yesterday after my hair appointment, i went to fort point for the first time in probably 5 years to check out the surf scene after hearing many tales of extreme aggro locals. what i found was.. nothing. noone in the water. and fog blanketed the area so much you couldn't even see the golden gate bridge. the breadth of legroom was likely for good reason as i only saw a few waves though a couple looked rideable. pretty interesting viewpoint from where i was sitting (on dry land), right up close to where the left breaks. i'm sure that's the closest i'll ever come to waves there- the boulder filled perimeter isn't really inviting, i can barely walk over sand without twisting my ankle.

today i am immensely thankful for surfing (more than usual) because i had 3 different social activities planned this weekend and all of them fell through- ok, i chose sleep over one- but i knew i could still go to the ocean and be happy.

i woke up later than i hoped and checked the tides, while the high tide at ~1 pm made me think i should go on the later side as the water and crowds drained but i was feeling antsy and decided to just leave at 10:30. it was MOBBED. just a sea of black dots in the water from end to end as i drove up made exclaim out loud.

still, i found a parking spot and hit the water around quarter to noon. it proved to be a pretty easy paddle out with the tide getting higher and waves breaking close to shore. since there were waves of consequence, i headed towards the more south end of linda mar and tried to readjust to my board, since i hadn't ridden it in 2 weeks. ever think something is fine until someone tells you it's wrong and then all you can see is the wrong? kinda the case here. once my coach told me my board isn't big enough, i really got attuned to the difficulty of paddling it and staying balanced. even so, i soldiered on and used lull time to paddle north to south, etc. i also practiced going from prone to sitting to prone etc and noted some better balancing. so not quite the easy glide of my practice barge, but i was making some stuff happen. i noted that i have to get my fitness up to where i can paddle and paddle and paddle and not need so much rest time.

it was really foggy and kinda dark and at one point, gently raining but for the mob out, there were lots of good vibes and hooting for the people getting rides. and as usual, there were tons of people paddling for every waves but the same people actually getting up and riding them over and over. all hell kinda breaks loose when a place is this crowded and i definitely had some uneasiness about the cluster of hard boards all around me. i have a stress level at linda mar that i've never felt in santa cruz, i guess because i don't know enough to be able to read a beach break. i just feel like i never know what it's gonna do but when i look back and see a big wave coming and everyone paddling, i move! i got a big push off a breaking wave of which the combo of wind and water caused my hair to entirely cover my face so not only was i flying at speed towards shore in a mass of bodies and boards, i couldn't see ANYTHING and it was pretty fucking scary as i spend the whole ride bracing for a slam instead of trying to achieve anything. it took two more times for this to happen to realize that from now on, my hair goes up in the water.

i'm pretty amazed that will all my kookiness (i also managed to put my wetsuit on over the tank top i was wearing over my bathing suit and was too lazy to fix that) that i didn't get hurt today, honestly. waves were about waist to neck high and one shove caused my board to fly out from my hands and land, fins down, about a half-foot from my face. i did have one good white water push where i actually managed to get to my knees, a first for this board. i think if i hadn't been so crowded and if i could have.. been able to see, i could have done at least some more knee rides and maybe the bravery to try to stand on my board today.

eventually the fog burned off, along with the wax on my board. when it kept sliding out from me and i realized i no longer had the energy to fight, i regretfully decided it was time to go in after,  but i really had fun and felt like i worked hard. i am going to schedule another lesson for the weekend, i think. i really did miss santa cruz and i want to catch and stand up on more waves but i know all this work i'm putting in on paddling and balancing will pay off.

because i'm petty, if i'm going out at the same time as someone else in the parking lot, i generally like to check and see who lasted longer in the water. this time it was 3 youngins who seemed to know what they were doing and indeed, they were packed and gone by the time i hauled in. bwaha! actually, i always win this game somehow? i guess it helps that my fat ass keeps me insulated.

i really really really want to make a mid-week session happen but i'm kinda nervous about storing my board while at work and my job just sucks the life out of me. 1x per week just doesn't seem like enough. but i happily burned off all the misery brewing in me and found some stoke today for sure.