Went for a New Years Day surf at my 2nd or 3rd favorite spot that I surf once to 4 times a year.
Ended up not being able to con or entice anyone to go with me, so when I left the house for what might have been the longest drive since 3/2020 (edit: not distance but in time), it would also mark the 3rd time I've ever gone there solo in the last 30 yrs. Or 4th.
While getting there, could see ocean mist from the large surf and started having doubts....been there before when it was too big, the usual take-off spots on the reef just overwhelmed by roll through mush from further out reefs that break somewhat chaotically.
Get to the overlook and it isn't looking great, nor is it looking terrible. About the same as the time I went there with R3W and Bandini about a decade ago....that session ended up with only me making it out, dodging a few, and lucking into one and then exiting the water...can't just leave your friends watching on shore.
Suit up, make the walk down, and as I do, see someone else start the paddle out. Excellent not alone.
By the time I get to the entry point, get to watch the surfer take a big fall, then get washed down the reef to the spot I call 'the Rock', where I got stranded on my first ever time here in somewhat the same manner (though it was smaller).
Do a bunch of jumping-jacks to warm up, trying to figure out the timing, notice every now and then how the line-up shifts, and look back to the Rock, and what the hell, he is leaving? Then spy three more walking down the path, boards in hand.
Large-ish set breaks, and I start the wade out, trying to hold myself from getting knocked over in the calf/knee/thigh deep water. Last of the sets pushes across the inside, and I sprint with the grace of drunken toddler trying avoid the toys strewn about the playroom floor for 15 feet or so to the waist deep part, then it is is a race to avoid the next set, which I am hoping is at least a minute from now....took me longer to start paddling than I would have hoped.
Get through the usual background noise without much hassle but then have to pour it on when I see the horizon wrinkle. Angling for the shoulder the entire way, hoping there isn't giant wave that breaks and mushes and rolls through, and yeah, there is, but maybe not too huge?
No much else to do but keep going and hope my aging heart and lungs and shoulders do their best.
......and it was not even a thing. Over the shoulder with much room to spare, and the one behind it swinging a little wide is nothing more than another data point, "Oh, it is doing this," kind of thing.
Paddling up the reef towards the peak, I see the three surfers warming up, watching the ocean, the wave, and knowing that if I made it out, they could too.
First wave ice-breaker was an overhead lumpy wave, fourth or fifth of the set, but I get right back out, which I consider the real win.
There is a long lull or me just being out of position and then there are 4 at the peak. For a change, there is a sense of camaraderie, and no jockeying for top dog position which is mine by virtue of me being there first, not out of any real dominant display of skill on that previous wave. But it also means that I need to go when a wave presents.
Again I get another overhead wave of no real note except maybe that I'm remembering what to do here. Paddling back to the line-up allows me to watch one guy get a solid ride, and see his friends pull back on maybe bigger waves than his or mine, which was good because they sectioned terribly.
As the session goes and the tide fills, the sections don't close out as much, the kelp doesn't seem some scary when it bonks the bottom of the board or my foot, the clean-up sets turn out to be not so punishing, but my wave selection is not improving. Where is the one great wave that makes the day? I mean, I would love to get a bunch of them, but it isn't a day of great waves. No great beat-downs, just a fair number of OK waves on a rising swell with 3 others. Best wave I saw was from the same guy who caught the first wave I saw.
Towards the end, right at the tide change, slide out on bottom turn and got rolled by the set. Determined not to end that way, try to paddle out as I get washed down the reef to the Rock. Barely get outside the inside end section, when I see the horizon lump up.
Too fatigued to sprint the whole way, turn, paddle, miss, paddle, miss, paddle, catch a gut high utility wave, cut in before the Rock, then struggle my way to land....there is a pesky shoredump into cobblestones to overcome.
Set cleans the three up, sending one in.
We watch the others for a bit, say Happy 2021 to each other , then slog my way up the hill. The effort is offset nicely by the view down the coastline. Amazing to see the lines when there is this kind of defined swell, all the bends caused by the bathymetry and final headland.
So inaugural surf for 2021 portends, oh, I don't know, more of the same I suppose.