CHANGE, MON 06OCT2014

A shot I took Sunday evening at El Porto on the way home from work. 

Loc: El Porto (42^nd Street)

Time: 1715-1845

Conditions: 1-3 FT, light onshore, crowded, inconsistent.

     After spending the whole weekend at work, even sleeping on base, I had looked forward to getting in the water again, but I stayed up way to late last night. I’m usually guilty of this whenever I get back home.

     So I hit snooze and figure that I owe it to myself to call it a bum day. After eating breakfast and catching up with John John’s win in Hossegor, I have the option of getting on the PS3 or handling some errands. Bri’s been bugging me about getting a mirror for the apartment, reasonably so.

     I go to Bed, Bath & Beyond, and buy that same mirror that I had passed up on buying when we came here months ago when the blinds broke. Whipping out my coupon, it comes out to seventeen bucks. Once I get home and set it up, I take a good long look at myself in it.

     She’s surprised to see it when she comes home. “You DO listen to me,” she says. Yeah, but I know the other things that she deserves that I haven’t done for her yet.

     The studio’s hot. We live in El Segundo, but I get shit for cross breeze because of the apartment building that looms over mine. Bri’s injured from catching the swell at Churches on Sunday, so she turns on some Netflix.

     I’m all caught up with my blogs and work. Other than revising a short story, which I plan to do tomorrow, I really don’t have shit to do. Usually this is a good thing, but this bothers me for the first time. I haven’t surfed yet today. That might be something that’s throwing me off. I check my Surfline App and watch the cams. Still gotta wait for the tide to come up a little. I surf the net and look at apartments for rent and writing gigs.

     I doze in and out of a nap until 1630 when I load the wagon. I’m happy to finally be back on the road to catch some waves.

     I score free parking on 45^th at the bottom of the hill. Some homeless lady in faded teal sweats and a pink sweater, equally faded, is staring at me. I think she thinks I’m watching her, but I’m watching the waves. She violently slaps her hands together and snatches her gaze away from me. As I wait for 1700 to roll around, Teal Lady talks to her imaginary homies, more like screams. When a car passes her, she faces it and bows and waves.

     Heading into the Porto lot, I figure I’ll say hi to her, but she beats me to the punch by saying, “That’s a beautiful board! I love the colors, the blue!”

     I thank her. She guesses at how long it is. She’s close.

     “Have fun!” she says.

     I’m hoping for anything with shape, just to be able to say that I’ve caught something today. There’s a peak in front of the sandwich shack. The peaks are long with shoulders all the way at the end of them. Only six guys are out. I should catch something.

     In my short-sleeve full, I feel how warm the water still is, and I’m freaking roasting. A guy on a shortboard’s ruling the peak, but after he goes, I get the one behind his. It stands up fast, so I nearly purl. I direct my nose down the line. The wave is racy, but it opens up. I get a speed check off the lip, walk the deck a little, and then shuffle back to the tail again before it closes out.

     “That was the sickest wave I’ve seen today,” says a guy on a foamie. I tell him that I’m cheating because I’ve got a big board. He says his is big, too, hops off, and shows it to me. It’s like a chopped tail Costco Foamie.

     I surf it until the sun goes down. The best I can do is pump down the line a little. My best wave was that first one.

     Going back up the hill, Teal Lady is gone.

     Bri and I go to Chili’s for dinner. I catch the Laker game. Preseason, but I’ve waited for NBA for so long. I’m stoked to see Byron Scott and the interaction between him and his players. Rookies Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson look promising. It’s a good change.

     Dinner’s good. We grab ice cream and donuts afterwards. Back at home, I sit in front of the TV, debating what to watch again. On the news, looks like a lot of cars are crashing into businesses. In the valley, one driver drove into a donut shop, injured about a half dozen people and killed a homeless man who was well known in the area.

     Bri passes out. I’m full. I could stay up a little longer, play some PS3, and go to bed late again, but I don’t. I still feel restless. Unfulfilled. When my mom passed away, it started a chain reaction of events, but now those things have passed, and this the first week that I don’t have any commitments. It’s time to get my life back on track.