SMALL SOUTHS IN HB, THU 05JUN2014

Loc: Huntington Pier, North

Crew: Hideki and the HB Gang

Time: 0630-1030

Conditions: light onshore, 2-3 FT+, cool, overcast then sunny, light crowd, semi consistent.

     The Surfline report for HB was downgraded from “fair” to “poor to fair” conditions. The idea of going down south was failing me, but then I hit up Hideki who I haven’t surfed with in a while. He said he’d be surfing HB at first light. It seemed like a good gamble, so I pre packed my gear and went to sleep.

#

     0515, I’m up and chowing down on a banana. By 0530 I’m out the door. The sky is already a metallic gray, no longer a pure dawn patroller. Now I’m mad at myself for not getting up earlier. I have the strong feeling that I’m going to miss something.

     Immediately upon making the left off of PCH to park, I see Hideki and his homie Chris changing. I wave at them and park on the other side of the street.

     They are gonna trunk it, but it’s overcast, and the air has a hint of cool freshness that I don’t want to gamble with, so I opt for my torn 2/2.

     Catching up behind Hideki, he meets his homies on the sand and then paddle out to them in the lineup. I know I had bought my state parking pass to surf where less people are, but I also miss surfing with friends. My DRC crew is dying out. It was fun while it lasted. Most of them have real lives and can’t surf down south mid week, but Hideki and his boys are out here all the time. He has a legit and consistent crew.

     Paddling out, the water is much cooler than expected. I’d be fine in a 3/2. I get reintroduced to Hidek’s HB homies, and then sporadic waves start coming in.  

     I’ve been going over my claimed layback snap that I had done about a month ago, but upon further examination I realize my hand placement had been off, so I now retract my statement that I had done a legit layback snap. So on a left, I set myself up with some speed and change my hand placement on the carve, inside hand back as I layback. The board makes the carving arc under my feet, but I eat shit right after that motion. It’s a start.

     Watching Hideki and his boys surf is refreshing. Once upon a time the DRC was as tight as them: a bunch of us in the water, snaking each other, calling each other into waves, and having fun. The Westside Hurley Crew has something special like this too, but not me, not the DRC, not anymore. DRC is dying.

     Hidek’s hair is super long now, even with his Jay-Leno streaks in his strands. Chris is really charging hard, paddling with a purpose into each wave. I never see him scratch out once.

     I sample my Motorboat Too with the AM2 Futures fins, but I still seem to be falling behind the sections. Mostly lefts are coming in, and the most I can do is a baby tag the lips before they run away.

     At 0800, Hidek and his boys leave. Left alone in the water, the other guys around me start a conversation. One of them is George, a Japanese EMT who has just gotten off of his graveyard shift. Another is a kid named Cameron who can’t stop talking about Trestles. I share waves with these guys for the next two hours. The crowd clears, the sun comes out, and the surface conditions clean up.

     To my fault, I keep trying to force the layback snaps, but my speed is off. I’ve also created a bad habit of pulling off my imposter laybacks that it’s hard to correct myself to do it the right way. Still, I have so much fun out here. Just the drops alone are so fun at HB, so critical and fast, that I’m okay with just going down the line.

     Brett Simpson’s surfing the northside of the pier too. I guess he came back right after his heat loss at the Fiji Pro.

     I’m shocked to see that it’s past ten o’clock when I get back to my car. I surfed for nearly four hours, all on a day that was supposed to be poor-to-fair conditions. While the South Bay is a lake, there are waves here in HB.