March 27, 2009 Friday

Torrance Beach	Base of the north ramp
9:00 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4', sets 5' to 6'
High upcoming tide	Offshore breeze
Sunny with high haze (typical Los Angeles)	Good session

http://www.rivierawaveriders.org

Today the Riviera Waveriders adopted me. Above is the link to their website, be sure to check it out.

I was in the parking lot at Torrance Beach suiting up when Mike and his wife walked by. He called out my name, which he had remembered.

“Loren give me a piece of paper and I’ll write down our website,” he said. “We post photos of all of us out in the water.”

“I have a surf blog too,” I said. I had just locked the car thus paper was not available. Mike said he would leave me a note at the lifeguard tower and he was planning to go out after his morning walk with his wife.

Thirty minutes later, I was enjoying some good waves; Mike paddled out and told me he had left a note for me under the north corner of the lifeguard tower. He asked for the name of my blog and took a couple of pictures of me with a small Olympus waterproof digital camera he tucks under the neck of his wetsuit. He then remembered his camera takes videos and records sound. So I yelled “Lorenzo’s Surf Journal” into his camera.

Mike introduced me to all his companions, longboarders, older types but not all. Each one paddled over to me, said hello and shook my hand. What a great crew. I felt right at home. We all shared the waves and hooted the glory of every great ride, which today were several.

The weather reports all week had predicted warmer days and Santana winds starting Thursday night and lasting through Saturday. Today was warm and clear with an offshore breeze. The kelp soup of the other day had disappeared. Like all week, the swells were clean and had some size, but because tide was lower the waves were more walled but still makeable. With the encouragement of the Waveriders I went for at least one of every set with great success. I remember one good right, I dropped into a head high swell, swung right, climbed to mid curl, gain some speed, shot down the line, watched the wave feather and break in front me, I ploughed through the white water, climbed back into the swell and cruised through the shore break. I turned around in time to watch Matt, whom I had just met, come down a right breaking wall, skillfully driving his board under the white water to climb back into the swell and end high in the curl of the collapsing shore break.

“Matt, what a good ride,” I said to him as we paddled back out. “I like how you drove under the white water back into the swell.”

“You got the big one of the set,” he responded. “I just followed your lead.”

And so it went all morning: warm sunshine, beautiful waves and a great crowd. What a good session.

Many thanks to Kahuna Mike and the Rivera Waveriders for taking me in and sharing their waves. Waveriders, the invite is extended. We have a similar crew of surfers at Bolinas who would love for you to join us to enjoy our unique break.