38th Ave, 7 June 2008

Once again my old surfing buddy D had good advice for me. I was feeling discouraged since I hadn't ridden a wave in so very very long, and he told me to take out my longboard to get my stoke back. It was an excellent suggestion - stoke restored!

Actually, there wasn't much choice on which surfboard to use if I wanted to get wet this weekend. Strong winds continue to plague San Mateo County beaches, blowing out the head-high surf. Although I later heard HMB Jetty wasn't bad this morning, it's too long of a drive to risk it all on the chance of one break possibly being good. Santa Cruz was forecast to be clean and only 1-3', but with the longboard I figured I'd find something. A negative low in the morning pushed my start into the more crowded time, and I got into the water just west of 38th at around 11 am. I'd relied on N's report that the water's warmed up some, and he was right. The 4/3 wetsuit was just fine and it was nice not to have the bulk of the 5/3. Air temp in the 60s and lots of sunshine helped too.

I caught a wave almost as soon as I got out, popped up perfectly, and was starting to make my bottom turn when - dammit! - there was a kook right in my way. I tried to maneuver around him, but I haven't ridden the LB in so long, I wasn't successful and bailed to keep from hitting him. At least I managed that. He apologized so I couldn't really be mad, but it would've been a sweet ride.

I'd forgotten that I'm not half bad on a longboard. This put me in a unexpected situation: being better than a significant number of people in the crowded lineup. There were a lot of beginners in the water, and I was catching waves they couldn't. A good feeling, and a real confidence-booster.

Even though the tide had risen for a few hours off of the negative low, kelp was really an issue. I had to point out to the kook who blocked my wave that he was trailing a big hunk from his leash, and then found myself having to frequently untangle. Worse, on one wave I ran into a patch of unavoidable kelp speed-bumps; one of them stopped my fin cold and I went flying off the front.

Just like when I try to keep track of laps while swimming, after a while I forgot where I was on my wave count. Somewhere around 6-8 and I was only out a little over an hour, the best sesh I've had in a very long time. Not that they were all good by any means, and most were short since I was sitting inside. But I got one really nice ride with some decent turns, even kicked out the back at the end, although I didn't manage to sit down gracefully on the board. Next time. Woo-hoo!