Somewhere off the California Coast Part 3

Well it was that time of year again and off we went somewhere off the California coast.  Happened to time it with a building south and west swell and it was beautiful.

When we arrived it was head high on the sets, the next day, Independence day, it was a few feet overhead and we got two three hour sessions, and the day after it was double overhead with exposed reef at low tide.  The picture above isn’t even where we surfed but it was goin off nearly everywhere.  It was hard not to draw comparisons to Indo.

The first day I surfed my first solid wood single fin shape, second day I got a bit more serious and took out my 6’2″ Aloha thruster that I picked up for $20 from a Japanese dude heading back to Japan after a winter here in SF.  The second session on the 4th of July and the last day I rode my Kauai shaped Topper single fin given to me by a good friend who left it with me before he moved off to Costa Rica.  I rode it with Greenough skeg which was more appropriate than I had realized at the time.  I felt like I was channeling some 70’s legend on that thing…stayed up high and gathered a bunch of speed and then would hold a swooping carve into the flats and then do it all over again.

Independence day was the best, the sun was out, slight offshores and we even got it all to ourselves for a little bit.  I was so stoked.  Sure didn’t feel like California.

On the last day, we pulled up to the spot and saw about 4 other guys in the water catching some fun ones.  We had seen and felt some of the biggest swells of the three days that night and morning as we made our way from the anchorage so we were expecting it to be much bigger.  We jumped in the water thinking that maybe the swell direction was off or something.  We were able to catch a few waves before the mother of all sets rolled in.  I found myself scratching for the horizon and just barely making it under a three or four wave set from hell.  After that set, everyone cleared the line-up and pulled up anchor.  It was pretty classic!

It was a great way to end the trip and I cannot wait until next year!!