I took the wife out on a canoe ride on the gorgeous Mission Bay. We hauled the vessel from the sandbar on which it's moored in San Juan Cove and paddled out to Paradise Point. We then beached the canoe on the sand and walked onto the sand to relax on dry land for a bit. Quite a bit of water traffic was flying by in front of us in the form of sailboats both large and small, some luxuriously crossing the bay and some embroiled in the mad frenzy of one of the weekend races.
Pretty much every time I had the opportunity to take out a sailboat I would manage to find my way directly in the path of one of these races. The way the races are set up for the dozens of boats to dart back and forth right right across Sail Bay I was always taken aback by how furious the racers were when we crossed their path. Did they expect the several non-racing sailboats to simply leap into the air and fly over their precious little race? Or perhaps they would have preferred if we took our sailboats and simply submarined ourselves under the water until we were out of their way.
Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is a surf report. After the canoeing and the lunch that followed, before I knew it the sun was fast setting and the waves were still up. I rode over to the end of Verona Court to paddle out with JC. The board that was made available to me this evening was an eight foot epoxy longboard. I was cautioned that the board did, in fact, suck and that I should take the 9 foot epoxy longboard that had a piece of duct tape strategically placed on one of the corners. I took the admonition as a personal challenge and decided to take it out.
The waves were fantastic. 3-4 ft, plentiful open faced rights, that were decent enough to stay open long enough for a couple turns. The only curiousity this evening was a group of 4 guys in wetsuits who were attempting to catch waves on a giant, inflatable raft. I say attempting because they did not end up riding much of anything. I had to assume that none of them were surfers. And it's not that I have some kind of prejudice against riding giant, inflatable rafts in the waves. The ordeal actually looked somewhat entertaining. I would just think that such experiments were better suited for days when the surf was not as good - especially considering that in summers around here the good surfing days are few and far between.
June 23 Session Report - Took out the Craig - 8" slim longboard to Pacific Beach Drive. The water was metallic, glassy and grey underneath the clouds where golden rays of light shot through into the distance. I found myself wishing I had brought my rastafari hybrid fish because the waves, while not that big, were somewhat bigger than I expected. Toadstomper paddled out with me which was good because I needed to vent to someone about my broke down boat. In between sets, I explained how after a full day of sailing, a glorious maiden voyage for the Wavemobile, shortly after I decided to take the boat back in, I noticed something was wrong with the mast. It swayed around until a cable suddenly snapped, sending the masting plunging directly at my amazed face. I was too stunned to move but luckily I wasn't smashed by the collapse.
Rode my bike out after work to Pacific Beach Drive. I was pedaling fast to get in there before the tide rose too high and killed the small amount of swell energy we were enjoying.
Under my right arm I was carrying one of my first boards, "Driftwood," a classic single fin surfboard that I had recently restored this year. The session was nothing too special but I felt good to get back in the water after being land-locked the past week.
The only notable points of the session came from my last wave where I dropped in going right, determined to take the wave in spite of the guy to my right who was looking to cut me off. To my surprise, instead of cutting me off, he dropped in and headed directly at me, passing under me as he scored a quick left on the same wave. Since that also happened to be the best wave of the session I decided to call it a night and head back to my bike. Walking up to the boardwalk I stole a couple glances at the guys doing the "Fire Show" on the beach, comprised of a variety of fire-related balancing and juggling acts.
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