by Major Lazer » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:02 pm
Sup yall. Kinda went from zero to hero and racked up a good amount of sessions in the second half of May after 8 weeks and the longest surf drought I can remember in some time. No worries though just stoked to catch some of the consistent and fun May swells that were on tap. Water was super warm too for the 1st few, was burning up in my 5 mill not having my old 4 on hand, so went bootieless which took some getting used to.
When I 1st hit the coast after 8 weeks, I rolled down my windows and started to scream. The smell the ocean and the salt air was as pungent as ever even brought a few tears to my eyes. Unfortunately when I got to the spot though, the wind was onshore and quite contrary to the glassy cams I was checking before I left. Typical Spring.... session was memorable in the fact I broke my dry spell and logged my 1st Rona session, but the waves themselves were doooog shite. Luckily I had a place to stay and ended up logging a couple more sessions the next day at a rando beachie I've never surfed right out front that was pretty damn fun. Got my paddling arms and legs back to some degree and manged some gutbacks and a floater or two with no one around. The coast was absolutely another world compared to PDX. A lot of my anxieties were relived and I was able to forget about the nonsense for the time I was there.
Bugged out to the redneck rivera which was open for buiss for the holiday weekend, which did not feel like a holiday weekend at all. Dad needed multiple days of waves and good ones at that and the wifey was kind enough to let me GTFOD. Had a hunch based on many years of surfing this spot and knowledge of tides and swell, so packed up like I was going to Baja prepared for complete self containment, although not much different than I usually roll. When I arrived it was easily the most packed I've ever seen this lot, with out of state plates ranging from WA to CO to CA. Holy fooook it was nuts. Zero social distancing, no masks, no Roana I guess? Polar opposite of PDX let me tell you. Luckily not surfers thou. Posted up yet distanced from the MAGA crowd and surfed myself absolutely silly for 3 days gorging on 100 yard rippable walls that peeled to the friken sand with a perfect channel to lap and lap and lap. Some sessions were better than others for sure, but ended up logging 5 sessions in 3 days and was absolutely dusted. My surfing was inconsistent, but had some moments of personal rippage and ended up being a very memorable trip.
More recently I finally got my kids back in the water after 12 weeks for them. In fact I could not get them out of the water! Oldest finally got to christen a new suit she got for her B-day in mid April and apparently its the warmest suit shes had, so that's good. Dad also got a fun and very quiet social distancing session at a sand bar that was surprisingly empty while a pretty large pack sat up to the north. Eventually it got kinda busy, but there was a window of fun punchy chest to head, the water was warm, clear, and green and surfed for almost 3 hours. Posted up on the beach all day with plenty of space by just waking a little and soaked it all in. A brief moment of tranquility in some chaotic times where surfing really seems like an afterthought right now.
Routine is a vampire. Manu Chao-