Surf Camp Trip - Big Sunday 052911

Surf Report:  5 foot plus with the occasional over head set

Water:  Cold

Winds: On shore, side shore

Atmosphere: Grey skies then sunny

The night was a fiasco for everyone.  Mother Nature rained on us and blew our tents over.  I heard Khoa’s tent tarp flap off to the tent Matt and I stayed in, and I heard Matt continuously get out and fix the tarp on the tent.  I heard Eloyssa giggle throughout the night, and I could only imagine what Christina was going through. 

Khang and Dais slept in the van, and probably had the best rest out of all of us.  I know for a fact that Christina, Khoa, Karen, Sean and Eloyssa did not have a good nights rest.  Francis and Nicole said they were in and out of sleep all night last night, because the winds were too cold and the rain bothered them too.  Matt was up and about by 500, but he didn’t make it obvious he didn’t get much rest either. 

I for one, had a great night’s rest, filled up on food with a cozy sleeping bag enveloping me.  I even took off my jacket because I was so warm inside.  I had a towel wrapped around my neck and I had eaten a nice, full meal.  I even put some athletic cream on similar to icey hot to keep my shoulders nice and limber for the next morning, expecting to be able to surf. 

When I woke up from my slumber, Christina and Matt were outside in the cold weather.  Christina looked like she hadn’t slept all night, and Matt was rustling about the camp site. 

We had no more firewood this morning, and it probably wouldn’t have mattered much since it rained last night and all of our firewood would have been drenched.  The winds still howled angrily at the beach, still tipping over Khoa’s tent.  Their tent looked like a house from Dr. Seuss, bending and contorting in ways we only see in cartoons. 

I told Christina that she should sleep in my sleeping bag at least, since it was still dry and it was warm.  She did, and rested for most of the morning thereafter.  Dais and Khang woke up, but stayed inside the van.  They were the smart ones out of all of us, staying inside the car.  It was raining and windy all night, but they didn’t feel a thing. 

Matt warmed up some hot water for us to make coffee.  Sean and Eloyssa slept in the truck from here.  Matt made us some of the best hot coco coffee ever.  He was generous enough to forgo his own cup and pass out a cup to everyone else first.  Then, he made himself a cup on the second round.  What a generous man.

I started to warm some charcoal so we can cook breakfast.  I fired up the left over sausages, and Matt brought out some eggs to cook over the frying pan.  We heated up some tortillas so we could all have some breakfast tacos.  The coco coffee and coals proved to be the lifesaver for everyone, as they warmed up after a hard night. 

Around 1100, Khoa, Karen, Sean and Eloyssa moved out of camp.  They took most of our camping gear that we didn’t need and headed back to LA.  We all said our goodbyes after we packed up all our stuff.  We waited for 1200 to roll around so we could check into the new camp spot. 

The new camp spot was further north, towards Churches.  As we set up the new spot, the winds calmed down and the sun began to show more consistently.  There was a guy in front with a red fish that was tearing it up on his forehand.  Another grom was on a thruster and was tearing it up too.  We set up Matt’s tent, and started to snack and hydrate for our first session of the day.  We waited a good seven hours for this surf session, and we wanted to make it last.

As we walked passed the contest site again, I had to pee.  I knew Khang would be disgusted by this, so I opted to walk in front of him, in hopes that he would see my trail of pee slosh out my leg.  I started to urinate, and Dais laughed next to me and looked back at Khang.  Matt noticed and took a step to the side, and finally Khang realized what was going on and became disgusted. 

I laughed.

We decided to walk up passed Churches and paddle out around Middles.  Nicole didn’t paddle out with us, but hoped to snap some photos of us surfing.  The waves looked like they were three feet and crumbling like goat cheese from the shore.  We soon would be gravely mistaken.

I was the first one to paddle out into the line up, along with Christina.  We both started out the same, stepping on some razor sharp rocks and choosing our steps carefully.  Once I saw her get pretty deep, I started to wonder how big the waves really were.  I started to paddle once I was in thigh deep water.  Christina was south of me as we paddled, and before I knew it, I lost sight of her.  The waves seemed to consistently come in one after the other, and it became apparent that the waves were not three feet at all.  As I made my way through the white water, I saw a wave break further out.  I paddled and paddled and paddled.  There was another wave that broke further out.  I paddled even more.  By the time I got out to the line up, I was south of BP’s, and closer to the contest site.  I saw Matt and Khang way north of me, about fifty yards, and so I started to paddle towards them.  I didn’t see Christina at all. 

Today was a paddle battle against Mother Ocean.  The drift was so strong, I felt I was paddling about 98% of the time this session.  I rarely sat, waiting and sitting in the spot waiting for a wave.

I saw Francis and Dais eventually, and they too were rarely sitting.  We were all paddling most of the time.

Matt was the clear cut performer of this session.  He pretty much put on a clinic in the challenging surf today.  He was able to paddle into the plus sets, make them, and take them pretty far. 

Francis got a lot of waves, but he probably wanted his other shortboard instead of the bigger longboard that belonged to Nicole. He hung around on the inside at first, taking the double ups that were a bit steeper.  Watching Francis you really get a sense of style:  he pumps on the wave like you envision yourself doing, and just a few pumps gets him from A to point C.  Then he bottom turns and cuts back mid face to send some buckets out the back.  He just flows like water and comprehends like liquid. 

Khang was on Dais’ Maria (fish) and was able to catch some nice right that I didn’t see at the beginning because I had drifted down so far.  Matt was giving him lots of props for the right that he caught.  Khang had snaked me for another wave as I belly rode it, and tried to bust a turn on it but came unstuck.  I then popped up, pumped a few times, and started to bottom turn up the lip to try to crack the lip off, but became unstuck too. 

