Thursday, January 24, 2008

Local Boys

This place is amazing during the winter! Stuart and I surfed ALL day today, totally by ourselves. Well, excepting the local crew, who were staring us down, stealing set waves, splashing around, and ... somersaulting... Yup, I'm talking about the real resident rabble rousers of the ocean, the porpoises! We see a lot of 'em around these parts, but today they were extra rambunctious, chucking back flips, ripping down the line in the big sets, breaching out of the wave faces... They can certainly make you feel small, bobbing around on a 6'6", submerged to your ribcage...

It started off glassy, and then the wind started to blow really lightly straight offshore. Mostly waist high, with the occasional chest or head high set, and perfectly clean, groomed faces! I absolutely love those conditions! The water was crystal clear, emerald green hue. Clear enough to count your toes, had I been barefoot. As it was, with 45 degree water and 45 degree air, the only skin I had exposed was my nose and eyeballs...

So what could make such a day even better? Wind, of course! One hour before sunset, the breeze picked up to 18-22, so I rigged a 5.7. Fifty minutes before sunset, the wind picked up to 25-35.... However, with limited time, and quickly plummeting temps, I decided to just hold on tight and ripped around for half an hour, completely overpowered! It felt good to get yanked around by a sail after paddling a surfboard all day. These are 2 very complimentary sports!

So all in all, I put 3 miles on the truck, and was in the water for 6 hours today (out of 10 hours and 14 minutes of actual daylight)! Not too shabby! And to top it off, dinner and a movie with Anne... Life Is Really Good!!!

No comments: