February 3, 2009 Tuesday

Ventura	Surfers' Point
7:15 am to 8:45 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
High outgoing tide	Stiff offshore breeze to no wind
Sunny and warm, heat wave	Fun session

Dawn Patrol

My brother and sister in-law are morning people. I spent the night at their place in Ventura. Larry was up and out of the house by 5:30 am. Joan, who owns her own law firm, had another busy day planned and was gone by 6:10 am. I left at 6:15 am, stopped at Starbucks for coffee and was at Surfers’ Point by 6:40 am. The sky was light but the sun was not up yet.

Classic two to three foot waves were peeling out front. I took pictures of an old surfer who had the place wired. He was always positioned at the peak when a set rolled in. This morning the sets moved around and so did he. Surfers’ Point is a right point break, but lefts often appear on the north edge of the peaks. This guy walked the nose in both directions, true hanging five, toes right on the tip of his board. In the above photo he performed a classic head-dip. I was impressed and stoked; I wanted some of those.

My wetsuit and rash guard were cold and wet. The offshore wind was picking up. Wet gear and wind equals evaporation, which equals cold. My fingers were turning numb before I got into the water. I entered the surf at 7:15 am, the earliest I have been in the water in months.

I spotted the old guy who had the placed wired. I figured I would stay near him since he knew when the sets were coming. I said hello to him, he grunted at me and paddled on, so much for this plan.

Even though I had surfed here before and knew the trick was to sit inside and take off late, I had trouble catching waves. I caught a right wave that closed out in front of me. I caught another that was a well-formed peak. I dropped down a nice face, turned right and the wave died. Then I connected with a good left. I saw the wave approaching from a long ways out there. I paddled towards the peak and so did two other guys. I went left and they went right. I turned into a steep line-up, stepped to the middle of the board and cruised through a beautiful section.

For the next half hour I didn’t catch much. Lots of paddling around looking for that elusive peak, sitting through long lulls and paddling for and missing several waves. Finally I connected. After missing one good-looking wave, I turned around and to my good fortune was a four-foot glassy wall cresting in front of me. I stroked into it, dropped down a steep face, positioned myself in the middle of the swell and sailed down this wave a long ways before it broke in front of me near the shore.

This put me at the peak to the south, near the small point that I surfed the last time I was here. The one guy that was there paddled north, and I had the peak to myself. For the next half hour, I connected with four small well-formed right waves, smooth rides, not fast. The trick was cutting through the kelp. Seaweed was alive and well. Hitting kelp was like slamming on the brakes, the board stops for an instance until the skeg cuts through it. Rocks, kelp and crowds were the challenges of Surfers’ Point.

At 8:40 am I was spent. I paddled north to where my car was parked and waited with two others for a set. I drifted in to ensure of catching one. The tide was going out causing the size of the waves to drop. The wind had stopped and the surface glassed off. A left wave approached, I dropped into it, locked my rail under the lip of the curl and shot through a section into shallow water with foam boiling around the rocks, a good ending to a fun session.

By 9:15 am I was at Corrales, which serves the best burritos in Ventura, for a breakfast burrito of chorizo, eggs, onions and tomatoes. At Corrales the customer selects the ingredients. I made a quick stop at Starbucks to fill my travel mug, filled the car with gas and was on the road by 10:15 am for the long drive home to Mill Valley.

I wrote this at McDonald’s in Paso Robles, which is owned by my good friend Greg and his son Dana. I stayed on diet by having a Caesar salad with grilled chicken and an ice tea. One can purchase healthy food at a McDonald’s. Not a bad start to the day. I love scenery especially the California coast. So at Salinas, I turned onto Highway 186 to connect with Highway 1 at Castroville, the artichoke capital of the world, and traveled through Santa Cruz and along the beautiful sunset lit coast to High Moon Bay to arrive at home at 6:00 pm.