The Swell Comes In, Bigtime

After my last posting it rained (11/12 and 11/13). By the time the rain had cleared up I was sick. I stayed sick until this past weekend when I finally went surfing again. Saturday (12/10) was small and weak. I was riding a board I borrowed from a guy at work. He wanted to sell it to me and I told him I wanted to try before I buy. It was a 9-0 longboard with a ton of rocker. The surf on Saturday probably didn't do it justice, but I could tell it wasn't what I was looking for.

Sunday morning a big swell came in. Travis Chase and I met at 17th St but it was completely walled out. We ended up at Bolsa Chica and had a great day. Even up at Bolsa the sets were coming in a few feet overhead and there was a slight offshore. The waves were a bit tricky to catch because they got steep very quickly and you had to time it just right. I caught a big left, made the bottom turn then looked up to see a wall of water well over my head and closing fast. I turned hard into the wave to get some speed then turned for the shore just as the water crashed behind me. I caught a super late takeoff on another left, made the drop and just dove hard into the face of the wave. A bit later I tried the same thing going right, but the wave won that one.

At one point I saw Travis paddle for a wave. I watched him take off on it then looked out to sea and saw the monster behind it. I layed down and paddled as hard as I could to try and get out far enough to avoid getting crushed. Using all the power available in my already rubbery arms I just made it over as the lip was starting to spill over. It was big enough that when I made it over the top there was that moment of freefall going down the back. I knew from where I had last seen Travis that he was going to get crushed. Sure enough, when I caught sight of him he was off his board in the water surrounded by bubbling white foam. When I asked him about it later he told me that he saw it coming and knew he was screwed. "By the time it got to me," he said, "I was laughing. I just bailed off my board and dove for the bottom."

We also got a visit from one of the larger pods of dolphins that I have seen. There were more than 10 of them, including some young ones, and they swam directly under us. The young one and one of the large older ones were breaching a lot so there were splashes and blows on all sides. It took the group what seemed like several minutes to swim past us. It was quite exciting. It was a fun day and we left the beach weary and satisfied.

I didn't surf Monday, but was back today at 17th street. The tide was super high, but the swell was still holding but was very slow in the high tide. With only 10 minutes left before I needed to get out and go to work I still hadn't caught a wave. I was not paying a lot of attention and kept making the wrong decision about where to line up. I ended up catching two short rides before coming in. It was already after 7:00 when after paddling after a wave and not catching it, I looked back to see the set wave crashing behind me. I saw Travis catch the shoulder off to my left and I just turned to catch the whitewash. At least I didn't have to paddle in.