I had a hell of a day ahead of me. My girlfriend wanted me to see the new Harry Potter movie with her and her friends at midnight. I dropped her off in Fullerton in the morning, then I headed out to HB to pick up my brother. We were running behind schedule. It was already 9:30 A.M., and we needed to get to Del Mar Jetty on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. It was my first time driving there without Rick, so I was a little nervous that I’d lose my way. Once we exited the freeway and got on the base, it was actually really easy to find. Unfortunately, with us behind the power curve, the wind was already up, and everything looked choppy. The only good thing was that there was no crowd. We only saw two heads out there, and other than the Marines, the base is closed to the non-military public. There were a couple peaks out there, but one main peak was breaking in front of the lifeguard station. The peak was a little long and walled, and the shoulders seemed a little “racy.” My brother suggested that we check out the Oceanside Jetty. When we drove up, the locals were already massed in the parking lot. Randy brought me up to speed on the 0-Side scene. He told me that the area produces a lot of good surfers, even better than Orange County, and that’s because the waves there are better. He said that he pushes himself a little harder when surfing O-Side. Despite it being choppy, the Jetties had more peaks with some quick corners. From there we drove on to check out his favorite spot a little farther south by the residential area. That spot was the worst of the three. He asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I didn’t want to deal with the crowd, so he said we should go back to DMJ’s.
When we got back on base, the conditions worsened. The tide got lower, the peaks were inconsistent and less defined, the wind was just as strong, and there were now six guys out. We paddled out just north of the lifeguard station. I have never surfed in conditions so weird and unexpecting. The wind was going side shore, north to south. It made the chop and ripples come completely from one side. It also caused little whirlpools in the water. It was extremely overcast. There was a dull gray that blanketed the sky, and the fog made it difficult to make out the horizon. There was one little patch of sunlight out in the distance that shined on the oncoming waves. It gave them the appearance of metallic, bright, and shiny walls with little dark triangles on their surface. Randy already caught a couple waves. I was in the perfect position for a left shoulder, but the wind, chop, and strange appearance of the wave caused me not to even go for it.
After a while of sitting there and getting a feel for the odd environment, I finally went for some. The water looked horrible, but, surprisingly, any wave with a shoulder had an open face on it, at least enough for two or three turns. Randy said, “I can definitely see the potential in this place.” Yeah, it was shitty, but there were still some shoulders here and there. I wanted to work on my lefts, but I ended up going for more rights. Since the waves were fast, I had to grab rail to stay on the face, then from there I was able to get a couple cracks on the lip. It was still more of a frustrating session with long waits and a lot of sitting around. I was over it, but I saw my brother trying to make the best of the situation. He padded back in forth all around the line up to get what he could. I caught my last wave which was a left. My brother was already in the inside, done with his last wave. He watched me as I popped up on the shoulder. I pumped, but it seemed that the section was running away. It got a little hollow, so I penetrated out the back. When I got to shore, my brother told me that I could have made that wave, and he wondered why I gave up on it. I guess it’s good to have someone watching you to let you know what kind of mistakes you are making. I thought I couldn’t catch the section, but maybe I could’ve tried harder.
The session ended with unlimited all you can sushi at Hana Sushi in Oceanside. This was one of our favorite spots, and it was a long time since we last ate there. We put in two good solid hours, and my brother was tearing that sea urchin up! It was a long drive back to HB, then Fullerton. By the time I was sitting in the theatre, I was too exhausted to laugh at the grown adults dueling it out with their magic wands in front of the film screen.
Quality time with my bro, discovering new surf spots, and AYCE sushi. It was still worth it.
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