Session 5187

First, answer to a question from one of the readers. "Who is this legendary guy that you mentioned?" Well, I am vowed to keep this BLOG HIPPA compliant so whatever I write about someone (except that StokeMasters web site members will get a direct mention), I must make sure that person is not involuntarily mentioned in public. But the reason why this person is legendary is because he used to be a very prominent local surfer in the area and I heard about him many times from a few other locals that I surf with and how great of a surfer he was. Then I actually had met him once at Montara during a surf check and he started to speak to me in Japanese. Turns out he was living in Japan for several years for his job. But I have not heard from him or saw him surf since. This was at least 7-10 months ago in the late fall or winter.

Anyhow, he suddenly shows up in our 3-peopoe line up and we started to talk. So, that was really fun and amazed to see him take these close outs at ease. There are several other well known surfers too so I am sure I will eventually get to surf with them. First though I still need to get better so I would not be totally out of a league and place.

Now onto this morning's surfing.

The sun was totally out this morning, indicating the start of fall, perhaps, a wishful thinking. As I go enter the Devil's Slide section, I see some solid swell lines coming in again, indicating a fall like feel. I was excited and at the same time I was still a bit intimidated by it.

This morning I went to Linda Mar because that would be the best bet for me. When I got to the spot though, the north end was already fairly big, so I decided to do the south end, and it was actually decent! I was pleased by the shoulder level high sets. Today, I took out the 7'5 JC Equalizer and that was really fun to catch a bit larger waves on the outside. The reason why I say it was fun is because due to the size of the board, the speed I can get out of that thing is really good, and once I get in the speed and I really like to take big turns with it.

There were a ton of women out this morning. Yes, they must be polishing up their surfing skills for the women's contest. Since it will be at Linda Mar, why not practice right at the location. Now that I thought about that I now realized that the situation is a bit different if you are practicing for the HMB Classic because you don't know until the night before the contest.

On the way out I checked the north end one more time. The waves did have some shape. There was nobody on the waves but I bet that would have been fun if I got a courage to do it, or have someone better than me to come along, I've gone there.