On this morning, I was itching to surf, and had guessed it would be decent based on buoy readings and web forecasts. I did my usual Oceanside lap and found nothing of inspiration. I decided to cruise down the 101 just in case something might be working. I parked north of Tamarack and South of Cherry Street, decared (deplaned from a car), hopped up on a picnic table and spotted some marginal possibilities. About three minutes of standing there led me to go back to my car and think things over.
It was tiny, but it was empty and I was leaning towards going. I saw a two wave set detonate (not really) and peel nicely across the sandbar. Ok, I was out there.
I bounded down the stairs after suiting up and paddled out to inside the bombie. The bombie would crash over, but the reform was too slow. I went inside a bit more so I would not sit there for ninety minutes waiting.
I love shorebreak surfing. The waves, though even shorter than your average ten-second California ride, are more consistent, are punchier and tend to be much steeper. It's hard to get bored in the shorebreak. Because of the brevity of the waves in the shorebreak, your surfing tends to be more on point. There is little time for filler moves or set-up turns. This also makes it much more difficult to film with the GoPro, though, as you have much less time to judge whether a wave will be doable. This, compounded by the prep time of about three seconds or so of pushing the record button, can make you miss catching the waves as well as miss catching the waves on film.
My first wave is an example of the latter. I caught a left, pumped once and did a nice off-the-lip. And I PULLED IT. Of course, no video proof means the skeptics shall remain rabid.
I caught a right that allowed me one pump and one turn, but closed out hard on the inside with me on its crest, my board parallel to its lip. My fins washed out on the lip. I didn't want to risk blowing out an ankle or knee on such a low probability maneuver, so I kicked my board in while I flailed back.
A nugget came through and I initially thought I'd pump on it to try for an air, but it made its intentions with me clear quickly. I got into my contortionist barrel stance (watch how I fold my trailing arm up). I got pinched, but was excited for a little tunnel vision.
I caught another left, which closed out shortly after takeoff.
I caught a right and it did its best impression of my previous wave, only in the other direction.
My final wave was a right on which I did a slash, which turned into a quick backside cutty into the approaching section on the left. It felt pretty cool even though I had no speed. The footage is not worth posting.
It is rare to have a session all to myself in SoCal, but this was one of those gems.
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