Monday, September 19, 2005
Saturday in the Park with a hundred of my closest surfing pals
Saturday
Up at 5am, I am the last person to get a spot in the parking lot at 6:25am, a full 25 minutes before sunrise. The full moon has illuminated things well enough to see 30 some odd surfers already catching the shoulder-high waves. Seems kinda small, but I don't want to drive over to the West Side, so I head back to the car to change.
I quickly start to suit up. It's not cold, so I put my key in my wetsuit's shoulder located key pocket. I don't want to replay yesterday's events and I know about car theft at the Hook. Unlike yesterday, when I had the 6'8" semi-gun, today I have the 5'9" fish. Perhaps I am undergunned, but I am willing to give it a try. A dry hair paddle out leaves me in the midst of 30 or so guys at the main takeoff zone, with large groups of surfers milling about on the inside all the way diagonally down the coast.
The board seems to float me well enough to compete with these guys for waves. I see Steve, a guy from the Norcal Yahoo group, and we talk story during the long lulls between waves. A bigger set comes through and I paddle against a guy I think will bail at the last moment. He does, and I stroke into the wave and take a huge drop on my tiny board down the face. I swish through a fairly sedate bottom turn and up the face then down again. The wave sections and I try to outrun it, pumping in the foam to find green water again, but I fail and relax into the spin cycle. Later, a massive 6 wave clean up set comes through. I am right in the middle, so the waves are breaking on top of me, but the little fish is a breeze to duck-dive so I hold my position. At the end of the set I look around and there is no one within 100 feet of me. Some of the guys are way outside, having scratched over the incoming walls of water, and the rest are way behind me in the foam, pulling their boards back to them to begin the paddle out. Steve catches up to me about 15 minutes later. I ask him if he caught one of the big waves and rode it to the beach and he tells me how he rescued a guy whose leash broke and couldn't swim in. The guy had panicked in the foam and Steve managed to tow him in on his back without getting drowned himself. We figured Steve had some generated some good karma and deserved a set wave. BTW, if you can't swim without your board, don't go out on big days.
After a 30 minute lull, a set comes through and I hop on another overhead wave. Big drop, unremarkable bottom turn, trim down the line, try and get a higher line to beat the soon to section wall. No good; ride the foam and kick out.
one hour later, I have to get home to coach at my daughter's soccer game. I paddle hesitantly inside, stopping every 20 feet to see if one last set will come through for me to ride in to the beach. Finally, about 30 feet from the sand, I am rewarded. I paddle into a shoulder high wave that presents another soon to section wall. I fly down the line and as the wave starts to collapse, I zip to the top of the wave and try to nail a floater over the foam. The lip catches my rail and sends me tumbling. Great ending to fun session.
Up at 5am, I am the last person to get a spot in the parking lot at 6:25am, a full 25 minutes before sunrise. The full moon has illuminated things well enough to see 30 some odd surfers already catching the shoulder-high waves. Seems kinda small, but I don't want to drive over to the West Side, so I head back to the car to change.
I quickly start to suit up. It's not cold, so I put my key in my wetsuit's shoulder located key pocket. I don't want to replay yesterday's events and I know about car theft at the Hook. Unlike yesterday, when I had the 6'8" semi-gun, today I have the 5'9" fish. Perhaps I am undergunned, but I am willing to give it a try. A dry hair paddle out leaves me in the midst of 30 or so guys at the main takeoff zone, with large groups of surfers milling about on the inside all the way diagonally down the coast.
The board seems to float me well enough to compete with these guys for waves. I see Steve, a guy from the Norcal Yahoo group, and we talk story during the long lulls between waves. A bigger set comes through and I paddle against a guy I think will bail at the last moment. He does, and I stroke into the wave and take a huge drop on my tiny board down the face. I swish through a fairly sedate bottom turn and up the face then down again. The wave sections and I try to outrun it, pumping in the foam to find green water again, but I fail and relax into the spin cycle. Later, a massive 6 wave clean up set comes through. I am right in the middle, so the waves are breaking on top of me, but the little fish is a breeze to duck-dive so I hold my position. At the end of the set I look around and there is no one within 100 feet of me. Some of the guys are way outside, having scratched over the incoming walls of water, and the rest are way behind me in the foam, pulling their boards back to them to begin the paddle out. Steve catches up to me about 15 minutes later. I ask him if he caught one of the big waves and rode it to the beach and he tells me how he rescued a guy whose leash broke and couldn't swim in. The guy had panicked in the foam and Steve managed to tow him in on his back without getting drowned himself. We figured Steve had some generated some good karma and deserved a set wave. BTW, if you can't swim without your board, don't go out on big days.
After a 30 minute lull, a set comes through and I hop on another overhead wave. Big drop, unremarkable bottom turn, trim down the line, try and get a higher line to beat the soon to section wall. No good; ride the foam and kick out.
one hour later, I have to get home to coach at my daughter's soccer game. I paddle hesitantly inside, stopping every 20 feet to see if one last set will come through for me to ride in to the beach. Finally, about 30 feet from the sand, I am rewarded. I paddle into a shoulder high wave that presents another soon to section wall. I fly down the line and as the wave starts to collapse, I zip to the top of the wave and try to nail a floater over the foam. The lip catches my rail and sends me tumbling. Great ending to fun session.
