Playing Hooky.... sorta 111912 26th Street

Surf Report: 2-4 feet

Winds: Offshore

Water: Cool/Cold

Atmosphere: Grey skies, light fog, slow burn off

It rained a lot (in my opinion, at least) on Saturday night, so I decided not to surf Sunday.  I knew the waves were going to be good, but I didn’t want to risk getting any illnesses from Mother Ocean. 

Naturally, I had to surf Monday before work. 

I drove down to 26^th Street to find an empty lot.  I was surprised that the lot was empty, since the peaks were rolling in nicely with some nice size.  The sun rise was reflecting a golden shade of grey as the morning fog parted on the Ocean. 

“Are you playing hooky?” a voice said to me.  It was Roy.  He had just arrived.  “Do you have the day off today?”  I told him no.  “Oh, so you ARE playing hooky,” he smiled, as I put my wetsuit on. 

One of the high school girls was walking down as I walked down to the beach.  I passed her up, but while I was stretching she beat me to the water.  She paddled out through the channel and made it out in seconds. 

I was on my single fin Marley this day, and was intent on having a good time.  Since I was so frustrated on Saturday, I wanted to change things up to get a different feel while surfing.  So the easiest thing to do was to change equipment. 

I was in awe of the mellow beauty of the golden sunrise.  The gold shimmer kept hitting my eyes as the milky waves rolled in.  The fog slowly dissipated in the morning, lifting the smoky haze on the golden horizon.  I caught my best wave in these conditions.  I paddled into a right, pumping and trimming, throwing in a check turn.  Then, I bottom turned and carved off the top and back into the white water.  I kept pumping ahead and did a small loft over the white water to finish the wave.

I was smiling from ear to ear. 

I caught a few more rights that morning in the empty line up.  Roy was doing his thing as always, catching the perfect lefts and ripping them to shreds.  He was saying how good Sunday was, and that the water wasn’t so dirty.  “I’ve surfed in worse,” he said to me, with a smile.  Damn man. 

The high school girl was sitting on the inside taking the smaller waves.  She was regular footed and had a nice, smooth style.  She was apprehensive about the medium to larger sized waves, but she definitely was holding her own. 

I took a close out to go to work.  I got changed, drove my car to work, and put in my hours.  All day, all I could think about was the golden reflection on the milky horizon, twinkling with the hazy sea.  I hope to see mornings like this again… but then again, I wouldn’t be in such awe if they happened all the time. 

Mahalos Mother Ocean!!!