AHH, that new swell smell! Had a crazy sesh last night.
I met my buddy Forrest in Carlsbad and we drove up to Oside. We checked the main spots and decided that Wisconsin looked best. Since Forrest was on a longboard, I checked to make sure he was cool with surfing there, as it was dumpy and throwing pretty hard. He said "You know me, bro. I don't care."
We walked a ways up the beach as I assumed there would be a longshore current. We ended up just south of our destination, catching some textured waves. I caught one right and kicked out immediately.
On a S swell this steep, the lefts tend to be a lot better and I was trying to catch some rights just to battle the current.
Forrest went in and I went in to check on him. Apparently he'd hit his head on the sand and he was making sure he was ok. He told me to keep surfing and he'd join me in a bit. I tried to time the sets but with this new, rising swell but got caught in a cleanup set. One wave hit me so hard that it dazed me and made me unconsciously release my board. It took me less than a second to regroup and I grabbed my board and kept paddling out. That was the hardest a wave has hit me in more than a year.
The wind died down a bit and the water surface smoothed out. We were drifting south with every subsequent wave. I caught a small left, kicked out and had an excellent view of what is the hardest I've laughed in the water in almost a decade. My buddy Forrest "caught" a left, immediately grabbed his rail and got hung up in the lip (Keep in mind he was on a longboard covered in pink wax). He jumped clear and comically dropped a good six feet while his board basically tombstoned as the wave caught it, pink wax side up. I started cackling and stopped to duckdive, somewhat concerned that his board might hit me.
We both came up and I was laughing so hard that it was hard for me to paddle. Forrest was scrambling to regroup and a bigger wave was coming. I yelled back to him "Bye Bye!" and I didn't see Forrest for another ten minutes as he got pounded and taken for a ride on the S swell express.
I caught a wave late and took a LATE drop, don't think it was quite an air drop though. I gathered myself and pumped up and down the steep face, racing to beat the closeout. I hit the lip/wash and ALMOST landed a FAST off-the-lip. Forrest told me that if I hadn't pumped I could've gotten barreled. BUMMER!
Another late drop and a quick kick-out and we're down to Tyson Street, steadily floating towards the pier.
I declined a set wave as I saw two spongers that were in a better spot but then I caught a sweet one and did my patented fake punt down the line.
I made a pact with Forrest that we wouldn't get out until we were at the pier (it was getting dark). He caught a wave immediately when we were about 150 yards away (standard)! The lights for a vacation rental building came on, lighting up the waves a bit. The pier lights came on shortly thereafter, giving the waves a stadium night-game atmosphere. I caught one last wave, straightened out, and found Forrest splayed out waiting for me just south of the aforementioned vacation rental building. We walked back to his car and laughed about this session.
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