WHEN STREAKS END, WED 17JULY2013 MOR

Loc: North Huntington Beach

Time: 0900-1045

Crew: Bri                                                    

Conditions: 1-2 FT+, scattered, onshore, choppy, inconsistent, racy, low tide.

     Surfline’s forecast has been pretty accurate lately. I stopped using Magicseaweed because they’ve been off. They had failed me during me and Bri’s anniversary camp trip last month. But Surfline . . . they’ve been all right.

     Because of the higher tides in the recent mornings, Bri and I sleep in after completing Game of Thrones, season three. Holy shit . . . it’s so addicting. Anyway, we sleep in until 0730. I check my phone and see that I have a missed message from Calvin, a local surfer at my favorite local break.

     His message says: I’m on my way to HB if you’re there.

     He sent it at 0653.

     We get up, snack on some PB&J, and then we’re out the door.

     I fuck up by not choosing to exit on Bolsa Chica Road. Instead, I try to exit Beach further down. Now there’s gridlocked traffic in front of me, even in the carpool lane. Calvin’s already in the water I bet, so I don’t bother to text him.

     It’s 0845 when we enter the state parking lot. “It looks good,” I say to Bri. “The sun’s out, the wind is good, we’re about to catch the tide push.”

     “Matt. . .”

     “The surf won’t be big, but it will be fun. Kind of like the first time I took you here.”

     “Remember what you said about expectations,” Bri says.

     We change and walk to the shore. Another surfer approaches with his board in hand, coming out from the surf. “How was it?” I ask.

     He shakes his head and says, “Sometimes you just gotta paddle out.”

     Fuck me . . . can it . . . really be . . . that bad?

#

     Choppy and onshore. Where are the peaks? Where are the two-to-three feet and fair conditions that Surfline had promised me? The peaks are crumbling fast over the sandbar. The tide’s a bit low. Maybe the tide push will help. Surfers float in patches, hogging the sandbars. Come on you fuckers, sell me a wave! I’m watching them take closeout after closeout. Even the waves that have shoulders are too racy. Oh no. . .

     I’m in trunks because it’s the summer, but the water temp’s dropped again. I think I can manage. The waves look better in the water. I paddle on the shoulders since the waves are fast, but on this very morning I can’t keep up with the sections. They initially have shape, but they close out. “It’s actually better than I thought it was,” I say. “With the tide push it might slow it down a bit!”

     Bri catches some waves, easily paddling into the shoulders on her log and clearing the racy sections. My waves either closeout or turn into pump fests when all I can do is play the distance game.

     We make the best of it, but the surf doesn’t cooperate. The wind gets stronger, which makes the surf choppier and even more inconsistent. This spot was a bad gamble. Maybe Goldenwest or Bolsa was better, but we had spent so much time in traffic that it was this spot or nothing.

     At least there’s pho. There’s this spot by the freeway that has fifty-percent off on their chicken pho. Each bowl only comes out to $3.50. Now how can you beat that? We also order some coffee with condensed milk and order the buy-two-get-one-free sandwich special. Two phos, three sandwiches, and two coffees only cost seventeen bucks and some change; we even have leftovers for later.

     The freeway is open and clear on the way back to El Segundo. Calvin shoots me a message, saying that he scored at 17^th street until the wind got on it at eight o’clock. I chose a bad window to go to HB. I drive, wondering how local was. It might have been better if I had just stayed in Manhattan Beach.

     Back home, I check Magicseaweed. They gave the morning a low rating with strong onshore winds at one-to-two feet. On point their forecast was. . . In two days I fly to Oregon with Bri to meet her family. After that, I have some military training coming up. I need to surf as much as I can before I leave. I’m a fanatic right now. Must surf. Must have waves.