Whupped......

Dawn patrol yesterday, hit it super early before the wind took out the small surf and destroyed it.Waist high screamers down the bar for 75+ yards, a bit smaller than I like. Two hours of outgoing tide when it should have been dribbling instead it was snap, crackle and pop! Driving little peelers, with head dips and cover ups thrown in for good measure. Wasn't til after 8 before regulars started popping their heads up and by then it was hitting negative.

 

(almost there)

Hit the rock with some sandshrimp and pulled up a couple seabass, by then the wind was hitting hard as I headed in. While the 2 boys played I filleted fresh fish and fed the gulls. Gave 1 of the 2 bass away to a friend. Rolled home and started a fish stock. Marinated the fish. Then as the day folded into late afternoon, hit the estuary for some clams to add to dinner and shrimp for bait today.

 

On the dinner table, fresh seabass sauted and then covered in a French style wine and cream reduction sauce.. mmmmmmm gooood!! Fresh clams battered and fried, tasty! Steamed brocco and Caprese salad, too tasty! Of course I did the dishes, it being mother's day and all.

Timing is everything.....

A surf report from a point south of here.......

really fun sessions at S........ the past two days - picked up a used Mike T. RP from his personal quiver - nice guy, some really nice boards in his shaping room. Board works great, very drivey and really loose.......

Yesterday was head high to a couple of feet over, coming off the point with a really nice fast wall..moved up the reef and snagged some walled up winders...

Paddled out at first light this morning, very light offshore, new swell filling in, stronger and bigger.... best surf session I've had in many years...hung outside, got a bunch of waves, including a couple of deep set waves all the way thru the inside bowl....will store those in the vault...

5/3's, freezin water and average beachbreak makes us forget.......

 

(lifted from LC cam)

While this wave in the pic has no relation to the surf report above, it reminded me of what the emailer(almost 60yrs old) was doing, surfing solid down the line grinders with style and grace.

Monday

Done by noon. Cross up winds from the south east, solid power in overhead waves. Winter is back! Winds with a vengeance this evening. Punchy and angling away from the wind making for tough takeoffs. Just 2 of us. Good enough, nothing too exciting.

2 lings love me long time

 

When lings try to jump ship....

 

Photos by Finland's best surfer and her coach.

Below the surface.....

I have to share this story from a friend who commercial fishes here in town, probably the most die-hard and capable dory guy in the area. He's fun to watch as he launches solo day in and day out through some lively surf, he has it wired and you seldom see him second guess himself. We were talking about fishing and crabbing, wondering how it is creatures hide so well, when he started laughing about his first experience diving for crab.

After getting certified to dive he hit a local bay, the same bay his father had been crabbing recreationaly for years. He was convinced that with air he could just dive and start plucking the largest males off the bottom as he swam over them, however once under water he couldn't find a single crab to put in the bag. He searched fruitlessly over favoured sandbars but found nothing. If he had set traps they would normally fill in 30 minutes, but he was in a crab desert it seemed.

Finally, in frustration and ready to give it up he swam over the shadow-shape buried in the sand that he thought was a discarded crab shell and reached for it as the only proof that there were crab here at all. As his hand approached the mounded sand two claws instantly popped out of the sand just beneath his fingers and in unison from better coverage flew out(for the lack of a better term) about 200 other crabs also claws flailing in defense. "I freaked," he said "and I swear for a couple months I had dreams of crabs popping out of sand and pulling me down into the bottom of the bay!"

On the surface...

Today I keep the south end of the rock just visible around the basket as I prone paddle toward it. The waves are crossed up and refraction from the cape adds to a bouncing journey, once past the sand point it will get smoother as I stroke over deeper water. The west wind skips around to the south and then back to the west, out at the handle it will race around from any and all directions, gusting when it wants even though there is no call for it. Whitecaps and waves wrap and meet then dissipate into deeper waters past the kelp bulbs being played marionette style by forces unseen.

It feels like being where the paper tears apart, between the deep and the birds above swirling, calling. The rock is full of birds and they land and change places in a protesting cacophony, if for a moment they fell silent it would be time to pay attention.

Yesterday a gray whale swam through the kelp forests, tailing and spouting within the afternoon shadows. I want to see him today, but I don't want him to see me. It's a long way back. Houses along the sand are small, a windshield winks sun as it passes behind buildings on it's way up the hill. Sounds out here come from the birds or waves washing the rock or lapping against the board. I concentrate on baiting the hooks, the world is small and right here, when I look up it's big again and I am small and alone on the surface.

On the SUP-per table

 

Dinner's out there.

 

Bring it home.