Three sessions later

Mid-week mid-day rush to surf before the wind turns. Waves were big enough to push me to the north end of OB, on the north side of Lincoln. The wind was calm and the swell was short period-ish and mixed up. Crossing waves and surfing a part of the beach that likes to double up anyway. I took out the spoon and got less waves than I wanted but enough to satisfy. Several drops were sudden when the wave hit the bar. I've learned that on late drops I need to find a sweet spot between dropping strait down (which results in a flop which throws off speed) and too much angle down the line (which results in hanging up on the lip.) There is a sweet spot angle that puts me right in the curl, but it's a line that I wouldn't take on a stand-up so I need to get accustom to it.
The spoon needs more grip towards the tail. A few times I got hit by some chop and my legs slipped out of position on the board. In those waves the moment of lost control was the end of the ride. Later I slowed down my approach and stayed put on the board better. I think I'll wax the tail of the board first, because I don't want to put the glued foam on top of the paint for fear it will just pull up paint and not stick to the board. If wax does the trick, great! If not, I'll strip off paint and glue down foam.
Walking back to the truck with the spoon I talked briefly with a guy who said he has a flex spoon too. He said he doesn't ride it much because he doesn't like wearing swimfins. Seriously? I love wearing swimfins! I didn't get his name, number or anything, and in the brief conversation I learned his spoon was made in Florida and he likes it as decoration enough that he wouldn't sell it.
The next session was a return to Baker to meet up with the Oakland bodysurfers. Saturday morning and the start of crab season and there were crab pole set-ups every 20' or so all along the beach. Waves were 2-3' with light onshore wind and not very hollow. I was going to skip it, but the Oakland crew wasn't. I followed them down the beach and had fun for an hour using my "cubit" hand board. I held on to it through a crush and folded back a fingernail. I also noticed it changed my approach to swimming through waves and made me feel less "in" the water. On the flip side, there were some longer rides that I might not have gotten if I was without the extra planing surface.
The plan for the day was to next meet the SF handplane (et. al) crew at Eagles. I headed down there with my wetsuit still on and found the parking lot full. Crabbers, beach-goers, and surfers filled the spaces to capacity+. I saw Kasey watching the waves and chatted with him while waiting for Dave to show up with the others. There were 4+ surfers riding the weak 2' waves rolling in at Eagles. Kasey and I talked about his mid-week session where he was hassled out there. He didn't even realize he was being hassled until later, and I told him I'm pretty sensitive to bad vibes in the water. Dave showed, but the rest were missing. We agreed to take our chances down at OB proper.
Even the far north end of OB was big and messy. I took out Dave's latest creation and was tired even before clearing the outside. The waves were a jumbled mess but surprisingly it didn't seem to matter much when riding the bodyboards. My third wave I rode all the way in and it reformed on the inside for a fun steep section. When that section slammed shut the whitewater rag-dolled me around and sapped the last of my strength. I limped to shore and rested awhile before I could walk back to my truck.
I cleaned up and laid down in the bed of the truck waiting for Dave to finish his surf and claim his board back. It was what I needed and by the time he returned I was in better spirits. We talked a bit more about design and such until Kasey cleared the water. Afterwards I grabbed a Safeway lunch and headed home.