The Surfline Hack

Guaranteed to get you surfing more.

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Today was a great example. The dreaded 2-3ft and Fair. There is a razor thin margin between a great time and waste of time at “2-3ft and Fair.”   

This morning I was about to run down to the beach and surf in between two appointments. It was already a scorching Monday morning in Southern California — a day where you’re one broken shoelace away from your first summertime meltdown. It behooves me to surf. So much drama in the LBC, etc.  

I automatically pulled up the Surfline cam between sips of coffee and emails and saw the dreaded report: 2-3 ft and Fair next to a camera feed showing me weak windswell dribbling in and a good ruffle already on the ocean surface. I scoured the region, piecing information together, looking for any sign of life to get me to risk the most valuable thing I have for myself at the moment: time. 

One look at the cam made it all pretty easy to skip. You start thinking, “I’ve got so much to do, so many places to be. It’s probably irresponsible to surf today. Think of all the wax I’d melt in the car anyway. The sand. The summer crowds. Maybe I can surf later.”  The negativity piles up. The excuses fire up. And that meager cam feed is my enabler.

What if I never looked? I’d still have visions of sugar plum peaks dancing in my head. This tool that is supposed to make me surf more sure does like to convince me not to. Not unlike all the apps and subscriptions we maintain. They lather us up then let us down. But I recently learned a hack for this.