I did not venture out to SC this weekend due to this sporadic weather condition. Instead I opted for a local surfing session, and I was hoping that I could surf at the Jetty somewhere, but the high wind can do a number on this spot if it isn't right. Then it is almost amazing when I passed by Montara, it looked flat for a moment. Then, immediately there was a series of standard Montara Closeouts. So as usual I wrote off here and back to the usual hopping ground at the Linda Mar, and it looked pretty calm out. This being a weekend session plus I had a very late start of 8:00 am., I was prepared to just grab a few waves and head back.
One of the attractions of Surfing is that it is a sport that can be enjoyed by the people who are otherwise do not want to fit in to the rest. I've met and also heard stories about these mavericks. So days like today sometimes make me wonder a few things, and I'd also continue try not to fit in. Perhaps, you might read the rest of this as some sort of negativity, but please read this as my observations of one aspect of surfing culture or psychology.
Going Against the ?Stay in the Biggest Lineup? Status Quo
This morning, the condition was similar to yesterday, with some nice inside walls plus a period of close outs. But, knowing the place really helped. As usual, there were just tons of people lined up in the area just in front of the parking lot. To the north and to the south, the crowd was thinned out. May be I should shut up about this and should go on with my business.
But, like I wrote before, I still totally do not understand why people bunch up like that, when there obviously are waves to be had should you paddle to the north a bit. Especially today, it was not that much bigger elsewhere, and the waves did not look so much better there than other places to me. I have even read from Josh's post on the message board that there was a guy complaining out other long board people stealing waves. But I must bet that this guy was also in the bunched up area. I'd say that if this guy is good enough, why not explore more options.
Going Against ?Let's Wait for the Bigger Set Lineup? Status Quo
As for me though, on a crowded days like this, I now appreciate the extra endurance and paddling power that I got, plus a bit better condition reading abilities. There were periods that set waves were closing out one after another, and I'd just sit inside of that and if a soup hits, I'd just turtle and when a bigger close outs come, I would ride reforms. Then there were some periods that there were some smaller but nice and clean breaks that nobody was taking, and I'd have really smooth and nice rides on those. If you do too much of this, I would get noticed and people starts to paddle out right where I was playing in. But this is not a problem, I already have read other areas that I can go to, so as soon as they arrive I just move on. Today, this wasn't too much of an issue because there were people waiting on outside where only it was closing out, and on a rare occasion where the walls did form, just a limited few good surfers were taking those. Majority of the others were just messing up on take offs lefts and rights. So, I'd wait for these boards to shoot up in the air, like the balloons they release at the Olympics opening ceremony, and then I'd just take off from the inside, totally clean and nice.
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