Big Wonderful Waves, Big Wonderful Wipeouts

It should have been epic out there today.  But alas, I just couldn’t make it all come together.  There were lovely tubes out there at Beach Bowls this evening.  Lovely, lovely barrels.  But a number of factors clouded my chi and I just could pull one off.  First, due to rain, I hadn’t been out in the water in too many days.  Plus, last time I was out it was 1-2 and not 4-5+.  (I like to get out there everyday as it builds up.  I’m not good enough to just hop in on a mackin’ day and tear it up.) Also, I chose to go fullsuit, which was a mistake because the air temperature was 80, so I was cooking from the waist up, constantly dumping water on my head to cool off.  Finally, the waves were coming in directly under the setting sun.  So, the sun, plus the sun’s reflection off the water was like God’s dagger in the eye every time I tried to size up a wave.  I’m not complaining though.  I got out there, and I loved it.

The waves I did tie into though, were spectacular.  Very fast and very strong.  But I seemed to want to try and ride them too high and invariably was knocked off the lip.

I also had a nice visit from a pod of dolphins and a sea lion who rolled up on the surface, barked at me, then waved his flipper.  I waved back, “Yo, sea lion.”