I think I may have just extended my weekend.
I did have the day off, but sometimes non-working Mondays still feel like… Mondays. Today’s extra special surf-filled Monday started with a longboard takeover in Manhattan Beach. Surf Coach Siordia, Hudson Ritchie, Brooke Jones and myself cruised down to the beach with our logs in hand, ready to jump in and ride the sloping sections. We settled into our spots and while Ritchie was hanging heels, Siordia was hitting the lip, Brooke and I sitting and watching from our boards wide-eyed at these well oiled surf machines. Talented cameraman and my friend Paul of www.bumpsetsurf.com decided to trade his lens for a board and came out to play in the good sized waves as well. Eventually the current and crowd pulled our surf party apart, and one by one we made our way back up the beach.
After breakfast with Brooke and a quick break, I drove down Pier Ave. in Hermosa Beach with the hopes of finishing my Christmas shopping at some local small businesses – but for some strange reason my car took me towards the beach parking lot, and then my skateboard took me towards the pier and then back to my car, and then my new shortboard dragged me to the ocean. Looking out from the pier today and seeing an empty lineup prompted me to race back as quickly as I could and grab my brand new shortboard. I’ve had it for a few weeks but had been waiting for the perfect moment – slightly steeper waves and, more importantly, no buddies around, as to not completely and utterly embarrass myself (I suck at shortboarding). I started out thinking that I knew what I was doing, duck diving with ease under the first few waves, until a few bigger sets came in the had me doing underwater cartwheels. I hadn’t had an eerie “I feel like something scary is swimming under me” feeling in a while, but I think the vulnerable smaller board and lack of companionship had my eyes darting around at the sea floor beneath me, and to top it off I almost fell off my board when a seal popped it’s non-threatening head out when it got a little too close for comfort.
I caught two walled, quick waves and got a small turn in just before falling, glad to at least have done some sort of maneuver on something that felt so alien, even if I looked like a mess.
As I write this and listen to the raindrops, intermittently checking the windy forecast for tomorrow, I thank the ocean for my two fun sessions today, knowing that I’ll be charging headfirst into some challenging stormsurf tomorrow.
