Breaching Dolphins and Ankle Biters at El Porto Friday

The ankle-biters were snappin’ like catfish today. And the waves that did have some “size” to them tended to close out before they began.  Due to the poor forecast we were down to the core Portoers (Highlighters), just Aaron, Josh and me. Still the water was warm so were were all out in trunks, which is a plus.  That seems to be the trade-off for southern California surfing – warm water = no surf.  Also the dolphins were breaching like fiends this morning, so we did get a floor show with our tiny waves.

Still we made the most of what we had today and still smiled and laughed.  (Which is what it’s really is all about.)  We also tested out a few of the “most embarrassing moments,” and indeed, we confirm they are embarrassing.  (If you haven’t voted yet – VOTE!) But we are still bummed that the swell has been so flat for so long now.  Didn’t anyone do the McConaughfronds on Wednesday?

Celebrity sighting today.  When we were in the parking lot, we saw Tyler Hatzikian, famed longboard shaper and surfer, delivering some new boards to some other dudes in the parking lot.  (His boards are featured in Singlefin: Yellow and One California Day.) One of the boards was an odd shape I never seen before called The Riddler.  Here’s the description from Tyler’s website (all you noseriders might want to look into this):

The Riddler has a square nose 7 1/2″ flat. The tail is also square 6″ flat with a soft stinger wing, 6 foot bottom concave and 3 foot step tail. Question mark resin design standard. It blew minds at the Oceanside Noseriding Contest, with crazy looks and mind-bending nose rides. People rave about its turning ability. This is very time consuming to build.

• 9’2″ to 10’0″, Thickness 3 1/8″
• Nose 18″, Tail 15 1/8″
• Width 22 7/8″, triple stringer t band
• 6x10oz Volan Deck, 10oz Bottom