Surf Repot - Graduation Day

March 28,2009 San Onofre

Jon and Ryan

Today marked the biggest day of the week on my Google Calendar, the culmination of 1 and half years of surf.

Our 1st California State Beach Annual Pass expired this weekend.

And on this special occasion the motley crew decided to showcase our growth over the years at the Big San O, California's own Waikiki.

Photo Credit to Jon Aye.
http://jonatangan.livejournal.com/
P.S. Ladies you may admire my tiny peter of a camel toe on his blog.

My anticipation had me up at 5AM today for the 6:45AM pickup. Jon realized my excitement and had me drive to his house.

Ryan arrived at 7AM. The crew worked quickly on getting boards stacked up on the runner. Jon had some serious navy tactical “S shaped” knots on the boards.

We headed out for our big day, exchanging eager conversations and stories. A complete rosary provided much needed comfort and confidence on the way up.

The wind passing thru the board bags made the uninvited whistling noise, this ghostly sound more irritating than the ear straining open-window helicopter. What is worse is that the sound from the wind causes the passengers to worry about foam torpedoes shooting from our humvee.

Jon peered his head out to view the boards, ala Iraqi Humvee Recon Team – all he need was a rifle around his shoulder as he stuck out half his body thru the window to view the boards.

“They shifted, pull over”. 10 Minute delay on the clock as the crew switched out tie downs and secured the torpedoes above.

A few more laughs on the 5S and we found that we had arrived.

Long lines and slow rolling waves. "So this is Waikiki", I said to myself.

I forgot to replace my leash before the big day.

Bone head solution, "Oh I know, I'll just tie the lesh in a knot around my ankle". Not true.

Jon and Ryan were out to the line in a dash.

Jon's getting waves in on his second day. His big concern is getting the paddling down, and paddle he did. We went out to Hermosa to get his board repaired and he said his back and arms were sore.

Why, well because of the picture below:


The 3 of us were in between 2 swells. Never in the middle of the line. It was way to crowded in those spots. So we hung out at the end and paddled around until our golden ticket came.

Honestly, I was scared to have no leash. When I finally got the guts to paddle to the line, I said to myself, "It's going to be worth it". Wrong again.

Jon and Ryan were beside me when I decided to paddle to the line, I am certain they saw the next event:

1. Wait at line
2. Line up with wave
3. Nose dive
4. Pop up and laugh at myself
5. Realize no one else is laughing
6. Paddle back to friends and admit defeat
7. Say to self, "Welcome to San O B*tch"
8. Sit around a bit, paddle away from everyone, and hope everyone forgets what happened.

Opening wave goes out to Ryan again. He caught a clean wave, with no corner this time, drop from the top! Ryan put out the cleanest pop up I have ever seen this pass year, turning the board left onto the face of the wave. Ryan's on the face now a days, this was following up his opening wave at El Porto earlier this week. I was next to him (on the left, sorry about that) when it happened and sure I yelled out in excitement.

Surf Report

March 26,2009 El Porto

Kev

Nice clean lines today, unfortunately paddling out to the line required strength and persistence.

We brought standard squishy ear plugs today that loosened up as the got wet. I ended up taking my plugs out 10 minutes in the water for fear of having them torpedo into my ear.

Kevin was out quick to the line today. I lost sight of him quickly because he was paddling in so fast. I had a feeling Kevin was focused on catching waves on his short board today. Those feelings were true. I found Kevin towards the end of our session, and asked if he caught some. He said, “Yep”. I have a feeling he caught a lot more than he told me.

Kev’s been thinking a lot more about his paddling, he’s figured that on his short board to focus on his chest and avoid using certain arm muscle than feel straining. Looks like Kev’s disciplining himself. Adjust, Correct, Adjust, Cool.

As for yours truly, I had a life guard watch me eat it in a rip tide. I blame it on myself for not having the strength and stamina to paddle to the line.

Yep, I never made it to the line today.

THE BIG SAN O

Possible San Onofre trip this Saturday.
I am definitely picking up a new set of ear plugs for this one.
I wonder if I can get J to come with and bring a camera......

Surf Report

March 25,2009 El Porto

Ryan and Kev

Ryan brought his NSP out today and dropped in smooth on an opening wave. We headed further north of the usual spot.

