WHC THANKSGIVING, THU28NOV2013

Loc: Manhattan Beach

Crew: Bri, Khang, Hideki & WHC

Conditions: 3-4 FT, walled.

     The DRC used to do an unofficial, annual paddle out every Thanksgiving. For the last two turkey days, we’ve been blessed with good surf, and I remember being in the lineup with everyone out: KK, CC, Dais, Khang, Cheryl, Francis, and even Shan. But my how times change. People have work. I’m not mad at that. Gotta make that money. Or people just have other commitments. On this morning, Bri and I are piggy backing onto Rick and his crew for this morning’s paddle out. There’s Rick, Gary, Dave, Manny, and Jimmy. It’s nice to have friends in the water. Waves or no waves, we’re spending the Thanksgiving sesh together.

     Bri and I score free parking near 33^rd Street and make our way to the beach. I’m expecting for the swell to not be here yet, but there are already some fast three footers rolling through. I had expected a huge holiday crowd, but there is actually room in the water.

     We spot the WHC and paddle close to them, and then the waves start getting bigger and more consistent. Some freak sets start rolling through, and they are all walled and closed out. Only the inside waves in between the sets have turning potential. Rick and his buddies go for broke on the big ones, hooting each other into the closeout barrels. I back out on one and realize that I can’t do that. No one really expects to make it out of them, and I see that to them it’s not that important. So I go, pulling in all the way frontside and backside, getting pounded into oblivion.

     Bri is going for the medium sized waves too, but they only allow her to ride straight.

     I see Khang in the lineup and then Hideki. So some of the crew is here, but too bad the surf isn’t cooperating so much.

     My wave of the morning is a set-wave right. It’s going to close out, but I pig-dog it anyway, feeling the speed of sliding down the face compact while sticking an arm into the wave’s face. And then . . . washing machine.

     If anything, I worry that pulling into closeouts might create the habit of not expecting to make it out. We shall see.

     Afterwards, Bri and I have breakfast with Gary and Rick at The Blue Butterfly in El Segundo. Later that night, I quell the tension between my mom and my sister’s boyfriend—the drama that is Thanksgiving.