Pure therapy

What a needed dose of swell therapy that little unseasonable N swell was last week! A little dose of solid waves like that serves as a pleasant reminder of just how therapeutic surfing can be. Sure, almost any paddle out ends up being good for the soul/psyche, but getting good waves just takes that to a higher level. After an arvo session last week on one of those 90 degree days topped it off. I got out of the water after around a dozen long rights and felt a tangible looseness in my shoulders, neck, back, and mind. I felt alert, energized, creative, and motivated. Here's to surfing in July and the benefits it imparts into all aspects of my life.

Inspired

Fired up from a little surf movie viewing last night, I took the plunge into rough and choppy conditions that I'd usually pass on. Paddled right out without issue, and to my suprise quickly got a nice long right. Made a few pumps and hit the inside section. As I popped up, it was almost as if the ocean said, "Wait, what the hell was that? This is not a surf day. No more of that, here comes your punishment." I started paddling back out to row after row of white water. Each time I popped up, the next shoulder-head high wave was already breaking 25 feet in front of me. I would literally get two paddles in after popping up before having to duck again. After 30 mins, I said thanks for the one ride, and headed in early. All well worth it.

Priorities

A year ago today I was in Indo on the pinnacle of all surf trips, and this year I'm not. It'd be easy to get all heady about alternative paths one could take to spend more time traveling, surfing, camping, hiking, etc. However, going down that train of thought is a bit of trap. Those activities are the ones that give the most pleasure in the instant, so there's some sort of evolutionary mental response that can lead you to believe that you should try to do those things all the time. At least for me, I know if I spent all of my time doing those things, I wouldn't actually be maximizing my happiness. So this year I'm focused on other things that are important to me in the long term. They don't necessarily yield the sustained euphoric rush of an Indo boat trip, but it's important stuff for me to do right now. That said, homeboy still needs to get in the water. Was in Yosemite for a long weekend which made for a great summer diversion, but I think tomorrow's the day for a paddle. Also, I'm seeing a surf flick tommorrow night which is sure to drive me nuts if I havn't gotten wet in a while, and it'll probably provide some added inspiration regardless: http://www.aquasurfshop.com/. Probably more likely to see you there than in the water these days.

Good Start

Well, I have to admit that despite my commitment to paddle out at R without checking, I did actually drive the beach. Despite bending the rules a bit, I DID end up surfing at R, and as expected, it was well worth it despite the sub-par conditions. I'm going to make a concerted commitment for the summer to paddle out at least one day a week no matter what. Waiting for good or even fair conditions at Ocean Beach in the summer is just not going to results in many surf days. Getting out there in the junk will only help to appreciate San Francisco fall that much more, and I'll lose less paddle fitness to boot.

Standards

I think I'm getting to the point of a "don't check it, just suit up" dawn patrol. Gas is too expensive these days to drive down to the beach just to pass on crappy spring/summer surf. I mean, what am I expecting? But once I get down there, and actually take a look, and maybe even drive the beach, it ends up being hard to throw the suit on and paddle out to borderline unrideable waves. Almost every time I'm in this surf-jones state, and I just get in the water no matter what, it ends up being surprisingly enjoyable, and a great reminder about how much I enjoy surfing, and how beneficial it is to my mental health.

Alright, I've talked myself into it. Tomorrow morning I'm paddling out. I'll do a Google search for the word "slop" and whatever the first letter in the first result's URL is, that'll be the street I'll surf at. Here goes: alright, got some sketchy website called "rustedtusks," so R it is.

See ya there... or probably not!

Energy

I'm freaking busy, and there's a lot of shit I want to do. I spend 10-12 hours on a given weekday at my office, and I try to get 6-7 hours of sleep. There goes a big chunk. I try to get in the water any chance I get, usually before work. I'm trying to pick up kiting. I like to go out with friends. I enjoy eating. Then there's a whole slew of other things I'd like to do: learn to play guitar better, learn more about technical topics that relate to my work, read books, etc etc.

To do all that stuff, and to do it all at a high level, it comes down to having sufficient energy. Prahna, Chi, Get Up and Go, the Force, call it what you will. The more of it you have, the more you can accomplish at a high level. So I've been thinking about how 90% of ones energy level is circular. For example, doing the things you love energizes you, which enables you to do more of what you love at a higher level. This cycle can work virtuously where you do a lot of what you love, which naturally gives you an energy boost, which helps you perform better at everything you do, which causes you to love what you're doing that much more, and the cycle continues. Obviously, this works in the opposite scenario. If you allow things to dominate your time that you don't enjoy, you can live in a constant state of energy depletion which is hard to break since breaking that cycle requires having the energy to do the stuff you love.

Surfing is such a prime example of this for me. When I get a good surf in before work, I feel energized, which helps me perform at a high level at work, which gives me further energy in the satisfaction of accomplishments. So there ya go if you needed more reasons to surf.

South Swell

As anyone who surfs it on a regular basis knows, OB has many faces. One of it's rarest is the "legit southswell" face. As far as faces go, it's sort of like seeing a smile at one of the city's points: a rare ly seen expression, but a pleasant surprise when it does happen.

I'd say something like one in five buzzed about south swells actually shows anything at OB, and even rarer than that is a gap in the spring/summer winds that actually make it an enjoyable experience.

