Beautiful 091011

Surf Report: 1 – 2 feet with the occasional 3 footer

Water: Warm in a 4/3

Winds: Off shore

Atmosphere: Gloomy, at times raining

I woke up lethargically to my alarm.  I wasn’t too amped up to surf this morning, for I knew it was going to be flat.  Just how flat?  Well, I’ll take another fifteen rides in the washing machine for some waves like last week.  Nevertheless, I pulled myself out of bed and did my morning routine of stretching and filling up water jugs.  However, I did eat a small bowl of cereal with almond milk for breakfast before departing.

My gear was all packed and ready to go.  Now, I gotta get Dais, I thought.  I made my way over to his house and he came out on a dime.  We packed all his stuff and headed off to 26^th Street.

Good ol’ 26^th Street.  The metered parking was empty, but there were no free parking spaces available for us.  So, we went to 15^th Street to park at the City Hall, which is closed tomorrow for some 9/11 celebration, just FYI.  We got changed, rode the carver around to warm up our legs, and then took off on the skateboards to the Strand.

The gloomy atmosphere painted a mellow morning beach scenery, with wet sand and pavement as the frame.  The horizon seemed endless in the grey abyss, and the water just slightly glued to the bottom of it drew dark blue lines rhythmically marching in against the clouds movement.  A small wave trickles down and crashes on a mushy sand bar, and dissipates before even breaking.  Then, the wave swallowed all of the brown sand and dumped right onto shore.

Matt was already in the water by the time we got to 26^th Street.  Dais and I rode by the parking lot, saw his car, said hi to Bruce and the locals, and made our way back on to the Strand.  We stretched in front of the lifeguard tower and Dais pointed out Matt south of us. 

The water was goo like and seemed to just fuse with you once you stepped in.  It felt like the water was melting away when your body entered.  I couldn’t wait to duck dive!  It just felt so nice and refreshing, like I’ve been cleansed of all my work week stress and worries and studies and what have you.  Once I duck dived, I could see the bottom of the sand bar, and at least ten feet ahead of me.  The water today was just amazing.

The paddle out wasn’t strenuous at all.  What a difference a week makes.  It took me twenty minutes last Sunday to paddle out, and today, I could have walked out to the line up. 

“Ey Mate,” a broken Austrailian accent voiced.

“Ey Mate,” I replied back, in my best Julian Wilson impression.

Matt!  Haven’t seen this ninja in a while.  We exchange our hello’s and shoot the shit.  Dais joins us soon thereafter. 

Rick paddles for a left.  He was on his grey fish, and caught the wave in the perfect spot.  He pumped down the line, carving some S turns out, and took the wave far, far into shore.  He came out with a wide grin on his face.  However, he and his WHC took off, since the window had closed and the waves were mushing out.  

Dais catches the first wave once we three stooges joined powers.  It was a right where he was popped up on, and he took a right that allowed for a short ride.  The wave just bogged out, giving him no where to go after the initial ride, and so he fell out the back and returned paddling. 

Matt was taking it easy today.  It was nice to see him take it easy for a change.  I’m sure his shoulder isn’t 100% yet, but it’s good enough to surf.  He seemed to have adjusted accordingly, and wasn’t really muscling into every single wave that came his way.  Instead, he hit the cruise control button and seemed very relaxed in the line up, moving with the mellow sways of the Ocean.

I think Dais caught three waves before I caught any sort of a wave.  He worked the inside that rolled through unexpectedly, while I just bobbed up and down.

When I duck dived to look into the Ocean, I could hear feint clicking and high pitched sounds.  They were familiar sounds of dolphins talking, and so I hoped to see a dolphin or two today.  No luck though.

The water was just so amazing.  I felt so good in the warm water today.  Yes, the 4/3 was an overkill for protection from the cold, but the water was still really breathtaking.  The water was infused with serotonin, for I felt so happy to be in the water.

I paddled for a left and hooted someone off.  It was pretty clear that there was no where to go, but I still had to have him acknowledge that THAT WAVE WAS MY WAVE.  I popped up and the wave bogged out in seconds.  Not even five seconds.  But, I still hooted him off. 

He said to me, smiling, “Man, no rides today huh?”

“Yea, no power!” I said to him, smiling.  He never dropped in on me after that. 

Cheryl came out eventually, saying hi to all of us and we core group of DRC had the peak all to us.  Everyone had left already because they figured it wasn’t worth feeding the meter, and so only a handful of people were out in the water.  We hooted and pushed each other into waves, laughing and splashing around the Ocean.

Just then, water droplets started to fall.  Small, gray opals were falling from the sky, crashing on the surface of the Ocean, diving deeper and deeper, then reverting back up as if running away from the Ocean’s grasp, and quickly being dragged into the green abyss.  The green water twinkled with small bullets of water raining upwards, and although the rain drops were random, a symphony of water was playing.  Small innuendoes of droplets hitting the surface played with my ears, and I thought of that time on the North Shore when it started to rain.  I tried to add my own droplets by squirting and splashing in the air, but the beats and rhythm of Mother Nature proved much, much superior. 

“God damnit! This SUCKS!” a surfer screamed.  He was the loudest in the line up, both vocally and wetsuit wise, adorning a yellow and grey wetsuit.  He was very skilled, for I saw him do a small 360 on the face of the wave.  However, his skill didn’t take his happiness very far.  He took another close out wave, and screamed at his ghosts.  “GOD DAMNIT!!!”  he yelled again.  I thought to myself as I saw this unhappy surfer, “Would I feel the same way if I got as good as him, or even better than him?” 

