World Surf Day '99
from Santa Cruz, California
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World Surf Day Commentary: As I had noted in my pre WSD message. I had targeted Saturday morning as the best opportunity for me. The weather forecasters were wrong. It was overcast and cold! Fortunately there wasn't any wind though. The beaches looked pretty good on the high tide but the rips were still pumping and I wanted this session to be fun so I drove into town. We were heading for a very low tide in the early afternoon and the tide would drop quickly, so I decided I'd check the spots that can handle a wide range of tides. Pleasure point looked good but peaky and the crowds were tightly packed around the three main peaks. 38th looked interesting but small and inconsistent. Finally wound up at the Hook.
The Hook is a strange spot to check. When you are on the bluff at the hook, the trees throw a lot of shade and somehow the wind always blows strong and cold on the bluff no matter how calm it is everywhere else. It was reeeeeallly cold. I was determined to get my session in and amazingly, in spite of the fact that headhigh sets were only rolling through every ten minutes or so, there were lots of fun waves and hardly anyone out. I decided to go out there. Besides, as cold as it was, you can still easily get a dry paddle out if you know where to start, and time the sets.
I caught a couple of smaller waves and checked out the other folks in the water. A couple of other grey heads including a father with a couple of younger boys. The peak was shifting around a lot and there were lots of sections that closed down if you picked the wrong wave. I started working the first waves of sets since they seemed to be holding the best. Later set waves seemed to be shifting south and closing more.
Caught a good head high wave, dropped down picking up speed and threw a hard bottom turn, climbed back to the top and cut back enough to get some speed down the line. Raced the curl for several yards and saw a second bowl building at the end of the wave. I was going low hoping to snap into the bowl and tuck in, but the wave crumbled a little early forcing me to drop under the a little whitewater section. But the bowl face held, so I prepared to turn into it a little. Too late to stall, so I did a little soul arch back up into the green and held the arch as I leaned my chest into the breaking curl. Held it as casually as I could until the wave backed off and I kicked over the back. Nice ride!
Called a couple of guys off an overhead set wave and got a nice ride all the way through to Sharks. Nice hard turns and cutbacks. My strength is slowly returning.
As the tide dropped the swell did too. There were almost no sets coming through and although the lower tide allowed the smaller sets to break over the same reef zones, the waves were definitely smaller. As the crowd built and my feet got numb, I began to take some smaller waves.
Got one wave where I snaked another longboarder hoping he wouldn't make it under the peak. As I dropped down I realized he was going to make the wave easily and I wanted to kick out. When I looked back onto the wave, another longboarder was paddling out right in the turn zone. I couldn't go high without cutting this guy in half. If I went low I had to hope the guy behind me wouldn't nail me. I went low, and way out in front of the wave. I lost too much speed, but finally turned after I got around the paddler, slowly I climbed into the pocket with no speed or momentum left. Somehow I slipped over the wave lip as it pitched and the guy behind me had to eat it since I'd dropped so low in front of him. After we all got back out into the lineup, we all apologized to one another, and everything was mellow. I hate when you get caught in those squeeze plays. It's the kind of situation that could really have been dangerous.
Caught one very rare large wave that was real peaky. Took the drop but there wasn't as much wall so all I had was one little section ahead to work with. My confidence was up and I still felt strong. Dropped about half-way down and stood on the tail. The board responded beautifully, jumping up high in the pocket, I held the stall high, sideslipped to stay in the wave as the bowl developed. At last on the inside the wave pitched and I got a quick veranda with an audience.
I met an interesting surfer in the water. It was the father with the two boys. He was from Marin and was returning home with his family from a trip to southern California. He was about my age but his knees were so bad he couldn't ride standing up any more. He would catch waves and ride them on his knees. Obviously he didn't make many waves since he couldn't thrust on turns to get acceleration, but he was stoked to be in the water and still loving it.
It turns out he is a Fish and Game Warden. In addition to noting that he only makes about 65% of what the CHP makes, he is almost entirely involved in law enforcement. He said there are three kinds of crime he spends his time on. Poachers were the least of his worries. Most of his time is spent busting corporate polluters. Companies that dump toxics into rivers late at night illegally instead of dropping them at legal disposal sites. He said one night of toxic dumping kills more critters than two years of poachers. Finally, he said that the worst and most extensive damage is caused by silt. Yeah, the dirt that runs into creeks, rivers, lakes, and oceans from sloppy logging operations, unregulated road building, and improper erosion control. The dirt and mud chokes out all life. He told me about some of the busts he'd made, and how some of the fines and penalties have even closed down some operations.
I think this guy is a hero. He doesn't shred anymore but he still has the stoke, and is passing it on to his kids. He isn't getting the pay, but he is doing the right thing to protect what's left of our natural world. It was good to meet this guy. It was good to share waves with this water brother. I hope my humble appreciation and support for what he does means something.
I wound up taking a few pictures of the session. Sorry about the quality of the shots, I'm still learning. It wasn't a particularly radical session, but it was definitely fun, and it's always worth it!
da hulk
This is where Foondoggy "dropped in" on his last visit. ............................"Shooting the Hook" at low tide.
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