THE RETURN OF RANDY, SAT 17NOV2012 MOR

Crew: Randy, Klaude, Khang, Dais, Hideki, Chris

Conditions: 3-4 FT, gloomy, cold, crowded, fun.

     My bro flies in from Java Friday afternoon. Or . . . should I say Java to Korea to L.A. I may be missing a destination, but to make a long story short, he was traveling for over a day without much rest.

     The first thing I did was take him to Khang’s surf shop to get some jeans, then we went to happy hour with some of my classmates in LB, and then we had dinner at the best Chinese restaurant in the world: Seafood Town. Back at my place, we had ice cream with brownies and threw on Year Zero. It’s weird watching surf porn with my bro because I usually NERD OUT when I’m watching them, but it’s kind of hard to with Randy because he’s been doing nothing but getting barreled for the past year. 

     Everyone’s paddling out tomorrow morning. I haven’t surfed with Randy in over a year. I’d like to show him that I’ve improved since the last time we surfed Bali, but also . . . I’m really looking forward to him finally surfing with all of my friends.

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     I’ve had the hardest time waking up early since the temperature-drop and the time-change, but I’m up at exactly 0515—no fuss no muss. I eat some breakfast, fill the hot water jugs, and even put on some surf porn to get psyched up. At 0545 I’m worried that Randy’s gonna be too tired to get up, but then he opens the door and walks out already dressed. He opts to borrow the 5’8 Lost board, the one I bought off of him but have only surfed in crappy conditions three-times. As I pull it out from the corner of my living room, where I have it stashed, he says, “Wow, it feels good to see this board again.” I still can’t believe he can ride something so tiny.

     At 26^th, I pass-up the street parking to take the spot next to KK’s van. I have the JS because I discovered this morning that the tail on the Tokoro is cracked, but when I pull out the JS I see that the tail is missing a chunk of fiberglass on the tail, ten times worse than the Tokoro. As much as I don’t want to get my JS waterlogged, there’s no way I’m driving back home.

     The sand’s so cold that it makes my feet painfully numb. Randy’s borrowing my loud, 3/2, Hurley disco-suit. As usual, I see Klaude first. We paddle out. A couple minutes later, I’m able to introduce them to each other (even though I think they met in person once before without me).

     Randy’s not a fan of the crowds, so he paddles way north, away from the pack, but I’m super-stoked. With Randy’s arrival, the waves come as well. It’s the best I’ve seen Manhattan Beach in a long time. Even though the tide is coming up, waves are coming in pretty consistently at three-to-four feet, and they aren’t all walls. The only problem is the crowd.

     Khang shows up a little later.

     Even though it’s hard to get a wave, I still get a couple to myself without any hassle. The first wave is a little walled and racy. I’m behind the section and can’t quite reach the face, but I get this left . . . man, it’s the best left I’ve had in a while. Since my brother’s here, I am already surfing a little better. For the first time, I’m consciously trying to get deeper, forehand bottom-turns. I get this four-foot left. Another guy on the shoulder backs out. I drop in upright, already eyeing the part of the face that I want to climb. I push my ass out a little which makes my board fade out. From there, I spring-up and climb the face with more front-side speed that I’m used to. I check the spilling lip and drop back down into the wave with momentum. Since I’m behind the section, I do a little check-hit off the lip again. I try to set up for a carve, but the momentum is too much for me, so I lose my balance.

     I didn’t get any snaps, but the speed I got from the bottom turns and reentries were fun—progress.

     Randy’s struggling with the 5’8. I see him scratch out on some or just trim down the line since the rising tide is making the inside mooshy.

     It was raining this morning, so the storm drain is spewing shit water which smells really bad.

     Dais shows up. I introduce him and Randy to each other, as well as Hideki. We have a pretty solid crew in the water.

#

     We surf a little over two hours. My bro says he feels a little “off” surfing in a wetsuit again. This morning he said, “I’m looking forward to actually ‘turning’ today.” I don’t know anyone else who has this problem, stemming from only riding barreling waves.

     KK, Randy, Khang, Hideki, and I head to the Blue Butterfly in El Segundo for some breakfast. I’m stoked to surf with my brother again, but I’m also glad he got to meet the homies too.