Surfers' weekend. No swell showed on Saturday. Only marginal waves. Ridiculous crowds. Beautiful conditions. Got a few lined up sliders.
Sunday it begins. I drive from priceless pier to holiness haven. Lots of spots with some waves. Lots of lulls between waves. Lots of people complaining about the lots of people. A little county knowledge leads to many beautiful waves with a more manageable crowd. The longest lefts I've surfed in years. 100 yards if they were an inch. About head high, perfect glass.
Monday it continues. No looking around, just surfing. Same spot, same result. I dared an hour p.m. session at Civil Rights. A few beautiful waves come through. I catch six. I am dropped in on three times. Twice by don't-know-betters, once by "ASmith is too deep" guy. I wasn't too deep.
I am not complaining. I scored.
Yet...
I had two really grunmply moments. A SUP guy paddles out and wobbles in the impact zome losing his boat towards me and others repeatedly. I snap a little and embarassingly refer to him as "bobblehead" and "Kooky". "ASmith is too deep guy" gets a tirade about looking behind him and so on. Embarassing.
Don't be me. Don't become angry crowd surfer guy. I probably rode twenty waves of high quality over two days and countless more average waves. All of this in beautiful Socal conditions. Yet I found a way to be episodically grumpy. This is my penance, my public flaggelation. I apologize.
I give thanks.
Posts
8 comments:
I appreciate your comment about not getting grumpy in the line-up, especially when you're scoring. Really it's like the first time you realize, as a teenager or whenever, that you're having bad sex. It's still sex, and as a youngster you should be stoked just to be getting your duck in the mud.
I'm trying to apply that bit to other aspects in life like not getting pissed in traffic. Unfortunately, commuting is nothing like surfing OR sex, so I might have to take up meditation or some such thing!
Take care,
David
just don't meditate while you're driving. don't listen to talk radio or the news. jazz, classical, or a mindfulness cd is the way to go.
ASmith, don't be so hard on yourself, you were just telling it like it is. And I'm sorry I dropped in on you, I didn't know any better.
3tree- I dig your analogy. I have to agree, it's not going to work with traffic. I've heard that Sea-tall is a mess traffic wise. Whatever happened to the monorail plan?
Anon- Well, thanks to my serious tongue-lashing it will never happen again:) Next time, we share the wave and do figure eights the whole way.
Hello ASmith,
the waves at my spot are too average most of the time to attrackt, eh, anybody so i can't complain about crowds. I guess i'm lucky cause i like small and average waves :D
A friend of mine always keeps surfing when he gets dropped in on, trying to get as close to the other surfer as possible and smiling brightly. Not many people try that a second time :D
Eef
monsterboards.org
K1- nice summary. digging your sepia portfolio of recent days
Eef- May you never have need to contend with the hordes that inhabit my surfing dreams and nightmares. A sacred blessing upon you, my surfing brother from afar!
i can appreciate your comment on grumpy - i live up in Nor Cal - Marin County - we have more space up here in the water than you guys down south - and yet never fails to find everyone sitting on top of each other like sheep - why is that? A drive down the coast a mile either way can yield un crowded perfection. It's damn hard to stay cool when you have people around you in the water with no clue - and those that have plenty of knowledge but refuse to use it.
These days i just try to ignore it and when i can't ignore it - i go find some lonely peak down the beach. stay cool and keep wet.
"These days i just try to ignore it and when i can't ignore it - i go find some lonely peak down the beach. stay cool and keep wet."- Anon
Good words. I'm with you. But don't you get a sharky vibe up there?
Hey - borntoloser - i was away all weekend from my computer - and some places up here very sharky vibe for sure. Sometimes you just are sitting by yourself or with a few bodies around you and it's like your little voice starts going - "GET OUT!". But other places, like OB - i rarely get that feeling - even though i know it's a place frequently visited by Uncle Whitey. cheers,
Post a Comment