Solid Overhead Sickness, 10-12-04
Yesterday was the equivalent of your first 3-foot powder dump of the season.
The gnar gnar NW swell cleaned up. Than Franthithco was 85 degrees, sunny with gentle offshores fanning the translucent blue walls of sickness that broke with A-frame perfection along the gay coastline.
This was Ocean Beach doing it's imitation of Indo, except the water is 30 degrees cooler. I pulled into a crowded parking lot, stoke overdose as I heard hoots and screams of joy from the lineup. Four 8 foot sets were dishing out lefts and rights for the crowd.
The slice of pizza turned in my stomach. I stared at my 6'1 DHD thruster, then looked enviously at the other guys waxing up their winter guns- 7'2s, 7'6s. I felt as I had shown up to a Monster Truck race in a McLaren F1.
But Fuck it. The waves were going off and I wasn't gonna miss out on the action just because I'm undergunned. I suited up and ran for the channel and paddled as fast as I can.
The crowd was mellow and friendly. Surfers who hardly know each other smiled and exchanged stories on the waves that they had just caught.
As soon as I got out the back I heard hoots down the beach. The horizon shifted as the next group of sets appeared.
First set.....paddled extra hard to compensate for my shorter board. The inner voice screamed "What the fuck are you doing?!" as the 8 foot peak jacked up, and I was perched on the lip. Stood up, freefell the elevator drop, cranked a bottom turn and looked at the pristine wall of watery joy that stretched for a hundred yards. Raced the section, swooping roundhouse cutties, backhand reos, followed by the gnar shallow inside section of racing the wave and sticking a floater as it closed out on the shorebreak.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! !!!
FUCKIN AY! That was INSANE!!!! Like a junkie who got their first hit of crack I was paddling back through the channel to get my next dose.
The overhead swell kept the crowd moving. Peaks randomly showed up all over the place so there was no hassles at all. The next set was a right....another late drop, and hello! blonde cutie pie on a longboard! "Go! keep riding!" The hottie that I spotted earlier had dropped in on me, but the wave was big enough for two. Rode it all the way to the channel. "Thanks! Great ride, sorry to drop in"...."Hey it's all good!". I had to keep all my concentration on not falling off and looking like a kook in front of the longboarding hottie, while at the same time I was mesmerized by the tight little ass outlined by the size XS fullsuit she was wearing.
This was completely surreal. Overhead OB, but clean and easy to paddle out. Consistent peaks and a mellow crowd.
I found my own little peak that had no one on it. Picked off the sets left and right and finding my steeze after a month of no surfing.
The feeling of stoke and happiness is identical to that 3 foot blower morning at Kirkwood. Waves were straight out of a magazine, and you felt like a rockstar with each ride. Not a drop of water was out of place.
A couple hours later it was getting dark and the usual OB heebie-jeebies were setting in. An 8 foot elephant seal joined me in the lineup as I watched the last of the orange light dip below the horizon before catching my last wave to shore.
On the way back I stopped by to check out a sweet 7'6" which I bought. If only I had this a few hours earlier...
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