Mystic Foggy Porto

I know I keep saying that every day is epic lately, but today was an A+.  The wave size and shape was great (not stellar, but great).  There were some straight up close outs, but close outs weren’t the majority and when you did lock into a line, it was a fast, super charged ride staying in the pocket.  Overall, most of the rides in the early morning before the tide rose were exhilarating.  Many were just on the cusp of my comfort level, so I really pushed myself to go for it.

Secondly, due to the incredibly thick fog, one really couldn’t see the break from the shore.  But one could hear that the waves were powerful.  So it was a definite gamble going out and I guess a lot of people chose not to go.  So, the line up with really thinned out. (The trade off being that visibility was extremely limited and we had to keep extra vigilant for rogue waves rolling in from the ether.)

At one point a pod (gang) of dolphins strolled through the line up and started riding the waves, flipping out of the water and carrying on like dolphins do.  One wave started rolling in and Josh and I both turned to gun for it.  But this dolphin swam right between us at full speed and called the wave.  Surreal and awesome.

The crew was hardcore today and kudos to them all.  We all boldly took on the ocean and I think we all paid the fiddler at one point or another.  We paddled out south of the parking lot.  Right off the bat, Jordan took a monster set on the head and washed all the way down to the refinery (though he didn’t really know he’d drifted that far due to fog).  I broke my leash on a gnarly wipeout. Chris lacerated his foot in two places on a super gutsy take-off come industrial spin cycle. Josh got washed away at some point.  And after Peter and I split a wave, I never heard from him again…(until I called him later to make sure he made it out fine).

But the great waves, low crowds, action dolphin encounter, mystic fog and extra toll we all paid made for and epic surfing adventure.

There was not much video to be had.  The size of the waves and the super thick fog where just too much for the little Flip Ultra HD.  And with Aaron’s upcoming wedding, I’m not at my base station, and this little laptop is just not powerful enough to edit video.  But I’ll get it out tomorrow.