So, on that note I'll look forward to the first of many south swell rumors that keep us going during the dry spells of spring and summer.

Kiting

After several years of resisting, I've finally succumbed to the pull of kite boarding. I can no longer deny the rough ratio of epic surf days in SF to epic wind days being in the area of 65 to 300. I've taken a few lessons now, and am about ready to venture out on my own, and really make a mess of things.

The interesting thing about kiting is that despite some of the sport's best being able to do amazing things in the water, relatively, everyone sucks. I say that from the point of view of where people will be in 5-10 years. The sport is just so young that none of the driving factors that push progression in a sport have really kicked in yet:

• Every year there are drastic changes and improvements in equipment design. While this pushes overall progression, it does provide some drag as even the elite are still getting use to refinements in their equipment each season. Instead of having a standardized piece of equipment with only minor cosmetic changes, people are changing core features like board shapes, harness design, line set ups, kite shapes, etc. This creates a slight disruption in forward progression as innovators need to go somewhat sideways as they adjust to new equipment.


• The early adopters are in their mid-late 30's and 40's. Essentially, the folks who have been kiting the longest are starting to pass out of their athletic prime. In the upcoming years we will see people who started kiting at a young age progress into their athletic prime. This will create an exciting wave of innovation.


• There has been no "Endless Summer" moment. Surfing has had a few of these through its history where the general popular culture takes notice. While these can often be seen as upsetting to the actual devotees (Blue Crush, Laird Hamilton Amex commercial, etc) as robbing their passion of its purity, and expression of rebellion, it does have an impact on a sport's adoption curve. More people participating and more marketing dollars that flow in will enable the elite to sustain kiting as a viable profession, and will entice and drive people with the potential to achieve elite status to make that commitment.

I predict a kiter will appear in a mainstream network TV commercial in the next 2 years, and for better or worse, that's when we'll know that the sports time has come. Those who have been around since the sport began in the mid-late 90's probably have already seen massive changes in their sport. For the rest of us who have only started in the past year or two, we should enjoy the last moments of kiting's purity, infancy, and true sub-culture status.

Localism

Like sunburn, wetsuit rashes, and crotch rot, dealing with localism is an unfortunate aspect of surfing that every surfer will deal with at one point or another. I've only ever had anything negative said to me in the water twice in my life, and both at the same spot. The second time just occured yesterday, and it got me thinking about this phenomenon. First off, here's the story.

Let's call the spot Circus Point. So I paddle out at Circus Point, and there are only 5-6 guys in the water due to the fact that it usually only breaks in the winter. Circus Point has a strong reputation for localism, so even though it's not crowded, I keep it mellow, and hang out at the end of the line up. This one guy sees me, and I can tell he's just looking for something to get on my case about. On the first wave I paddle for, his buddy drops in on me, and I eat it. No prob, I'm not going to say anything. Even so, I come up and this dude is giving me stink eye. Now I'm tense. Homeboy ends up catching a wave and is inside of me. He's paddling back out, and I feel him staring at me as I go for another wave which I frankly biff. Shit, I know he sees this, and I'm going to hear it now. As he paddles by me, he says "why don't you go surf the inside." I respond by saying, "I'm not getting in anyone's way," which is probably a dumb thing to say, even though it's true. Regardless, I make sure to keep my distance from the guy, and stay further inside. Honestly, I never planned to jostle with the 5 guys on the outside, as there were plenty of waves on the inside to share with just 1 other dude, so this was all fine with me. However, due to the current, I ended up getting pulled out a bit, and homeboy starts paddling more inside until he gets close enough to say as I'm about to paddle for a scrap coming through, "that's not a wave, get out of here, this isn't a place to learn how to surf kook." Now that just stings. There are a lot of worse things that he could've said or done, but for some reason that really got to me. Anyway, I just ignored him, and he actually paddled in first, and I got a few waves after he left.

Now, I'm not a hard core ripper, and don't claim to be. That said, I'm a perfectly capable surfer, and definitely know how to mind my etiquette in the lineup. So, regardless of all that, will I just never in my life be able to surf this spot in peace? Maybe that's a realization I need to accept. The fact of the matter is that even if people there weren't dicks it'd still be too crowded when it's working to really enjoy, so what's the alternative?

And a few good days in... MAY?!?!

Ok, so I skipped posting March and April, so what? Yeah, there were probably a few good seshies here and there, but nothing epic that really got my juices flowing surf-wise. Even if there were, the point of this blog is not to write about every surf I have, and tell people how good it was, and how they should stop what they're doing, and go surf. But let's talk about surfing in May for second! Seriously, May! WTF? May? Solid NW swell in May? Ahomosezwhat? Not only did we have a streak of 4-5 days of semi-legit surf, but it also coincided with balmy HOT freakish weather conditions in SF. On friday, in the middle of that streak of surf days we're talking in the 90's! Totally unheard of.

I can't imagine a better way of coasting into Bay to Breakers than with 5 days of surf in a row under my belt.

A few good days in Feb

Every February, I find myself surfing less than I'd hope given the near constant swell. On those cold mornings when it's still completely dark out at 7am, it's just easier to hit snooze than to put two feet on the floor. Getting a few good (great) days in the powder helps to ease the surf jones a bit, but after getting in a good dawny session the other day at OB, I immediately realize how there's no replacement.