Day 28 - 3 to the beach (ABAIG)

As Bad As It Gets - I woke up this morning at about 4am in anticipation. I thought that I had a chance for an epic session. I even iced my back for 15 minutes at about 4:30. I fell back to sleep, but then woke up at about 6:00 and stumbled to the window, cleared my eyes and it was obvious that today would be a tough one. The wind had been on it all night, there were whitecaps and the waves were very consistent with pretty good size. I couldn’t take it! I went back to bed. I got up just before 7am, suited up and I started my reluctant walk down at about 7:05 following some badgering from Jason (I could see that he was enjoying the prospect that I’d have to go out there). I knew I had to go! 20 minutes was cutting it close on this day (I have to get out of the water by 7:30 to make be sure to make the 8am bus). The beach had been blown almost perfectly flat as it only had a few lonely tracks across a Sahara sand rippled surface – who knows where these people end up, it was a very inhospitable scene. I noticed down the beach a competition tent with a bunch of people huddled around in hoodies looking out at the foamy soup. What a bad day to have a contest! What a joke, these people should have canceled; I can almost guarantee that the best surfer did not win out there. Anyway, this gave me inspiration as I had 20 minutes to get 3 waves and the competitors probably did as well (maybe 15 minutes – depending on the contest format). So, I went out, but my heat was lonely. I almost didn’t make it out! There were waves everywhere, at one point I was not even paddling, just duck diving wave after wave. The wind swell interval seemed like it was about 3 seconds or so. I spent about 5 of my 20 minutes getting out there and I got pounded by a few large waves. It was very lonely sitting out there as the water was dark and the undulations caused me to lose sight of both the shore and the oncoming waves with regularity. I knew nobody was watching me, so I felt truly on my own. Now just get 3 waves! I caught 2 lefts and a right. I made feeble effort at a frontside turn on one of my waves. But, in general it was just survival. The wind was probably blowing cold at 20 miles per hour and the water was even colder from the previous night’s upwelling (a result of the wind). It was downright miserable. I did it and I’m glad for that, but I’m also glad that it was brief. My feet froze and the hurried walk back up to my apartment stung the numbness. I’ve surfed some pretty bad days, but this was very close to the top of that list of undesirable sessions. I hope day 28 is better!