Hot Summer Nights

Yesterday I had a very strange day.  Well, it wasn’t that strange, but it started off with me waking up at 12:15 pm.  Somehow my alarm got switched from AM to PM and of course it didn’t go off.  But what’s weird is that I was in a coma until 12:15!  This never happens to me.  Usually I’ll wake up.  I don’t know how I did that, but I suspect that it’s because of the June gloom marine layer making it look like it’s perpetually twilight outside.  That means it’s pretty dark in my room all day, so I had no natural daylight to wake me up.

After I woke up I met Joanne and Val for lunch to watch a bit of the world cup action.  My breakfast consisted of pizza and salad.  I then went to Starbucks where I could only get my brain to function enough to upload some pictures to the Surfrider website.  I then went home around 4pm, decided that I wasn’t mentally able to do any work, and went surfing for 2 hours.  The waves were small but actually I had a pretty fun session.  I need to be a bit more aggressive with my surfing so I can progress.  I’ve plateaued a little bit but I’m getting much better at catching waves and my overall awareness of where I am while riding the wave has improved quite a bit.

Then I came back, took a shower, and watched Battlestar Galactica while I ate dinner.  Then I surfed the internet for a bit and went to bed.  Overall it was kind of a wasted work day, but looking back I kinda wish I had more days like this where I just kinda do what I want without worrying about anything.  Usually I’m worrying about getting work done for my business.  Since I have no set schedule I don’t give myself days off.  I should do that.  Days where I let myself just not worry about work for a day.  Usually I only do that if I’m sick or incapacitated in some form.

Anyway, I’m working today, or at least trying to.  I have to go to the laundromat though, which I’m NOT looking forward to.  But I have a softball game at 7:30pm tonight so I’m looking forward to that.

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!