Surf Repot

April 16,2009 El Porto,CA

Kev and Jon

Great surprises welcomed. Kev and I were happy to have Jon come out to surf with us today. Jon’s putting in hard hours at work. Today Jon drove to and from San Diego for work, as a thank you they let him off early for the day.

Jon sent a text message straight from a fortune cookie, “I am down for surf”.

Today’s motley crew headed out for another classic day at El Porto:

Chop, slop, and as Ryan calls it “Mush Burgers”.

As always, conditions do not matter since growing boys are hungry.

Despite the horrible conditions there was a high school, Red Bull, competition today. While suiting up, a passerby says to me, “Is that a competition? What a shitty day to hold a competition!”. Yeah, sure is and we were about to go surf in it.

Naturally, we agreed to pick a spot far from spectators, and cameras. We started out on the right side of the beach, close to the historic rip tide side. Kev and I deem it historic after we almost lost Kev in it last year.

Later in the day we moved further south because the current drifted us to the competition area.

Kev and Jon had no problem paddling out on their boards. Jon’s planning out his entry, carefully picking out pockets and lulls to easily pass into. I was on the beach and watched Kev and Jon easily move out to the line. Patience pays off here.

Jon is looking confident paddling out on his board. We need to take him to a better beach at a good time so he can conquer Al. Kevin’s out paddling out on his Al as well. Life is good if you can say you can confidently paddle out on a classic El Porto day.

Jon Aye's Tip: My coworker told me that he waits 45 minutes before he goes in. He watches the ocean to find pockets to paddle through and waits for set of waves to die out before going in.
The next thing to keep in mind is the movement of the Sun and Moon determine the best tides.

Jon's tip to find pockets truly worked, I watched Jon and Kev find pockets today and paddle out to the line fast. I hope the boys are going to start looking to understanding the relationship of tides and interpreting the surf reports.

Bonus: Jon met the creator of Surfline. Funny thing is the surfline guy got into an accident. What happened you ask? Well, Surfline creator was driving on the freeway, and was following behind a truck with a surfboard in the back. The surfboard flew out of the truck and through surfline guy's window. Cheers to irony.

Yours truly, confidently sat on the beach, not a good day.