A Taste of Fall (or, Punished for What?)

It all started Friday night. I was up late gaming because I thought the weekend surf was going to be ruined by all day high tides and wind. Around 11pm I checked the conditions and saw that the W swell was already showing itself, and the wind was mellow. I gave myself about 6 hours of sleep with a plan to get to the beach around dawn.

The next morning had the coast socked in with fog. I drove the beach, something I should do more often, and saw some waves around mid-beach. It looked small but fun with some shape and much cleaner than I could hope for. I parked there.

After suiting up I walked over the dunes and realized that what I had seen at the edge of the fog on the drive-by was just the inside. I paddled out blindly into the thick fog and must have timed it perfect. As soon as I was 10 yards off the beach a set came in and punished me. Why? What had I done? I fought with the ocean for at least 10 waves and wasn't getting anywhere. The waves were head high at least and were top to bottom at the peak, which was wherever I was. This lasted a bit longer and I was loosing steam. I finally gave up and decided to drive up the beach to where it should be a bit smaller. As I was looking for some whitewater to belly in I realized the set was letting up. The little bit of rest from sitting on the inside put strength back into my arms and I took the break in waves as a chance to paddle back out.

Like I said the waves were head high with some 8' sets. Top to bottom on some of them, and only 4 other guys out in the thick fog of an early Saturday morning. I ended up catching some poor quality waves and taking 3 more sets to the head. Each one lasted as long as the first and made me doubt that I would make it back out. The last and 5th set to nail me started out soft but got progressively bigger until I was bailing my board to dodge 2ft of lip landing right on me. I gave it up and rode some whitewater in.

What I needed more than anything was patience. Patience to wait for better waves because they were there and there weren't other people around to take them. I shoulda waited more for better waves to come to me.