Surf Report: 3-5 feet
Water: Cold
Winds: Off shore
Atmosphere: Grey and foggy
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today was CROWDED. It was
foggy. It was frustrating. And I’m glad everyone came out that
could.
A small disclosure:
Matt was going to HB this day with his brother Randy. I told Matt to come down to 26th
Street instead, but he had to concede to his brother. After all, Randy was in town from half way
around the world.
My dad came out to photograph today. He hurt his back a few Saturdays ago, and so
I cooked pasta for dinner. It was so
good, he wanted seconds, but he couldn’t get up from the floor. So, I said I’ll get him another plate, but
only if he came out to photograph my friends and me. He obliged, and I got him his second serving
of pasta.
The dawn patrol crew was out, and the parking lot was
getting full already. Khang’s car was
already parked and Hideki was already in the water too. Chris and Sunny were in the lot, waiting for
their friend from work to come too. I
was expecting the crowds, since it was Thanksgiving, and there was swell. The first real swell of the winter! However the fog was so thick, it was hard to
see the line up, even from shore.
My dad set up his camera and I paddled out to my normal
spot. I actually was able to read the
channel perfectly and caught the rip going out.
It felt like a smooth conveyor belt and I was able to make it out to the
line up quite easily. I was on my single
fin, so the duck dives were a little tough because she is nearly 3 inches thick.
I spotted the regulars at 26th Street and wished
them all a Happy Thanksgiving. Khang and
Hideki were there, and so was Tom Yamamoto.
Chris and Sunny came out eventually too.
Today had waves of consequences. There were a lot of close outs, but there
were some shoulders to work with. The
only problem was that the real take off zone was right on the peak, which would
throw over. And then the shoulders would
build and be rideable.
Ross was absolutely killing it today. His back hand snaps were just flying every
which way, and he was riding every good wave that came through. He must have caught three waves in a span of
fifteen minutes, each with mean back side snaps to match.
Hideki caught two good lefts right off the bat. He took off on the shoulder for his first
wave and made it down the line. It was
probably the best wave I’ve ever seen him catch. He is improving really quick. The only bummer was that my dad didn’t catch
that ride of him.
Chris was getting a lot of rights and lefts. He seemed to get caught behind the section on
a few of them, but his backside is improving a lot. When I first met him, he was saying that he
“didn’t know how to go right.” I think
he was just lying to me so he could paddle under me and go right.
Sunny and I shared some waves. It’s a nice way to say he snaked me. Hahaha
Tom was actually doing really well in today’s
conditions. He was going both right and
left, and making it look easy from behind.
He would punch out the back if the waves got too crazy, or kick out
smoothly.
The rising tide made the waves harder to read as the time
ticked by.
Khang was going for the bombs as usual, but I felt that the
bombs were closed out. Well, he is sure
pushing the limits of the comfort zone. Some
of those waves were just plain scary for me.
I had a lot of take offs where the board just slid out as I
stood up. Maybe the fin should have been
placed back further. But I definitely
felt the board slide out on my take offs and I would just barely manage the
drop and eat it at the bottom. Even if I made the wave, I would have difficulty driving up the wave face with my single fin. I found myself growing frustrated with my equipment choice for the day.
I had a wipe out that was a session changer. I had the peak to myself, and I saw Hideki
paddling on the shoulder. I paddled for
the wave, and popped up. I felt the
board stall and slip from under me. The
wave lip threw over, and my body was free-falling in the air. My board flipped around and I landed on the
rail of my board on the way down. I hit
the part of my right shoulder blade that connects to my spine. Then, I got dragged down with the wave and
tumbled into a sea of darkness. I hit
bottom, and waited for the wave to let me go.
I came up in serious pain. I
grabbed my board, and started to paddle.
It was hard to lift my right arm up.
I paddled back out to the line up in pain. I could feel the shoulder stiffening up, so I
started to paddle around just to get the blood flowing. The first paddle with my right shoulder hurt,
but as I continued to paddle it hurt less.
I had to change board.
I couldn’t paddle into the waves with my single fin today. I grabbed my keys from my dad and headed to
change boards. I grabbed my 6’5” board
that Roy gave me last year.
The waves started to shut down. Christina showed up, and was taking her time
stretching on the sand. She was chatting
with my dad about her recent trip to Boston.
The waves slowed, but the consequences didn’t let up. The take off zone was still dangerous, and it
was getting even more hollow as the tide lowered.
Khang took this one wave while I was in the shore
pound. He took off, and the inside
section doubled up, and created a step.
He hopped off the chop and made it safely to the bottom of the
wave. If he hadn’t done that, he would
have eaten shit badly.
The lulls became long, and there seemed to be more and more
people out.
Khang paddled in, and I took my last wave. My last wave was the wave of the day. I paddled hard for it, popped up, and started
to pump. However, there was a bump on
the face that threw me off balance, and I had to catch myself from falling. By the time I was able to rebalance, the wave
was ending. Not only that, but there was
an insider that doubled up on me, and it created a step, just like Khang’s
wave. I bailed my board, and that was
the end of my session. I blew the wave
of the day.
Oh well, at least I could still lift up both my arms.
My dad and I got home, and I started to make the creamed
corn. He was looking at the photo’s he
took, and was grunting in distaste.
“This one’s blurry.
This one sucks. Where am I
pointing the lens? The lighting sucks on
this one,” he mumbled to himself.
“I’m coming out again this weekend,” he told me in the
kitchen, as he stirred the cream and milk.
“I’m not happy with the photo’s I took.”
Hell fucking yea! I
was glad he’s a perfectionist too. He
wants a quality output, and he wants to do it right. I said to come out Saturday, since that’s
when all of us should be out again.
We had a nice Thanksgiving feast that day. It was a lot of fun being with the
family. Everyone cooks a dish and brings
it to the house. Except my sister. She dropped the yams this morning, so my mom
had to buy it from Ralphs. I paced
myself eating the whole day, starting off with lots of veggies, then pigging
out on the delicious turkey, and finally moving to dessert. Then I had to go to my friend Sasha’s house
for another feast. His mom is an amazing
chef, and prepared everything from scratch, from the bread, to the cranberry
sauce, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she killed the turkey herself.
Mahalos Mother Ocean!! I am always so thankful that you are
there for us and never ask for anything in return. We can all learn from how much you give and
give and give. Thank you for being the
love of my life.
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