While sitting at my desk on Monday, rejuvenated from a weekend trip to the coast and a fun surf session on Sunday, I got a text from a friend. He was just checking in, and ended up saying that he's only surfed a few times all year. And this is an avid surfer...
I asked him why he hadn't been out. It could have been more time at home with family, work, or getting into other activities (there's no shortage of things to do up here). "There's a season for everything", he said. I understand where he's coming from, but only getting out a few times all year is still pretty rough.
When I got a message that same night from him asking if I could surf with him the next day, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to surf with a friend who I hadn't paddled out with since New Years last year.
The waves were supposed to be 3 ft. at 15-18 seconds with Offshore wind. Those conditions tend to be pretty fun wherever you are.
I woke up at 4:30 am to pack up and drive to the coast to get there by sunrise. It was a coooooold morning, about 40 degrees with chilling offshore gusts. And for some reason the waves weren't really lining up so well. My hands were painfully frozen just standing on the beach. Squeezing into my wetsuit, boots, and gloves didn't sound very appealing when considering the quality of the waves.
After hanging out on the beach all morning, waiting (without luck) for the conditions to improve, it was time to move to another spot to see if it was any better. We hopped in the car, met up with some other friends, and went to explore some nooks and crannies.
This is where things turned around and we lucked into some fun little peelers. They weren't big or hollow or anything, but they were just what we needed for that day. It still would've been fun to have hung out with friends all morning, even if we hadn't found waves. But, some clean wintry waves (no matter the size) turned the day from relatively average to a day that I'll surely remember.