September 11, 2008 Thursday

Bolinas	Channel
8:50 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets 5' to 6'
Mid upcoming tide	SE cross breeze, later no wind
High overcast	Excellent session

Perfection – Bolinas at its best.

I caught eight, and I was counting them, shoulder to head high fast glassy, perfect peeling left curls at the Channel this morning. The New Zealand south swell that Stormsurf had predicted for a week was still pumping: 2.6 ft south swell at 14 seconds, combined with a 4.5 ft northwest wind swell at nine seconds. By 10:00 am there was no wind, none, nada and the surface was tabletop smooth. At the furthest peak at the Channel every ten minutes a set of clean four to six foot waves came marching through and only five of us were out there.

When I checked out the Channel Marty and another guy were there. I watched Marty connect on three long curl rides. I knew I was in for some good waves. At first I was having trouble locating the best take off point. The waves were breaking fast, so positioning and timing were important. Josh the Bolinas fisherman and his younger fishing companion, who was learning to surf, came paddling out. Josh went straight for the furthest peak at the Channel, sat there a couple of minutes and connected with a beautiful five-foot wall, which he made. I got a perfect sideways view of Josh on his knees, which is his style, locked in the curl with the lip of the wave pitching over his head.

Seeing this I paddled over to the point where Josh had been. I lined myself up with the big white house at the end of Wharf Road, which put me on the north edge of the Channel. Within minutes I caught a good, clean, fast, peeling wall. My first great ride, I paddled back to the same point, waited another couple of minutes, in came another one, and I did it again.

Five of us were out there for an hour picking off these perfect waves: Marty, Josh, Josh’s fishing buddy, Ken another Bolinas regular and myself. Each of us scored several good waves. After two hours I was exhausted and ready to go in. Marty had already left and Josh and his companion were talking about one more wave. “We need a set of three waves,” Josh stated, and a couple of minutes later in it came. I missed the first one, Josh and friend caught the next two and fortunately for me there was a fourth one, a big one. I went for it, pushed myself over the edge, dropped into a head high wall, climbed to mid-curl, crouched down and screamed across a glassy face. I didn’t make it, the wave collapsed in front of me into a mountain of white water and I dove into the turbulence. What a great way to end the session. As I walk along the beach to the ramp I looked back at the Channel, Ken was paddling back out to the far peak while another beautiful wave peeled down the line unridden.

I chatted with Marty and Tom in the parking lot. All three of us were excited about this morning’s quality waves. I introduced myself to Tom who is about my age and I have seen here for years. He went out at the Channel but had moved to the Patch where he scored several good long rides. He mentioned that he had been surfing at Bolinas since 1965 his favorite spot and he was going to retire in nine days. Marty and I chimed in that retirement was wonderful and both of us are surfing three to five times a week. I proudly related to Tom that I had dropped thirty pounds and fifteen points off my blood pressure. Tom is a counselor for the county sheriff’s department, a high stress position. With sadness he talked about a long time close work companion who was looking forward to retirement had just dropped over from cancer. His story reminded us that you have to go for it while your health is still sound.

September 10, 2008 Wednesday

Pacifica	Linda Mar
8:00 am to 10:00 am	Consistent 4' to 5', sets overhead
High upcoming tide	Slight offshore breeze, later onshore
Overcast, gray, cold	Good session

“Dad, you must have caught a long one,” Kevin said when I finally paddled outside where he was.

“No, I sat inside to let that big set go by,” I responded. “Hey, there’s a channel over there and the waves are breaking into it.”

I met Kevin this morning at Linda Mar for a short surf session before he had to go to work. We paddled out in front of the restrooms, south of the crowd at the north peak where there appeared to be a left break. I was apprehensive when paddling out; the waves were huge and bigger than last Friday. The sets were big intimating walls that were not makeable, and I stroked over one huge swell after another. After letting several roll by, I finally caught one, an overhead fast wall that crashed in front of me. I immediately dove into the white water to avoid having a long paddle back out. But it was the first wave of a set of ten. I had to sit inside in shallow water until they all passed. Sitting there I observed a deep channel to the north. The walls broke left into the channel. I aimed for the middle of the channel and paddled back out without getting my hair wet.

