KK's Surf Kronicles: Just Because You Want It To Be Summer, Doesn't Mean That It Iz Summer 062913

Surf Report: 2-3 feet

Water: Freezing

Winds: Marginal

Atmosphere: Marine Layer GLOOM! WTF Sun?? I thought we were friends

First day back from injury… For those of you who don’t know, I got injured June 8^th, 2013. Prior to that date, I was surfing almost every day, sometimes even twice a day, and that day was a huge SW swell that came in. I was surfing for about 6 hours – first at Zero’s and then at Topanga, and on my last wave, I paddled outwards with my right hand instead of downwards and I felt my shoulder pop out. This was a direct repercussion of surfing for 6 hours and exhausting myself. I didn’t listen to my body at all. I just remember the Village People’s “Live for Today” song came up on my tracklist as I drove down the PCH and saw Topanga breaking perfect rights, and I had to surf it.

Well, I paid for being so ambitiously dumb. But I was thankful that I got injured while surfing instead of some other dumb accident, which, if you know me, I’m pretty good at getting into dumb accidents and injuring myself.

For the last three weeks, I’ve been rehabbing my shoulder by doing rubber band exercises, yoga, swimming lightly, and getting my friend Dais to massage it (he is an excellent masseuse and does house calls!) so I felt good getting back into the water.

Unfortunately, no one told me that the water was freezing cold. There was a marine layer and so I couldn’t see the waves, but I could hear them break. I called Matt – he was at El Porto finding free parking on Rosecrance Avenue, and would meet me in the water.

Jimbo, a bald surfer who is loud and plays hockey, was the only other guy with boardshorts on as we paddled out to the line up. Immediately I knew that wearing boardshorts was a bad idea, since the water hit me like an upper cut.

I paddled out to a lot of familiar faces. “Klaude! Good to see you!” said Ray, the guy riding the yellow longboard with red rails. Mr. Mike was out, so were Orlando aka Rastamon, Toru, Roxanne, Kim, and the rest of the 26^th Street Ohana. It was good to be back in the water… but FUCK!!! IT’S SO FRIGGIN COLD!!!!!!

I caught some really nice waves early in the session, going right on most of the waves. Roy told me that I should draw out my pumps longer and higher on the wave, so I’ve been consciously trying that instead of ripping a bottom turn and hitting the lip. “You look like you’re forcing turns too much. No style. Draw out the carves longer, and then worry about turns,” he told me when I was surfing every day. “Let the board do all the work.”

After the first forty-five minutes, I was hitting the wall. There wasn’t any pain paddling or popping up, but it was just cold. I couldn’t believe how cold it was. I was paddling constantly trying to find warm spots in the water. when I would find a warm spot, I would sit there and just wait. I would hoot people into waves, and wouldn’t take any for myself.

Finally, I see Tom Yam, and we greet each other. I give him my injury update and I watch him surf some nice lefts. He caught this one left that he took off behind the peak. I hooted for him so a guy on the shoulder would back off. Then, Tom put the afterburners on and just flew down the line. He had so much speed his eye lids were getting peeled back from his skull. He tried to pull in to the barrel but got smashed.

And then, I see Bri! And of course, Matt! It was great to see them in the water. I’ve seen them out of the water, but it’s different for us to see each other on land than it is in water. Both instances of seeing each other on land and water are great, but seeing them in the water is way better. We greet each other, and Matt is wearing boardshorts too. Hahaha! We are both the dumbasses who wore boardshorts in the line up. HUZZAH!

I tell Matt that I probably can’t stay long, because it’s so cold. He sounds disappointed, but he understands. Plus, it’s my first day back in the water from injury, so wearing boardshorts was actually a blessing in disguise. I only lasted about an hour and a half in the water, and most of the time I was just paddling to stay warm.

I get out of the water after getting a close out and look back at the hazy Ocean. The marine layer is still lingering, and the sun is trying to shine through… but just can’t. But the atmosphere outside of the water is warm… too warm. So weird.

I chill in the parking lot for a while playing my ukulele. I need to get it re-strung, so I play it like there is no tomorrow. CC stops by and we chat for a while, and then I give her my parking space.

Juicy Shrimp with Pork Dumpling

I had lunch with my friend Jian at Din Tai Fung that day, all the way in Arcadia. Yea, I drove from the cool coast to the hot ass valley for dumplings. These dumplings are special. They coagulate the pork broth and wrap them in dumplings, and then they steam them up so that when you bite into it, the pork broth gushes out like a ten inch black cock orgasming. Soooo good!!