Short story: Caught a handful of waves on the fish, got one decent ride (yay!), and pulled off some respectable duck-dives.Long story: Even on a cloudy and cool day, the Pleasure Point vicinity was packed, so I decided to try Nemo on my favorite longboard wave at Capitola. Even when it's crowded there, there's still a friendly vibe, and it's a nice wave. S found a perfect parking spot in town in view of the water. By the time I got suited up and down to the beach, I was dismayed to see a surf school heading out and a bunch of foamies in the water. But later I turned that to advantage.
To start I sat on the right shoulder at the edge of the crowd. As I paddled for one wave, a couple of boys were paddling out right in my way and I couldn't help but complain at them. Usually I try to maintain a spirit of aloha on the water, but they totally didn't get basic etiquette. Listen up kids, when you see someone paddling for a wave, move away from their takeoff zone! Still, I wasn't catching anything there, despite feeling like I had the right paddling position on the board. I tried shifting my weight even farther forward, but still nada. Then I thought perhaps it's not where I am on my board, but where I am on the wave: too far on the shoulder. The left end had a little pack of kooks on bright blue softtops, so hey, why not sit inside and catch what they don't know how to catch? Sure enough, this turned out to be a good plan, and I caught a handful of waves. I popped up perfectly on one and was ready to try some turns, but unfortunately a kook caught it to my right and I had no choice but to ride straight toward the cliff along with him, since he didn't fall soon enough for me to turn down the line. Later I got caught inside when a bigger set rolled through - damn! I missed them all - but I pulled off a series of respectable duck-dives, definitely getting better at that. And definitely getting the feel of the fish; I'm looking forward to next time.
Pleasure Point party wave, 38th Ave.
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