Great, now I had the spot and a strategy, sit on the south edge of the channel and go left. These walls of water were breaking left due to the shape of the bottom. My next wave was another overhead swell. I locked into the curl, slid under white water that broke in front of me, climbed back into the swell, hit the deeper water of the channel, cut back to work into the shore break. Great ride, I quickly turned around, paddle up the middle of the channel and turned south into position for another wave.

Having surfed here three times in the last two weeks, my confidence was up. I caught several good head high fast lefts. Knowing the channel was there, I took off on walls that appeared to be close outs. But once up I could see the waves were holding up, I powered through curls into the flat water of the channel.

Despite the channel, the biggest waves were close outs. The big ones folded over into curtains of white water from one end of the beach to the other. With my confidence up, I went for one. A big wall was coming through, I though I saw some left formation to it, feathering at the top, I decided to go for it. I didn’t even think about it, I just went. I paddled hard, the board rose up as the swell started passing under me, I looked over the edge of a big drop, for an instance I hesitated, “I’m into it,” I thought to myself, “go for it.” I stood up, swung left, began the drop down a huge wave, looking up at the top above my head, I sailed down the face. The wave exploded all around me, the white water was head high, the board bounced violently but I hung on. I aimed for the channel, the wave began to reform enough for me trim under the white water, and I glided near the shore break and pulled out. Wow, what a wave. Later, Kevin mentioned that I was standing on the end of the tail block; he didn’t think I would be able to hang on, the nose dipped into the water and bounced out and I hung on. We estimated the face was at lease eight feet.

Kevin and I played the one more wave game. One more and we would go in, but we paddled around missing one wave after another. The tide was coming in, the water was getting deeper, and the waves became flatter and more difficult to catch. Kevin finally connected on a huge wall. It was feathering at the top, I thought it would close out and paddled over it, but Kevin went for it. I looked back and saw Kevin’s head screaming in front of the spray of the breaking part of the wave for a long ways as he cruised into the channel. It was a great ride.

With Kevin having gone in, I moved inside determined to catch anything. I caught what I thought was a close out, but it didn’t. I planted the board in the middle of a six-foot curl, crouched down in the middle of the board and shot through a fast section. What a good way to end an exciting session. Kevin and I felt good about this morning’s accomplishments and vowed to do it again.

September 5, 2008 Friday

Marin County to Pacifica	Fort Cronkhite, Linda Mar & Sloat Ave
Sunny, hot, heat wave	Huge beautiful waves

http://gallery.me.com/lorenlmoore1

Today was a spectacular day for surfing: a three-foot seventeen-second south swell combined with a six foot nine second NW swell on a hot, sunny, heat-wave day with no wind, creating glassy smooth conditions and bright blue-green seas. These conditions lasted all day. I traveled to Fort Cronkhite in Marin and Linda Mar in Pacifica in the morning and stopped at Sloat Avenue at Ocean Beach in the afternoon. I took over 140 photos and edited them down to 87. Above is a link to my photo album.

• Images 3618 to 3687 are Fort Cronkhite between 8:00 to 9:00 am.

• Images 3695 to 3743 are Sloat Ave at Ocean Beach between 3:00 to 4:00 pm.

Fort Cronkhite

To take advantage of the good south swell and to meet my old work buddies for lunch in Foster City, I decided to head south to surf in the morning. Nate one of the owners of the Proof Lab surf shop had mentioned that the Potato Patch reef reflects south swells right into Fort Cronkhite. Great I’ll go there; I haven’t surf there in years. At 7:50 am I pulled into the parking lot at Cronkhite and my jaw dropped. The surf was huge; beautiful big peaks with plumes of stray coming off the tops marching in with twenty highly skilled short boarders scratching to get into these bombs. In an instant I knew these waves were above my skill level. “Take pictures,” I said to myself.

Cronkhite is a photographer’s dream. Due to a steep beach, the waves break close to shore and a high berm puts the photographer above and close to the breakers. A few surfers were at the north point, but the real action was the critical middle peak. The waves were a consistent six to seven feet and the big sets were easily ten feet, three to four feet overhead. To get into these waves, the surfers had to take off late, right at the point when the swells jumped up and the tops pitched out and landed at the base of the waves. The surfers hung at the top and then dropped at near free fall down the face of the waves. There was one spectacular ride after another, and in one hour I took over seventy high-action pictures.

