WHA-WHA-WHAT?!?!?!
Surfing with Mike? In Oceanside?! ON A WORK DAY?!?!?!?!?
It's true!
I somehow convinced Mike to once again have faith in my swell swami ways and trust me that Oside would be good. I got him to meet me at six at Wisconsin Street.
While exiting I-5 on Mission, I noticed the Scuba flag was pointing towards the beach! The forecasts said there would be south winds. We were blessed with moderate offshores. Things were looking
good!
The swell was there, but the tide was too high. You could see that with less water on the sand, there would be magic. Unfortunately for us, the tide was rising and we weren't going to be able to witness the show sans the onshore wind the afternoon would bring.
I tried to get him to paddle out and he wasn't having it. I thought we might be able to score some decent ones, maybe we'd have to do the Huntington Hop to connect to the inside, where it would get extremely racy. I suggested Buc Beach, which seems to do well on a high tide.
It was a little bit better, but not by much. We parked by the café and checked it for some time. Mike finally acquiesced, and we were out thar!
We walked down to the water with our gear and spied some sick ones to the south. One guy was going to town on them and I joked about ruining his day by saddling up right next to him. We paddled even farther south than where he was as there were some unridden gems we could have to ourselves. I figured, with the swell direction being so steep, we'd end up where he was anyways...
My first wave was the sickest drop I've taken all year. I caught it late, got hung up on the lip and managed to stomp it at the bottom. The drop was so forceful it bent the camera towards the stringer, which made footy useless. Apparently, I hooted myself after landing it, despite there not being any reward for the risk I undertook.
My next wave was a forgettable one that closed out on me.
I caught a nice right and turned a little more vertical on it than I'm used to. In looking at my past backside smack vids, I was bummed to see how diagonal my trajectory tends to be. I went a wee bit more vertical but was punished by turning a little too late and being left behind by the wave.
The wave of the day came and, as soon as I saw it, I got super pumped! I wheeled around and scratched hard for it. I popped up, then mini-pumped down the face. I spotted my target on the wave, bottom turned a little harder than I usually do, and did a carve/snap right in the sweet spot. I ALMOST pulled it, but threw an s-load of spray.
I'll have to work with the surf coach on this move...
One of my last waves was one that started out pretty fast, but lost its mojo towards the inside. I spotted Mike paddling back out, so I screwed around on it just for fun. I went for a no-speed air, which involved me Liu Kang-ing my board towards him. He claims I almost hit him but, given his victim mentality, I bet it wasn't very close. Here's the footage with some aftermath.
The crowd infestation got to the point where it was catastrophic to our prospects of catching some good ones. Mike had to go to work and I had to pick Raquel up at the airport. And so we did.
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