January 10, 2009 Saturday

Pacifica	Linda Mar
10:30 am to 11:45 am	4' to 5' sets overhead
High tide - 7.2 ft at 10:00 am	Stiff offshore wind
Sunny, clear and cold	Frustrating session

It was Saturday morning and I was enjoying my favorite pastime of reading in bed with a cup of coffee when the phone rang.

“I bet that’s your son and he wants to go surfing,” Kate said to me and she was right.

“Dad, per the Internet, Pacifica is perfect. Let’s go,” stated Kevin.

Being retired I don’t normally go surfing on weekends, but this was an opportunity to be with my son so I agreed to pick him up and head for Linda Mar. I looked at the buoy report: 15 knot east winds, six foot swell every 13 seconds out of the north producing four to six foot waves at Linda Mar. The parking lot was full but with luck we pulled into a slot as someone was leaving. Across the cove, a hundred surfers were in the water. At first glance it looked flat, then a set came in and several guys intently drove down overhead walls of water. The offshore winds blew plumes of spray off the tops of the peaks. The winds were cold and so was the water. We didn’t see any channels thus we headed a short ways to the north and entered the water. My son had done it again. Here I was following him out into intimidating surf. Due to the high tide the waves were breaking fairly close to shore. I waited for a lull and paddled hard to get out. My new board paddles fast and I made it outside with only having to go through white water of one wave.

Once outside we joined a group of ten others. We observed that the take-offs were flat with water sliding down from the top of the waves, not top to bottom boomers. Good I can handle these I thought to myself. We also observed that the waves had to be steep, straight up and down, in order to catch them. I paddled for several but could not push into them. “They have to be steeper,” I said to myself. Finally I got one, I paddled hard, looked over the edge of a big drop, spray in my face, momentum pushed me into it, I began to stand up, felt the wind lift the board slightly, I leaned forward to force the board over the edge and dropped down the face of an overhead wave. Another surfer was in front of me. We both angled left down a large swell. White water began breaking several feet in front of us and I smoothly coasted down the face and out in front of the wall of foam. To avoid a long paddle back out, I dove off into the turbulence to get out of the wave. Good move. After waiting for a couple of waves to pass, I easily paddled back out to the peak.

Kevin and I sat outside waiting when the next set came through. A big left approached, crested and began to break. Kevin was closer to the peak and went for it while I scratched to get over it. A curtain of spray blew off the top and small rainbow formed in the glitter of the rain as the wave passed under me. I looked back to watch Kevin and saw nothing but the wake of his board. It was over his head and for several seconds he did not appear until the wave had collapsed into a sheet of white water. I caught the last wave of the set and dropped down another overhead wave. I saw Kevin paddling out and straightened out to stay clear of him. Later, I asked him about his ride. He went a long ways before the wave closed out.

In one hour I caught three waves, that’s all, one wave every twenty minutes. What was I doing besides freezing my tutu? Paddling around, jockeying for position with the other guys and letting one big closeout after another pass by. No body was catching any decent rides. Kevin headed north to the next peak in hope of finding better waves. I kept thinking the waves to the south looked better. I drifted in to catch one more wave. Several of the walls broke to the right. A good one came through I caught it, angled right and dropped down the face. It was head high. For an instance I glanced at a perfect wave: a long line peeling to the right, strong offshore wind holding up the curl, and bright sunlight dancing off the top. “Go for it,” I said to myself and leaned into the curl. The breaking part of the wave behind me hit the tail block of my board, my feet flew into the air, the board shot forward and I hit the water tail first. I quickly surfaced and concluded that three waves were enough for today. I waded through a rough shore break and was relieved to be safely on dry land.

A couple days later, Russ told me he was out there at the same time and he too froze, was frustrated and only caught three waves.