Today was young men territory. I didn’t see any long boards or old guys, except one. I observed the correct way to paddle out at big Cronkhite. An experience surfer, early thirties, in great physical shape, well defined back muscles from hours of paddling, stood at the water’s edge between the point and middle peaks, waited for a lull, ran down the steep beach, jumped on his board and stroked out to the middle peak without getting his hair wet. I then observed a gray haired surfer, mid-fifties, with a seven to eight foot short board, stretching on the beach. “Oh no, this is trouble,” I thought to myself. He approached the water at the middle of the point peak, waited, charged out into the water, jumped on his board, took two strokes and was immediately clobbered by a four-foot shore break wave. He frantically paddled as another wave approached. Again he was clobbered, and again he started scratching out as another wave was coming in. His duck-diving skills were mediocre. My attention turned back to taking pictures. Ten minutes later this guy was on the south side of the middle peak, two hundred yards down the beach, still only ten feet from shore. Obviously these waves were way above his abilities.

Linda Mar

I was determined to ride some waves so I drove to Linda Mar in Pacifica. Good decision, the waves were four to five feet and well within my skill range. After watching the big bombs at Cronkhite these waves looked like a piece of cake. I didn’t have much time. I arrived at 10:00 am and planned to meet my friends at 11:45 am. I’ll go for forty-five minutes and be on the road by 11:00 am. My confidence was high and with little time I sprinted out there and jammed to catch several waves, good clean glassy walls. It was sunny, hot, no wind and invigorating to be out there. In a short period, I got some great exercise, burned off a lot of energy, dropped down some beautiful walls, enjoyed the warm weather, quickly changed and moved on down the road.

Ocean Beach, Sloat Avenue

After lunch, driving home I traveled my usual path along the coast to check the waves. I turned off Skyline Blvd onto the Great Highway and drove over the hill to an incredible view of the beautiful waves at Sloat Avenue. At 3:00 pm I saw overhead blue-green peaks, glassy smooth, surfers from one end of the beach to the other, bright sunlight, no wind, no clouds, no fog and blue sky all the way to the horizon. “Take pictures,” I said to myself. Luck was with me, some guy pulled out as I pulled into the packed parking lot at Sloat Avenue. The waves were six-foot plus with sets to eight to nine feet. The afternoon light turned these peaks a beautiful emerald blue-green. All types of surfers were out there: short boarders, long boarders, boogie boarders, young men, girls and old guys too. I stood on the cliff in front of my car, watched many spectacular in the curl rides and over the next hour took another seventy photos.

What an incredible day of surf. A strong pumping swell combined with a windless heat wave creating twelve hours of glassy conditions. I witnessed great surf from Marin to Pacifica and I’m positive that conditions were excellent from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. Today was one in a thousand.

September 4, 2008 Thursday

Bolinas	Channel
8:50 am to 11:00 am	Consistent 3' to 4', sets to 6' to overhead
Low upcoming tide	No wind, none, nada, glassy
Sunny, hot, heat wave	Incredible session

Out at the Channel I paddled over to Professor Steve to say hello. “Steve, can you believe this? Hot, sunny, warm water, glassy smooth and perfect fast peeling lefts.” He agreed. I continued, “It’s September and here we are: no fog, no wind, no overcast, warm water and a three-foot seventeen second south swell. Remember last September was great and we’re off to a great start this year.” Steve connected on some good curls. As I was paddling out I got a good side view of him in a crouch gliding down a glassy left wall.

All the elements had come together this morning:

• A strong south swell,
• Tabletop glassy surface,
• Sunny and hot,
• Low upcoming tide, and
• No significant ebb flow coming out of the lagoon.

A week ago, Stormsurf had predicted the arrival of this south swell. I was looking forward to this morning with great anticipation, as were others. Again the Marin surfers were watching the Internet and responded when conditions looked good.

I greeted Scott who only surfs on Wednesdays coming up the ramp after his session, “what are you doing here? It’s Thursday.”

“For this swell I had to come and it was great,” was his answer.

Robert the Larkspur carpenter went out at the Patch. Speaking of luck, there was a delay in his Napa construction project that gave him the day off and allowed him to leave the hundred-degree heat of Napa to surf these perfect waves at Bolinas.

