Arrived in the lineup at 4:49 with surf that doubled in size over night, glassy, solid six foot new groundswell. The rip was running through the lineup like a river and it was a constant paddle battle, couldn’t sit for more than three or five minutes, which spread out the lineup pretty well because most people weren’t fighting it except the locs. It was frustrating because constantly paddling made it hard to set up, and everyone was catching waves “on the move” basically paddling around and lucking into position to take off. It was tiring – only have about 45 minutes to get a couple of rides before dark. Got really frustrated with the paddling and the rip, and thought it almost wasn’t worth it. Then the coolest thing happened at the end of the session. The sun set and I still hadn’t lucked into one and I was like, “I’m going to get skunked out here, but I’m not going to let that happen.” Finally I got a wave because just about everyone left due to impending darkness and the rip. A set wave just came right at me and I nabbed it. Rode it all the way inside and while I was riding at the end I was like, “Dude, maybe you should just cut your losses and go in.” Then the wave ended and I said to myself, “Nah, I can’t get just one, that’s embarrassing.” So I paddled back out and it’s really starting to get dark. Almost paddling out sideways and to the south because of the rip. Right as I’m arriving back outside I see two guys battling the rip about 30 feet away, and this big dark lump passes right under them. I eyeballed it, never having stopped paddling, saw that it was a really good wave, dug a hand in and turned around 180 degrees and took off on it instantly in a favorite “turn and burn” move. It was a great “dark” drop, lined up perfectly through the rip, and dropped me about three quarters of the way to the beach, so at that time I said, “That’s good for me” and rock danced to the stairs and a rinse at the shower. No camera, no time to deal with that. Looked at my watch in the shower and it was 5:49 – two waves in an hour isn’t great, but the interesting part was that the two waves I did get both were in the 10 minutes of the session. I thought I was in danger of getting skunked!
- Cliff