Too Polite (Linda Mar)

On a solitary hunt this morning, I found Kelly too fogged in for a comfortable solo surf, as well as breaking too near shore and not looking very rideable. The Jetty was lake-like as I drove past. Montara looked workable but too desolate without a buddy, so I drove on. This time, I remembered Rockaway, but alas, it had no waves to ride, just dribblers flopping over lethargically. And I was running out of time to surf before work. Sigh.

Foggy shorebreak at Kelly

Back at Linda Mar with low expectations, I paddled out via a rip north of the pump house to a peak which had one guy on it before I suited up and now held five. Two were beginners on longboards, stoked to be catching anything. One even hooted me into a waist-high wave. The surf was mostly weak without much length of ride, and the crowd continued to swell. I clocked some cumulative upright time on my shortboard, working a bunch of short wimpy lefts that fell apart over a deeper section partway to shore.

Linda Mar, last resort

Heading back out after one of the mushballs ended, I decided to try a more northern peak to the right of the rip instead of the left. With a handful of young male shortboarders on it, the vibe was palpably more tense. I sat at the edge of the group until one of them paddled around me. After a few minutes, I was in right spot to catch a nice shoulder-high left right at the peak. Pop-up and drop - woo! - and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that shortboarder approaching fast from behind. Instinctively I got off the wave and let him have it. In retrospect, I should've held my ground; he was trying to come around the whitewater while I was in the pocket. It was my wave, and I ought to have claimed it and taken the ride. So many things in surfing happen fast, and my first thought is to get out of the way, lest I violate etiquette. But some people, especially the aggros who seem to make up an unfortunate share of shortboarders, will take what they don't deserve if you let them. I need to learn to surf more aggressively - or shall I say, assertively. Then I won't have to mourn the wave that got away. Still, as Darren tweeted, I started "the day at the beach, instead of on a 730am conf call! #dontworrybehappy" Amen to that.

Surfline: Knee to chest high, poor-fair conditions. Lightly textured/mostly clean lines with workable sections in the mix. Modest blend of SSW groundswell and NW windswell prevails this morning with slow 2-3'+ waves at better spots. Standouts hit chest-shoulder high on sets. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 4.6 ft at 9.1 s NW 63 / WIND WAVE: 1.0 ft at 3.3 s WNW / WVHT: 4.9 ft / APD: 7.0 s / MWD: 307° (Met) WSPD: 4 kn / GST: 6 kn / WVHT: 4.9 ft / DPD: 8.0 s / WDIR: 200° / ATMP: 53° F / WTMP: 56° F. Tide: 2' rising to 3'.