A Bromantic Saturday Part 1 - 110511

Surf Report:  2-4 foot faces

Water: Cold

Winds: off shore to heavy on shore

Atmosphere:  Sunny, but so friggin cold!!!

I took my CPA test’s Business Economics and Cycles (BEC) section on Tuesday, and my body completely broke down.  I lost my voice on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday I passed the days by like a skeleton trying to breathe.  My joints ached, and my whole upper body was struggling to relax after so much time and energy put into this one test, and my body just begged for me to take it easy. 

Friday night I get a call from Matt, saying that he wanted to go down south.  He wanted to score the secret spot where the run off isn’t so bad, and our back up would be San Onofre.  I obliged.  We would meet at 530 AM.

In the back of my mind, I hoped that I wouldn’t flake out because of my sickness.

I got up at 430 AM and did my light stretches.  I didn’t do my whole routine, for I didn’t want to be late and let Matt down.  He is a very punctual person, and I am very loose on time.  And since he is driving us down there, I don’t want to be “that guy” that makes people wait on a day full of anticipation. 

I dressed heavily to combat the cold, freezing morning.  It was 46 degrees when I woke up, and I dawned a sweatshirt, towel around my neck, a Down jacket, jeans, toe socks, and sandals.  I got to Matt’s house by 515 AM.

We cross loaded our cars, and we were on the road at 536 AM.  I was glad that I made it out, and didn’t flake out instead.  However, my shoulders and joints were still aching, and my body reverberated what my mother told me the night before:  “You’re still not 100%, it rained, there’s run off, it’s cold, and you STILL WANT TO GO SURF?”  No, I needed to go surf.

On the way over, we talk what’s been going on with our lives, and end up conversing on our favorite movies.  Matt wants me to watch Warriors, a film about a gang meeting gone wrong where the boss is ambushed, and the blame is put on a rival gang.  The rival gang has to travel through other gang related areas to get to their home turf and so it’s a fight for survival trying to get through each respective rival gang’s turf to finally arrive at their own turf.  Sounds like a lay day movie night for us! 

I made Matt turn away this spot

We get to our secret spot just north of San Diego and get out to howling off shore winds.  The parking lot was empty, and we could hear the white water explosions before arriving to the beach.  Three other surfers pulled up to check out the surf.  There was an eerie vibe to the place, as the waves churned and washed away in the shore pound.  There were nice four footers rolling through quickly, and then collapsing on itself to a white water wonderland.  There was one surfer out towards the jetty, but he couldn’t make it past the white water. 

Matt was stoked.

He wanted to surf here.

I did not.

I didn’t feel that my body was 100%, and that this spot was a place that required my 110%.  And even if I give my 110%, I doubted that I could get a ride beyond three seconds.  It was not what I came for. 

Matt didn’t feel that way. 

However, he turned and looked at me and said, “Look, last time I made the call to surf County Line, so you make the call this time.”

I told him, “Let’s go to 26^th Street then.”  Jokingly, of course.

We got back in the car and I could feel the disappointment looming over his head in the car.  His tone was that he wanted to test himself in those challenging waters.  To see if he could surf those fast waves.  I didn’t want to be surfing that spot, not that day, not in my condition. 

I held his hand out of consolation as we pulled out of the parking lot, telling him that we could surf there if he really wanted to, and he said it’s ok.  It broke his heart to leave the spot, but it’s ok, he’ll get over it. 

So, we headed to our “throw away” spot, San Onofre.

Our "Throw Away" Spot

We pull up quietly to a parking spot right in front of Churches, and see firing peaks.  The winds were still off shore, and the line up was pretty thin.  Maybe a good twenty or thirty surfers on the peak.  To me, it wasn’t that crowded. 

And the peaks just rolled, and rolled, and rolled.  People were getting long rides and a couple of turns on their rides.  This is where I wanted to be.

Getting changed was a challenge, for the air temperature was still in the mid 50’s.  The sun shined brightly through the cloudless sky, but there was no warmth in the day yet.  It was just so cold! 

Once we hit the water, I realized that there was a lot of water moving around.  Matt was about twenty yards ahead of me when he stopped paddling and sat on the shoulder.  I for one kept paddling and paddling to the main peak, where the main pack was. 

