Be Surf: Celebrate your Goddess Wave
That surf sesh when you surf a wave you’ll never forget.
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Fresh meet salt. (C) Sara Dyer
4/3/21 - The wind looked perfect, and timing of tide perfect too, so I headed north to one of the magical spots that I rarely get to. I usually stick to LS because it’s reliable and familiar but I wanted to push out of my comfort zone a bit, and it was the weekend, so things were more flex.
I was the only one paddling out, which gave me pause, but it was so calm, I went for it anyway (newsflash, you can still take it to the head when it’s tiny and zippy, and it ain’t great to be alone in that scenario).
And I didn’t catch shit for about a half hour or rather, I was getting stomped, ass-kicked by tiny waves who were making it clear I didn’t understand them. I was treating the waves like I was at LS, and I realized, very quickly, that they were very different here. I had forgotten. Here, the waves were less forgiving, walling up faster, breaking shallow. And, so, I realized I had to be judicious. I had to watch the waves, and I learn to read them. While I’ve been surfing non stop for two+ years, I’m often so stoked and bananas, I just want to go for everything that seems surfable but yesterday, I had to respect them and appreciate them for THEIR specific character, not thrust my own agenda on them. My approach at the start of the sesh had led to 2-3 gnarly wipe outs where I came very close to taking it to the head in the very shallow water. After the break I took to watch them, and try to understand them I caught a few super fun shoulders.
When I got home, Nick asked me how the sesh was and I explained it was more recon than session, and it reminded me of one of my other lessons in my book Be Surf: Every day is a learning day.
Surf: Lunchtime sesh
I jumped in for a super quick lunch time surf sesh. It’d been more than two weeks since I’d jumped in. Having 1) finished the last of my antibiotics for my ear infection yesterday 2) considered I was feeling better and most importantly, 3) it was in the 40s, low wind and 3-4 feet, it was game on. I’d been feeling buzzy and itchy and as usual, heading to “Church” (la playa) was the solution.
Only a couple people out and I ran from my car, wanting to maximize every second given I only had an hour for lunch with work.
I was just north of R’s and the waves were just fine. Mostly 1-2 feet but with a couple 3-4 coming through. It was my perfect type of day—small, clean, and quiet.
There’s no peace like the ocean, nothing like it to put my buzzy mind at ease and give me quiet.
I’d rather surf than not surf at all, so I walked away feeling like even if I only have 40 minutes or so in the water, it’s worth it and that I should try to take advantage of the quick lunch surfs more often. We’re getting more daylight but so so slowly and so, on mornings where I’m just not having it—not having that early morning frigid wake up call—I’m going to shoot up for a quick lunch time sesh and be glad for it. Better than nothing. Better than anything really.