Marty and I suited up together and discussed going out at the Channel. When we walked down the ramp to the beach, there were some big waves coming through the Patch. Marty changed his mind and headed there. He later reported that was a good decision because he connected on several long head-high lefts by the outside rock.

Mary was excited after her session at the Patch. “Great weather and great waves, something that hasn’t happened for months.”

Robert the Oakland fireman was driving off as I came up the ramp. He reported that he had a great session at the Patch. I reminded him that the last time he and I saw each other in mid-August we didn’t bother to go out.

Russ who is my age was out at the Patch, got some good waves and had some frustrations of getting into the waves.

I went up to the overlook above the Groin with my camera at the ready. Long peeling rights kept coming through on the far side of the Channel. I was tempted, but there was nobody out and that’s where a shark hit Lee Fontan in 2001. When I entered the water I saw Jimmy the Stinson carpenter knee paddling out from Seadrift to the rights. Another surfer was entering the water with me. He mentioned he was going for the rights. Near the end of my session I saw him paddle back over to the Channel near me. I asked him how the rights were.

“Fabulous,” he replied. “A little fast but if you caught the wave at the right point you could sail all the way to the beach. But now it seems to be changing.”

“That’s the tide coming in. The water is getting deeper,” I stated.

Paddling out to the Channel, I saw Josh the Bolinas fisherman on a good one. Josh has the unique style of riding the waves on his knees. From the side I watched his last wave of the day; he was on his knees locked in a curl with the lip of the wave pitching over his head. I paddled over to the only other guy out there and asked if I could share some waves with him. “Sure I’m on my way in. What time is it?”

“9:00 am,” I replied. He turned and started paddling for a wave, “Yeah, I have to go. I came out a 7:00 am. It has been great, enjoy,” he called out as he caught the wave and went in.

Here I was alone at the Channel during shark season. That concern quickly melted away when I saw this beautiful left green wall coming at me. I paddled into a four-footer, jumped up, saw a steep feathering line in front of me, quickly climbed to the top of the wave, stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and shot through a fast peeling left section. What a great wave; I’m in for an epic session. I was the only one out there for my first four waves. The next two waves broke too fast to make them, but the fourth wave was a repeat of my first one. After that four other guys came out, and after an hour the crowd grew to ten. Dan who is about my age caught some good ones. He is a nose, ears and throat specialist for Kaiser. We had a brief discussion about the effectiveness of earplugs. Joe the older Bolinas regular who rides a lamented wood longboard maneuvered into some long nose rides. A young surfer who is a friend of Barry’s had just returned from Ohio, was dying for some waves and had the pleasant surprise of paddling out into these perfect waves. For two hours I exhausted myself catching one long fast curl after another.

While drying off after my session, Christie drove wanting to know how it was, “Great, go, don’t hesitate.” Doug usually arrives here early, but today showed up around noon. After hearing my description about the great waves he was anxious to head out to the Channel.

It doesn’t get much better than this: blue sky, white clouds, hot, no wind, glassy smooth and great waves.

September 2, 2008 Tuesday

Bolinas	Channel
9:30 am to 11:00 am	Consistent 2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, hot, heat wave	Fun session

Shark Talk

When I pulled up at Bolinas Mary and Marty were standing by their cars chatting; not a good sign. If there were any rideable waves they would be in the water.

“What’s happening? Don’t tell me the waves suck,” I greeted them.

“No, we’re deciding whether to go out. A shark killed a seal just off shore yesterday. Professor Steve was out for his morning exercise and told us about it,” Mary responded.

In the last two weeks there have been a few shark sightings. Park officials had closed Stinson Beach for a week. Lifeguards prevented anyone from entering the water over the busy Labor Day weekend. The three of us walked down to the Groin. Nobody was out, a slow current was coming out of the lagoon, the low tide had just turned, and the Channel and Groin had weak two-foot waves. Every few minutes some nice looking three-foot waves would come through. We were tempted to go out. We walked down to the Patch, the waves there were tiny and the rocks were exposed. We walked back to the Groin, by then two guys had entered the water.

