Just Go For It 062511

Surf Report: 1-3 feet

Atmosphere: Gloomy

Winds: Slight off shore to on shore ripples

Water: Cool

Today, I went straight to 26^th Street to surf.  I had to stay local because I am house sitting for a friend of mine, and I didn’t want to leave Jack (the Burmese hunting dog) all by his lonesome for too long.  I left the house after walking him and giving him breakfast as he looked bummed out that I was leaving in the morning already.  To me, though, I was super late leaving the house.  I hate leaving late in the day because I feel like I’m missing out on some good surf when it is early out.  The crowds are thinner, the tide shift is usually favorable, and the wind isn’t on the waves when one goes out earlier. 

I get to the parking lot at 26^th Street to a packed house.  I knew I wasn’t going to score any parking when I saw two cars exiting the top parking lot.  I still pulled through the lower parking lot to see what’s up with the locals, and I saw a staunch amount of unrecognizable cars, peppered with the usual cars that I see there all the time.  Then, I rounded out and pulled up back to Highland Avenue and made my way to find some street parking.  I let Mellie Mel know my plans, for she was also on her way and to surf 26^th Street. 

I pull into my old, faithful 15^th Street parking lot at the city hall.  I love parking here because it’s free all day, and usually no one is parked there during the surf hours of the morning.  I park, change into my wetsuit, grab my board, leash, towel, and get on my skateboard.

As I walked down 15^th Street to the strand Mellie Mel pulls up and asks where I parked.  I told her where I parked, and made my way down to the strand and skated down to 26^th Street. 

I had to poop.  God, I hope I didn’t have to poop in my wetsuit. 

I walk down to the 26^th Street lifeguard tower and set my stuff down, then headed back to the bathrooms. 

The god damn bathrooms are locked.  Holy hell, I thought.  Ok, let’s work my charm.  I go up to a bald lifeguard shooting the shit outside of the grand meeting room at the lifeguard headquarters.  I asked him if I could use the bathroom. 

“Sorry, no, can’t let you.  Please understand.”

But I have to poop.

“Sorry, no, can’t let you.  Insurance and liability issues, so please understand.”

Please, I have to POOP.

“Sorry, no, can’t let you.”

FUCK.  MY.  LIFE.

Well, I guess I’ll have to hold it in, clenching my buttocks in hopes of not letting loose too much. 

I walk down to the 26^th Street lifeguard tower again and start to stretch.  I felt a presence sneak up on me, and turned around to Ninja Dais sneaking up to me about ten feet away. 

He tells me that Khang is feeding the meter, and that Khoa, DK, Khang and himself have been here for a while.  I see the main peak being flocked by a lot of people.  The peak north of the tower is thinned out, but not as consistent.  The south break is packed to capacity too.  Damn, if only I had been here earlier. 

Dais fills me in on the report:  high tide making things mushy and wobbly, but the texture is nice, and there are some fun lefts coming through.  He only went left today.  Indeed, today was a day only for lefts. 

We wait for Khang to get back feeding the wave machine and paddle straight out, compensating for the eventual drift north from the current.  The first two waves I get I go for the right, but these pinch off and don’t open up for me.  I had to go on my belly because it wasn’t worth getting to my feet for a white water ride. 

My first ride of the day came on a left, where I had the wide open face all to myself.  I “pumped” down the line (I think the board did most of the work) and tried to carve back into the white water, but failed because of my lack of speed. 

The tide shift made a soupy bowl right north of the lifeguard tower.  I tried to avoid this section by maintaining my spot in front of the lifeguard tower.  Eventually, I lost sight of Khang and Dais.  But, I did see some of the old 26^th Street locals, including that dad that rips and brings his grom kids that rip the shit out of waves too.

I take a series of lefts that allows me to get passed the rip tide bowl section, and I see DK’s NSP board.  I greet da boys, and wait for the sets to roll in.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the patience to wait for these waves in this spot, and paddled back up to the lifeguard station.  The current carried most of the surfers away from this spot, so for a while, I had it all to myself. 

The water was warm in my 4/3 wetsuit, and it was a mellow morning made for chilling.  The water was clear and feeling good, and I had at least one decent ride under my belt. 

Cheryl paddled out today!  She’s back home from her Europe trip for a whole month with her family, and she was back on her longboard.  Indeed, some of these waves were better suited for a longboard.  However, occasionally a nasty rogue set would peak its ugly head over the horizon, and dump across the whole line up. 

As Cheryl and I caught up, Mellie Mel finally found me.  I must have drifted north, for I was in front of the pipes.  We greeted each other, and she tells me the following:

“This guy comes up to me, and he says ‘Hey, you must be Mel, my homey was looking for you.  He said look out for a girl with neon rails.’” 

