Session 5136: Carmel Cove with my New Rusty

To get out of a routine, we've decided to check out Seaside and Carmel Cove this afternoon.

This morning the first wax went on my new 6'3 Rusty Piranha along with a traction pad and set of Rusty #6 fins plus a couple of stickers. From today on it is a used board. I did not load other boards but this one and headed towards Carmel.

This was dropping off my wet suit at Blown Out Wet Suit to get the zipper fixed and lunch at Paula's both on Portola in Santa Cruz. The owner woman at the wet suit place is so kind and helpful; I do recommend everyone to head out there if you got any wet suit repairs needed.

After lunch, we headed out to Carmel, and stopped at the Seaside just a bit north of Monterey, and it was not happening at all by a quick look from the parking lot. So we headed straight to Carmel. The idea was that while "she shops", "I surf" and my friend told me that there are some nice waves from time to time on the NW swells.

Even though we have been to Carmel many times, we've never checked out the beach, thinking that it is not that great. That was when I was not a surfer and I was not looking for the ocean beach, and as a result I've always equated Carmel with shopping. But it is always nice to be proven wrong. Actually there was a whole stretch of a white sand beach we have not thought that existed with a plenty of parking spaces on the street near by, and I saw waves breaking rather in a good size; from shoulder to over head level.

I went in the water and carefully walked out as far as I could to make sure that I know the bottom and there are no rocks, then a bunch of set came in at overhead level and they were rather fast. I was down to hip to low chest level, so I was a bit worried about it since if I mess it up, I could break the board, let alone fighting with the crowd of dozen surfers.

I avoided the main pack and went a bit further to the south part of the cove.

As I was paddling out I did not feel much in the difference of paddling with other shorter length boards I have, but when I sat on it, it started to sink a bit. It was a bit of surprise but now I am like these other cool surfers that when they are on a line up, their boards are under the water! As many of my friends say, I now have a much less foam under me. So rather than submerging all of the board under the water I sat a bit more towards the tail of the board so that the front of the board is out of the water, which gave me a bit easier feeling that I am still floating.

In terms of catching waves, I felt that I was a bit still out of the league, but I did find a few shoulders within my range of "almost doable" and I was able to get into these waves a bit. From here my lack of the skill was still obvious and cannot get quickly enough into the wall, so the ride stopped under the immediate close outs. But I do see the potential, and I think that these types of conditions are workable.