Thursday morning was highly anticipated. My brother planned to drive up to L.A. to surf that day; he had the feeling that the swell would hit the South Bay better than the O.C. I was supposed to meet with Shan and J that morning, but my bro showed up a little late. It was about 8:30 A.M. when we pulled up to Hammerlands and checked it out from the Grand Ave. parking lot. The tide was coming up, and we could see the waves jacking up from the backwash. The left wasn’t breaking well: it was clean on the outside, but it was really fast, and it obliterated to foam on the inside. It appeared that the right going off of the jetty was better. I suggested that we drive around and see if it’s better anywhere else.
We parked in the Porto lot to have a look. There were some guys out there at the main peaks. We watched a couple guys get barreled, but it was all kamikaze style because they got enveloped by the wave. There were some shoulders that looked good, but they weren’t breaking in the same place, and there were enough guys out there to make it a little difficult.
It was 8:55 A.M. by the time we got to 26th St. My brother has never surfed there before, but he said he could see the potential of that place. It was too big for the sand bars. There were mostly walls with a couple random and fast shoulders. We turned around and headed back to Hammers. We asked a guy who was leaving how it was. He said, “It was strange.” When my bro and I got to the water we could see that the waved were really “werbly” at the top of them, as if something was shaking the wave to create that effect. When we made it to the other side of the jetty it looked like a swampy mess: the inside had a lot of white wash, the waves were breaking far out, and the conditions just weren’t clean at all. It was about head high, maybe even a little overhead. There was a group of surfers past the point catching some pretty long and mooshy rides off of the jetty. Randy said that HB was all rights the day before, so he was desperate for some lefts.
I explained to Randy how I was getting my ass worked on the inside lately, and that I didn’t look forward to the paddle out. He taught me how to find the best place to paddle out, what to look for to tell that there’s a lull approaching, and when to paddle your ass off. He pointed out a spot where a weak ass like myself would have the best chance. And wouldn’t you know, it fuckin’ worked. I paddled for dear life, and I saw to my right that I was way ahead of my brother.
Once we were out there I got a left, but it closed out really fast. My brother eventually gave up and caught some rights near the point. I hung out by the smoke stacks. I got more waves but nothing noteworthy. It was big, but it wasn’t a session to light a match and stomp my feet over. I caught my last wave, got caught on the inside, and then I figured that I had enough for the morning. We went to Seafood Town in Torrance and took advantage of their lunch specials. By noon, beef chow fun filled my belly, and it was time for a nappy poo.
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