There was no time to give Khang some shit about snaking me in these conditions.  The waves just kept coming and coming, pushing and shoving. 

Dais mentioned his left hamstring was getting tight.  He was getting some waves, but was challenged by Mother Ocean just like the rest of us.  It was a constant, slow battle that wore us all down today.

For the first hour or so, I tried to figure out how to paddle for these waves.  The plus sets were pitchy, the other waves were crumbly, and then you had to compensate for the drift.  I figured finally that positioning was the first and foremost important factor for catching these waves.  I kept on eyeing the cliff side’s end as a point to sit.  I would always look back and paddle towards the north so I could stay in position. 

I kept on focusing on my breathing too.  I knew I had to pace myself for these waves, and I didn’t want to tire out so soon.  I kept up my slow breathing for the whole session, and it paid off because I was the first one to paddle out, and last one to paddle in. 

At the beginning, I was telling myself the “Surf off your back foot” phrase.  But then, I started to just chant, “Pa~ddle.  Pa~ddle. Pa~ddle.  Pa~ddle.  Pa~ddle.”  I had to remind myself to keep the strokes long, just like my breathing. 

I also took some gnarly wipe outs, one right next to Khang.  There was no way I was making that wave, but I just had to push myself over the ledge to tell my mind and body that I can come out of a wipe out fine, and so I can push myself over the ledge more.  I completely nose dived into the wave, getting pitched over my board.  I thought I might hit myself with the board, but luckily nothing bad happened, and I came up after ten seconds under water.  I was glad that I've been working on holding my breath during the week.  

I watched Matt as he took off on the bigger set waves and make some turns off the top.  He would be able to paddle into the plus sets and make them out, unscathed.  Francis too was making some pretty big drops, but Matt was the clear stand out performer. 

Matt paddled for a left.  The peak feathered on the top and started to break as he paddled for it.  He popped up and had both arms in the spread wing position.  His board just stuck to the face of the wave, and plowed through the white water as he made the drop.  I remember his spread eagle stance as he took the left all the way from BP's to the Middles peak.  He paddled back out with a sly grin on his face.  

“Well, if you wanted a Bali training session, this would be it,” I told him. 

There were a few new faces in the crowd that showed up but none of them lasted too long.  Eventually, Dais and Khang left the line up, and it was just Francis, Matt, and me.

Francis took a huge over head close out wave that I couldn’t make and went over the falls.  After that, he went in and back to the camping site. 

I took some inside waves for some short rides, trying to bust some turns.  If I didn’t do the turns, I probably could have taken the wave longer, but I wanted to work on them.  And what better place to work on maneuvers than pumping Middles? 

Eventually, it was just Matt and me, with another surfer.  We all kept paddling and paddling, maintaining our position right where the cliff dropped off.  Matt took one last wave and called it a day. 

I had a wave after that which I tried to chop hop and pump down the line, but I wanted a cleaner ride.  I waited, paddled, waited, paddled and waited more.  Then, the plus sized set would break far on the outside, and I would realize I was in bad position, right in front of BP’s and too deep in the line up.  I started to paddle in without taking an official “last wave in.” 

Matt was waiting for me on the shore.  I was pretty tired, and my mind did not comprehend my thoughts and translate them to speech too well.  I slurred my words as if drunk, and tried to take in what Matt was telling me.  We both agreed that today’s surf session made up for the no surfing in the morning, but it was pretty challenging.

Once we got back to the campsite, we saw da boys (and girls) all waiting for us.  They gave us props for staying out so long, and told us their stories:

Dais had drifted passed the contest site, and eventually right in front of our new camp site.  He went in and didn’t even have to walk too far to get back to camp.

Khang had drifted too, but had paddled in.  He said he had a pretty frustrating time out there surfing.

Francis was all smiles (as he always is.)  He told me that last wave was a pretty sick drop. 

Christina said that she was almost in the contest area on the first paddle out.  She caught some insiders that rolled through, but that was it for her. 

We fired up the grill and cooked some teriyaki chicken with tortillas.  We killed the last of Lauren’s amazing salsa and whatever beers we had.  Matt and Francis went on a beer run and brought more booze.  We were all exhausted, and done for the day.  We watched the groms do their thing in front of our camp site, doing nice hacks and floaters on the “smaller” waves. 

Rick the Reptile eventually showed up and suited up immediately to head out.  He chugged a beer down before paddling out, and put on a little show for us as we watched him surf.

The smell of barbeque filled our lungs as we took deep breaths of the clean beach air.  The people around us were super friendly, and the sun was starting to set.  The winds started to turn off shore, and the waves in front started to improve, believe it or not. 

We all eventually left around 1900.  At first, we all felt bad leaving Matt to his lonesome because Lauren had left the day before, meaning he was all alone for Sunday night and Monday, but were glad to see that Rick showed up so he could keep him company.  We packed up all our stuff in the van, and said our goodbyes.  Good bye to Matt, good bye to Rick, good bye to TJ the neighbor, and good bye to San Onofre. 

What an amazing surf camping trip this was.  Hard to believe it was just two days and one night.  All we did was surf, eat, surf, eat, sleep, eat, surf more, and eat. 

Mahalo to Matt for letting us take advantage of his military perks.  Without him, none of this would have been possible.  We greatly appreciate all your hospitality and giving nature.  We can only hope that the next camping trip will be as epic as this one.  And yes, we all agree that you are ready for Bali.  Good luck over there, brother.  Don’t come back unless you catch the sickest barrel of your whole life. 

And of course… Mahalo Mother Ocean, for producing some consistent swell for us all weekend.