Surfing the same reef has gotten…boring. Plus the visual from the beach of it was…boring. So today was adventure day and I headed south to surf different places. Paddled out in a different channel to a different crowd (of maybe 10) to a different wave. Felt really strong after literally surfing for an entire month straight., or so it feels like. It has started to remind me of the same period last year, where it was more like surf for three months straight. Several other people who were a part of that 2009/2010 season also have mentioned this, and have also taken a day off here and there like me. Today I got a bad case of wanderlust and ventured far from home, catching different rights and lefts at two different reefs over a three hour period.
Actually, it was three reefs because when I was done I ended up paddling over to the “boring reef” to catch one last ride in. The other fun part is this mix of boards I’ve been riding – I’ve used virtually every “go to” board in my quiver and in the last week alone I’ve pulled out the 8-6, 7-11 and two different 7-2s. With a little hesitation I took out Gobstopper today because last night I didn’t like how it performed, or surmised maybe it was ME who did not perform. But today we were both performing great and mostly getting long chest to head high rights for the first two hours and two reefs. I liked going back and forth between the two. Finally, two lefts took me “home” and then a last right was surprisingly good, my last ride. Conditions were great when I first paddled south, all glassy and defined peaks, but as the afternoon wore on a bit of wind came up and it almost looked like rain in a few hours. This pretty good looking right came my way with no one else vying for it, so I eagerly took it, ground out a bottom turn on an overhead, tide coming in, kinda backing off wave, which reformed a bit in shallower water and I managed to do what I’d call a pretty violent lip bash and came down with the whitewater. When I looked up a couple guys sitting on the inside had seen the move and almost looked surprised that I made it and rode the remaining whitewater past them. Yup. That was a good last wave, a LOT of paddling and wave catching (probably had at least 20 today), and look! It’s still light out when I’m getting into warm clothes and driving home!
- cliff