Thankful for one wave: Thu 11/24/11

I woke up this morning excited to start this 4 day weekend and Thanksgiving day at the beach. I got to 26th a little late, and knew I would probably be running into my friends as they were leaving. The swell was firing this morning, with big dumpy sets coming in. I had some major doubts looking out at today's waves, and fear was upon me. I actually found street parking this time, so I took my time stretching on the sand, waiting for an opportune time to paddle out. As the waves died down, I decided to paddle for it. I didn't get very far though, the waves started up again, and I kept getting pushed back to shore. I decided to just get out and try again when there was a longer lull. As I was getting out, I spotted Klaude! He was on his way out, he had already been in for 2 hours. He said he got separated from everyone pretty early on, so he wasn't sure if they were still out. He said the waves were tough and closed out and he didn't have a very successful time getting any substantial rides. After he left, I waited a little longer and decided to try again. This time I followed a few other surfers who seemed to know what they were doing as they were paddling out. We were in a good spot, because this time I got out fairly easily. My heart was still pounding though, and I was paddling like my life depended on it, not wanting to be caught in another set.

So I immediately decide to just start paddling north, to get warmed up and to also see if i would run into anyone. I ran into Miles. He's a really good long boarder who's an older gentleman that's always wearing sunglasses. Klaude said he lost an eye while surfing and I've always wanted to ask him about it, but I'm too scared/shy to.  He was catching a bunch, even with these big close outs, he seemed to stay on the face just enough to get a nice ride. I stayed around with him and this was when I caught my one and only wave. It was a nice medium sized one, I paddled into it easily and glided for a few glorious seconds. It was an actual corner, but I managed to get off pretty quickly, because I wanted a short paddle back to the line up. It was a nice wave, nothing spectacular. It was early on in my session, fear and fatigue hadn't settled in yet. Since then I kept trying to paddle for waves but they just weren't breaking right. I decided to paddle further south, and that was when I eventually saw Christina and Apolla. They had just gotten in again by 26th, after drifting down toward the pier. It was really nice seeing them! We continued to paddle for waves. I attempted a lot, Christina got a few, and Apolla was going for the big ones! She's fearless. After about a half an hour, I had gotten thrashed around enough, and decided to call it a day. I had some Thanksgiving linner calling my name, and I had to get home to help! It was a quick sesh and frustrating session, but I never regret coming out.