SURF: Inconsistent sets ranging from Thigh high to Head High. Warm sun, clean.
What a great way to round out the year. This pretty unassuming day turned out to be so much fun.
We hit the beach at high tide and the waves were a little mushy. I was just happy to be in the water. As the tide pulled out, things ramped up and got fun.
I caught a bunch of waves. Great longboard waves. I had solid rides down the face and even pulled off a few things I haven’t been able to do before without falling on my face.
The first was almost a noseride. I caught the wave a little early and ran up the nose, making the drop with both feet all the way up on my Stewart logo. As I was making the bottom turn I though “oh wow, I’ve never been able to hold on to a wave this far up the board!” and I held it for a LONG time. I made it down the face and almost in to shore balancing up on the front. I was so stoked.
On another wave I was gliding down the face nice and slow and smooth. I though “okay, lets see if I can’t cross step a little or at least shuffle to keep trim.” I’ve tried this before at Cowells on a long wave and typically I’ve gone face first into the water. This time I shuffled up, shuffled back, cross stepped up, shuffled back, all while keeping the wave. Soooo happy.
Also, there’s a guy out at Linda Mar that I have a bit of an embarrassing surf history with. I’ve dropped in on him before and I’m fairly certain I pegged him with my board after I got stomped by an overhead set on another day. I saw him in the water and though “man, I’m gonna kook this up…” but I got the wave and on my paddle back he complimented me on my ride and we had a friendly conversation. He snagged a real nice ride on the next wave. It’s always nice when you can make it up to the one person you’ve been embarrassing yourself infront of for weeks.
On the additionally ego boosting front, I got a compliment on my hustle from Doug (who will be showing his surf movies at Riptide Jan 13th. I am excited to see them and put in my bid for the Wet Wednesday surfboard raffle). I’m glad my relentlessly optimistic sprint for waves is getting some positive notice. I kinda assumed I looked like a crazy person sprinting after waves. Def boosted the confidence.
To top things off, I piled on a big post surf meal with friends after. Very fun day indeed.
Awesome! Sounds like a great sesh.