Surgical Strike - Morning at Trestles 030213

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Surf Report: 2-4 foot with the occasional 5

Water: Cold

Atmosphere: Sunny!

Winds: Off shore

If you haven’t heard yet, I didn’t pass my CPA exam on Audit that I took at the end of January.  I found out Monday morning and I felt pretty devastated.  I received a 72, and I needed a 75 to pass.  The test is based on a nation-wide curve, so I was right under the curve of “pass.”  Basically, it was a “Fuck You” from the CPA profession.  When I checked my score that morning, I saw a “NO CREDIT” on my summary, and saw my score after clicking the link.  I was upset.  I sat on my floor, Indian style, and closed my eyes… I thought about what I just saw, and comprehended that I haven’t passed yet.  I’m not gonna lie, my closed eyes were getting ready to gush some waterworks.  I was upset for a bit, closing my eyes, imagining all the things I had wanted to do when I passed, such as texting my friends that I finally did it, telling my parents I’ve achieved my goal (for the time being), or hugging my boss and telling him “Thank you” a million times and telling him that I passed, and then I let it go.  I had to get over it.  I’m not going to have that same reaction I did last time in November.  I had to dress right to make me feel better.  I wore one of my favorite blue pin stripe shirts with the white collars and my favorite blue tie that I bought in Venezia, Italy.  I always believe that if you look good, you feel good.

When I told my boss that I didn’t pass, he told me to not worry about it for a week.  Just focus on working, relaxing, and enjoying myself.  After one week, I should start studying hardcore again.  It was just three fucking points after all.  I’ll pass next time.  Half an hour later, he calls me into his office and tells me that I should research more classes I could take, more study material I could utilize, and contacting more people in order to pass.

“Start looking for them NOW,” he said.

“Wait, didn’t you just say to take a week off?” I thought in my head.  I know why he was saying two different things to me; he just wanted me to pass.  He just wants me to be a friggin CPA.  So I nodded and said, “Yes, I’ll do that.”

I didn’t feel any worse than I did that morning when I closed my eyes and meditated.  I was glad that was the “low” point for this test.  As always, I had my close friends and family send me texts or calls for support, saying that I’ll get it next time and other positive messages.  The upset feeling wasn’t so bad!  Seriously, I felt like last time’s pain was much worse than what I experienced that morning.  I was upset, and then I wasn’t.  Plain and simple. 

Matt, aka Donny Duckbutter, posts on our facebook page that he’s organizing a surgical strike to Trestles.  It’s our first trip to Trestles in 2013.  I personally haven’t gone to Trestles since 2011.  Hard to believe… the crown jewel of Southern California, and I haven’t been back in over a year. 

At the time Matt posted this on facebook, I had been working 55+ hours per week, and I already hit my quota for the week before Wednesday.  My head was spinning with everything, and at first I thought I shouldn’t go.  No, I shouldn’t go since I need to work.  But then I thought, no, I should just go… at least for the morning.  Maybe you can drive yourself in the morning and head back so you can work in the afternoon.  No, you should head over Friday night, so you can surf early in the morning and then head to work.  Yea, that’s kinda tough, but I’ll do that…

So, I RSVP’d saying that I will head out.  No MAYBE’s, just a firm YES, I WILL FUCKING BE THERE.  I needed to get away for a bit. 

Then, Dais messaged me that Khang and him were getting off work around 10 PM, so they can swoop me up after work and we could head out straight from my house.  I told him I was planning on driving out by myself, and he simply replied, “Why?” 

So I asked myself, yes, why?  Why drive by yourself, and head back to LA yourself?  What is the fucking rush?  Why can’t you wait thirty minutes for them to get off work, and then head out with them?  You know what, just don’t go to work.  That way, you don’t have to go back to LA so early.  Just unplug yourself, and GO FOR IT.  And so I took their carpool. 

Friday night, we stop by Little Saigon and eat some bomb ass Pork Chops with steamed rice and pickles with fish sauce.  Fuck, it must have been one of the best pork chops I’ve had.  On top of that, they had a cup of Pho broth on the side, and that tasted amazing too.  If the Pho broth itself is amazing, that means the Pho must be fucking astronomically amazing. 

After filling up on that, we kept driving down South.  Khang didn’t have his license because he lost his wallet, had me drive into Camp Pendleton.  I, being the genius, drove to the stop sign, and asked, “Straight?”

“Uhh, yea, straight,” said Khang.  And by straight, he meant straight to the left.

I went straight, and went right back onto the 5 freeway. 

After a good 15 minute drive on the 5-freeway-which-has-no-exits, we made a U-Turn, and headed back to base.  Finally, at 1:00 AM, we were at the campsite.  We slept in the van, in anticipation of the next day.  It took me until 2:00 AM to fall asleep, but alas, we were camping.  I just wish I had brought a blanket. 

6:00 AM, I was wide awake. The sun was up and it was cold on my face.  I saw Matt scurry around our van, and I tapped the window for him to open the door (Khang’s sliding doors don’t open from the inside.)  I greeted Matt with a hug and greeted Rick also.  Jimmy B was on deck for this surgical strike too, and Hideki was still knocked out in his car. 

The morning seemed to pass slowly, but perhaps it was because I was taking in everything moment by moment.  Rick would take the pot of boiled eggs off the burner and put on a teapot.  Matt was light on his feet opening bags of food and fresh fruits and preparing hot water for us.  We slowly got assimilated around the camp site, watching more and more people fill into the parking lot and walk off to Trestles and Old Man’s. 

