This week was frustrating because of really bad winds. First we had the cold, howling Santa Ana’s early in the week and not much surf to speak of to go along with it. Then when a new swell or two filled in on Wed/Thur/Fri the onshore flow ripped everything to shreds by the end of the day. However, reports from the late morning to mid-afternoon crew said that there was really fun surf before the winds got to it. It was frustrating because I checked it after work three days in a row, which felt like a waste of time because there was no desire to paddle out into choppy, rippy, howling onshore surf for an hour. Better things to do, and that just set me up for today’s session, which I planned on getting to much, much earlier. Which I did. Surfed from about 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the strategy paid off. Even two hours off the very high tide, it was still very high tide. But there were some sets coming through and if you waited long enough (believe me, loooong waits) and were patient enough, one was able to get some overhead surf.
I got lucky and got two back to back set waves off the right side of the reef before the first 40 minute lull set in. The weather was spectacular and the company was good on land and in the water. People seemed pretty happy on both and lots of people said hi to me and talked, which is an interesting “change.” There was talk in the water about some guy who might have gotten photos of an incident in the water that happened several weeks ago…does the sewing circle gossip never end? Anyway, this one guy who claimed to be the photographer said he was in the process of selling the water photos and a couple of short video clips to TMZ or Inside Edition for $250,000. Anyway, it was a really fun day in the water – nothing huge, nothing small, right inbetween but the weather couldn’t be beaten. Did between three and four hours. And felt like I was surfing well. Got a little pocket ride or two on the inside right cutback section, got a couple of photos, although again this photo session was marred by damn water spots, no matter how much I did the Lumix Loogie.
- Cliff
