The Jetty

Yesterday, I hit the Jetty in Half Moon Bay. The Jetty is just off the “One”, about a mile from the famous “Maverick” breaks. Mavericks is probably the biggest wave on the West Coast of the United States, and during a big swell the Jetty can get a little “sumtin’ sumtin’” if you know what I’m saying.

See that big round ball in the distance? I think that used to be an old Airforce base, but at the end of that hill where the big ball is, that is where Maverick resides. Let’s be honest. I’m never gonna surf Mavericks. I don’t want to. I value my life.

So this is the Jetty. This place rocks when there is a south swell with a slight northwest wind that cleans and forms the waves before they reach shore. My rule is, when Lindamar sucks, I head to the Jetty. On great days, there can be three to four different points to catch waves. I’m usually on the second or third. I give the local surfers respect and try not to get in there way. Plus, I don’t feel like embarrassing myself. The waves are nice. You can always catch a really good right and ride it ten to twenty yards. I surfed here three times before, the first being with my friend the Peruvian and another fella that I met in my early kookhood at Linda Mar. I caught a couple really good ones on this day. I also eat it a couple times. I have been a bit tentative over the last few sessions with my rib injury, which has kept me pretty much passive while hunting waves. I’m usually on the shoulder catching scraps. To be honest, I haven’t had a really good ride over the last few weeks. I’m usually just flying down the wall, making a bottom turn and getting caught in the wash. I figure it’s partly because my ribs and partly just being lazy and not angling my board right. But I figure when I’m one hundred percent, I’ll get back into being “unlazy”. But for right now, I’m just trying to keep myself in shape, surfer wise, and practicing my pop-ups which I have surprisingly been doing pretty well at now, especially on bigger waves. I have also made a greater emphasis on crouching more (including my arm placement) and my foot placement on my board. Foot placement is important because this is where the speed comes from, which I have been lacking.

Something really bugged me during this session. There was this young kid getting a lesson from a local shredder who knew just about everybody in the water. The shredder was explaining the art of catching a wave. While explaining how to position oneself in order to catch it perfectly, the shredder told the kid “surfing is like a chess match, not only do you have to place yourself in the perfect position to catch the wave, but you also have to out smart everybody else in the water too.” I really enjoy surfing and I don’t mind the aggressiveness to catch waves. But out thinking other surfers is not why I’m out here. Not only do I want to catch the perfect wave, get in better shape and be in the water, I want to catch some Zen too.

I wondered: Is this what instructors teach kooks? I never had a lesson so I wouldn’t know. But I think it defeats the purpose of what a lot of fellow surfers search for. Instead of being part of something “bigger” and losing oneself to the control of the sea, kooks are being taught to out do other surfers, beat them at their own game and how to checkmate the sea. Is this right? I don’t know. I’m glad I never took lessons and had to hear this bullshit from somebody I had to pay. I’m taking my nephew out to Santa Cruz this weekend for his first session, and instead of using the “chess” analogy, I’m gonna use the “fun” analogy. I’m hoping that unlike the young kook, who after his lesson had his “game face” on, my nephew will instead have a great big smile with tons of laughter and joy after his first date with the sea.