It’s looking good with 5’ plus swells in the 11 second range. Cloudy with rain expected later in the day. The pre-work crowd is already out there:
Will have breakfast, wait for a thinning of the dawn patrol crowd, and then head out to the north shore home break with the waveski.
Aah… One of the perks of retirement. 
Cowabunga!
-sing
Be careful out there.
Yup. Rip currents abound today. Danger to the clueless (in identifying them) but a boon to experienced surfers since a rip is like a converter belt to get through the impact zone quickly (thereby saving energy).
-sing
2 hour surf session. Mushy shoulder-head waves because of the diagonal onshore (SE) winds. Still fun enough for me. No more 5-6 of us there.
Found a new place with a good view for post session refreshments.
Going out with longboat tomorrow.
Mahalo!
-sing
Yes, video, of course… short and sweet.
Mahalo (for a safe outing)!
-sing
BTW, chatted up with an older gent who was asking about the waves, water temp, etc. Turned out he was visiting from out of town. Of course, he opined about how our water was “too cold” compared to what he was used to. Told him that I thought water was “perfectly warm” at 61 degrees, warranting only a 2 mm. Turned out he was a (80 year old) retiree from San Diego, staying with his wife in an air BnB across the street. Shared a bit about retirement life, grandkids, staying healthy, etc. Reminded me of you, @SeaDart.
Got a surf ride for you whenever you get out this way. Make sure to have your wetsuit! LOL!
-sing
Had intended to surf the Sterling longboat today but then deferred to the waveski. Waves were still coming in at 3-4’ with 10-11 second intervals.
Tomorrow is another surf day. The no-name fish storm keeps on giving.
Mahalo!
-sing
More wave riding. This time in the Sterling longboat.
Mahalo!
-sing
Kirk is going to blow up as major fish storm in the middle of the Atlantic. It’s going to be a major swell generator for both sides of the pond, this weekend into next week.
Should be days of surfing opportunities!
-sing
I tried asking this in a different thread but got not responses, so I’m going to try here.
I’ll be heading back to Florida soon and would love some input on the issues I was having.
The first thing that I found difficult was that the short waves were breaking right about where the water was deep enough to start floating the kayak. The next issue was that the skirt I had in Florida was totally insufficient for pushing into breaking waves and imploded. I already have an appropriate one on order for my next trip out.
Now some “how to” questions and maybe @sing or @SeaDart or some other coastal people can weigh in here.
On my return in at some point a swell started to lift the stern and I felt my speed increase. I was using a stern rudder to stay straight and that was working well until I watched my bow bottom out in the trough and go under . . . that ended my uprightness.
So during that I felt like I was too far forward on the swelling, how do you back up so that you’re not so bow down?
And how should I have responded to the bow starting to go under?
I’m using a 17’.4" poly Eclipse/Sealion and I’m not so much trying to surf w/ it as I am just practicing launches and landings in surf conditions.
Hey, just got back from camping/flyfishing northern NH. Sorry, saw your initial message but was also camping up north and then I promptly forgot about it.
Launching sea kayaks in surf – I haven’t figured out a better way than locating my boat in a couple of inches of water, getting my skirt on, and then "knuckle and pole pushing? myself out with an incoming wave. If I try to launch from deeper water, I usually get take on some water or get swamped by the incoming waves/foam. Knuckle/pole pushing out is not elegant but it works for me:
With respect to getting through and back through the surf zone, the specific boat design has impact what you can/can’t do. The Sealution (if I recall correctly) is a longer, less rockered point A-B type of boat. It has good speed and more a tapered bow that will facilitate punching or spearing through the ongoing waves. What you experienced coming in, the bow digging in and pearling in the wave trough are pretty typical of long, minimally rockered boats. At that point, you’ll broach and hopefully lean into the wave with a brace and side surf your way. On a steeper or bigger wave, pearling can lead to pitchpoling (endo-ing). Fun when intentional. Not so fun when not intended in a fully ladened boat. To stop that from happening, aggressively lean/edge onto the waveside. This manuever can stop and free the bow from digging in further into the trough. You’ll end up in broach and can sidesurf in.
