Nice, Tex! Glad you're getting out in the water and getting some quality family time
I hit up Agate on Sunday. Was there late morning/early afternoon approaching low tide. There were tons of heads in the water. There was a decent sized group hanging with the advanced set getting some really nice long rights off a good beach break. I would have been over my head both literally and figuratively, so I hung back in the whitewater to work on my pop-up. I've been watching some videos, and was looking forward to trying out an adjustment in my *ahem* technique. I definitely noticed an improvement, now it's just a matter of working on that muscle memory until I can get it down. Have to unlearn what I've already learned kind of thing.
There was a super strong undercurrent out there. However, instead of pulling you out and north into the rocks like I normally experience, this one was pushing HARD towards the shore and south. Just trying to get out to the waves was quite an exercise. Paddling got me nowhere and walking out was like I was doing some kind of crazy resistance training. My legs are nice and sore today from that. So, as a result, my wave count was really down. But I did catch a few good ones, so stoke level didn't dip too hard. There are no bad days on the water.
Getting outside was so difficult I saw some guy towing a kid, maybe 12 years old, beyond the big break since he couldn't do it himself. Just as I was questioning the safety in that, I saw that same kid hard charging a nice right in a wave several feet over his head and getting a pretty sweet, long ride out of it. Maybe next time Dad can give me a tow...
Ossie's was conducting a big group lesson in the whitewash while I was there which made it a bit of a slalom course at times. Wasn't too bad, but had to bail now and then to keep from hitting someone down the line. Definitely a change from even a month or two ago when there was maybe 5 of us in the water, tops. Get ready for summer at Agate, I guess. At one point one of the Ossie's instructors gave me a tip. I didn't know whether to be thankful for the free advice or to be embarrassed that he took one look at me and said, "yep, this guy needs all the help he can get"...
Overall, a good day in the water. Hope you all were able to get wet, too.