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.

The Hero's Walk!

Holy Crap it was good today. It was 70 degrees on the beach and sunny and offshore most the morning. Big sneaker overhead NW sets would come by every so often and just peel perfectly to the shore. It is my favorite set up, as you paddle out on the right of the point for 50 paddles, pick up a bomb that takes you 150-200 yards down the point, and you kick out, step out on the sand and walk back up the beach. Although there were a few slow spots, I really ripped the living daylights out of most everything I got, seeming to keep the best ones for myself and away from the weekend crowd. I carved and tubed and backslashed every possible thing I could think of and did a couple things I have never done like through the lip turn launches that really surprised me that I pulled them off. All in all, I call the long walk back on the beach the hero's walk, because you feel like you really got it for all it was worth when you do that. After a dozen or so of just ripping the long overhead waves, I was grooving walking back up the beach, watching the dolphins swim by with their new born little ones and really feeling like I earned the Hero's Walk!

The great illusion

I don't know what is worse, no swell or bad swell. At least with no swell you know you don't want to go out. With bad swell there is the illusion that you could catch something. Such was the case today, as it was big but no shape along the coast. As usual, Lowers boasted 100 people in the water as it could almost manage the unruly swell. I tried a bit at Dogpatch, but the south wind and lumpy waves drove me in pretty quickly. Just a maintenance day really, paddling under 15 or so 6 foot set waves at a time, they really were not worth the effort. Still, even if I did catch only 2 waves that had a shoulder to them, I really flew along and over a few racy floater sections. So, sometimes, I think that it does pay to take a chance and try to surf the great illusion.