Ah, must have been Dais.  It’s great to know that 26^th Street is kind of a small town feeling where everyone knows everyone.  But, today I guess there were more new faces in the water that have shown up.  Probably because school is out, and the weather is warming up, both in and out of the water.

Cheryl and Mellie Mel talk to each other as I sneak around them to take some inside waves, and some sets that roll through south of them.  I think Cheryl found it a little difficult to paddle into the pitchy waves because she would back out at the last second and have the wave pass up as it crashed on the inside. 

Mellie Mel came back in fire-blazing spirits, but her body didn’t quite cooperate.  She filled me in with her late night shenanigans of Vodka with her roomies, and that she had very little energy to paddle so she was being very selective with her waves.  After a wave that I caught, I saw her go for a no-hope close out that reminded me of why I called her the kamikaze warrior.  I see the wave just completely pitch up, and she free-fell head first into the water as her board pitched up into the lip.  The force of the wave crashing made her board dip into the water, then thrust back out of the white wash.  I saw her board tomb-stoning for a second, and then she comes out of the white water.  She takes a few more on the head as I duck dive right by her, cackling at her crazy kamikaze tactics. 

The mood was mellow yellow, and the ocean was blue green.  These sessions are more reserved for Sundays, but I loved it anyways.  The wind wasn’t really on it too much today, but the tide was definitely still messing up the inside bowl section.  I started to get the pain behind my left knee that bothers me at times.  I felt this while skating down the strand, but chose to ignore it.  Now, the pain was becoming unbearable.  I took a wave in on my belly, and got to shore.  I had to stretch that fucker out. 

After stretching for a bit, I saw Patty (Kyle’s mom, who’s always on a foamie and super stoked) and we talked for a bit.  Again, this is why I love this place.  Everyone is familiar with everyone, and they all have chill, good vibes.  I then paddle back out to the line up. 

Mellie Mel and Cheryl are right where I left them, when a 3 foot “outsider” rolls through.  Mellie Mel goes for it, scratches out, but still pops up.  Her board gets taken away with the crashing lip as she watches, wide eyed, down the falls.  Her board gets engulfed by the water fall but she miraculously escapes going over the falls and has her board back under her, paddling back out. 

I catch a few more waves after this, but nothing was really memorable.  They were all lefts, and my backside game is no where I want it to be.  I have no pumping skills, no bottom turn skills, and no top turn skills. 

The one notable wave that I remember was a wave that I backed out of.  Why is this wave memorable?  Because of the crowd situation, there was a guy right in front of me, paddling back out to the line up.  I swung around and just went for the wave, but at the last second, I got a sudden jolt of fear that made my body back out of the wave.  The wave pitched up as I tried to keep a hold of my board.  Mother Nature wrestled my board away from my weak hands and shot it straight out forward.  I could feel the wave just go over me and carry me up the lip and crash down.  All I could think of at this point was that I hope I didn’t hit the guy in front of me.

I resurface to the guy right next to me.  He clearly looks pissed.  I apologized to him, asking if he was hit.  He said he got hit, but I pointed out that there was no blood or anything.  He rolled his eyes as I apologized once more.  He paddled away, cursing at me under his breath (yea, my hearing is that good) and I felt horrible.  I should have just gone for it.  Why did I back out?  Not only did I put myself in danger, but I put another surfer in danger.  Major party foul.  What a fucking kook move.  I felt horrible.  Just fucking terrible. 

Mellie Mel said she was going to leave, and I decided to head out with her.  The session felt finished after that last wave, and I didn’t really enjoy the surf after that.  I paddled around for a last wave and went in.  Just then, I see Khang, Khoa, Dais and DK waiting on the shore.  They said that they will surf another twenty minutes, and that I should come out too.  I introduced them to Mellie Mel, said my good bye to her, and paddled back out with da boys. 

I was still bothered with the near collision of the surfer dude.  I got a few waves in this twenty minute session, but they were forgettable waves.  I made my way out after a while and headed back to the parking lot to say bye to da boys and skated back to 15^th Street. 

I learned a valuable lesson today.  Well, I’ve learned this lesson before, but I really took it to heart today:  Go for the damn wave.  If you’re not gonna go for it, then duck dive under.  Don’t hesitate, and don’t back out if you’re surfing.  This is the way I want to surf.  I don’t want to have regrets about “not going” for that one wave because it was a hairy situation.  I hoped to take this lesson everyday from now on.

Mahalos Mother Ocean.  We are all just creatures, playing in your infinite energy.  You give us joy and dish out pain, one serving at a time.  It is up to us if we want to learn from you or not.  I choose to learn.