Session 5029: Too much offshore wind!

We normally complain that we got so little of offshore days here in NorCal. Well, if we complained long enough, you'd get what you want. Then this morning, the mom nanture voice echos from the sky, "You want it? Here, some 25 knots offshore for you. Go have some fun... boys!" So I arrive at the beach and it was blowing offshore crazy. I don't know why people want offshore so badly? It always makes the wave face stand up so tall and steep and when trying to take off, it blows the board up and makes it really hard to take off!

Then, the sets. They were a bit too big for me to handle. It was going at least 1.5 x overhead. Of course, three of my local buddies were having a blast, while I am just having a hell of a time hang onto a board every time a new bigger set comes in that break right in front of me... no matter how far out I paddle, there always is a bigger set in front of me.

It has gotten so big for me that I felt not too comfortable with my NEV 7'0 so I went back to my car and grabbed the JC 7'5, and things started to work out better. I was sitting a bit inside and further away form the rest of the local guys, and this "once in a lifetime" chance arrived. The guys are shouting, Mano! (That's my new local name now). Paddle! Paddle hard now. And so I did, and so as not to scare myself, I just kept looking up and in the direction I wanted to go, and the board took off really fast while I was frantically trying to do the first top turn, and it worked. Great! The rail did dig and moving faster. After that it was easy because the wave was big enough for me to manuver and I was able to do several ups and down turns. Afterwards, all of them though that that was the best ride they have ever seen me do it.

Given that I was at the edge of comfort today, yes, it was kind of a breakthrough. I'd give this a Stoke 8 day since I was still struggling. But as we all say, it is good to challenge ourselves from time to time. I agree.

You know the part I hate the most about surfing on a day like this though? Chaning into dry cloths. If you don't know what I am talking about, just go out on any windy day.