Ten Days To Remember

This has been a winter of extremes it seems, two coastal snow falls before the end of January is not normal around here. The last one left snow around buildings for over a week. Three week stretches of wind and rain. Now a forecast of great winds and waves that are stretching out ahead of us for over a week. No consistency except for the inconsistencies, perfect!

Word is out and the lot has filled up, we enter from the rocks and after a short paddle we are between the inside and the outside peaks. Even with the thirty or so out there is plenty of room and waves to be had. The wind is light enough that unlike the last go out I take out the quad and not the bonzer, that wide nose isn't an issue today.

The quad is great in these overhead waves, backside it's a sweet board. The extra fins really hold well and the speed is phenomenal. But when the inside section gets wobbly the fish's wide tail seems to be a bit detrimental to control. The bonzer would have cut through the warble without a hitch as it had yesterday, chop is not the fishes friend!

After a couple of hours I paddle back to the rocks, getting out by timing the surge and reaching out and holding onto short stalks of kelp. It's not super difficult, but it requires trusting your feet and a avoiding the little pockets of urchins. I pull it off and make my way back to the car where N is waiting already dry and changed.

I ask her how she got out as it was her first time doing the rock dance and she points over at the cliff, Jesus! Turns out she had seen a few take a path into a cove, lost their track and found herself at the base of a cliff with a rudimentary path. Armed with a longboard she had climbed to the top at one point balancing the board over the edge........not knowing it was a drop off of 30' on the other side. I shake my head a bit awed by this dangerous climb and thankful she's come out of it unscathed.

Next time I think we'll need to plan the exit a little better..................