Surf Session # 16

Surfing with the Gray Whales...didn't even know they were there until after the sesh when I was taking pics from the over-look, but would not even have noticed them while I was in the water because I was having too much fun.

Once again, first in at first light...catching wave after wave. Some in the 6' range, others in the 3' range, but I'm not complaining. Any wave is a good wave compared to no wave, having already experienced that when I exiled myself to Alaska over a year ago.

Crowd was just 3 of us, but some young dude thought it would be cool to share a wave with me, mistakenly dropping in on me and not exiting after attempting to call him off several times. After confronting him about his error in judgment, he apologized and remained respectful the rest of the time.

His excuse was pretty lame, having felt that because he was about 10' in front of me everything would be alright. Not!

The wave was particularly pitchy and problematic when it came to making the section because of the negative low tide and the short duration wind swell. What he failed to realize was that the wake created by his board mushed-out the wave face in front of me, slowing my progress down and eliminating any chances of me making the section. When I pointed this out to him, he sort of looked confused...I then had to go to the second reason for my "regulating" intervention: there are only 3 of us in the water! Seriously, I just do not understand the mentality of being a "wave-hog" particularly when it is done that early in the morning and with hardly anyone out. There is just no valid excuse by anyone when it comes to not taking turns in those conditions.

Anyways, so long as I intend to go early...I will not allow some overzealous idiot to simply think they can get away with that kind of behavior out in the water. I wait my turn, they can too...at least until there are more than 5 of us in the water. Then it's dog-eat-dog, or in my case...see ya later gators (I usually move away from the main peak to some other peak or get out).

Here be some pics: (the two swirling water spots in the top left corner of the pic below be the whales)