1-1-2020 saw me pick up Friend #1 at 5:30 AM to head south to some place north of Carmel.
Size looked pretty big, buoys 10-12 ft at 20+ seconds.
Don't bother really checking other spots as it is dark for the size, and wind is gonna come onshore sooner rather than later.
Get where we want to be, and, gol-durn it, what is it with all non-hungover people surfing?
And the size is…not there. Strange. Probably a mix of the end of a swell giving the size, and the new stuff giving the period. Maybe. Maybe the long period means the big stuff comes infrequently and we are just not patience enough to wait for that to happen.
Anyway, suit up, do a few, like three, jumping jacks, you know, just enough to remind me I really need to warm up properly next time, then sprint-sneak out through the hole (mostly) and only have to duck through the crumbled remains of a set that had swung wide (brunt of it misses me in other words) and barely slows my sprint through/around the inside).
Friend #1 decides to warm up properly, then attempts to follow my lucky path and gets mowed, and then must take the very long paddle way around. The dubious bonus of this is he gets to see my first ride.
First ride is the 3rd wave of the set...first wave was super clean, and big. But not as big as it should be per the buoys. The rippers fought for it, with two going. Second wave was older guy on a pointy longboard (later saw said board...had a diamond tail...which is my way of saying it wasn't a pintail like on a big wave gun but it was rather sort of a wide point, so not really a longboard?). Third one was smaller, so the outside guys couldn't get it, and that allowed me to paddle in from the shoulder for a very nice, sort of frothy bowling peak on my 7'6". The heavy glass 2x 6 oz deck and 1x 6 oz bottom smoothed out things out. The wave took a different route than the previous waves, so the ride was less of the usual that I was expecting, the sections a bit longer and more iffy, but with some extra effort, was able to stay ahead of things for the entire ride and got to swoosh past Friend #1.
Next wave was the goofy oddball left, which I probably shouldn't have gone for, but when it swings wide, the left can be punchy though short....this time it turned out to be rampy and long, the highlight being that I didn't get worked on the way back out.
Takes a bit of time for Friend #1 to get his first…has to mix it up a little with someone who got ticked at him when they both tried for the same wave and then both didn’t go. But when he gets one, it is a long time till I see him again. Later he says he snagged an insider that popped up when he was paddling back out and it was too juicy to pass up.
Next few ways are good, and each one feels better than the next. Love it when you remember how an infrequently surfed spot works, what happens when the tide changes, how incoming long period swell changes the dynamic, and how this particular board works. Best when you feel comfy enough to start jockeying for the better waves at the primary peak and then know when to move in/out/sideways for different sets.
Best wave turns out to be a wide swinging set that initially I am actually a bit on the inside and wrong side of. A mad scramble of the main peak rippers, but really it is just me and two others who have a shot, though it doesn’t stop anyone from angling for it.
Someone is shouting, at me or in frustration or at something/one else, I can’t tell. Look over the shoulder, it is just me in contention now.
12-15 ft (?) on the face, but when they swing wide, waves tend to really hold up for a while before tipping over, so I tell myself that I have time to make it even if it feels like I’ll be taking off under the lip or with the lip on my neck. The heavy board seems to accelerate slower than I want as the wave lifts up, there is that moment of ‘do I have the speed to catch this?’ Wave stands up, board goes down and I have that excellent pop up which feels less like I am pushing myself up and more like “all I have to do is stand as the floor drops”.
Not late, not early, just a solid entry between those two moments.
Sharp and buttery carve on the bottom (I know that seems like an oxymoron but all the same, it was both), up to the top, see Friend #1 streaming for the shoulder with few others, then backside downcarve, then hard over to get going in the proper direction, slow stalling moment as I rise back up the wave, then aim down the line, pumping as I ride the ramp down, carve for the long section and think I am totally styling in a relaxed posture with the lip curling above and just behind me, then on the shoulder, another cut back, another run, but shorter, then a bit of mild, very mild, slashy S-turns past all people stuck inside, and float over the seaweed clump, flop on top and start the long paddle back.
Some more waves, including me going on what I thought was going to be a quick time killer that turned into me getting thumped by a 6 wave set. Got lashed by kelp as I brushed the bottom and had a surprising amount of water shoved down my throat via my nose. Saw a young guy lose a board into the rocks, saw a guy on a rasta-foamie alternately ride well and take abuse on too late of a drop, best ride was probably a 55 yr guy taking off under the one of the biggest waves of the day that hit the main reef perfectly….lovely mid-face top turn made it a short tube ride, comes out, stall/fades the next building section, drives under it, off the bottom then up to floater, then past me. As I turn, I see spray as he hits the lip two more times, then I have to get out of the way of the next wave.
Friend #1 is gassed, tells me he can go any time, and after a set, is gone. Catch two small ones, nothing I can go in on for a day like this, but then get ancy and can’t seem to find the one I need. Crowd is growing and I keep making poor choices on where to set up. Winds seem to be changing, sea surface changing too. A third small wave turns out to be my last, a drop and scoot past a section, cut back into the soup, then belly it along the edge of the sneaker hole to the 10 ft of sand between rocks.
On the way home, we get to chat about old New Year’s Day surfs, that time with Friend #3 north of the GG Bridge, that time in town, that stupid time in the crazy offshores and pounding rain, that time we drove all over and at the only place that could have worked was the wrong tide so we didn’t go out, and how I could have gone in after than one great wave I had today and been fine with it.
Super start to 2020.
PS
Need to pin this thread to the top.
PPS
When I drop off Friend #1, the Beach is a mess of chop, onshore winds, and some white-water showing on the outer bars.