Rick and Jimmy B would opt to surf a secret spot further south, but we six, Matt, Brianna, Dais, Hideki, Khang, and I, stayed here.  The waves looked good from where we were, and we definitely knew that it would be good here no matter what.  The only factor: Crowds

"Dude, I think we're gonna have one of those sessions," I told Matt.  I didn't want to psyche us out, but I felt that it was going to be a classic Trestles day.  The kind of day you write home to your parents, saying how you scored, and boast to all your peers on what great waves you had, and how you spend the whole day at the beach because it's just that good.  

We all walked down to Middles near Battle Positions.  It didn’t seem like it was breaking towards BP’s but where we were near the Mons Pubis, it seemed like there were waves coming through, and there wasn’t a surfer in the area.  There were surfers south of us, but they were working a left that filtered through that spot.  We all stretched, some more than others, and hit the water. 

I think Matt drew first blood this morning session.  However, the waves were working so well at our spot that soon, everyone had a wave under their belt. 

Brianna caught two good rights (I think.)  One was easily four foot on the face, and she was in perfect position.  There was a guy on her inside, but he backed out for her.  I was on the outside of him, and I backed out too.  Brianna took off in all our envy as I hooted.  She probably had a good ride on the face, trimming down the line.  I couldn’t watch since there was another set wave on the horizon.

Some of these sets were just massive close outs.  There was no where to go but straight down if you were to ride them.  These sets would clear up the line up from time to time.

We must have sold the spot since more people started to paddle out where we were.  At first, I was like, “Oh, ok coo, just one other dude.” But that quickly changed when there were ten other dudes. 

Hideki got a left where he took off on the inside where the wave became steep, and made it to the face.  He took too much of a high line and accidently kicked out though.  He said he was bottom turning and then just lost all his speed at the top. 

Khang was killing it on the lefts!  His backside definitely has more oomph on the turns.  I remember seeing a wave from the inside where he got a solid turn off, then went down the line.  On another left, Dais and I saw him pump down the line, then initiate his cut back from behind, complete it, then pump down the line and bank off the close out section.  We both threw him double shaka’s and splashed the water to show him how much spray we saw. 

Seeing Dais at this spot is surreal.  I’ve had all of my best sessions at Trestles with Dais and Matt.  So, to see him surfing here and see his evolution makes me speechless.  But hey, I’m a blogger, so let’s put it in words!  Dais stuck to his guns, playing the inside game.  I remember seeing this one right where he just casually paddled into it, popped up, and took off down the face.  I could see him go up and down the face from behind.  I was just like WHOA, and had to laugh.  He’s improved so much so quickly, it’s kinda scary. 

Dais took off on a close out wave with me, and we got pretty close.  It was a near collision, but Dais stayed cool, calm, and collected, and steered his board away in the white water.  If this was a year ago, he would have panicked, fell off his board, and I would have to either dodge his board with Ninja awesomeness or catch his board with even greater Ninja awesomeness.  But he didn’t, and that was impressive to me.

Matt was the heat winner today.  From the get go, he was just unleashing his Motor Boat Too on these waves.  As Dais put it, “Matt really upped his game on that board.”  He had a lot of stand out waves for the day, going front side and backside, but to me the best wave he had was mid-way through our session.  He caught this one left behind the peak and started pumping on the wave.  He made two guys back out, and climbed the face for a quick check turn.  Then he pumped further down, and then fucking unleashed a nasty roundhouse cutback on his front side.  Then he just kept pumping down the line until the wave closed out. 

I remember a gnarly outside set peaking its ugly head out of no where approaching us.  Bri and I were on the outside, but we were in trouble nevertheless.  I saw Bri go over the first wave, and I had to duck dive.  Then, I saw a second set, and Bri was in bad position.  If she was able to duck dive her tanker, she would have been ok, but that board is too thick.  I hoped that she would just make it over, but she didn’t.  I was right behind her, so I took an early duck dive.  She started about ten yards ahead of me, but ended up fifteen yards behind me.  She said she passed over me and got dragged in the white water. 

There was a longboarder taking off on a set that swung wide of Lowers and was tearing it apart.  But, there was also another dude in front of him who snaked who was tearing it up too.  They were both pumping up and down continuously, synchronizing, doing pumps and carves like a DNA double helix.  Finally, the guy who got snaked got off towards shore, and the snake got off eventually.  I thought they were both friends, but they weren’t.  The guy who got snaked waited for the other surfer to paddle back, and I pointed him to get out of the water. 

“Hey, it’s 9:08, and I think I’m gonna head out at 9:30.  But you guys take your time,” Matt said.

What, already?  I can’t believe it’s been two hours surfing already.  I felt like the time just flew by.  I was in the moment so much that I lost track of time.  There were a lot of waves I caught despite the crowds, and so I didn’t mind getting out at this time.  On top of that, I felt my legs starting to cramp up.  Ok, next wave I see, I’m GOING FOR IT, and I’m gonna put everything I have in it.  All my energy is going to this one last wave. 

I see a set swinging wide right, and there are two guys going for it.  One is way behind the peak, and the second guy is sorta behind the peak.  But I wasn’t going to just let his opportunity.  Dais was next to me, but he backed out as I popped up. I pumped and carved, and did a small check turn.  I kept pumping and finished with a semi-hack off the top, and stuck the maneuver on the white water.  I hopped off and felt my shin muscle on my left leg cramp up. Well, what a great way to get out.

I left the water and stretched on the sand.  Hideki rode in and we talked over the morning on how fun it was.  Matt was south of us and watched Khang and Dais ride in eventually.  We all congregated together, giving props to Matt for his heat-winning day.  That second turn on that wave!! So sick. 

We took a hot shower with a cold beer in hand and just chilled out for the morning. 

Mahalos Mother Ocean!!!  Can’t wait to write part two of this…