New Stoke

I just had a really great day of surf. It started out with me arriving at dawn at the north end. Crappy onshore small mush with to many guys out. I drank a cup of coffee and ate a donut and that motivated me to give it a try anyway. I'm glad I did because over the hour I was out the crowd dwindled and so did the wind. I matted waves on my Neumattic and stayed warm in my new wetsuit (Sierra Trading Post score.) After an hour I headed to the beach to meet a guy. He was already coming down the sand with his mat. He and I and only a few other guys surfed fun 3-4' peaks for another hour as the surf glassed off. I was even considering swapping out for my Pacheco. Things started to deteriorate and we headed to the beach. He showed me his HPD XL that he was selling, which was the reason we were meeting today. It was clean, nearly perfect condition, and came with a padded bag for a great price. I gave him the cash with no haggling and told him to keep in touch if he wants to surf again.
After he left I continued talking with a guy we had been surfing with. He was riding a modern 8' Hansen 50/50, leash-less, and with much skill. We chatted about surf mats, San Diego, and weird boards. I got him stoked on the idea of a longboard Bonzer from Mike Eaton. I hope to see him again sometime because he was friendly, a good surfer, and is into "not thrusters."
While we had been talking the surf got good again and since I still hadn't taken off my wetsuit, I decided to give the HPD a dip. It's a bit odd to ride because the tail is really wide. This makes it so you have to put your whole body on the inside rail to get it to hold a line. I did it right a few times and got the feel, but also got a good feeling of the wrong way to do it.
Before today I've surfed here and there. A Sunday at bad LMar with my kayak buddy, a few weekday mornings with my little buddy at LMar. It's nice to see him getting more comfortable, strong, and skilled at surfing. "In my day" we learned to surf by someone taking us out and we just had to deal with it alone for the most part. Now we pull our young ones out through the waves and push them into the right ones. Follow them to shore to make sure everything is okay and pull them back out again. It gives people a more fun experience for their first time, but is less fun for me! He was getting the hang of things last time and I had more time to catch waves on my own.
I did get a day at the north end a few weeks ago that was similar to today. It started out crummy but got pretty good! I was out with JZ and he got a look at my wave that is the closest I've gotten to a tube ride in years. He couldn't verify it from his angle, but I saw the lip over my head. I'll say I was under the lip but not behind the curtain.
I'm out of shape for the coming winter waves, but I have the free time to fix that before the first swell of fall arrives.