September 18, 2009 Friday

Pacifica	Linda Mar
9:45 am to 10:40 am	3' to 6', sets overhead
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Sunny and clear	Fun session

“Seal!” yelled an older gentleman standing in front of his RV at the south end of Linda Mar.

“Seal,” he repeated and pointed towards the water.

I had just taken a few photos of the surfers and was heading back to my car with the camera around my neck to suit up when this gentleman looking straight at me yelled seal. He had seen a photo opportunity and was alerting me to it. I turned and saw a large seal amongst the small rocks and sand of the beach, nose pointed towards the sky waving its head back and forth. I gave a wave of thanks to the old gentleman and moved slowly towards the seal for some close-up shots.

Seals don’t usually come ashore on beaches occupied by humans unless they are sick or dying. A small crowd was gathering around. This beast continued moving its head back and forth, stayed in the same spot and paid no attention to the people around it. The seal had a foot long gash in its hind flippers. The wound was not deep, more a scrape, but it was fresh and covered with blood. You can see the wound in the above photo. I took a few shots then headed back to the car to suit up. By the time I came back with board in my hand the seal was gone. It must have returned to water. I had no idea what happened to it.

Today I was going to have lunch with some old work buddies in Foster City. Good excuse to surf Linda Mar before meeting up with my friends. The swell had come up, Stormsurf predicted four to six feet waves and they were correct. Ocean Beach was big, bumpy and ugly when I drove by. A couple of surfers were trying for stormy looking waves at Rockaway Beach. Coming over the ridge at Linda Mar no one was surfing at the north end. Usually surfers are spread across the entire cove. When the waves are big, the north end closes out and the surfers move to the far south end where the waves are smaller. That’s what was happening today.

I watched big walls come in and crash as solid 50-yard curtains of water. Nobody was getting any decent rides, merely big drops down head-high walls. It didn’t look inviting. Due to my lunch plans, I was committed to be somewhere down here for the next three hours. I thought about heading south to Montara or Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay. But those breaks would be huge close outs also. Maybe I could just take photos there. Standing at the south end I observed a young woman who had the right strategy. She waited for lulls to paddle out, positioned for and took off on the smaller waves between sets, cut right and traveled a long ways before the waves closed out. She was good, walking up and down the board, trimming high in waves, cutting back and dropping down the faces before the waves unloaded on her. “I can do that,” I thought to myself. “That’s my strategy.”

Following her lead, I too went for the between set waves with some success. My first wave was a head-high wall. I cut right and went a long ways before straightening out. After a half hour I realized that the waves looked more threatening from shore than in the water. They did not crash from top to bottom. Just the opposite, the waves crested, white water would slide from the top and slowly roll to the bottom. You had plenty to time to gently cruise down the face and coast out in front of the white water of the fully broken wave. My confidence built up as I connected with more waves. At the end of the session I was comfortable in the water, sat inside, waited until white water began to form on the top of the walls, stroked into the waves, cruised right down head-high faces and calmly straightened out when the waves closed out.

The tide continued to rise causing the white water of the waves to roar up the rock embankment at the south end. Getting out could be tricky. I paddled north pass the end of the embankment to where a few patches of sand appeared amongst the hundreds of small sea-worn rocks. To come in, I caught a small wave, straightened out and lay down on my board to ride over the rocks to a patch of sand. It worked and my board only “bonked” once on a rock.

In the patch of sand that I was aiming for, a longboarder about my age was sitting on a rock rubbing his knee.

“So did you get some good ones?” I asked.

“You know I did a really stupid thing,” he answered. “I was coming in on my belly when a wave picked me up and turned me sideways. I dropped my legs in the water to slow the board down and to gain control. I hit a rock right on my knee-cap and it hurts.”

“You need any help?” I asked.

“No, I will be alright,” he answered. “I’m going home to put some ice on it and have a beer.”

It was just another beautiful day at the beach.