Ten Minutes to Make a Session 061611

Surf Report: 1-3 feet max, clean shape

Water: Cool and a beautiful azure

Winds: Slight on shore

Atmosphere: Quite cloudy, but nice on the horizon

Khang calls me on my way home.

“Bro, what you doing?  Come to El Porto! It’s clean, and it’s firing!  I got Nicky with me too,” he said.

That is all I needed to hear.  I ditched my swimming plan and headed to grab my gear at home. 

I get to the El Porto parking lot to see lines just marching in.  Yea, it wasn’t that big, but it looked really clean.  I started to froth in my pants.  I nab a parking spot and couldn’t get changed fast enough into my wetsuit.  I threw in enough change for an hour so I don’t “overstay my welcome” with the metermaid.

Khang had texted me that Nicky and he would be out in front of 45^th street, so I stretched out and paddled in front of the lifeguard tower.  There were Latino’s frolicking in the water, cringing under the cold water which was a stark contrast from the hot sun that baked our bodies on land.  The water was clean and clear, as the waves rolled in super glassy.  I couldn’t believe my eyes…

I paddled out and sat in the line up by the tanks.  I scratch out on my first two waves, and I hear Khang and Nicky calling me.  I paddle further south to greet them, and we all shoot the shit in the line up.  They tell me that it’s been really good for the last hour, and Khang told me that it was super good this morning too. 

I catch my first wave on the third try.  I was able to “snake” Khang on the shoulder (he didn’t catch that wave, so I didn’t really snake him) and I was able to get to the flats, bottom turn, and go up the lip.  I tried really hard to bust a turn but came out the back of the wave and lost all my speed.  Oh well.

Khang was a mad man on the waves.  He took every single wave.  He even took off behind a peak as it broke in front of him as I watched him, hoping he would fall.  I kept off that wave, and good thing I did since he punched through the white water section and came up the face to pump down the line, all the way to shore.  He came back saying the ride was “OK.” 

Nicky caught some nice little lefts that rolled through, but he seemed more or less frustrated that he couldn’t catch waves when I got there. 

In all honesty, the first ten minutes was totally worth all the traffic jams and meter maids and paddling.  After that, the place kind of shut down.  Khang still caught his fare share of waves, and so did this one long haired dude.  The long haired dude caught numerous waves going left from the peak, chop hop and Ollie over the flat sections, literally popping airs, and hacking on his backside creating major buckets of spray.  He put all of us in place.

I took a weird wave that doubled up on me after riding the face.  I had to step forward towards the nose of my board to not pearl, then step back to my tail pad so I wouldn’t eat it once again.  I made the wave but I couldn’t do anything else.  It felt good to know I could think on my feet like that with the changing conditions. 

Eventually, the time ran out on us, and I grew desperate for my last wave.  I paddled for a rogue right, and took it on my belly for a second.  I then felt the bump of speed go two fold, and wanted to pop up, but I couldn’t see from the burst of white water.  I should have just popped up… but my body wouldn’t listen to my head.  In the end, I took the wave on my belly all the way to the inside.  My last wave made me flaccid out of disappointment. 

But, the first ten minutes was definitely worth it.  Mahalo Mother Ocean.