After yesterday's less-than-stellar day at Oceanside, we were hoping to find a place that could handle the swell's energy directly and with open faces. We found it in 15th Street Del Mar. We paddled out without incident.
The crowd was on a wide range of wave-riding vehicles. We saw spongers, longboarders, shortboarders and sweepers. The only unrepresented populations were kneeboarders, kayakers and bodysurfers.
The waves were pretty consistent overall, but I was having a tough time catching any. If the wave broke, there was someone on it already. If there was no one on it, it would break on the inside. It was a frustrating thirty five (!) minutes, compounded by the fact that very few people out there could keep control of themselves or their equipment.
The good news is I was getting a lot of exercise and I was building a sweet callous on my Go Pro thumb, from all of the false starts.
Finally, I caught one that wasn't spoken for. A left came through and I popped up on it. I levitated on to the lip for a mini-floater, but I put too much weight on my toes and faded.
My second wave arrived about ten minutes later. It was a nice-sized right and I was able to hit it once well. I tried to put it on rail but I for some reason (probably a lack of volume on the rail) couldn't hold it. I think this is a disadvantage with this board as I rarely have issues with this move on other boards.
Not too long after this one, I caught a left. It didn't have too much of a line so I went for the smack quickly. I ALMOST pulled it but I guess I just didn't want it badly enough.
Another left came, very similar to my first wave of the day. I advanced across the wave by climbing up the foam a bit, got some speed and the wave really petered out on me after that.
My last wave was pretty good. A left came through and though it was a bit slow at first, I was able to gain some speed. Then I went lateral and went for a slash. At this point, I realized the wave and I were on the shallow part of the reef. The wave jacked up over my legs. A tail slide would've been a much better choice on this section, but I just didn't anticipate the change in steepness.
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