The Spice of Life (HMB Jetty)

Luke, on a surfboard he hadn't ridden lately: It took me a few waves to redial into this board.

Me: That's why I don't like to switch boards.

Luke: Variety is the spice of life.

Me: Riding waves is the spice of life.

The surf was a completely mystery this morning, even though I was standing on Dunes beach at the water's edge. The fog was so dense that I couldn't see much beyond the shorepound, except that the period was fairly short. That meant a difficult paddle out into the unknown. 

Bird and Bunny

When Heather and Luke arrived, we voted for the Jetty instead, where the ground-cloud had mostly burned off to reveal fun-size empty waves. We had the break entirely to ourselves; always a treat. The surf was mushy and waist- to chest-high with an occasional shoulder-high wave rolling through. I often had to kick my feet to get into them, but I rode too many waves to count, topping off my stoke tank and putting a day-long smile on my face.

Paddling back out for more, I saw Luke about to take off on a wave in front of me, and unsheathed my waterproof Pentax Optio W90 from its Wrist Shot to capture his drop and the start of his ride. The whitewater from the wave hit me and knocked me off of my board, but I surfaced still pointing the camera in Luke's direction as he rode on. Another wave rolled over my head and I smiled at the thought of drowning for my art. Luke said it was his wave of the day, and I was excited to have filmed it. But to my dismay, my 3mil gloved finger had failed to properly depress the record button, and all we have are our memories.

Most of my rides were lefts, but the best was a left-right. I caught the wave left, and when it started to fizzle, I faded back toward the peak, got around it to the other side and went right as the wave reformed for another drop and long ride almost to the beach. Stoked!

Surfline: Fading Westerly swell and SSW southern hemi swell set up fun size waist-chest zone waves at good exposed breaks while standouts produced occasional shoulder to head high sets on the right tides. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 4.9 ft at 11.4 s WNW 19 / WIND WAVE: 1.0 ft at 4.0 s SW / WVHT: 4.9 ft / APD: 7.3 s / MWD: 300° Met) WSPD: 6 kts / GST: 8 kts / WVHT: 4.9 ft / DPD: 11.0 s / WDIR: 340° / ATMP: 50.7° F / WTMP: 52.3° F. Tide: 3' rising to over 4'.