New Year’s Eve

2014-OBJ-12-31

Surf: 2.3 ft at 12.9 s from the W at 262°. Onshore.

As the year comes to an end, folks start talking about their year: surf stats, highlights, etc. It got me thinking a little bit about this past year. Uff. It was a tough one surfwise for sure. This nagging injury is now a year old and, while I have a much better range of motion, it still hurts every day.

I did a quick scan of how often I’ve surfed this year. I normally average 150-175 surf sessions, this year barely hit the upper 80’s.

It’s been hard being out of the water, being so far off from my usual morning routines, and I miss saying hi to folks, being at the beach, all the things that come along with surfing. It’s also been hard trying to find a balance. Maybe if I hadn’t been so insistent on still surfing when I first got hurt, I might not still be hurt now. But on the other hand, not being physically active also has it’s drawbacks. It’s frustrating to “take it easy” only to have nothing change. I think a few of these aches and pains are from not being mobile. I feel both lazy for not going, and guilty for going.

After wrapping work early, I thought I’d sneak out for a few more waves. The forecast looked small enough not to set off too much neck pain and man, it’s awesome to watch the sun set on NYE from the water.

The wind had sadly switched to onshore and the little waves were a lumpy mess, but ahh well, I’ve surfed worse. It was silly, sloppy wave fun and wow, so clear! What a sunset.

Happy New Year!

Thursday Sunset

2013-OB-01-17a

2013-OB-01-17b

Surf: 2.3 ft at 13.3 s from the W at 270°

Yesterday’s sunshine and fresh air was pretty great, so I decided to sneak out again for a few more waves.

It’s been ages since I’ve taken my 9’4 out at Ocean Beach. I usually take my tri-fin longboard, but it’s still dinged, so single fin it was. A few waves were hilariously kooky. We’d camped out on a mushier smaller peak so there was plenty of room to goof off. I got one really fun wave along the seam of the rip. Broke right, left, right, left again. Worked on getting up the nose a bit for some great faceplants.

Great sunset, dolphins, all that good stuff.