My wife was out of town and took the baby with her (no, I didn't piss her off). In my lost and confused state, I fell asleep on her pillow and my neck was a mess for several days. I had planned on paddling around Oceanside Pier and possibly getting some interesting angles of it with the GoPro, but with my neck (and deltoid) in pain I wasn't about to do a kilometer+-long paddle.
I thought I'd just go paddle out and enjoy the warm water. I wanted to prepare my ribcage and adjacent skin for our upcoming surf trip (read all about it HERE!), as coming in unprepared can lead to a nasty reaction/rash. I always thought it was tender skin that led to a rash, but when I told Aaron about it in El Salvador he brought up that it could be the hair follicles in the area getting plucked and then irritated, which makes some sense. Whatever it is, it SUCKS and can cost you a day or two of sessions if it gets bad.
I paddled out to the tiny conditions on my 5'10" Merrick. I got barreled going both ways on the sets, both crabgrabs with no way out, but the absolute highlight of the session was as follows.
I had read about the anchovy excess off La Jolla a couple of days prior and that was my hypothesis for the literally thousands of birds that were out. A few flew above me, nothing out of the ordinary. Then white movement caught my eye and I looked down and saw liquidy guano mixing into the water less than two feet from me, an almost direct hit! I was south of the frantic flock, but I ended up drifting/paddling into it. Suddenly, the birds started divebombing and flying over me, at times. I was in a bird hurricane and the high-pitched roar was wild. I looked up and behind me as I paddled and remember thinking that if I squinted, they resembled bats flying out of a cave.
A couple of decent sets came in, bringing nothing but closeouts. I saw a couple of birds get enveloped by the lip and tossed into water, something I'd longed to see my entire career but had evaded me until today. These were not seagulls or pelicans or other normal seafaring birds so lack of experience may have been an issue.
I eventually took a shoulder-high closeout in.
I thought I'd just go paddle out and enjoy the warm water. I wanted to prepare my ribcage and adjacent skin for our upcoming surf trip (read all about it HERE!), as coming in unprepared can lead to a nasty reaction/rash. I always thought it was tender skin that led to a rash, but when I told Aaron about it in El Salvador he brought up that it could be the hair follicles in the area getting plucked and then irritated, which makes some sense. Whatever it is, it SUCKS and can cost you a day or two of sessions if it gets bad.
I paddled out to the tiny conditions on my 5'10" Merrick. I got barreled going both ways on the sets, both crabgrabs with no way out, but the absolute highlight of the session was as follows.
I had read about the anchovy excess off La Jolla a couple of days prior and that was my hypothesis for the literally thousands of birds that were out. A few flew above me, nothing out of the ordinary. Then white movement caught my eye and I looked down and saw liquidy guano mixing into the water less than two feet from me, an almost direct hit! I was south of the frantic flock, but I ended up drifting/paddling into it. Suddenly, the birds started divebombing and flying over me, at times. I was in a bird hurricane and the high-pitched roar was wild. I looked up and behind me as I paddled and remember thinking that if I squinted, they resembled bats flying out of a cave.
A couple of decent sets came in, bringing nothing but closeouts. I saw a couple of birds get enveloped by the lip and tossed into water, something I'd longed to see my entire career but had evaded me until today. These were not seagulls or pelicans or other normal seafaring birds so lack of experience may have been an issue.
I eventually took a shoulder-high closeout in.
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