SUMMER INVASIONS, SAT 14JUN2014

Loc: Goldenwest

Time: 0900-1100

Crew: Bri

Conditions: Onshore, textured surface, mid-high tide, semi consistent, crowded, 2-3 FT+.

     Because of the drained tide yesterday, I make the call to sleep in a little and catch the tide on the push. We leave El Segundo at about 0730 and head to Huntington. I’m anticipating a decent session, but upon checking Bolsa Chica first, we see that the wind is howling onshore. Peaks are coming in consistently at two feet. They are still rideable, but the choppiness of it all forces us to seek the possibility of better surf. Plus, the parking lot is already packed!

     The cliffs look good, but we push further south to take advantage of my state parking pass. That is, we try. There’s a long line of cars just to get in. There’s some kind of event going on. I have no idea what. After ten minutes, we’ve barely even moved.

     A police officer is on foot walking from car to car. When he comes up to my window, he says, “The entrance one street down is empty. If you stay here it’ll take twenty minutes to get in. If you go over there, you’ll get in right away.”   

     So it’s a no brainer. I pull out of the line and drive down to the next entrance, and the fucking line is JUST AS LONG. Fucking pig. I got bamboozled. How is this faster? In frustration, I turn the car around and end up parking two blocks inland from Goldenwest.

     There’s a body-boarding competition going on. The announcer yells at a group of surfers who are drifting into the competition zone, and then he yells at the competitors who are drifting out of the zone. The beach is so crowded with dogs, walkers, bodyboarders, surfers. I hate crowds, but the tidal window is closing. We must paddle out now.

     Surprisingly, despite the wind, the conditions are decent, much better than yesterday. Some A-framers roll through. I pick off my first left but poorly set up my top turn. I ride out the wave, still fun but not using it to its full potential.

     I fight the current to maintain my spot while everyone else drifts north. My rides are awkward. One of those sessions when I’m not surfing well. Even though there are some big sets, they don’t hold shape as well. The medium-sized waves are a little racy, and I keep falling behind.

     Meanwhile, I can see Bri sitting with the main pack of drifters. Every time I spot her, she’s paddling back out to the lineup, returning from a ride.

     Even though the tide is coming up, there are still some random sets that stand up. Next to me, there’s an older surfer on a fish, and he’s giving advice to two other noobs who are surfing nearby. On my next left, Mr. Advice doesn’t even look behind him, and I have to surf in his wake, right on his ass. I could have called him off of the wave, but I try to pull that card as sparingly as possible. A surfer paddling out looks at me and shakes his head while saying, “That fucking guy had no clue, completely oblivious that you were behind him.”

     “What can you do?” I say. “No etiquette.”

     My sesh with Bri is turning into a solo sesh, so I let the current take me closer to her. Just as I reach the next peak over, a bump sprouts up in the distance. A longboarder yells, “Outer reef!” I’m sitting on the right of the peak, and I paddle as hard as I can to position myself for the left. I actually chase it down and take a steep but graceful drop. A chick on the shoulder backs out. I pump on the highline, passing the guy who had called for the wave to begin with. He gives me that look that says, “You fucker.” Yeah, I am the fucker, and I get two turns on that wave all the way to the inside. It’s my wave of the day, and I can’t believe that it came to me upon giving up my position when I had been fighting the current the whole time.

     Etiquette wise, maybe that was a bad move. He and the chick had been in their spot a little longer, but I couldn’t help myself. It was a good and rare set wave, a roguer in the high tide. Sometimes you just have to go.