All Day Surfing - Early Morning @ ________ 041611

Surf Report:  Lingering SW and dropping out.  Incoming NW swell

Winds:  Off shore quickly to on shore

Water:  Very cold

Atmosphere:  Premonition of summer days to come…

The day was dark, the street lights were on, the air was chilly, and the airplanes of LAX slept silently on the sides of the runway.  It was 530 AM.   

Matt and I had planned for another all-dayer for ourselves.  The weather was lining up to be a great day for a beach day, so why not?  It was supposed to be 85 degrees, but there wasn’t much swell on tap for us on Saturday.  Matt informed me that Rick had a cottage at ___________ and that we should stop there in the morning, and then head down to meet up J at San Onofre where he had a camping spot secured.  I let Dais know the plans, and he said he was able to do a whole beach day.  Francis, on the other hand, couldn’t make it out since he had to work from Friday night 830 PM to Saturday morning 830 AM. 

I woke up a little before 500 AM Saturday morning, and went back to sleep for ten minutes.  I woke up again, and called Dais.  He sheepishly answered the phone, and I told him that I would be there as soon as I finished stretching.  I packed up my back pack and set out to pick him up shortly thereafter. 

The morning was warm, and I only needed a t-shirt.  I had trouble sleeping at night again for I was excited about surfing all day again.  I have to take advantage of these days since who knows when I will be able to surf all day?  I have to take advantage of the moment and not think about the future too much.  I had no plans or obligations for the weekend (except studying...), so I was free as a bird.  I arrive at Dais’s house, and he came out with his back pack, a bag full of jackets, his wetsuit, and his Desire`.  We only took one board each, since we both wanted to get more assimilated with our ladies, and the only way of doing that is to use her until stubbornness becomes habitual with our board choice.

I called Matt, and he said that he was packing up his stuff and to take my time.  I knew that meant, “Where the hell are you guys?  I’m already waiting in my car.”  A quick drive down the 405 and we arrive to Matt’s house.  We transfer our gear and what not to the surf mobile, and we set out at 555 AM. 

“HEY, there’s three of us, and there's three 5’s,” Matt said.

“Triple 5 soul,” Dais added.

We drove down the 405 listening to the dub-step electronica station on Pandora.  The sun is just about to peak over the mountains, and shine the way to glory.  

Beautiful is an understatement

We pass the Denny’s that signifies to me that we are approaching our destination.  I get pretty excited when seeing this Denny’s since I use it as a landmark on our journeys, and it reminds me of the times we scored at San Onofre. 

First, we get to ____________.  Rick was waiting already, getting all his stuff unpacked from his truck.  We met his friend Gary T. and his wife Rhonda.  Both were Venice High alumni.  Gary told us about the olden days of the Dog Town and POP (Pacific Ocean Park.)  He told us about days where he would take the bus to Malibu and surf all day, and take the bus back to get picked up by his mom.  I found all these stories interesting and historically valuable for surfing in SoCal in the 80’s.  I wish I had a recorder or something to document all these stories.

We also got to see Rick’s daughter Jane again.  I love this girl!  She has such great energy and a smile on her face all the time.  She is adorable. 

Then Michaelson pulls up in his huge camper wagon.  First impression of him was that he was Grizzly Adams.  He was definitely not a man who would be sitting in front of a computer all day and typing his life away like most of us do.  He was the one that went to Oxnard with Matt and Rick and pointed out all these secret spots to Matt up and down the coast north of Los Angeles.  His knowledge base of surf spots must have been as big as Gary, if not more, and I felt like I should be writing down everything he was saying for his knowledge boar a heavy historical weight to me.  We didn’t get to talk or surf with him, but man, his BOARDS! So sexy!!!  He had every oddity one could call a surfboard in the back of his truck.  Matt opened up the car and showed us the truck, complete with a mattress, camping gear, a single fin on a rack on the “wall” of the truck, a twin fin with bamboo fins and a square tail, a quad fin with bamboo fins, another single fin, an old log, another twin fin, and another weird looking board.  Dais and I were just salivating from our chops looking at this orgasmic scenery.  Rick told us that this is nothing compared to his house, for the only room that Michaelson has that doesn’t have surfboards would be the bathroom and a small bedroom. 

