SOUTH BAY SUMMER, THU 12JUN2014

Loc: El Porto

Time: 0645-0820

Conditions: light onshore, 1-2 FT, warm, empty, inconsistent.

     Oh, my South Bay, how you once had waves. It’s hard to imagine how good the winter was to the local surfing populace.

     I’m at 26^th Street for my dawn patrol. Only one guy is paddling out. Weak crumbly lines are rolling in. The peaks are like weak clawing fingers, swiping instead of gouging.

     I drive to Porto. A set rolls through at three feet but sectiony. Did I see a shoulder? It looks good enough. Surface conditions are fairly clean with a light texture.

     Under the overcast sky, I sit and wait. My first few waves are weak, but the inside stands up a little. I fail at my layback snap attempts. On one, I completely back flop onto my board. I turn to shore where a lifeguard truck is parked and watching. I turn back around, acting like I didn’t notice how stupid I looked.

     I do have a miraculous two-turn wave of the day. My Motorboat Too works so well out here. I get an arcing top turn on the open shoulder. I’ve been getting better at this. Where the eyes go, the shoulders go, and then the hips and the feet follow. It’s nice. Instead of a layback attempt on the inside, I reach back with my forehand and just lean backwards, shifting my weight as I transfer from my inside to outside rail. I don’t ride out of it, but I get that extra torque on the arc, whipping the tail a little more. Practice makes perfect.

     I want another wave just like that one so badly, but that’s it. The South Bay is closed for breakfast. Even funboarders and foamers sit on the inside, their surf appetites unquenched.

     I return to a near-empty parking lot. How sad. Meanwhile, I know HB is working. I’m spoiled, having had my recent sessions there. I can only imagine how good it is down south right now. In the winter, the South Bay shines. In the summer, we have to pay the price to travel. Tomorrow I’ll be there.  

SOUTH SWELL’S OFFICIAL, WED 11JUN2014

Loc: Huntington Pier, Northside

Crew: Dais, Khang, Hideki and the HB Gang

Time: 0645-1015

Conditions: light onshore, 3-4 FT, warm, crowded, semi consistent.

     I had called for everyone to meet at my place at 0530. My phone starts ringing at 0536. I pick it up. It’s Khang. I’ve slept in. “Is Dais here?” I say.

     “Nah, he’s not here yet. Take your ti-ime.”

     I can hear his smile over the phone, but I’m not smiling. Blame it on the Rich Chocolate Ovaltine that I drank last night before going to bed. I had a hard time going to sleep after that.

     We’re on the road by 0545, three guys, three boards in my surf wagon. We stop at Goldenwest first for a look over the railing. It’s a gray overcast morning. The wind is light sideshore from the south. Sectiony peaks break in front of us nice and clean. At the pier, we see the lefts peeling from the northside. There are heads in the water.

     I suggest we use my state parking pass and push it further south. Stopped at a red light at the intersection on PCH and Main, I see a surfer in a short-sleeve full wetsuit running towards the pier, board in arm. It’s Manny A., Rick’s brother. I yell at him out the window. He’s surfing the pier.

     Two blocks later, I make the call to turn around. We know that the pier is working. My other HB spot is a gamble. Might be uncrowded but might not be as good. The clock’s ticking. Have to paddle out ASAP.

     We paddle out north of the tower. The surf looks decent, a solid three-to-four feet, but . . . it’s much more crowded than it was when I had surfed it last week with Hideki.

     Upon reaching the lineup I see Chris, Hideki’s homie. He says that earlier was a little better and more consistent, standing up more. Hideki paddles up to me a few minutes later and says the same thing.

     So I’ve brought the South Bay DRC to HB. Hideki is now the official Huntington Beach Rep of the group.   

     The waves may have been better earlier, but they are still good. I choose to sit with the pack. There’s a technique to it. The current pulls everyone north a little, or they catch a left that pulls them away from the lineup. A gap is created. As the other surfers paddle closer to the pier, I shoot in that gap. I let everyone scatter for the first couple waves of the set, and then I at least have one for myself out the back. I sit outside.

     On my Lost Mini Driver with the quad setup, I take my first bomb left. I bottom turn deeply and shift my weight for a carving top turn, but I feel sluggish. It turns into a check turn. On the inside, I get a baby turn to finish.

     Dais and Khang sit a little more north where there are less people, but I continue my carousel, sitting closer to the pier, catching a wave, and then paddling back. I’m doing okay despite the crowd, and I even choose to sit away from my spot for a while to ensure that I’m sharing.

     After spending so much time on my Motorboat Too, my Mini Driver just feels too big. Even at 174 lbs., this is too much board for me. My surfboard perspective has shifted since riding my smaller boards. The question is, which board in my quiver is the right one now?

     Hours fly by. What was an overcast morning is now full on summer sunshine. I’m burning up in my wetsuit. So is Dais. I attempt a layback snap, the right way this time. Hideki sees this attempt. “Did you stick it?” he asks afterwards when I resurface. I didn’t. The board was under my feet while I was lying back, but I came unstuck underwater. Regardless, it feels good that I’m trying and that it’s an identifiable effort.

     By 1000 the light onshore is enough to create some surface chop. The waves aren’t as clean as this morning, and now it’s more inconsistent.

    Ending the session, we hit up Pho Vie. Gotta have Vietnamese food when you’re surfing around here. It’s a travesty not to, for your stomach and your wallet since it’s so cheap.

     It’s a rare occasion, surfing with these two guys, having the whole morning to ourselves. HB is working right now. Hopefully we can come back for more. Oh, and DRC is not dead either.

     

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.