Surfski Knowledge Base

Nicholas Cryder
Aug 29 #27511

Just got off the water at birch bay and it was absolutely righteous. Denise, Paul R and myself had it pretty much to ourselves which surprised me. We did run into a guy in a offshore row boat who was also enjoying the big stuff. Made the mistake of paddling bear foot, which ripped up my feet pretty good on that beach. Getting out went great until I realized I loaned out my ski and forgot to adjust the foot board. Doh! Once I got that sorted it was happy fun fun time and surfing the swell was identical to open ocean conditions. Nice big drops, easy to catch and my top speed was 17.6 mph.

Denise Weeks
Aug 29 #27517

Yes, if righteous means a mix of what I’ve experienced in Kauai, Deception Pass, and Swell City, then that was it. Not conditions we see in Bellingham Bay very often. Paul’s Birch Bay tea-leaf reading skills finally paid off (yes, Reivers, it’s a drive!). If I were planning a Hawaii race, it would have been a good day to practice getting in and out through shore break. As it was, I had Paul stand there to catch the tip of my boat in case I got rolled. But no, it was a successful landing. Booties highly recommended.

allipp@…

Aug 29 #27518

I'm glad you got in some good runs up there. As I've said before, you don't need a webcam nor a tea leaf reading to ascertain if there are waves there. If it is blowing around 20 mph out of the NW in the Georgia strait and around 12 to 15 mph at Cherry Point, it will be fairly good and worth the drive. Push that to 30 plus in the Strait and 20 plus at Cherry Point and it will be fantastic. No magic voodoo needed, just the numbers.

Eric Grossman
Aug 29 #27519

Wildcat up to Governors then DW to Clayton was superFun and closer than Birch-though I love Birch too! Waves were 1-3 ft between 10-12, steep and moving about 9-10 mph, connectable, long rides maybe 2-miles? Footage coming.
EG

8/29 Sat westerlies (Birch Bay Today)
Paul Reavley
Aug 29 #27520

Denise and I got to Birch Bay about 9:40 and Nicholas got there a bit later. There was one kite surfer getting on the water at about the same time. The shore break was not big but enough to possibly be a problem if you aren't used to it, still there were lulls when it was easier to get in and out.

This was Denise's first un-flat water outing with her new phat boat and she was rocking it. I initially had a hard time linking waves, but that got easier for me while we were out, possibly due to a change in the swell and wind and some drop in one or both. You could surf waves all the way to the beach and the waves were smaller and easier to catch closer to shore. We were not going out very far at all but still got into fairly substantial swell.

If you follow Alan's guidelines I believe your odds for good waves at Birch Bay are very good. Denise's comment about my tea leaf reading was partially in reference to a previous visit I talked her into when the conditions were less than what Alan recommends. Waves or no, it's nice to get a little variety occasionally anyway…

Paul

Reivers Dustin
Aug 30 #27521

OK

Fine. Allowing for camera distortion, that some genuine BIGS right there. whoa. Even w/o the special tea leaves.