Good Day

Trip out to Marginal and the conditions were crap. Thought the south wind would be good for cleaning up the short period wind swell, but the wind was still calm and the ocean bumpy. I went out anyway to get a feel for the 6'8" Hess Lola. It felt good with more paddle than the 6' Pacheco, but none of the oversized feeling of the 7'5" Lola. A bit hard to duck-dive but I adjusted to it.
I didn't stay out long, figuring the next part of the day would be better. I cleaned up and headed to the skate park. FTW? Locked gate and the sign says it opens at 9am. Okay, I drove up and watch some waves ridden at Rocks. Nothing great, but I might have had more fun there than Marginal. Killed some time and returned to the skate park.
The park was fun with a shallow, low transition 3/4 bowl that I was able to pump and gain height, which is something I havn't done in a more vertical bowl, no matter how small. About 5 more people showed up right after 9 so I had to clear out of the flat bowl as they were using it to launch. I took turns, spent some time in the Med bowl, and even tried low launches like the other guys. The best part of my day was the few succesful ollies off the lip of some low kickers. There were also a few +1' flat-to-flat drops that I toyed around with to get the feeling. The park also has a larger bowl with 4 levels, the deepest of which goes over-vert. Having no roll in spot, and with the shallowest part in the middle of the park where you need to walk some spines to access, I didn't even try that part of the park. I stayed two hours and then left, swung by Rocks again deciding it wasn't worth the cold wetsuit, then headed home.
Overall I would say this is a good combonation of things to do on a day off. It would help justify the drive and, on a warmer day, I would more likely double session the surf.
I also spotted some broken skate decks at the park. I thought about picking them up for a project but hessitated and didn't. The idea is to cut them down to small hand-planes for surfing. It would be a fun project and might make a decent hand-plane. So hipster right now.