I’ve been bouncing around the greater southern California coast lately. A lot. North, South, from San Diego to Santa Barbara, lots of different surf spots both new and old. The drive and hunting for good waves has provided a slew of amazing experiences, but absolutly nothing compares to a good day at home.
The surf familia and I almost simultaneously pulled into the empty lot at veterans park in Redondo Beach, gloom of Monday in the air made lighter by the presence of Frank, Boris, and Max (really named Michael, but he is now dubbed Max due to a funny mistake of mine one night at the Mermaid that ended up sticking).
Slipping into my freezing not-hung-to-dry neoprene robe, the crew of us made our way down to Sapphire, where we joined Kris Hall and his buddies in some dismal looking surf (Boris, with a toothache, laying on the beach to watch).
I’ve had this conversation a lot with surfers lately, and we all feel the same. Sometimes when you look at the surf and it looks amazing, it ends up being just alright or even “meh.” Others, horrible looking waves end up turning into a great session. Today was one of those days.
It looked pretty bad. Long waits in between waves, and small peelers bowling up and crashing on the shore. Kris Hall was dancing around gracefully, but even watching him we knew better; his talent and mastery of longboarding can fool the eye and make even the worst wave look good. The guys were hesitant, but eventually made their way out into the surf, and boy….. were they glad they did. I couldn’t believe the consistent, long noserides I was getting on these knee high waves, and I watched Frank Paine catch a few almost half a block in length. Max caught a few long rights as well, and everyone kept looking at each other like “wow, I can’t believe how fun it is right now.”
Every session is always worth the salt caked aftermath. But this just goes to show… when in doubt, paddle out.
