The Hook

I’ve been at it for at least two months now.  According to my calendar, I have hit the beach 9 times.  Memorial Day of 2011 was my tenth.  I remember learning how to snow board, I didn’t get comfortable using my front toe until about my second season out, around my 10th time overall up in the snowy hills.  Being that it was Memorial Day, and a small but decent swell on tap coming from the southwest, I decided to hit up the legendary Hook in Santa Cruz, California.

While in the parking lot just off of 41st Avenue, I told my parking lot neighbor (who just got back from surfing) that I was kook and asked where I could find the best waves to suit my ability.  He was a really nice guy and told me that the locals usually hang around the “first point”.  He said that the longest and biggest rides started from there.  On the “second point”, locals were still abound, but people with decent ability could ride from there.  He also told me to look left, because some the first point waves intersect the second point waves.  He then told me that “Sharks”, which I think is the third point, is where I should most likely hang out.  He said that the waves from Sharks were small but clean and long.   He said that a lot of kooks hanged out there on smaller days. He told me that it is a fun spot and not to get discouraged by what he calls “dicks” who think they run stuff.

I took my time today and watched the breaks for about an hour before getting in.  Interesting enough, when I was walking to the stairs that lead down to The Hook, this sign appeared:

Look at #6…  “I have a fun board, 8’6, does that count as a longboard?” I got my answer instantly as I watched several surfers with boards WAYYYY longer than mine come up and down the stairs that lead to the beach.  WHEW!  I walked over to 38th Avenue, another surf spot and checked it out.  There were about 15 surfers just sitting there about 50 yards out.  “Na, not going to do 38th today” I said to myself.

After watching the breaks at The Hook’s first point, I decided that I was going to paddle out to the second point since the waves were around 4 feet high, had a nice right going, and most of the other surfers were crowded at the first point.  I was hopeful to catch some left overs.

I put on my wet suit, walked down to the beach , strapped my leash on and paddled out to the second point.  I thought to myself “I like this, not much paddling!”  Second point was only about 40 yards out. Right when I got there, a nice set was building.  I let the first and second wave go, hoping that all the rippers would hog those and I could catch a small long one all to myself.  I guessed right!  I medium one was coming, and it was only me and a few other boarders left.  Couple of them were on short boards.  I watched to my left, and saw that some of the short boarders trying to catch this wave but to no avail.  My turn!  I watched the wave coming and figured I had to paddle about 6 yards in to catch the crest.  Once I saw the wall building, I started digging deep with my chest up.  Suddenly I felt the wave sucking me in and knew I was in the right spot.  I paddled 3 more strokes including a power “breast stroke” and my board started to glide.  All I could think was “you better pop the fuck up you kook!”  With everything I had and a loud grunt I popped up just enough to be in a VERY low crouch and WOOOOSH! I was rolling down the wave, taking a fast right.  I caught it perfectly before the break and I could see the white wash trying to catch me from behind.  Mind it that I am on a stomach slapper.  But I was riding it!  I could feel my momentum slowing so I leaned in towards the wave, went up the wall a bit and slid down.  After about 15 seconds or so of repeating my new found maneuver (Yay!), I think I either went to high or I was standing to straight up on the board and fell in backward as I was trying to ride up the waves wall.  But, wow, it was a nice ride.

My first ride was the best, and that was about it.  I caught a couple of nice ones, but I either leaned in too much and went chest first or leaned back too much on the pop up and fell in backwards.  On one wave where I fell in backward, a teenager yelled at me “HEY BRO, WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!”  I was a bit confused because I was farther left then him on a hard right wave, meaning I didn’t cut him off because I had the right of way.  I watched this kid for a while, who looked to be about 16 or 17, and he wasn’t doing too much but sitting in about 10 yards from the peak trying to catch 3 footers with his short board.  It kind of made me boil a little, but as the morning grew longer, I forgot about it.

The wind picked up around 11am and the waves settled around 11:30am, so I decided to go up to my car, eat a protein bar and some peanuts and refuel for another hour of surfing.  Around 12:30pm I headed back out.  This time I headed out to “Sharks” where I saw a couple mellow waves and just 3 other surfers.  There I met a couple of nice guys.  The first guy was Bruce who said he had been surfing for 15 years.  And there was Bruce’s friend, Brian, who is visiting professor from England.  Bruce said that this was Brian’s third time out. Brian had a deep tan for a white guy, especially an English dude.  He was riding on a board that Bruce said they had bought at Home Depot the other day.  Brian had problems with a couple nose dives.  Bruce told him to scoot back on the board if he felt the nose digging into the wave.  Bruce eventually started catching some good ones, but not standing. We both cheered him on as he was catching some clean ones.

Bruce was a really cool guy and gave me a lot of pointers.  With the wind picking up, he told me to grab a branch of kelp to anchor myself from drifting to far from the line up.  He also taught me what a “shoulder” and a “peak” is.  He also taught me how to notice when sets were coming, specifically around The Hook, 38th Ave and Pleasure Point.  He taught me to watch the kelp in the distance and when they started rising, that meant a good set was coming.

I caught three really good ones in about a hour and half span.  After Bruce and Brian left, it was me, a father and his three kids and his wife riding waves.  The father cut me off a couple times, and on one ride, he cut me off so bad that I had to bail, going head first into the water.  On top of that, one of my fins landed straight on my head.  After getting cut off more times then I wanted to and getting so tired that I couldn’t pop-up, I called it a day.

Overall, The Hook was really fun, and I didn’t see any sharks that day (knock on wood).  I got a couple good rides, got a couple good pointers and most importantly, had a good time.