After one of the more dismal summers in San Diego County in recent memory, relief arrived in the form of a combo SSW (groundswell) and SSE (hurricane) swell. I knew I was in for a treat when I parked on Wisconsin Street and ran down towards the surf. But first, I had some business I desperately had to attend to.
After a few minutes in the no doors, no seat and no privacy City of Oceanside restroom, I was rejuvenated! I ran back up to The Rad and suited up after briefly considering trunking it.
I jogged down to about twenty yards south of what appeared to be the best crowd-to-quality ratio peak and paddled out.
My first wave was a meaty left on which I had to drop in straight and stay that way for longer than I would have liked. A big bottom turn was faded back east due to a paddler who refused to duckdive. I jumped into the water to let the wave wash over me.
I waited close to ten minutes for my next wave and the wait seemed to have paid off. I was in a great spot when another good left came through. About five yards to my inside, a guy on a thicker Rusty decided to take off on me. He was unsuccessful in his attempt, but in order to avoid a big foam missile to the face, I was in a less-than-ideal spot on the wave. I pulled though the wave.
On my way back out, he apologized and said he thought I was going right. Notice in the video that not once did I look right...
I caught a right which was slow to develop. Once it did, I pumped a couple of times and bonked it, but lost my footing in the wash.
Many waves passed on which I had a good look, but someone was a bit deeper than me.
A quick left popped up, and I got six pumps in on it. I was racing this thing to the sand! There was no payoff to be had, but I had a great time jousting with this head-high screamer.
I stayed out another half-hour. The waves became inconsistent as the high tide had drowned the sandbars in water too deep for them to mold their magic.
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