Session 4.222

I had an even later start this morning. I could not simply get out of bed. Sleeping in a nice warm bed still must beat surfing, I guess. But I had to fight the battle with this laziness. I reluctantly swing my body out, drop the legs from the ledge of my bed, and plant my feet firmly on the floor. Yes, I got to go to surf and to work!

I did make it to Montara this morning. Looking at the beach from the top, the waves looked like some good chest-high stuff. And I own the whole f----- (fine) beach to myself! It started to sprinkle, but, hey, I am going to get in the water anyway, right? So I put on the XCEL suit, and hop down the stairs.

As I approach the shore, the waves looked bigger and bigger, and now it was actually more like 1.5 to 2 times overhead on some bigger sets. But, it was "get-outable" so just for the sake of getting paddling muscles being kept up, I splashed in. As usual, the shore break timing is very critical, especially today they were bigger.

As I figured, there were not much surfable waves out there, and when I try to catch, the waves crumbled up, and I was just jostled up and down in the white stuff. But, I just relaxed in it and enjoyed the natural Jacuzzi.

After paddling back out, I thought today, I should just learn to relax a bit in this condition, so I tried to keep my smiles on my face, especially when bigger sets were coming. I just kept smiling and paddled further out.

Then I tried to focus on the surrounding. Just sitting on the board straight and really paid attention to what is happening all around me, just scanning my mind to the front, the peripherally, and the back. As I did this, I started feel much more relaxed, in a sense that I felt that I was more connected with the whole place and the situation. That is a kind of a feeling that I have not distinctively experienced before. I will try this again so that I can articulate better. But one thing I can say is that I now feel that I know a lot more about what is going on in the water than I have ever been, and this I know is a whole different experience than other situations. And if I go out, if I attain this feeling that in itself is enough satisfaction that even if I do not catch any waves, I will be perfectly all right about it.

I did catch one overhead one though which completed the session, and that was very thrilling. At that level, the board just takes off as if it has a booster rocket. I basically had to tell myself to stay planted on the board and be in control. This was fun!

Then on the way out, I was eaten by a monster shore break. As I was ready to get out of the water, an overhead size shorebreak erupted right in front of where I was. I ditched the board and ducked into the incoming break in a frog leap style. I was jacked up then tumbled around 3-4 times as I landed on the shore. I immediately picked up a board, and just barely escaped another shorebreak!

As I got out, a local surfer Mike was getting ready and whistling at me and yelling. "Hey, you take your board and get back in there!"

But, I did go.

I am sure that he and his wife a couple of other local dudes were looking at all this!

When I took off my wet suit, a few cups worth of sand was trapped in the neck. It is amazing how much sand is being kicked up inside these breaks. By then the rain was pouring, which was helpful in washing down the sand.