I told J. and Shan that I’d be at 26th in the morning. I text them when I got there, but I didn’t hear back from any one of them. I got free parking on Highland Ave. and walked down to have a look. It was still dark with a group of local guys checking it out, too. It was about a quarter to seven. I saw all the high school kids sitting out by the tower and walled up waves ahead of them in the line up. I stood there for almost ten minutes trying to make a decision. I was looking a little more south to see if it was any better. It looked as if there was a little peak, but when the sets came everything was a wall. I watched a couple guys get some waves, but they had to take the high line, and there was really no where to go but straight. The surfers that rode the face ended up getting pitched over.
I gave up my free parking spot. I was being picky. I think it’s easy to be picky in the morning when there’s still no light out. Even worse was just looking at a fucking wall of water. There was so much potential for phenomenal conditions, but there was nothing crossing up the wall to form a peak, and it was just too big for the sand bars here.
I got to Porto a little after seven. The parking lot was packed. I had to park at the south side of the bathrooms. I took a look. The main peaks in front of 45th, the bathrooms, and Rosecrans were walled, but they seemed to produce some rideable waves here and there. Of course, they were jam packed. I already didn’t have a good feeling about paddling out, so I headed towards the tanks where it was less crowded. I, again, timed my paddle out perfect and only had to duck dive one wave. I sat and waited for anything that looked rideable. Literally, the waves that came had six foot faces with no shoulders. It was ridiculous, the waves had lines almost as straight as the horizon with no hope of any kind of peak, corner, or shoulder.
I saw a right coming. It looked like it had just a little shoulder that might at least give a couple seconds of good riding time. I didn’t get the slide until I was all the way at the top. It was a nice long angled drop which exploded as I stuck my landing. I took that wave all the way in. There were a lot of spectators on the sand. As I walked on the shore some of them were looking at me. They weren’t looking in amazement, but more of a “I saw you didn’t eat shit” kind of look. The reason I say this is because it was a wipe out show. I heard “ooooohs” and “aaaaaaahs” as I saw people getting their anuses tapped trying to paddle into those brutal walls.
One wave. That was all I needed. I didn’t eat shit, I didn’t almost drown, and the conditions weren’t good any how. As I walked back to my car I saw one of the biggest rights I had ever seen in front of 45th go completely unridden. I would be back later in the afternoon.
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