Finally Mary said, “I’m going out. It’s a beautiful day therefore I’m going.” Marty and I decided to join her. There was a real shark threat, why would we chance it? We stepped through several rationalizations about sharks. Shark attacks on humans are rare. We’ll stick together in a group because sharks only hit people who are by themselves. We’ll stick close to shore. Sharks usually attack in deeper water. I pointed out that recent shark attacks were on short boarders, boogie boarders, divers and swimmers, situations where the entire bodies were submerged in the water. If we stay above water, on top of our long boards, we should be safe. Jonathan Kathrein was floating on his boogie board with his body submerged when he was hit at Stinson in 1998. In 2001 a shark hit Lee Fontan when he was submerged on a short board by himself on the Seadrift side of the Channel. Last year a boogie boarder was hit at Salmon Creek, and the recent attack in Solana Beach near San Diego was on an open ocean swimmer who was two hundred yards offshore. With our rationalizations firmly in place we marched off with confidence to suit up.

When I entered the water, Jimmy the Stinson carpenter and two others had paddled out to the far peak at the Channel. I decided to join them. Mary and Marty stuck to plan and went for the close in waves at the Groin.

“Did you see that? There’s something big out there. It looked like a large dorsal fin,” Jimmy shouted to me holding up his hands to note the size.

“I don’t see anything. Jim, is Stinson still closed?” I asked.

“Yes, those clowns are over reacting. They have closed the entire beach, not just the national park, but also all of Seadrift,” Jimmy complained. “Sharks rarely attack humans. Did you know a tourist from Oklahoma made the last shark sighting? The lifeguards didn’t see it. The head park ranger claims the sighting sounded credible thus he closed the entire beach.”

“As far as I’m concerned, shark attacks are as probable as golfers getting hit by lightning. It happens, but not often,” I added. “Bolinas must be officially closed also, but this is a county beach and the county doesn’t have anyone to enforce the ban.”

“Seadrift is a county beach too, but the park rangers are patrolling it also,” Jimmy ranted. “Boy I’m going to get a lot of tickets. If the sandbars start happening at Stinson I’ll be there. Why don’t they just post a warning instead of preventing people from entering the water?” Good point, I don’t know why.

Meanwhile, Jimmy and I were connecting with some fun long left waves at the Channel. Jimmy then paddled north to the next peak, and there I was at the furthest point out at the Channel all by myself, totally against our shark plan. In came another good wave, I caught it and stop worrying about sharks. A few minutes later four other guys came out. I continued picking off these clean waves and having a great time. After two hours I was exhausted and went in.

Fortunately no sharks showed up, the sky was blue with high fluffy clouds, the water was warm, the surface was like glass and the waves were fun. It was a great morning.

August 29, 2008 Friday

Pacifica	Linda Mar
9:15 am to 10:00 am	Consistent 5' to 6', sets to 10'
Mid, upcoming tide	Slight cross breeze
High bright sky with low mist like fog	Confidence building session

Big Boomers prevailed at Linda Mar this morning, Big Boomers.

I had just made it out having gone under white water of two waves and was resting north of the restrooms at Linda Mar when the first big set came through. I couldn’t believe the size of the wave I saw. It’s been a long time since I have been in swells of this magnitude. Coming at me was a mountain of blue-gray water that filled the horizon, stretching from one end of the cove to the other. My heart started pounding, my sight narrowed and focused on the top of the closest point of the wave to me, and I started paddling with all I had. I made it over the top as lip was beginning to feather with white water. I descended into a valley of water and looked up to see another huge swell approaching. Sailors understand this experience. A boat rises over a steep swell; the bow drops into the valley between seas and begins ascending up the face of the next wave. That’s what it felt like frantically stroking over these waves. After making it over the second wave, there was a third monster approaching, and I barely made it over that one also. This was certainly a wake-up call to pay attention to approaching sets. I didn’t want to be caught inside when these monsters came marching in. End-to-end walls boomed into curtains of water a hundred yards long. Kevin and I agreed these waves were at least ten feet. Every ten minutes a monster set of unrideable waves would come through.

Being a Friday before a three-day holiday, Kevin’s unit at work was slacking off. He called yesterday stating that this was a good morning to go surfing. I picked him up in the morning and we headed for Pacifica. The swell had come up overnight, a big wind swell with a long frequency period: west-north-west swell, 6.9 feet at 11 seconds and little to no wind. Stormsurf predicted six to eight foot faces at Pacifica and they were spot on.

