Linda Mar, 23 September 2008

Dawn is coming later and later these days; the street lights were still glowing as S and I crested the hill above Linda Mar beach. It took some dragging to get my ass out of bed this morning, even if it wasn't super early. But I had extra motivation, since I planned to meet up with T and her friend L2, who pulled into the parking lot right after I zipped up my wetsuit. L2 had her red longboard, I brought my orange fish, and T had her shortboard, but we all started out on the south end.

With my headstart, I had to wait a bit for them to reach the lineup, and it was c-c-c-old. Air only 50 degrees with a light breeze, water cool though not freezing yet - summer's over, baby. I was hoping to wring a few more sessions out of my old 4/3, but it's time to break in the new one now.

The waves on the south end were on the moundy side, with the tide filling in to high, so while L2 headed farther down to Boatdocks, T and I decided to paddle north of the bathhouse, where we'd seen a couple decent shoulders from the parking lot. Unfortunately, the waves there were also generally moundy, just bigger. T suggested sitting farther in just as another head-high closeout dumped on the inside with a crash of spray. Mmm, nooo. Instead we paddled back south to near our original spot - hey, all that paddling's good exercise, and the only workout I'll get today - preferring to sit inside of smaller waves and take less of a beating. Oh, if only we hadn't fallen into grass-is-greener syndrome. It was a better spot, but I was nearly out of time. A few promising ones came my way, close but no cigar, and then it was time to leave. As I paddled for shore, a wave broke behind me and I popped up in the whitewater, just to ride something. But it's always a tricky maneauver on a shorter board due to its inherent instability and the turbulence, so I wasn't surprised when I fell. Lucky T caught the next one and rode it a little past me, then went back out for one more.

As I was changing by my MINI, a dripping longboarder started doing the same at his van in the next spot. He was wearing a Matuse wetsuit, which I'd read is intriguingly made from limestone. It's supposed to be warmer, lighter, and more flexible than a standard neoprene suit, so I asked him about it. He started raving that it's all of the above, plus it dries in only 2 hours. Sounds awesome (though no doubt expensive), but as I predicted, they don't make them in my size. Even worse, Matuse apparently doesn't realize women surf, since they only make wetsuits for men. Dudes, get out of the office, head down to the nearest break, and count the women surfers - hello!

Stuck in traffic on the way out of town.