Hey kids! Here are my thoughts and hopes for the summer that lies before us. Judging by the water temp at this time, I think it’s safe to say that we’re in for a warm one. With the water temperatures hitting the mid-60s and higher last month, chances of a strong upwelling from powerful west-northwest winds and groundswell mixtures become less likely as each day passes. On the bright side, this means less need for wetsuits and longer surf sessions. On the down side, you can expect more people surfing longer sessions. Swellwise, the southern hemisphere has remained very active with strong south-to-southwest swell directions continuing to line up before us. Though, as usual, the majority of these more southerly swell directions sweep right past us, the occasional more southwesterly directions will give us some decent days of surf.
Continued weak rounds of west-northwest swell directions will also help to bend some of those steeper south direction swells back into our area. Equipmentwise, anything goes this summer. Classic longboarding is showing a strong comeback with a lot of young surfers jumping on heavy early 1960s-type surfboards, complete with large “D” fins placed right at the end of the tail. Shapes of these boards are also becoming more piggish, as noses and widths narrow while thickness and hips increase. Old and young surfers alike continue to open old doors and push things to new limits, riding hand planes or just plain body surfing with or without swim fins.
Regular performance short boards aren’t going to disappear any time to soon, but look for them to continue to widen and thicken up some. Single-fin surfboards and planing hulls are being looked at more closely while the fish craze continues to taper off. Short, fat and stubby quad fin boards continue to have a wide appeal, with more people then ever finally realizing the importance of fins and their different shapes and foils.
Look for more women, both young and old, on all types of wave-riding vehicles. The pure enthusiasm and stoke that they show harkens back to the early days of surfing when it was just fun to ride a wave on whatever you had with whatever style you could or couldn’t show. I hope their vibe spreads far and wide through the whole surfing realm. In a nutshell, I think we are in for a warm, fun and exciting summer. If I’m wrong, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
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