabble starts in 1615 with Antonio Herrera saying unequivocally that Cabrillo was Portuguese.  However he was unclear about his sources and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami washed away the main archives (those damned tsunamis even then!)  Still a Presidential (U.S.) proclamation dedicated a historic site at Point Loma in 1913 and California made September 28, "Cabrillo Day" in 1935 mostly predicated on Herrera's surviving work.  And who are we to quibble with the United States of America and the great state of California?  So we're sticking with our original Portagee contention and even though he was in the employ of Spain for most of his career, we're going to imagine that all those Iberians switched allegiances depending on who was paying more for the latest discovery.  We are marking September 28, in red and green to remember his achievements.  That is until we discover that he marauded the new world and subjugated the locals and surfed their breaks...  Please Joaõ, say it ain't so...
✠
"When the surf breaks, we'll fix it"
The Professor!!





Popular posts from this blog

Duke Of Wellington Wednesday Surf & Culture Report

Image
Lost Boys & Co... P rofessor, This is a shot taken last week at a secret spot that is less than 30 miles away from you guys. Any guesses?  My buddy Dave sent it from Salta Verde Point on the backside of Catalina. Only accessible by boat or if you know someone with the key. Tip: The guy in the pic is the guy with the key! Sea Wolf... S o, apparently if you decide to leave Avalon and head to the backside you might score on a south swell.  For some reason this place looks like there might be some rocks on the inside.  No indications of that other than the boils following the guy with the key... C loudless skies this morning with 20+miles visibility.  Winds were off to 2.2kts and the sea surface had a residual bump that held all day.  The air temperature was 79.3˚ and the water was 66.4˚, apparently affected by the wind and upwelling.  High tide was at 6:55am +3.9' and low tide will be at 11:46am +2.8' for a little less than a foot differential.  There's a SW swell out of
Read more

Wasting Away In Margariitaville Saturday Surf & Culture Report

Image
Lost Boys & Co... S ancho, on this morning's Sruf Familia thread said it best, "Somber rainy day for Jimmy."  J immy Buffett died Friday, September 1.  He was 76 years old and had recently been struggling with health issues.  A Lost Boy of the first order his music was the sound-track for our lives. B ut he might have said it best: "But there's one particular harbor/ So far yet so near/ Where I see the days as they fade away/ And finally disappear." S ail on Jimmy Buffett and we hope on the corner of that one particular harbor there's a wave that you can surf through eternity.  Aloha Jimmy... ✠ "When the surf breaks, we'll fix it" The Professor!!
Read more

Not Forest Hills Friday Surf & Culture Report

Image
Lost Boys & Co... W ho's behind those Foster-Grants?  Well, we'll bet that he's NEVER worn a pair of F-G's.  Are those Oliver People's?  Cartier's, Garrett Leight's?  We'll say Tom Ford's and he should be their poster boy.  Yep, it's Jetski in the arena at the US Open.  Looking rather trim in his court-side togs, we're waiting for his description of the action... W e continue our assault on some of the smallest waves ever ridden!  We'll have to check the Guinness book, but we think we're on to something.  So it was ten miles visibility under partly cloudy skies and winds were offshore by 5 to 7kts.  The3 air temp was 63.9º and the water was 70.7º at the ever popular #46221 Santa Monica Buoy.  High tide was at 11:01am +5.5' and low tide follows at 4:52pm +0.7'.  It turns out we observed that low tide and even with the afternoon south wind howling around 10kts, Sapphire still looked fairly smooth.  We had a south swell out o
Read more