The Rips of Life

Manav, Amal and I were talking about boards a few weeks ago around the campfire during our S.L.O. trip.  "For the summer, I want a fatty, 5'10 fish, 22 inches wide, squash tail... something that'll give me more float.  I'll ride that baby all summer long!" I said, dreaming of what could be.  With a slight confused tone in her voice, Stella, who is new to surfing asked "We're talking about surf boards right?"  

It's been a few weeks since the S.L.O. trip and I haven't gotten much surfing in since.  The riptide of life has slowly taken me out to it's sea.  I've made my way back, but it was difficult paddle.  Things at the "place" where I earn the dough to surf has taken it's toll.  In addition, a bad steak has left me close to 10 pounds lighter, sick in bed, shivering, sweating and weak.  I also took a weekend off to practice that balancing act I talked about a few weeks ago.  Which I think I needed.  I was burnt on both ends, professionally and surf wise.  I needed that time with my wife.

On Sunday, I headed back to our usual winter spot.  Panama Red wanted to hit up a new spot slightly North of Santa Cruz with bigger waves.  But I was more in the mode to have fun with waves that are familiar.  I'd been out of the water for at least two weeks and I was finally getting my strength back after a bout with food poisoning.  I needed something I knew how to surf.  And this spot usually serves me up a bunch of "feel good" when I need it.  In addition, I want to surf this spot until I get sick of it.  From mid spring and through summer, it gets flat.  And when a south swell shows up, it usually just dumps.  Being that winter is getting pushed out the the backdoor by spring, I have to take full advantage of this particular "street" in Santa Cruz.

The waves turned out to be really fun.  Shoulder to head high on most sets.  The great thing that usually doesn't happen in Santa Cruz is next to empty lineups.  Today we got the latter.  It was The Duck, Panama and I and three other really nice guys, two in particular that we surf with on the regular, Smiley and San Diego.  We traded waves for about two hours before half of the town showed up.  Being that there was a small south in the water, half of the sets that came through were sectioned or closed out.  But what this particular wave stresses is speed.  To make the wave, you have to jet.  So that's what we did, we jetted down the line, one after another, paddled back with fat smiles on our faces and gave each other props as we entered back into the lineup.

As I drove down to Santa Cruz that day as the sun rose, I doubted that I could even surf at all.  I was pretty weak the night before and waking up early didn't help.  But after pulling up and seeing the waves, I was motivated to give it the old college try.  And to my surprise, when I jumped into the water, everything felt a lot better.  I was able dodge incoming waves and paddle out to the lineup with ease.  I even caught a really fun right about ten minutes into the session.  I ended up surfing for about three hours and I probably could have went for another two.

For me at least, the ocean has always had that healing effect.  When I was kid, I would get bruised and scratched up a lot.  My mom would send me to the back yard to grab a branch Alo'e , apply some and go to the ocean and wash off my wounds.  The very next day, for some odd reason, all those bumps and bruises and scratches felt better.  Our oceans aren't the cleanest now days, so I wouldn't recommend it, but it still possesses the same energy, which I think has positive effects on our mind, body and soul. 

Almost exactly a year before this session, Panama Red, The Duck and I filmed one of our first mini surf videos at this spot.  We were all just getting to know each other back then.  But a year later, we are all pretty close and shared many funky adventures together.   To commemorate this sesh, we filmed it again.



Somewhere On The Westside II from Kookingitup on Vimeo.

Hopefully I'll be getting out to the beach more in the next week.  I just have to learn how to paddle around the rips of life and stop getting sucked out by them.  It is a skill that I have yet to master.  But I'm working on it.  Hopefully I'll see you all in the lineup.  Maybe at Linda Mar next to a huge stolen yacht.