So we watch the waves for a while.  The waves SUCKED.  Haha ok let’s be a little more fair.  The weather was beautiful.  The winds were off shore.  The beach was empty, without a soul in sight besides us.  Rick had set up a canopy for his crew that was staying for the weekend.  But the waves were just jumbled up and small, and pounding the shoreline.  ____________ was doing her best imitation of El Porto and succeeding. 

“Man, we should have just stayed at 26^th” Dais joked.  I co-signed on that.  

26th Street would have been better - Dais and KK

Matt joked that Rick would chastise us for all having thrusters today, saying that fish boards are perfect for California waves and that it was a small day and on and on.  Luckily Rick didn’t surf with us this morning, so we didn’t hear that from him today. 

Well, high tide was around 845 AM, so we waited until then, hoping that the waves would change or pick up.  No dice, my friend.  In fact, the winds switched from off shore to on shore, and Rick and Gary joked that we better get out there while it was good. 

So, we three suited up.  Jane was hungry for attention, and said that one of us had to stay and watch her.  I told her the ladybug she had been playing with would watch her.  She said that she needed an adult.  I volunteered Gary to do the job.  She looked a big disappointed. 

So, we three paddle out to a near empty line up of a sand bar at ___________.  In all honesty, it wasn’t so bad.  I caught two memorable rides.

One was a left, where I grabbed rail and looked down the line as the left just jumped up as the wave hit the shore pound.  I was close to the wave face, and held on to the wave until it completely gobbled me up on six inches of water. 

The other memorable wave I had this morning was a right, where I was actually able to pump down the line and go up the lip.  I tried to do a floater in order to re-enter, but floaters are hard!  I am still a noob, I told myself. 

Dais went for a few questionable waves, and so did Matt.  I think we all struggled this morning, but Matt was definitely frustrated as hell.  Dais was all smiles, though.  I was observing the waves, and they didn’t seem to be improving.  Matt would sit on the outside, catch some dumpy wave that came in and pop up and try to pump down the line but could only go straight.  In all honesty, Porto might have been a better choice.  But, there was no crowd at all, so that helped out a lot.

Gary came out on his neon green bonzer.  He was all smiles paddling out to the line up, and caught a few waves.  He actually paddled for a right, and I saw his neon green board just come out of the lip and smack the shit out of it.  He didn’t stick the turn, but it was the gnarliest move I’ve seen all day.  I don’t care if he didn’t stick it, it was pretty amazing watching this man who was old enough to be our dad still tearing it up. 

I took a questionable drop, and ate shit.  At this point, the fins cut my heel.  I knew it was cut, so I came out of the water to check it out.  It was just a small skin scratch, but I had enough.  I opted to body surf instead since that seemed safer and more fun than dealing with the jumbled up conditions. 

Gary soon came out and called it a day, and so did Matt.  Dais put his board down, and came out to body surf with me.  He took the biggest wave on the shore pound that I was so amazed it made my eyes wide with delight. 

We both called it, and headed back in.  The beach crowd was starting to fill in, and a lot more people were showing up.  I had never seen _______ so crowded before. 

We posted up next to Rick and Tim’s (another Venice High alumni) canopy and relaxed.  I flew a kite for the first time in probably twenty years, and tried to study as Jane kept using me as a pillow and using up Dais’s sunblock to draw smiley faces on him.  Tim’s wife Amy (?) was also Venice High alumni, and so it seemed so crazy to be able to talk to some people who were members of the Venice community from the time we were kids too.  We also met Tracy, Rick’s wife, Paige, Rick’s other daughter, and her friend Ashley.  Jane still stole the show with her dancing and singing. 

After a few hours of relaxing, the beach swelled up with people, and we decided to leave to meet J at San O.  We all said our good-byes to everyone, packed up our stuff, and headed to San O.