WHY I BARELY SURF PORTO, THU 19SEPT2013 MOR

Loc: EL PORTO

Crew: RICK                                                   

Conditions: 2-3 FT, sunny, glassy, peaky, crowded, aggro

     I knew that today would be smaller, and I was undecided on surfing grom-infested 26^th. It’s 0530 when I roll out of bed. I want good parking this morning. Rick shoots me a text fifteen minutes later, asking me if I’m going to surf. I say yes, and he offers to pick me up.

     Rick likes to surf Porto, and it’s all good because I want to spend some quality time with him too and not just the DRC.

     He converses with all the people he knows as we drive through the lot and after we park. I have no idea who these people are, and it reminds me of how much of a local Rick is here.

     We paddle out in front of the bathrooms, and I forget that this is pretty much the main peak here (arguably, Rosecrans is a little better). The surf had looked small from the shore, but as the tide fills in, man, it starts to get better. There is a noticeable drop in size, but the glassiness of the water is creating these nice, A-frame, three-foot peaks. Despite the crowd, Rick and I start off strong, splitting a couple. Back at the lineup, Rick talks to this one guy who paddles up to him, some dude wearing ear plugs on a brown-railed fish. I paddle for a right, and Rick’s friend drops in right in front of me. I nearly hit him, so I yell, “Shit!” and straighten out. I expect him to kick out or at least look back, but the fucking guy keeps going down the line all the way to shore. Motherfucker. I’m fuming! I fixate on him, watching how he paddles straight out again and avoids coming back to where I am. Motherfucker. It’s hard, but I do my best to let it go.

     So the waves are still coming. Fuck, the rights are working so good this morning. I get a couple of snaps, stoked. On a left, this baldheaded dude on a teal fish drops in on me. He looks directly behind himself, sees me on the wave, and then he looks forward and keeps on pumping down the line. I’m right behind him, but the wake he’s creating is killing my section of the fucking wave.

     On another left, a little bit later, some other motherfuckers drops in on me. When we both resurface together, he doesn’t even acknowledge me and goes back to the lineup.

     During this session, Rick and I still catch a lot of waves, quality waves. I’ll even confirm that it does break a little better here than 26^th, but FUCK! No etiquette here. It’s like the crowd here feels entitled to take the waves, regardless if they are snaking someone. Of course, I can’t say this about every person that surfs here because there are a lot of cool people here, but it’s enough to see the difference from 26^th. At 26^th there’s more of a familiarity with the crowd, where everyone is so friendly that it’s hard to burn the people you are cool with. There is etiquette there. I share a lot of waves there, and even the shredders there will call me onto waves. Even though 26^th is crowded with groms in the morning, I’d rather deal with kids who are stoked than grown ass men who are greedy.

     I get snaked a fourth time this morning. I don’t even remember any details about it.