It's been an agonizingly slow recovery from the fin hit to my thigh last week. Although more study is needed, I'm tentatively ready to say that arnica gel helps contusions to heal faster, although unfortunately I didn't get any until several days after the injury. With nearly all of my range of motion now restored, I was ready to get in the water this morning.
I met up with Luke at Dunes, and we were joined by new buddy Kyle, a Seattle transplant. J-Bird's "alarm didn't go off" so she missed out. Before I left the house, I'd checked back through my blog posts to see what today's conditions might produce at the beach, and was forecasting something outside the realm of the mellow waves I was looking for with a still game leg. Luke arrived at Dunes before me, and reported it as waist- to chest-high, with an easy paddle out via a rip. I had to see for myself, as that sounded too good to be true. Indeed, watching from the clifftop, I saw a closeout set roll through that was head-high plus, although it's always hard to call scale with no reference human on it. Although I expressed a desire to drive on to the Jetty which would be smaller, Scott convinced me to stick with my buddies and give Dunes a try.
Luke and Kyle were already in the water as I stood on the beach, waiting for a lull. The shorepound was head-high, smashing closeouts sucking sand. Hardly what I had in mind. I timed it fairly well, making it to the outside with just a couple turtle-rolls. At Luke's suggestion, I was on Magic, my 8'3" hybrid longboard, for more paddling power on the high tide. I caught a fun left, a fast wave all the way in with a second drop on a reform. Luke said I disappeared on the drop, so it was over-my-head-high. I caught a couple more waves after that, but was having trouble adjusting to the extra 15" of Magic as compared to my current board, so I didn't ride them out. Then Luke got a stand-up barrel (woo hoo!), on a wave he said was probably about 8 feet - so much for "waist- to chest-high!"
Duty called, and when I found myself inside, I chose to ride the whitewater in so I could get to work not too terribly late. I caught a turbulent broken wave, popped up and rode it into almost a reform which deposited me near the shore, and then was able to run up onto the sand without a shore pounding. Luke, on the other hand, had some holddowns, and got rolled into his board by a big closeout, his sanded fin cutting through his wetsuit near an inside leg seam, stopping short of slicing his skin. Although certainly conditions were such that I could have had a much worse time of it, I think perhaps my sweet Mother Ocean took it easy on me today, in consideration of my injury, and also blessed me with a nice long ride. Thank you, Mother Ocean.
Surfline: WNW (280-300) groundswell fades through the day, holding the most size early, as some small SSW(190-200) swell mixes in. For the dawn patrol good breaks are pulling in head high+ to well overhead surf, with top NW exposures pulling in sets in the double overhead range at times. Light NW winds have some crumble/bump to the surface in most areas. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 6.9 ft at 13.8 s WNW 07 / WIND WAVE: 1.0 ft at 3.7 s WSW / WVHT: 6.9 ft / APD: 10.5 s / MWD: 288° (Met) WSPD: 6 kts / GST: 8 kts / WVHT: 6.9 ft / DPD: 14.0 s / WDIR: 350° / ATMP: 49.8° F / WTMP: 52.9° F. Tide: 5' falling to 4'
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