I saw this one longboard girl on a nice yellow longboard drop down and slide all the way towards me.  I hooted her, and duck dived out of her way.  The water felt comparatively warm to the concrete, the sand, and the wind.  I was back on my ALOHA board that buckled and was professionally repaired by our one and only Rick who used some secret aviation fiber glass to repair the board. 

My second wave was the stand out wave of the day for the morning session.  I was able to paddle in to a wave that just happened to come right at me.  No one was in position on the outside, and no one next to me even saw it coming.  By the time I was paddling for it, everyone had gone over the wave and I just had the whole canvas to myself.  I popped up, got to my feet, and just took off.  I made a deep bottom turn, as I do on my skateboard, and carved off the top of the wave.  I dropped down on the green canvas, redirected my paintbrush back up with another deep bottom turn and carved off the top again.  I couldn’t believe it.  I went for another stroke of a bottom turn and an off the top, but the wave seemed to have lost power, or I was probably way too ahead of the wave by this time, and I bogged out on the third top turn. 

Did anyone see that?  Nope.

I paddled and paddled and paddled.

The water churned and churned and churned.

My heart pumped and heaved and breathed.

My body ached.

I couldn’t spot Matt, but I knew he was still in the water.  So I kept going about my business trying to pick off the in-betweeners that the longboarders on the outside didn’t take and the shortboarders missed.  The whole time, Bruddah Iz’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World was playing in my mind.  My sinuses cleared up, and my throat felt that it was 100%.  Of course, I knew I wasn’t 100%, and that I was probably making it worse on myself by surfing, but heck, I need to surf. 

I almost get run over by a longboard dude as I hoot him in a wave.  Granted, I was in control of the whole situation, that guy had a sinister look on his smirk as he flew down the high line.  I had to duck dive with my fingers still in shaka’s to avoid any collision. 

The tide was falling when we got there, but it sure felt like the tide was still rising.  We didn’t see any of the rocks on the paddle out.  And the paddle out itself was very easy with no rocks to step on.  The water was just moving around weird.  A surfer next to me, Garret, and I commented on it.  He didn’t like what was going on really, and said, “If only these were going left!”

I’m sure Matt felt the same way. 

Matt switched boards from his DMS to the JS.  I finally saw him in the line up, and he swore he almost ran me over a few waves ago, and that he was positive we made eye contact.  I didn’t recall such actions.  Haha

On one wave, he took this right, and threw the tail out so hard that he came unstuck.  It created buckets of spray, so I was super stoked to see that.  He wasn’t looking too happy about it.  I was probably more happy about that wave than he was. 

I also snaked him on a right.  The crazy thing was, when I snaked him, I got to my feet and stayed close to the curl.  I knew Matt was right behind me, but I still took the wave… because it was a right.  However, I felt my fins just slide out and my tail lose traction on the wave.  I ate it on the most critical part of the wave.  The white water foam dragged me across the surface of the wave.  I could see the light of the sun piercing the white water, but the foam wasn’t letting me go.  I told myself to just relax, hold your breath, and everything will be alright.  The wave eventually let me go after a few yards, and I was back up on the surface.  Not too shabby for a week where I missed both yoga and swimming during the week.

One of my last waves was where I got snaked by a chick and another guy.  I actually couldn’t pop up because they were in my way, and ate it at the bottom.  This wipe out was so fast as I hit the trough of the wave head first that my velcro latch on my wetsuit got torn off and water gushed into my wetsuit. 

That was my queue to go back in.  My arms were super tired, the waves were getting bumpy and the winds switched to on shore.  The crowd was starting to fill up to capacity at Churches, and I didn’t want anymore waves.  This was the extent of my stamina for the morning. 

Cheese, Chicken and Avocado Quesadilla

Matt came out shortly after, and told me how he saw me eat it on the last one.  We laughed about it, and we got changed.  It wasn’t an overall “score” for the morning, but I was super stoked to get that one wave in the beginning and get two solid top turns. 

Turkey Sandwich with Avocado

We drove down to Pipes café on the fabled Christianitos drive, and filled up on some fuel.  The food was ok, nothing worth to go posting rave reviews about on yelp, but the ambiance and the waitresses made the place glow.  The service was excellent, and the girls were cute with a warm, heart-felt smile on their faces every time you looked at them.  On top of that, Innersections was playing the whole time.  How can you beat that?