29 August 2009

Davenport & Capitola, 29 August 2009

THE DAY IN PICTURES (SOME OF THEM MOVING)

La Roca*
Oops, S2 got the tides backwards; too much water on it this morning. But the three and a half of us - me, L, S2 and his young daughter M - had 11 boards between us, ready for anything, so we kept driving south.

Satellite Beach*

As a blond surfer who was leaving said, "Big and gnarly, dude!" (OK, he didn't really say "dude." But he did say "gnarly.")

Davenport

The waves were a lot bigger and more powerful than I realized looking from the beach. Although mushy on the high tide, they were going up to 2-3 feet overhead. I got in some duck-diving practice on the fish, and had a couple oh-shit moments in the face of huge breakers when I just ditched my board and dove under (after looking around to make sure no one was nearby, of course), but I was too scared to try to catch anything. I lost track of L for a bit but when we reconnected, we both agreed it was a good idea to follow his original suggestion that "if it's too big, let's try Eastside Santa Cruz."

The Hook

Can you say "party wave"?

Capitola
Having abandoned the more skilled S2 at Davenport (and we hope he got some good ones), L and I landed at waist- to shoulder-high Capitola, my favorite longboard break. I borrowed his wife's new board (thank you B) since I hadn't packed Big Blue. A sunny Saturday brought out all the fair-weather surfers, but L and I sat next to a clueless clump of surf-schoolers close to the jetty, inside of what he aptly named "the kook line," and picked off the waves they were missing. Putting into practice S2 and L's advice that I need to dig deeper when I paddle, I quickly dialed in to ride about five nice waves. Re-stoked!

*Pseudonyms. You can try to guess, but I ain't sayin.'

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