Friday was a pretty classic day. I met up with Val early in the morning (well, not too early, it was about 9am) and she said her friends/coworkers were meeting at Ponto to surf. It was a beautiful morning: clear blue sky, warm sun, and the ocean was glassy thanks to light winds. So we drove down the 101 to Ponto, which in reality is only about a half mile north of Grandview where I usually surf. Ponto is a jetty rivermouth, and tends to be a faster wave. I haven’t surfed Ponto proper before, so this was pretty fun.
We met Val’s friends there on the beach – a group of 5 guys who had either worked at Spy or still work at Spy. I had already met most of them before and they’re fun to hang out with. We paddled out just off of lifeguard chair 20 and at first I was not impressed – the waves were small and dumpy, offering only the shortest rides before the wave would shut down and close out. However, about 30 minutes into our session things began to change. I noticed that some really beautiful lefts were starting to peel to the south of us, so I decided to paddle down to see if I could catch one. Finally a set came through and I swung into position, paddling hard. I dropped down the face and grabbed my rail, navigating the steep drop. It was an amazing feeling; I was right in the curl and the wave was just so circular and perfect – not a drop of water out of place. I sped down the line and tried to rebound off the top but I was a little off balance. It was still such a fun ride. After that I noticed that all the guys (da braddahs as they affectionately refer to themselves) immediately started paddling over to where I was.
For about 40 minutes we all traded perfect lefts and a few rights, shouting each other into waves and cheering for the best ones. Val was having a blast and couldn’t stop gushing. I felt like I had been transported to an Indonesian reef break. The water was just so perfectly blue, and then to top it off a pod of 5 dolphins came to pay us a visit. They got so incredibly close to us that I could see the marks and scars on their skin from various fights or hassles with other fish. There was even a baby among them.
Surfing there was a good change for me. Usually I surf at Grandview, which is a really slow wave. It’s a very fun spot, but I think I need to step up my game and surf faster waves.
Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro WCT - Lower Trestles
After our session we grabbed iced mochas at Starbucks and met the boys at Mozy’s for a lunch burrito. Then Val and I headed north to San Clemente where we watched the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro, a professional surf contest. I got to see some amazing surfing from the likes of Jon Jon Florence, Andy Irons, Corey Lopez, Adrian Buchan, and more. It was also really cool for me because I had never been to Trestles before. For those that don’t know, Trestles is one of the surfing world’s “wonders of the world,” in that it’s almost as perfect as you can get as far as a rippable wave goes. It was really firing, with sets a few feet overhead.
Overall, I’d say it was a pretty perfect day!