3 consecutive days on the edge of the sea

TUE
A NW windswell. Shifty peaks were breaking head-high over the north reef. Six people out, although only three were actually catching waves. The thick, glassy curls were gilded orange and steel blue by the setting sun. I forgot my wetsuit. The instant I jumped into the water I began to shiver, and could not stop until I was half way home with the car heater at full blast. The water temp was 65 F, and there was a 5-10 mph onshore breeze. I have been in colder places.


WED
The same spot. Paddling out in warm, dry air over jade-green waves, I felt like a movie-star. A five-foot high tide and a fading swell resulted in slow, rolling waves. Again, six out, three riding. Exiting the water at high tide requires paddling up to a large, flat rock and scrambling up its side during a lull in the waves. I screwed up the timing and got pushed against the rock by three waves. Bruised my knees. Broke some skin and a skeg.


THU
A wide sandy beach, clouds were arriving overhead, and on the horizon the sun's rays punched through the clouds and struck the sea. The waves were breaking waist-high on two main sandbars 50 yards offshore. Periodically shoulder-high waves arrived. From the shore they appeared to break all at once as a single wall. In the water, at the peak, you aim the board down a side, and you make it. Things always look different from the shore. A hundred surfers bobbed along the coastline.

[ca June 05]