Tubes, tucks and flying tight

After being polluted by mainland China for a week, I needed a serious cleansing and Lower's was happy to oblige. It was small but with just perfect shape, as well as the 85 degree temperatures, kept the water warm in the wet suit-sauna with what and I am sure I purged loads of china crap out of me. The big contest starts tomorrow so lots of of "Borg Surfers", the guys who come in 77 of 120, were crowding the main spot trying to get ready for the hypefest. While they provided snake food for each other, I just took over the next peak down the point and made sure I ripped every one I got to shreds, since the contest locks out the locals all week. With a sneaker south swell every so often, I had the time of my life with just some porpoise, including a baby one, to keep me company and a whole morning of tubes, tucks and flying tight.

I had some very good scores.

Even though I take aspirin now before I go out rather than after (well, after too...), I dragged myself down to Lowers to take advantage of a Cracking' Summery Day and some infrequent but solid waves. Off point and acting like a vulture, I picked off some head high waves that had some serious juice and speed for a change. Ducking and running down point with a silvery slick ocean, I had some excellent out of control races on the fast ones and a few tubes on some waves that opened up and threw out. The waves today were like the ones that usually show up only during the contests down at Lowers just to piss us off, but today it was definitely contestable and I had some very good scores.

The beginning of the end.

Bah. The beginning of the end.

One happy camper

Family distractions kept me out of the water for the last couple of days, but today it was just perfect at Lower Trestles as I paddled out under hot Summery conditions. With too many swells rolling through to count, there were plenty of waves for all the rabid surfers swarming all over the main point. I slipped off point to my favorite spot, and after my usual kook-fest for being out of the water for too long, I finally warmed up and got lots of sizzling ones to line up for me. So in spite of the crowd, I got enough real tubes, streaking walls and sleek peaks to make me one happy camper.

Showing some teeth in the water

Kinda wintry conditions today but a strong summery SW swell started to show at Old Man's, pushing all the, well, Old Men back to the beach and leaving us youngsters to pick and choose some pretty nice, occasionally overhead, surf for a change. This was a powerful ground swell, and the extra juice meant the take offs were like falling off a moving truck. Then, you spent most of you time trying to pump and weave to catch up with a wicked peeling wave. Of note, I did a few nice things today, like a rad foam climb that helped me make the last wave of the day which set me up for a nice little tube on the inside. Lots of shark sightings in the papers recently might of kept the crowd down too, but I'd like to think I was the one showing some teeth in the water.