One manuever to use to forestall the inevitable broach is to stay near the crest of the wave. Lean back more once you caught a wave. Leaning back slows down the boat and may allow you to stay near the top of the wave longer. If you lean forward on a wave, you’ll speed up.
The longboats I favor for surf play are shorter, more rockered and higher volume in the bow. Of course, all three characteristics lead to more maneuverability and less pearling and broaching.
Have fun. Wear your helmet.
-sing
I’m glad @sing provided you an answer, I’m ok at ‘doing’ things, but not good at ‘explaining’ how to do them
As a ‘broad’ answer, I might add:
Practice in calm conditions (less than a foot or 2 of surf) (check local forecasts, eg windy.com has surf predictions)
When mastered, build up from there (2’, 3’)
Deliberate progression is the sound approach. I assume lowtech already knows since he has been around the block, but it doesn’t hurt for others reading and are new to surf play.
-sing
My answer to avoid pearl diviing in a non-surf specific kayak, is to turn the boat away from the breaking curl, edge into the wave, use a low brace stern rudder into or on the wave and wait for the close out and side surfing bongo slide, keep leaning into the wave until things calm down or your are run aground. If you have a shorter boat with some bow rocker, when you start to pearl, tip the boat to the side so you are almost at 90 degrees from where you started out, away from the breaking curl, pull your knees up to your chest, and low brace into a trimming surf ride. Works with white water kayaks , sit on tops less than about 12’. In longer boats it’s instinctive to lean back to avoid pearling but that actually drives the bow under, tipping to the side and bringing your weight forward lets the nose rocker work to keep you from plowing into the bottom or pitch-poling.
I read the original post on my phone and did not notice this is for a 17.5 boat with almost no rocker. I’ve only paddled seakayaks that long doing expeditions in Baja on the Pacific Coast side. The best way I found for getting through the surf zone on those boats was to choose a wave very carefully and paddle in on the back of the wave. That works well when the surf is regular and not too choppy or confused, but a long seakayak gives you enough speed, to let the swell roll under you and then get on the back of the swell until it breaks.
Love how this boater terms it - “pressure testing”. That is how I loosely frame my recent outings, coming back from heart valve replacement 8 months ago. Again, emphasis on intentional (and controlled) progression:
PS - read his video description.
-sing
“Rainy days and Mondays” surf sessions usually mean more surfing solitude. Waves were rolling into MassBay at 4-5’ with intervals of 15-16 seconds. Some zip and punch (when hit square on) to these waves. Using the Gearlab Kalleq GP was not a good choice for me today. Lacking intimacy with the Kalleq (compared to my Werner Shuna), my timing was off and my rudder strokes were not leveraging the turns the way I am used to with my Euro paddle. I liked the way the Kalleq feel in just paddling around. However, I was not able to wield it well in catching and maneuvering on the waves today.
More swells tomorrow for another session. Mahalo!
-sing
Still going off this morning. 6.5’ @ 12 seconds, BUT with a cleanup offshore wind!
I suspect more folks will be out today with a bright sun beaming down.
-sing
Unbelievable… MassBay is still pulsating with groundswells after a week of it. This is one of the longer streaks I have seen in a long while… 
Unfortunately, the only sessions today are with my dentist and cardiologist. Old man health maintenance is mandatory.
-sing
@sing , @SeaDart sorry about the delayed response on this, life has seriously been getting in the way.
Thank you very much for the detailed info!
Yes, the Sealion/Eclipse is definitely a min rockered yak.
It sounds like what I really need to practice first is Bongo sliding as that seems to be the “go to” if riding the wave in starts to go south.
And pay more attention to staying on the back side of the wave.
SeaDart, I’m confused by your instruction to bring my knees up to my chest. I feel like getting my legs out from under my thigh hooks and up would leave me seriously disconnected from the boat. Even my feet would be off the pegs.
I’ll have another opportunity in Dec as I’ll be heading there again to do some site placement on the new property.
