Dawn Patrol Diamantes 040712

Surf Report: 2-3 feet, with the occasional 4 footer

Water: Freezing cold

Winds: light, then off shore

Atmosphere: Sunny (precursor to summer)

I woke up from multiple bad dreams during the night.  On top of not being able to sleep despite going to bed early, I wake up from multiple bad dreams, hitting me like marbles dropping from a table top.  Adding insult to injury, there is this bird that comes back every spring around our house and has this loud ass chirp.  It’s not your average chirp.  This thing echoes around our complex.  I want to shoot it down as I try to close my eyes at 400 AM.  But, I try to appreciate the calls of nature. 

Fuck that.

I closed my eyes for another one and a half hours, listening to that damn bird.  He continuously chirps and cries.  I give up on sleep and I start my yoga exercises at 530 and he’s still fucking chirping.  He doesn’t stop at all.  I leave my house around 600 AM.

I give Nicky a call since he is back in town and said he will be up to surf.  He moved back from Valencia for the summer and is holding down a job while commuting from his parent’s house in Mar Vista.  I call him twice, but no answer.  I could go by his house like I used to… but he’s a grown adult now, and if you snooze, you lose.  I opt to go straight to the beach. 

I’m getting on to the El Segundo freeway when I get a call from Nicky.

“Awwww shit, I fucked up huh?” he said.

“Yea, you did!  I’m already getting off El Segundo bro,” I tell him.

I tell him to text Dais since Dais was heading out later in the day. 

I get to an empty parking lot of 26^th Street.  I see the usual dedicated locals, including Ross, getting changed.  I don’t see Roy’s car, so I figure he’s surfing somewhere better.

I grab my fish, and head down the hill.  But then I see free parking down the hill!  I gotta grab it.  This is my first Saturday off in a long time, and I should take advantage of a free parking space.  It seems no one wants to go surfing today.  The line up is empty, the parking lot is empty, and the waves are small.

So I move my car, lock up, and head down to the beach.  The waves look really clean, and they aren’t as mushy as I expected.  As I stretch, there is a wave that is a “spitter.”  The wave is slightly hollow, but breaks so clean that it spews a bit of spit when it climaxes.  Kind of like a girl who squirts.  My favorite kind.  I suppose they were remnants from the swell yesterday and the day before.  I paddle out without getting my hair wet, so I duck dive on purpose to get my body covered in the Ocean’s glistening juices. 

Then, I get an instant ice cream headache.  What the fuck??

It’s so cold, I can’t believe it.  My legs and hands are starting to freeze over.  Luckily, the sun is starting to shine, so that helps with coping with the cold. 

First wave, and I knew I was in for a treat today.  My fish, Mary Jane, just flies down the line, and the sections get hollow from the take off.  There are the local guys and some longboarders north of me working this right.  I stay away from them so I can get my share, but their peak is cranking out waves like a machine. 

I take a belly ride barrel on a left.  I didn’t really think popping up was necessarily the best thing to do on such a small wave.  I love seeing that lip just start to feather while looking up and curl over you.  Of course, the thing just clamps shut on me and I feel my board slip from under my belly. 

Time to change boards! 

I see Lori stretching on the sand, and she asks how it was.  I tell her it’s good, but I want to switch boards.  Yes, MJ was working for me, but I felt that I needed to ride my other board. 

Enter board #2.  I haven’t given her a name yet though…

Lori is hanging with this other local guy who takes three waves in a row.  I kinda stink eye him as I smile, so he probably thinks I’m a bit weird.  I was stoked for him, but man, will it kill you to let some of the waves go?  Really.  Let some of them go.  He even took off on a left that I was going on!  He didn’t snake me since I was not able to make the section, but still… I had to show this guy what’s up. 

A set breaks out far on the horizon.  So, he takes the first wave of the set, and the first wave runs out ahead of him.  The second wave is coming, and I take it.  I pop up right in front of him but get down the line to avoid any collisions.  That broke the ice between him and me, and he gave me my space and didn’t go for everything while he was around me. 

Orlando, aka Rastamon, paddled by us to the main peak to the north of us.  I can see that peak was still cranking out lots of rides, but the right seemed to just mush out, and didn’t offer much of a ride after the first few pumps.  So I stayed where I was.  I could see Ross over there with another long haired dude that I assumed was Randy. 

A few minutes pass by as my fingers grew cold.  I had to slap them together to wake them up and loosen up the cramp in my fingers.  I had enough of sitting around, so I started to go for some lefts.  The lefts today were actually better.  They walled up nicely that allowed for a turn or two, if you had the ability.  I miss-timed my turn and got smacked by the lip as I climbed up the face.  Definitely still a lot for me to learn. 

Then I see Roy.  He takes a long ride down a left, and calls me out.

“Klaude!!  I’ve been calling you to come over here for the longest time!!  I thought you were pissed or something!”

“Oh, no way?  Man, you know I’m legally blind in the water right?  I didn’t even know you were here.  What car are you driving?”

“Oh the Chevy Trailblazer.  You know me, I’m changing cars like underwear,” he tells me.

He tells me that he’s been scoring the left here for the last two days, and that it’s still cranking out lefts.  He even got an in and out barrel yesterday, and that he was so stoked about it.  The size has dropped off since yesterday, but the left is still going on.  Just no one wants to drop in on the left for some reason. 

As a matter of fact, everyone was going for the right.  The left offered up more of a face for carves or maneuvers, but for some reason people went to the mushy right.  Even I went for the mushy rights.

For the next thirty or forty five minutes, I just had a wave buffet with Roy.  I went right, he went left.  He went left, I went left.  He was always sitting in the right place, and I sat next to him, while the other guys sat on our inside, or wider.  He would hoot me into waves, and I would hoot him on his long rides to shore.  Within that short span of time, we caught our fair share of waves for the day. 

Uncle Miles showed up and took some long rides to shore, as he always does. 

“Yo Roy, let’s go get some Pho,” I tell him.

“OoooOOooo, Pho… if we leave now, I can,” he replies.

“Ok, let’s take one in then.”

So, despite having the day off from work, and scoring free parking, I leave at 900 AM.  I guess I was still tired from the lack of sleep.  But, I was more than content with what I got. 

The only bummer was that no one showed up!!  Fransauce was up north, surfing back home.  Nicky was snoozing and missed out.  Cheryl looked at the cams and decided not to paddle out.  Dais actually did the same, looked at the cameras.  Matt was… I don’t know.  He concerns me the most.  I guess I worry too much sometimes?  When I called him this morning, he said, “I surfed yesterday.”  I wanted to yell at him, “That was YESTERDAY!  What about today?  Didn’t that guy from your surf club from school say those exact words to you, and didn’t we clown on him about that?”  but I refrained.  But I’m saying it now, here, on this blog, so I guess this is still kind of a fucked up way to push his buttons?  I don’t know.  He sounded very down and not stoked about surfing when I called him in the morning.  He is going through a tough time in his life, and I want to be there for him.

In conclusion, the cams didn’t show the wave quality, but that’s why I don’t check cams anymore.  Waves look better in real life.  They look way better in real life than in HD, that’s for sure.  Yea, I’ve gotten skunked, but hey, that’s just what surfers have to deal with.  If you don’t go, you’ll never know, right?  What’s the fun in knowing what you’re getting ahead of time?  No one wants to open a Christmas present they already know what is inside. 

Mahalos Mother Ocean.  You always give me something to venture and look forward to.  The journey is more fun than the destination, and today was no exception.  Those waves were a small gem that you gave me as a reward for dawn patrolling.  So, Mahalos!!!