Loc:
El Porto, The Tanks
Time:
1100-1230
Conditions:
3 FT, onshore, sectiony.
Board:
6’0 Kainalu Fish, twin keel
Okay, this Valentine’s Day weekend has gone
on long enough. Now there aren’t any excuses except for the lame ones: the tide’s
too high, it will probably be better later, the bed feels too good, I’m tired.
Bri and I circle around 26th Street
but fail at finding parking. Cliff is parked on the side, talking to Bruce. I
wave at him as I drive by, and he just looks at me from under his shades with a
facial expression that says, Who are you?
Lame.
We give up and head to Porto, finding free
parking at my other secret garden. 45th is packed and so are the
bathrooms, but I already know that Bri and I are gonna surf The Tanks anyways,
whatever it takes to escape the crowd.
It must be the couple’s hour, because
another dude and his chick are warming up right by us. The chick paddles out
first, exhibiting a decent duck dive. “Your mission will be to surf better than
her,” I say to Bri.
“I think I already won,” says Bri. I look
back over. The chick gets knocked off her board by a foot of whitewash and
flounders helplessly.
Bri has the Zippifish today, and I have my
Kainalu. We were supposed to be surfing 26th Street, which is
smaller, but now I can tell we’re on the wrong boards. The waves here are a
foot bigger than 26th Street, onshore, sectiony, and punchy. The 6’0
fish is a corky board to duckdive. I know Bri’s having a hard time if I am.
The other surf couple is now walking back
on shore, heading north towards the jetty. Two other chicks are out right by us.
Back in the day, this was my spot, the beginners’ arena where one surfs so as
not to be in the way of other surfers, also to not look obviously kooky in
front of other seasoned vets. This day, I see nothing has changed.
Two other guys really know what they’re
doing. They’re surfing well. Poachers they are, here in beginners’ territory to
take fools to school, yet not wanting to deal with the 45th Street
contest.
I get a right, causing those guys to have
to back out for me. The surf isn’t fish conditions. I struggle to crank out a
backhand snap, but my board feels sluggish and bulky. I redirect down the line,
walk the nose, and throw in a gangster lean, something that shows that I know
what I’m doing.
But when the sets come, they’re consistent.
I feel like I’m going nowhere on the duckdives.
In the lineup, Bri’s having a challenging
time. I can see that she’s not digging the fish. However, she does pop up on a
decent right and takes it all the way in, so she’s making due.
With our late paddle out, the wind turns
strong onshore. The water’s choppy but still gives some shape. Although, the
overcast sky is unwelcoming. I can just feel it in me, we should have woken up
earlier.
I still manage to get waves, but I’m not
having fun on this board. When I had bought this, I was in need of a true
small-wave board. Sure, this board may be better when it’s smaller, but I
should still be able to get better turns on it. Even the Zippi performs better
than this. Or . . . it could just be a bad choice in board selection. Regardless,
the Kainalu Fish will be on the Craigslist chopping block.
Late training it the last two days paid
off, but today it just backfired. No more. I have to get on the dawn patrol
program again.
No comments:
Post a Comment