A big crowd was already in the parking lot when we pulled in. Big walls were crashing out front. We could not see the north or south end of the cove due to a low, thin fog/mist. Ben, my old buddy from my days at Visa, and his friend, Brad were there. They had traveled up the coast from Half Moon Bay and reported on conditions down south: Kelly Ave was huge and closed out, the Jetty was flat due to the tide being too high, and Montara was also huge and closed out. Bottom-line: we’re surfing here. Kevin as usual had things to do, like a lunch with his work buddies in the City; we agreed to be out of the water at 10:00 am. Our strategy was to enter the water out front and then paddle north where the waves were bigger. Again my son was coaxing me into waves much bigger I am used to.

Having entered the water at 9:15 am, I had forty-five minutes. In that time I caught four waves, all of them overhead. The smaller waves, those five to eight feet, were rideable and quite good. To catch them I had to move inside and risk being caught inside by the monster sets. Fortunately, at Linda Mar one can see the sets approaching from a long ways off. I also kept a close eye on the guys sitting way out there. If they started paddling out, so did I. A sizable wall approached, it looked like it had some direction to the left and it was feathering at the top. I went for it. The wave was steeper than I realized, my board went vertical as I quickly jumped to my feet. I dropped half way down the face, looked up and the top of the wave was two feet over my head. With my heart in my throat, I powered below the white water that was sliding down in front of me, climbed back into the swell, stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and sped across a huge wall of water. Now I was in control and worked the wave into the shore break. Wow, what a ride, I was ready for another one.

I connected with a right on my second wave, another large wall that was feathering at the top. I was paddling hard for it, felt the board rise up several feet as the large swell passed under me, thought I was into the wave, jumped up but I had jumped up too soon. I hung at the top of a steep, overhead wave. Oh no I was into it, I dropped straight down, stood on the tip of the tail block to keep the nose up, for an instance the nose dipped into the water and then bounced back up. I managed to hang on and out front of the turbulence of shoulder high white water. On my third wave I dropped down six foot left wall, was gaining speed when I had to maneuver around a guy paddling out, tried to power back into the swell but didn’t make it. On my last wave, I worked it into the shore break, pulling out within ten feet of dry sand.

Kevin and I had a great time and my confidence soared after having handled some sizable waves.

August 28, 2008 Thursday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	0' to 2', sets to 3'
High, in-coming tide	Calm, no wind, glassy
Heat wave, sunny and hot	Waste of time session

“Tide’s too high, the water’s too deep and the swell is too small.”

That’s my tag line for describing this morning’s session. The day was beautiful, clear and sunny with warm water but no waves. All the elements were there except swell. Stormsurf had predicted a local wind swell, five feet at nine seconds. This morning’s buoy report stated the swell was 5.6 feet at eight seconds from the northwest. Water temperature was 57.7 degrees at the buoy, which is several miles out to sea. The water at the Channel was much warmer due to shallow water in the lagoon heating up in the hot sun and pouring out at low tide.

When I pulled up this morning Marty, Mary and Doug were already in the water. Since it was so warm (the Bay Area was experiencing another heat wave), I had to go out. The waves were small and weak; two-foot ripples with an occasional three-footer. Once in the wave, the momentum died and you were left wobbling back and forth on a stationary board.

After a half hour, Marty, Mary and Doug went in and Mark the archaeologist came out. We kept moving around to find the best take off point. A set of beautiful waves came through the Channel, picturesque glassy peaks peeling in both directions. We paddled over there and the waves disappeared. From the Channel we watched a set of picturesque waves break at the Groin, so we paddled back there. I kept studying the white water but it moved around also. The most consistent spot seemed to be straight out from the Groin wall. There was a sandbar there. I tested for depth by standing up in the water. It was chest deep a 100 yards out from the wall, but move twenty feet north or south and the depth was overhead. I waded around testing for the edge of the bar. Mark and I positioned ourselves at the outer edge. Sets would hit the sandbar, jump up and break. We managed to catch a few decent take offs, but once up, the waves moved into deeper water and died. Short take offs into dying curls. After a half hour I caught one that took me close to the Groin wall, that was it, I gave up. For exercise I paddled from the Groin to the Ramp.

As every surfer states when the waves are lousy, “it was great to get wet.” Translation: the surf sucked.