Surf: 2.6 ft at 16.7 s from S at 190°. High tide. Light/moderate shifting winds.
BOOOOM. Wave after wave of the set hit the breakwall. The ramp was swamped and folks were trying to time their entrances just right. Today was one of those no-beach days where the water swallowed the coast of the town whole. With the fog it was hard to see the next wave coming, but with the long period there was a pretty good window to make it out in one piece.
Waves were typically on the soft side and with the holiday the crowd was typically on the thick side. Thankfully the long sets made it easy to find a wave to yourself here or there.
I’ve been complaining for weeks about surfing terribly. Blowing waves, flying all over the place, etc. Today I finally felt like I was surfing competently. After getting a nice long wave, I paddled back out and was met by a woman laughing to herself. She looked over at me and said “Every time you get a wave, there’s five guys who frantically paddle to the spot you were just at trying to get the next one. Then you move somewhere else and they follow along behind you.” I kind of couldn’t believe anyone was pay attention, let alone following me. Ha.
Later a guy yelled out to me: “Great wave! You’re tearing it up out here!” I was seriously blushing under my sunburn.
It felt good to hear some kind words from folks in the lineup. In the back of my mind I’m still thinking they’re cheering me on because I’m doing terribly. I mean, there were folks out there cross stepping away and all I was really doing was squeezing soft little waves into long rides. My best guess is all my smiling and hooting for other folks makes it a little easier to hoot for me. 😉
Brien and I were certainly having fun out there. He got some long ones and one great one where he came down the line nice and clean before I managed to get in his way. He zipped right around me and back down the line. I got a wave early on that I thought I might bail on because of traffic on the inside and overall meh-ness of the wave. Instead I wound up catching the wave riding on my knees. It turned out to be a silly, very fun ride dragging my hand in the face and steering while sitting nearly on my nose. I laughed the whole ride. Weeeheww.