Surf: 3 ft at 16s from SSW at 205° Rising to high tide.
This is the swell. This is the swell that we heard about the whole time in Mexico. This is the swell that was “supposed to be here tomorrow” every day. I’ll admit, I thought about bumping the trip a few extra days to catch it (and to say Hi to the folks from theseea.com who were coming in on Sunday for a shoot), but sadly between obligations back home and flights being crazy expensive if we had stayed, it didn’t work out.
Word from Ed was that when it came in, it came in huge. Big big waves full of thousands of juvenile Portuguese Man O’wars. Not only would I not have known what to do with that much swell, my delicate skin would have been toast after just a few stings. Ouch.
The nice thing about a swell like this swell is that not only did it hit Tahiti, Hawaii and Mexico, but it snuggled right up to Santa Cruz.
Although I was feeling some serious work guilt about coming back from vacation and turning right around for the water, I plowed through my first day back chores on Monday and hit the surf early Tuesday.
Normally I’d want my longboard for this. I’m still skittish about the point when it’s on the bigger side (I either want to be able to duck dive or be able to scratch to safety with paddle power.) My log’s in the shop getting a ding fixed so I decided to try out my new an improved hull skills.
I get some confused looks whenever I paddle over to the longboard peak with my little 6’10. Thankfully I’d just gotten out to the peak when a beautiful wave came straight towards me. Remembered my Mexico lessons and paddled longer, stood up faster and swish…I was off.
It was a pretty good wave. 😀
I was really stoked.
After that it was a lot of floating around, answering questions about my hull, being in everyone’s way, getting a few more waves, and doing some horribly kooky things.
I know I’m gonna be a kook for a long time, but I still am so embarrassed when it shows. I was trying to get out past an incoming wave, didn’t make it, went flying backwards and right over the top of Tim. He’s thankfully great at duck diving so he only got a knee to the back. I was slightly horrified. Glad no one got hurt.
He got some great waves. I saw Darren and Noah get a few beauts too.
Also saw a small pod of dolphins slip right by me. Always a cool thing to see.
Overall, I’m glad I chased that swell down. It was a great end to a fun little surf trip.