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Monday, August 15, 2011

8.15.2011 Ponto

This morning I did my usual S swell trek up to Oside.  The pier was inconsistent and those surf camp killers were out.  I surfed with them a week or two ago and these guys not only rip, they snipe waves and line up just right. OVER IT!

I checked Harbor and I saw a sick left breaking from the S jetty.  I waited about five minutes and nothing else came so I bailed.  I then made my way down Tyson, Wisconsin, and Buc's.

Buc's is one of those wild-card spot which will have a surprising amount of 'peakiness', only problem is the crowd there is top-notch.  You have to stink-eye and have an aggro surf to get any waves there.  That wasn't breaking very well.  I saw Pedro, this Panamanian-looking ripper (he looks like El General, a famous rapper from Panama so of course he's from there too!) checking it.  He seemed to like it as I saw him skate down the hill but I was over it.

I really wanted to paddle out today as it was the three-year anniversary of my mom's death and wanted to remember her with a session.  She loved the ocean, and her ashes were spread at her favorite reef, Sunzal in El Salvador.

I continued down the coast and checked North Cbad which was packed and not looking great.  The wind put a little texture on the water's surface and I was getting worried that I wasn't going to paddle in to any waves today.

I drove past Ponto and saw a SICK set wave breaking between the jetties which made me immediately pull over.  I kept scanning and nothing was showing but I did spy a sweet little left  south of the jetties.  I caught two quick closeouts and wasn't able to do a turn.  I then took the biggest pounding I've taken all of this year when I was in the perfect spot to get slammed by what was apparently the biggest closeout of the morning. It wasn't so brutal an impact that I was left dazed but I had to fight to hold on to my board and was under for close to ten seconds, wrestling the alligator.  When I finally came up, it looked anything but smooth and ended up letting go of the board to regroup.

I had to laugh at how things were turning out.  I drove to Oceanside, where the SW-facing coast accommodates and magnifies the SW swell best and was skunked.  Then I took a pounding on a measly 2' California summer swell.

Sitting between the jetties at Ponto on a rising tide creates a weird vortex of water that makes waves back off due to the infusion of water from the lagoon.  It's a bummer if it's the only wave breaking.

This guy with an Australian accent was asking his buddy if any waves were coming.  Apparently, he hadn't been briefed on how frustrating being a SoCal surfer can sometimes be.  I saw him paddle for ten waves and not catch a single one.  I was able to count because I was ten yards inside of him and still not catching anything.

Finally a wave came and I caught it, not much power, and did a fist pump out of relief.  It felt so good to catch a wave ABOVE the water!  I went in and that was that.

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