Loc: Manhattan
Beach
Time:
0700-0900
Conditions:
5ft, walled, low tide, uncrowded
I had to miss out on this weekend’s surf
because of work, but now I’m here, ready to claim my rights to being a surfer.
I like Porto, but I like free parking and
minimum crowd factors too, so I surf here instead.
Walking out to the beach, I find the lineup
uncrowded, which is surprising. There’s Don Kadowaki to my north and a few guys
scattered in front of the lifeguard tower. A minute later, and I see why: it’s
kind of walled. But . . . the right in front of The Brick House is kind of
working. Maybe the surf isn’t that walled. Sometimes you just catch days here
where there aren’t that many people, another reason why I like this break.
So I paddle out and wait where the rights
are.
On my first right, I pop up and find the
wave already racing way ahead of me, so I straighten out. The same thing
happens again, so I tell myself that this is a morning for pulling in.
What’s good about these conditions is that
the surf isn’t that big. Five feet on a low tide is still manageable for barrel
practice. Another foot, and it might get sketchy.
It’s been a while since I had to bust out
the “pig dog,” but I do. Sometimes, pulling into backhand barrels is easier
because you don’t really see the whole wave, all you’re doing is paddling in
and grabbing rail from the start.
I get two waves like this. The first, I don’t
even remember anything. I get swirled up in the tube so fast that it’s like it never
happened. I go really late on the next one, but I surprisingly drive a little
bit inside the barrel. I see the space before me in front of the nose of my
board, and the little slot where I can see the pier through the swirl of water,
but I feel too far forward on my board and lose it. I think that’s part of my
problem. I’m so used to getting “pinched” that I always pull in expecting it to
be a suicide attempt.
On the next right, I see that the shoulder
opens up a little bit more, so I set up for one major hack off the lip. It
feels good, my turn of the day. Back at the lineup, Uncle Miles even says I got
a good one, and he barely talks!
But I make some bad decisions on the next
waves. Two more rights come, and I’m in perfect position. Avoiding a beating, I
choose to seek the turns again instead of the barrels, and I fade out too far—I
should have pulled in.
The next right is walled, but I’m
determined to pull in this time. I’m pumping on my backhand down the face. As
the lip begins to curl, I grab rail and hunker down, but I get gobbled up in an
instant.
At the end of my session, a rare left comes
my way. It has an open shoulder. I pull in, and get pinched once more.
Thinking about that session now, I’m glad
that I pulled in and tried, but I know that my mindset is also an issue. I find
myself looking down at my board more than looking down the line, searching for
an exit. I think I need to focus on that next; I need to get out of the
mentality that I won’t make it out.
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