Missing
Heats
Loc: El
Porto
Time:
0600-0745
Conditions:
1-3FT, offshore, crowded.
Yesterday was good. That’s what everyone
from the WHC who had paddled out at first light said. In the midst of my recent
unsuccessful sessions, I had decided to sit this one out. Bad call. So this
morning, I’m not gonna miss it.
I park at the usual rendezvous spot at
0545, but none of the guys are here. I understand why. None of them committed
to surfing this morning, and I had missed my heat yesterday, but I’m chancing
it to see if any of them will show. Regardless, solo or not, I suit up anyway.
Walking between the El Porto homes, I can
see small lines coming in. No one’s in the water yet. A group of groms finish
warming up and dart towards the break in front of the bathrooms. A guy to my
north starts walking out to the lineup in front of Rosecrans. I warm up and
watch the water. Surprisingly, the surf is consistent, but only with the
smaller waves. A three-footer finally breaks, but since the tide is low, it’s
breaking fast and close to shore. It still looks fun.
The water’s warm enough to roast me in my
3/2 wetsuit. I’ve been on a wave drought for quite some time, so I’m ready to
catch something. One and two footers roll past me, crashing on the inside. It
takes a while.
The longboarders start coming out. So does
Team Costco. Finally, I get one of the bigger waves, but right upon popping up,
the wave closes out over the shallow inside.
I’m hoping that the tide push will improve
things. An hour and a half later, the surf is improving just a little.
An old guy on a longboard looks at me and
shrugs.
“You surf yesterday?” I say.
“Yeah. It was better yesterday. Not ‘good’
but better. More waves.” He turns around and catches a little right and gets to
the open face. He paddles back, flagging his friend down. “I finally got one!”
I’m in position for a right that has a
decent shoulder to it. I pop up and aim down the line. A shortboarder pulls out
for me. It’s a racy ride, so my best bet is to see if I can stick a floater as
the wave closes out, but this fucking Team Costco guy paddles into the
shoulder. “Hey, hey,” I say. But he keeps going and straightens out.
I try not to let the Team Costco Rider ruin
my morning, for the waves already suck. Why be so upset?
I make do with the waves that I have,
mostly going left and trying to get turns on the closeouts or baby floaters.
By the time I leave, I see that 45th
is packed. There’s a crowd around me now. The surf seems to be getting a little
better, but I have to be out by 0800.
I return to a parking lot, just as vacant
as it was when I had first arrived. To think that yesterday the surf was
better, and at this exact time, the parking lot was filled with my buddies,
probably shooting the shit over the good session while letting loose a couple
snakes from their towels. From now on, I gotta start showing up for my heats
with them.
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