Welcome Home and Happy New Year 011412

Surf Report: Close out three footers

Water: Cold

Atmosphere: Cloudy

Winds: Off shore

Today was my official day back from my cold.  I fell ill on the 29^th of December, and wasn’t able to surf at all during the New Years.  In essence, I was and still am grateful I got sick, since I stayed home and studied my butt off for my Audit portion of the CPA exam, which was on January 9^th.  So, after finishing the exam, I finally was able to paddle out on Saturday.

The day started off slow as I woke up late.  I guess I wasn’t as stoked as I thought I would be to surf this morning.  I send out my texts saying that I’m late, and get my dad to come out and snap some photos of da boys surfing today.  He’s been cooped up in the house for weeks now, so it was a nice opportunity to get him out of the house and get some footage of da boys. 

Unfortunately, none of us delivered.

Except for Khang.

Fransauce was already out in the water by 700.  He had work at 1000, so he left shortly after we arrived. 

DK, Dais, and I were just buoys in the line up.  We didn’t really catch much.  If we did catch something, they were all walls and white wash.  I couldn’t find a shoulder for the life of me.  I took two close outs, and that was it for my day. 

The Ocean definitely slapped me around a few times today.  It was her way of saying “Welcome Home.”  I guess I like being roughed up here and there, but the wipe outs weren’t that horrible.  It was actually pretty soft.  The waves would gently roll over me as I tossed and turned, curled up in a ball. 

My paddle is definitely weaker, since I found myself digging for the horizon when a thick wall approaches while waiting on the inside.  Two weeks ago, I would be making it out of harms way, but today, every close out clipped me.  I even had to ditch my board a few times, curl up in a ball, brace the lip smack, get pitched over the falls, then plunged into the sandy bottom.  I was glad I still had my breathing calm and heart rate down.  I came up with a smile for every close out I took on the head.

Back to Khang:  He just delivered today.  Or was being reckless.   Definitely reckless.  He saw the close outs, but still went for them.  He was barrel hunting the whole session.  I’m sure some of those wipe outs hurt, since he would get pummeled and clipped and thrashed around on every wave.  But he still kept charging.  I had front row seats for a left he dropped in to.  Well, it wasn’t a left, but he was going left.  It was just a fat close out, but he grabbed his rail and stuck the drop.  I think he started to slide out at the bottom because his body was hugging the face, and then the lip just crushed him into oblivion.  He dusted himself off and went straight back out to the line up, waiting for the next big wave. 

My dad later told me that Khang was the only one that he could use for photo opps, and the rest (namely Dais, DK, and myself) were kasu (trash in Japanese) with a laugh.  Indeed, we three didn’t do anything it seemed like.  Khang delivers the goods!!

Mahalos Mother Ocean.  Your benevolent ways of welcoming me back home will always be appreciated.