FLAKES OF THE DAY: None
RAN INTO: No one
TIME: 0645 - 0800, 1 hr. & 15 min.
CONDITIONS: High tide, mushy peaks, bogged out waves, off shore wind, cloudy with exposed sun on the horizon.
Until this morning, it was a whole week since I last surfed. In my attempt to balance surfing, working out, and school, I found out that I was surfing too much. Officially, surfing will have to take a “back seat” for the rest of this semester of school.
J hit me up last night and asked if I was surfing local. For the last three Fridays I traveled to Surf. Three weeks ago I went to HB, two weeks ago I went to Trestles, and last week I went to Oxnard. Since I had so much homework to do, I stayed local. I told J that I’d surf with him in the morning, and then I sent the bat sign out to anyone else that wanted to surf.
J text me at about 0600 and said he was on the way. I got up, ate a breakfast bar, filled up some hot water jugs, grabbed my gear, and I was out the door. The sky was already turning light blue. I guess the days are getting noticeably longer since the winter solstice. Personally, I can’t wait for the days to get longer again, as well as some warmer water so I can get my dusty board shorts wet. I’m sure Dais will be the first out of all of us to “trunk it” this year.
I thought that I was going to be way behind J, but when I showed up he was checking out the water. I parked next to him, and we had our gander. The eastern horizon was clear, but gray skies filled the west. We could tell that the tide was high and that it was mushy, but we saw some clean peaks rolling through by the shitters.
* SHITTERS: New name for the peak in front of the El Porto bathrooms.
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| Shitters. Good peak, but too many people. |
There were some other good peaks, but shitters was the best one, and the left going off of it looked clean as hell. It was an optimistic view from out vantage point, and we changed as fast as we could. J was in the water before me. I had to warm up a little bit longer since I was out of the water for a bit. The paddle out on Tiki was fairly easy.
*TIKI: My DMS board’s name because her design looks like a tiki statue.
J chose to hang just north of shitters which was really crowded. He tried to paddle into a wave that some guy was already on. The guy yelled, “HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY!” It’s gonna be one of those mornings, I thought. Last week, Michaelson told me that he doesn’t perform well in crowded and aggro spots. I concur. The current was pulling north a little, so I let my self drift between the tanks and 45th. I fell after I popped up on a potential left which was also the potential wave of the day. I was rusty and had to work off some old cob webs. As the tide rose, the wave quality changed a little. It was a better day to have more board. The mushy waves didn’t have enough incline for Tiki and I to gain speed. I had no problem paddling into the wave, but the face wasn’t angled enough for me to get some easy pumps. Whenever I was on a wave, I trimmed to stay on it; it was all I could do.
When the sun came out it reflected so bright off of the water that I couldn’t face the shore without getting blindingly pierced by its rays.
When I woke up I really didn’t feel like bracing the cold, but when I was out there paddling on my board I knew I made the right decision. I can understand why surfing gets in the way. As soon as my feet touched the sand, everything just made more sense to me; life made more sense, and it’s too easy to want to surf all morning instead of work out or study … or eat, drink, piss, shit, play WoW, watch TV, play with my pet Croco-Stimpy, etc.
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| The right is pretty mushy in front of 45th. Big difference from shitters. |
My best wave was a fast right; I caught it on the shoulder. Even though it was fast, I had to keep speed from staying on the high line since the slope was dull. I grabbed rail and stayed in that position until I had to get away from the lip. I was riding the impact zone, and I could see the open face just in front of me. Despite my desperate attempts to pump and gain speed, I couldn’t catch up with the section. Most of my rides were like that: all trims and no turns.
I didn’t mind getting out of the water at 0800. I had a lot to do, and it’s not like it was that great. As always, the conditions looked better once we were back on shore. That happens a lot. Porto … she will do that to you. J got more waves than I; good for him. Because of the current we didn’t get much face time in the water, but we headed out to Mandy’s in El Segundo to have the $3.99 pancake special.
It didn’t matter that the session wasn’t epic. What mattered was that I went out there to get a taste of what I’ve been missing. I can’t believe I stayed away that long. When I paddled out I felt like an old gang member that hasn’t shown his face in the hood for a while, and I didn’t want to get my Porto Pass revoked.
One week without surfing … that’s too long.
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| High tide |
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