The Trio at El Porto 062611

Surf Report: 1-3 foot

Water: Cool

Atmosphere: Gloomy and overcast

Winds: Slight off shore

I thought about how I almost injured a guy by ditching my board mid drop and not going for the wave all night Saturday.  I kept telling myself to not hold back, and just go.  If I don’t I might hurt someone, and hurt myself. 

Hey, if I shake, would you give me some food? Please!!!!!! - Jack

Sunday morning I wake up and called Nicky and Khang.  This was a late day for me, for I was doggy-sitting Jack.  He wakes me up every morning around 0500 or 0600, and I take him for a nice long walk before any other dog is able to pee or sniff the morning dew.  Then, I took off to surf.  Nicky and Khang were both down to surf, so I picked up Nicky and headed to Khangs.  We all roll in his van and head to El Porto to check out the surf.  Christina had already texted me that she was at 26^th Street, and I told her that I will see her there.

El Porto, looking crappy

We pull into El Porto and park.  The waves looked alright, but the whole place was super crowded.  Khang says let’s just stay here, and starts to get changed.  I had to poop, so I skated the bathrooms and pulled down my boardshorts to my knees so as to not touch the wet floor, and let the poop flow.  I should have taken care of this in the morning, for it was a two-wave poop.  It was one of those poops that you would start wiping, and then you feel another wave of poop come out and so you have to cease wiping and let the poop splash toilet water onto your butt.  I wiped a second time and headed out, ten pounds lighter.

I think about Christina waiting for us in the line up at 26^th Street.  Oops.  Well, Khang was the driver, so I make it his fault later that we all had forgotten that she was there and that it was his executive decision to paddle out at El Porto instead of 26^th Street.  So Christina, it was all Khang’s fault, you see. 

For the first ten minutes, I felt a shitty vibe.  It was super crowded regardless of the lack of size, and it seemed everyone had no rules of who gets to go one which wave.  It didn’t matter if you were in or out of position. It was a free for all.  That’s what I hate about El Porto:  the crowds, and the lack of respect.  I was psyching myself out in the line up, saying that this place sucks, we should have gone elsewhere, and that we shouldn’t be HERE.  The waves weren’t rolling in at all, and I felt that it was a bad move to surf here.  But then, a set appears on the horizon…

Khang Mr. Plow Tran was first to draw blood.  He picked up a few quick rights and plowed through the flat sections. 

Nicky did his things on the lefts today.  It was all lefts, all day.  He took one right, but he took advantage of the lefts to its full potential.  No one was stopping his mission, and no body was able to keep up with him.  It was his day.  He would get into the waves early, pump down the line, and then kick out all the way down to shore.  It was just a machine like performance from him.  He made a guy in a white-ish wetsuit back out on a few lefts.  This guy was also pretty damn good going both left and right, but he knew that he shouldn’t snake someone when they clearly weren’t noob status, as most El Porto goers are.  Heck, we’re noobs, but we’re better noobs than most at El Porto.  This status is like being the smartest kid in special ed. 

I had two memorable waves today:  one was a right, another was a left.  The right came out of no where, and because of the crowds, I sat way on the outside.  I did this to evade the crowd, and also to get first pick of the rogue sets.  When I saw the bump in the horizon, everyone scrambled to get out of the way, except me.  I paddled for the right.  I wasn’t going to let anyone screw this up for me.  Everyone got out of the way, as I popped up on the wave.  I saw the guy in the white-ish wetsuit paddling for this wave too, but he backed out for me as I made the drop.  The wave just blasted white wash all around me as I made the drop and I couldn’t see a thing.  All I could think of was, “I hope no one is right in front of me right now.  If they are, I’m running them over.” 

Luckily, no one was in front of me, and I made the wave, pumping down in the flats to keep up with the section.  The wave closes out, and I had a huge smile on my face.  This one wave made the whole session worth it. 

I thanked the guy that pulled out for not snaking me, and he acknowledged me.  Show respect, get respect.  I felt that I could have gone deeper, or maybe I could have pulled into the barrel, or maybe I could have bottom turned up that lip and attempted to smack it, but what was done was done.  Another time, another wave.  I enjoyed the wave for what I made it to be, and it was still pretty fun to me.

The other wave of the day that I remembered was a left.  I remember this left because it was a steep take off and reminded me of the wave I had yesterday where I backed out at the last minute and hit the guy on the inside.  Not today.  No more of that, I said to myself.  I gunned for the wave.  I did my alligator wiggle and got into the wave, made the drop without grabbing rail, and started to bottom turn when I see Nicky drop in on me.  Nothing I could do now but to try to chase after him in his wake.  He kicks out as the wave closes out, and I let the wave crash behind me.  This wave wasn’t epic or anything, but to me I had a sense of achievement, since yesterday I had backed out of a similar wave, but today I pushed myself over the ledge and didn’t hold back. 

The trio of Khang, Nicky and I seemed to dominate the spot.  There were changing faces but we stayed for a solid two and a half hours.  We three just dominated the spots we sat in, and we all shared waves.  We were on every set wave, regardless of going left or right, and it was a lot of wave catching for all of us.  By the end of the session, the waves were bogging out from the high tide and we were pretty tired from catching so many waves. The size wasn’t epic, but it was still fun to catch those outsiders for me as I avoided the crowd. 

FCS K2.1's

A small review of these FCS K 2.1 fins:

The fins are Kelly Slater’s beach break model.  I got them 20% off from Killerdana by utilizing a coupon code.  These fins didn’t have the drive that I like, but they made the beach break surf soft.  It felt that every drop and every small pump I did was soft.  I couldn’t drive up the wave as easily on my other fins though.  It is most likely my lack of ability, but that is my two cents about these fins. 

Mahalos Mother Ocean for another fun session.