Kevin still working on getting his balance paddling out with the Al Merrick. He's catching more waves inside than before so he's making big progress.

I am still getting used to paddling again and taking time to think and find easier spots to paddle out to the line. It getting more fun each day.

March 21,2009 Bolsa

Kev

We headed further South this time Tower 16. Kev and I found a sweet spot similar to the spot the instructor at Malibu found. It was pretty flat today, small waves, and a lot of times in between sets.

Kev and I managed to stay in that spot for most of the day to make it worth our while. Caught the line again today in the wash.

March 20,2009 Bolsa

Matt and Daniel

I took the infamous brothers out to Bolsa today. Very flat and cold.

Daniel went out in his spring suit. And stood up several times on Morgan. We switched between the Al Merrick and Morgan the whole day. Daniel has got the hang of paddling and standing. I didn't really get to see how he faired on the Al Merrick though. Daniel was too cold today and decided to run up and down the beach to stay warm. If it weren't for the bad weather Daniel probably would have been catching waves all day.

Matt is did pretty good out there, given it was a flat day. Matt and I pretty much were side by side waiting for a long time for our waves. Matt did not neglect the ones that came by. I swear this guy has got guts and a corner magnet. I saw Matt get pretty close to perfectly dropping into corners again. He realized that he was a few paddles short of catching it. From my view he was always at the peak of the wave or right about to drop into a quarter. Keep going Matt.

Nothing special for me today. Just kept the camaraderie by not wearing my ear plugs since the brothers did not have any.

March 21,2009 El Porto

Jon, Matt, Ryan, and Kev

Choppy.

Today marked Jon's first day on his 7'6" Al Merrick! He did really well on it for the first day. Jon showed a big difference in paddling. Jon was out further faster than on his time on his longer board at El Porto. He said he had fun and was able to catch waves in with the board. The board looked great cleaned up and I hope to see memories on that board.

The rest of the boys were doing well, Ryan brought his fish out and Kev brought the Al Merrick. Both guys are getting back into the swing of things. Matt was a big stand out again. Dude has got nuts. I saw Matt drop in on pretty big waves today. Matt's guts is going to have him progress faster. I hope Daniel starts heading out as well.

I finally caught the line. Well the line in my textbook is going sideways on anything for the first time....or going sideways on a pseudo face (wash). I will never forget struggling for 15 minutes trying to paddle out and having some weird feeling to keep paddling because it would be worth it. It was. A dog of the house of Montague moves me!

March 16,2009 Al Merrick

Jon, J

Ask and you shall receive brother. I found a deal on Craig's for a 7'6" Al Merrick board for $150. The seller was very nice.

I sent an email out to the boys to let them know what was out there. The board had just posted that morning. Jon's reply was, "Did you call the guy!". Hahaha. I sure did brother. I told Jon that the seller was going to hold the board for us. Jon was embarrassed to purchase the board because he thought that I wanted it for myself.

No way man, we had that conversation just yesterday. Crazy.

Well the 3 of us made the trip out to pick it up. J and I totally embarrassed Jon. Seconds after Jon had just purchased the board, we asked Jon to take a picture with his board. Jon was hesitant because the seller was still there. hahah way too put your friend in an awkward position. Oh well, that makes for a great memory.

I hope that Jon is blessed with that board and has many memories on it, good ones.

March 15,2009 Bolsa

Jon

Jon and I chilled today catching whatever we could and switching between Morgan and his 9ft+ board. Jon and I sat on the beach and talked about what board we would like. We both agreed that we wanted a 7 foot board. And I kid you not that while sitting on the beach Jon specifically said, "It would be awesome to get a 7'6" board, maybe an Al Merrick, for a pretty low price". I reassured him that something would come up. Little did we know God had plans.

March 14,2009 Huntington, Bolsa

Kev and Ryan

Ryan and Kev were shortboarding next to a surf competition today. They realized how close they were too it and they both caught the next wave in back to shore. That had to make for at least a 20 second ride. You knuckleheads.

I was too much of a chicken to paddle out with the "pros" of HB. So I stayed in the wash. WEE!

March 10,2009 El Porto

Matt, Nate, Ryan, and Kev

Way too choppy today. But way too much fun seeing such a big crew go out. Matt was going down pretty big waves for one of his first days out. The man has got guts.