Surf Report # 20

Location: Devil’s Punch Bowl State Park – 8 miles N of Newport, OR
Time: 10:30 am- 1:30 pm
Air Temp: 80° F
Water Temp: 57° F
Wind: From E 9 mph
Waves: 5 ft
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves

Back to back days! Surfed with Dan and Mary again. Used the rented 7′ softtop again also. The weather was so nice this morning/afternoon. Eighty degrees, cloudless, off-shore reasonably calm wind. I was pretty warm in the 5/3, even going hoodless again. Waves weren’t huge (which actually was quite nice for the paddle out), but were as clean as anything I’ve seen here yet. I felt today like I was really making some significant learning steps. Really focused on only going for the good waves, rather than just lunging for anything breaking nearby. Caught four consecutive faces followed by long rides at one point. Fun, fun.

Later we watched passing whales from the Otter Rock overlook. Tried to take pictures, but pretty much just captured spray. Great day!

Picture on the left was from mid afternoon after the waves had really died down. Busy day in the water, but easy to get away from the crowd by floating down the beach a little ways. Picture on the right is looking North from Otter Crest.

Surf Report # 19

Location: Devil’s Punch Bowl State Park – 8 miles N of Newport, OR
Time: 4:30 pm- 7:00 pm
Air Temp: 70° F
Water Temp: 57° F
Wind: From N 8 mph
Waves: 6 ft
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves

Still waiting for my board to come back from the repair shop, so I rented a 7′ soft top from Pura Vida in Philomath. Went out with Mary and Dan in seventy degree temps under clear blue skies. Gorgeous day. Waves were a little lumpy, but with enough punch to make up for it. Squinted into the sunset and watched swooping gulls while waiting for the evening waves. Lovely.

Surf Report # 18

Location: Devil’s Punch Bowl State Park – 8 miles N of Newport, OR
Time: 3:00 pm- 6:30 pm
Air Temp: 60° F
Water Temp: 57° F
Wind: From SSW 9 mph
Waves: 5 ft
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves, .5 mm hood

A little bit smaller than yesterday’s waves, but after convincing Mary to rent a board and wetsuit, it turned into a super fun day. Did sustain a nasty gash near the tail of my surfboard early on though.

Surf Report # 17

Location: Devil’s Punch Bowl State Park – 8 miles N of Newport, OR
Time: 5:00 pm- 7:30 pm
Air Temp: 60° F
Water Temp: 57° F
Wind: From SW 6 mph
Waves: 7 ft
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves, .5 mm hood

I’m breaking down and getting Comcast high speed Internet. I guess one drawback of living in a city with a population of 4300 is few technology options. Only one phone service provider (some company named Pioneer, we could’ve at least had Qwest in Corvallis) with phone service plus DSL running over fifty bucks a months. At least with Comcast I can get six cheap months, before they rachet things up. It was either that or satellite Internet, also not cheap. Sadly, I had been hoping for Verizon dry loop, but can console myself with the propect of Corvallis rolling out Wi-Max in the fairly new future.

Really no one cares about any of this. Really this is just me saying that in the next week or two (whenever my cable modem shows up) posts should be a little prettier. Get that gallery updated too.

I must say, I forgot how irritating it is looking for a job. I’ve got resumes in at a couple of places. Oregon State Chemistry Dept and a pharmaceutical company. The drug company would be more interesting long-term and would provide the satisfaction of working for a company doing cancer/heart/etc research. But, I think it’s also tough to beat the college work environment. I’m amply qualified for both jobs I applied for, but you know how these things go. I’d be happy with getting one interview out of the two. In the meantime I guess we’ll see what pops up in the Times on Sunday.