Surfing Under the Pier

Since I was already suited up (in my sleeveless 2-mil Billabong Salty Jane - the water is now 74º!), Steve said he'd meet me in the water. "I'll probably surf under the pier," he told me. Over coffee, as we talked business and waited for the tide to fill in, he'd explained that he didn't mean literally under the Ocean Beach pier, but right next to it.

Out in the nicely uncrowded lineup, I heard someone call my name, and turned to see Angela paddling over on her shortboard. I hadn't surfed with Steve in a while but it had been much longer since I'd seen Angela, and it was nice to be out in the ocean with both of them. Mostly we shortboarder girls sat inside of Steve, who was riding his yum-yum yellow longboard. As I stroked into a left, he caught it early and swooped by me so I had to back off. Returning to the lineup, he said with a smile, "Those damn longboarders!"

Although the chest-high- waves were lully and broken up, I rode some fun ones on Kat and left smiling.