Monday, September 13, 2021

Not good

The conditions weren't forecast to be great, but there was potential for it to be good. The weather was right, the tide was okay, but the swell didn't arrive as forecast. I considered Scot's Reef for a bit, but the pre-dawn fog made it difficult to see anything more than just the fact that waves were breaking. I decided to go for the hike and see if FRG stretch was any good.

The walk down had some waves along the sand, so my hopes started to raise. Funboards had small waves, R reef had waves but didn't look right, and G's looked the best from the beach. We paddled out and got a few. I decided with the small waves I was going for one of the deep barrels. The current was hard to read because it was still too foggy to see the cliff very well. I ended up to far on the shoulder for the first set, then too far behind for the next set. I didn't feel like waiting another 20-min for one chance at a wave, so I paddled down the reef towards JB. He had been getting a few and let me know that they were lining up more than usual. But I waited, drifted, and never really caught a good one. I was having trouble getting to my feet under control too. I went to the beach to check R reef again. It didn't look good, I still wanted more waves, and JB always takes a long time to get his last wave, so I decided to paddle back to G's. JB took a set wave and didn't notice me paddling back out through the channel. He rode his to the beach despite me shouting at him. Oh well, I decided he would wait for me this time. But then I quickly got bored and chased a small one, then paddled back across the channel to JB. We looked again at R reed and it still wasn't much good. On the walk back we took a longer look at the waves and JB even jumped in to get one. He ended up taking a big set on the head while jumping off the beach, which meant he'd have to wait another 20-min for a set wave. He ended up catching a small one that wasn't as good as what we saw, and rode it all the way in. Oh well, not every day can be the best day.

Now I'm thinking of what I need to do to stay in shape, and improve too. Winter is coming and I'm feeling stronger, but not strong enough. My weak knee in getting stronger but gives out occasionally still. My shoulders can paddle me out through the channel without taking a rest, but I know I need more once the waves get bigger. This weekend I came in because I was bored and hungry, not tired. I need to figure out what to do about that. Maybe eat a fiber bar when putting on my wetsuit.

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