No, I won’t let myself be that way.  I’ll never feel that way while surfing. 

GUY, ARE YOU KIDDING?  It’s so beautiful!!!  How could you not like the conditions right now, right at this moment??  I could see my feet in the clear water, and so I swung around for a close out wave.  There’s no way I’m NOT gonna surf this wave.  I took the close out, and I as I rode the white wash for as long as I could, I saw the forests of seaweed dancing and undulating under my board as I rode over it.  The lens was just so crystal clear, I felt like I was looking down at a sheet glass painting.

Matt and Cheryl were close by, and I asked Matt, “Is this how it was in Bali that day it rained??”

“Dude, I was just telling her about that!” he confirmed.  “Man, did the winds just… die?” 

Indeed, the winds died.  But then it picked up again.  Off shore.  What?  Yes, off-fucking-shore. 

Dais paddled back from his adventure south, and we shared stories of seeing the seaweed beds under our feet as we rode the waves.

“Man, that was so awesome,” Dais said.

Matt got some lefts and rights, but nothing spectacular.  He was pumping on a left but the wave bogged out so the board just shot out back over the wave.  On a few rights he was able to get on the wave, but there was no room to bottom turn for a mean crack off the lip, so his rides were ended prematurely.  However, he seemed stoked.  Everyone of our four man group was stoked. 

“KLAUDE!! OH MY GOD!!! OHHHH MAA GAAAAWD!!” he yelled as a left approached me.  I paddled for it.  I caught the wave.  I got to my feet… and I leaned too much on my toes and completely ate it.  In front of EVERYBODY!! SWEEEEET.  I had to laugh that one off.  If I don’t laugh at it, then I’m taking this surf thing way too seriously.  

“Matt! You made me all nervous yelling out ‘KLAUDE! OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GAAAWD!!’”

He laughed and said, “Sorry, I didn’t actually think you were gonna make that wave…hahahaha.”

We all chimed in on the laugh.  I’m still chuckling about it. 

Matt took a wave in and called it a day.  This is a newly reformed Matt, one who doesn’t push four hour sessions, back to back, on five hours of sleep and nineteen hours of studying and gaming.  He paced himself, got his share of waves, and politely bowed out at a good time when the window was almost completely shut closed. 

We saw Uncle Miles today, as we three waved hi to him, and he enthusiastically waved hi back.  He was on his longboard and catching all sorts of waves as always, taking them all the way into shore. 

I think Cheryl had performance anxiety.  She couldn’t really catch any waves while Matt, Dais, or I was in the water.  Even Dais and I would take waves that she paddled for and couldn’t get in.  The waves didn’t let her in? Rather, she didn’t allow herself to be let in.

“It’s not big enough,” Cheryl said.

“Man, I’m tired of girls telling me that!” Dais said. 

And the wave of my session rolled through.  I knew Cheryl had to be going for it, and that she would make it.  That’s why I was off to the races.  I gave myself enough room to pop up and pump down the line.  When I saw her board pick up speed, I popped up simultaneously, and started to run down the line.  I saw her board do a small jerk and I figured Cheryl was on the wave, right behind me.  I pump twice, and transfer my tail slides from the carver skateboard straight on to the wave.  My “gouge” was more like a needle prick, but I still felt my board hit the brakes and go back in the other direction.  However, the wave was bogged out as I did my needle prick of a top turn, and so I lost all speed.  I grabbed my rails and kept the board under me, so my board doesn’t shoot out whichever way I launch it.  I didn’t want to hurt anyone around me. 

I see Cheryl back in the line up, saying that I snaked her. 

“Yea, I snaked you, sorry, but it was such a nice wave!”

“Yea, I know it was a nice wave!! That’s why I wanted it!!”

I told her she should have kept on going, but she countered that I almost got hit by her board.

“No worries, that board was far away from me,” I told her.

To me, that was a small break through.  And in what kind of conditions did this break through happen?  In the smallest of waves, but in the most beautiful surroundings.  I was in a good mental state.

Dais and I shared a wave that came out of no where, and we had to get “another one.”  That last one was supposed to be our second “last one,” and so we were on #3 of the “last wave syndrome.” 

I took mine, and Dais got his, and we both watched Cheryl as we smiled at each other, stoked off the mornings session.  Dais whistles as I look up from getting my skateboard. 

“Cheryl!!!!!” he yelled.

She was up!!  And she took a small bogger pretty far, and she fell off the back as the wave lost all power.  As she was falling, she did a double fisted YES!!, clenching her hands tightly and smiling from ear to ear. 

But she wasn’t done just yet.  She took another similar wave and did another double fisted YES!!!

And a third one!! Another YES!! pose.  Wow.  Performance anxiety cured.  She had to be alone, surfing WITHOUT US!!  Damn she must hate us.  But don’t worry, we love you Cheryl, and we believe hate quickly turns into love. 

Dais and I skated back on the slippery pavement.  The water dripping from our legs helped our feet slip even more on the smooth Strand, and the water from the rain was still moistening the environment.

What a beautiful day.  I doubt that we are going to have a beautiful, tranquil day like that for a while.  I will cherish the things I saw and the sounds I heard and the feelings I had today forever.

And to think, it was just a small, crappy day at 26^th Street.  Go figure.

Mahalos Mother Ocean.