Session 5119: Keep Stoked, Man!

I am going to write a bit backwards in the order of events, but later in the afternoon I got a call from Ren to the effect of "How come you were able to surf at the Linda Mar beach when it looked poor." Well, I guess it must have been the local wind. This morning the wind was basically nil, but yes, the condition was, as a "SurfPulse" would put, would have been on a poor side.

Surfing is really difficult from many aspects, and condition is one of them.

But this is the thing with me these days, I am determined to find surfable waves, and even if that means that I need to wait around among the close outs, I'd do it. And so far, I could. Even if it looks like just a mess out there, if I paddle out things tend to get a bit cleaner than from the vantage point of the beach, and even more, if I'd wait long enough, there will be a short window of time that the ocean becomes completely calm then start to pick up again. That's when I paddle to the outside and catch a few waves. Granted that I have a luxury of getting out practically every day, but even if I don't I would go, unless it is really dangerous looking.

To some extent that I have paid enough dues out in the ocean that I now have a bit better options than to hope for the best condition, be it cold or junky. I will try to find the spot where I can catch waves. I have no issues catching inside reforms, it is a lot of fun, but I know there is quite a bit of stigma attached to doing that. Who'd want to ride the soup? But I do, because some of these soups can build up to be shoulder or even bigger in size waves and they have the walls to get into, and if I was more skilled I could rip in them a lot better. I probably don't look good catching lot of waves like them, but then a majority of people I see are sitting way too far out and not catching as many waves as I do in a session. I am simply stating that that's my idea of surfing fun is, and obviously that's not necessarily the case with many other surfers surrounding me.

Also, whether it is the summer or the winter in this area, the best condition days are only a few dozen days (and during a limited window of time) a year, the rest of the time it is either a mess or flat, and only at a select few places if you happened on them. In the winter it is too big, and in the summer it is either too windy or too junky or whatever.

So, discussing the condition is one thing, but I would like to encourage people to get the most out of any condition days unless it is down-right dangerous. The last thing I would want go in is to start complaining everything wrong about the situation, and quitting altogether, and when I start seeing that in my surf friends would be really sad.