A couple of guests came to town this weekend, one from New Zealand and the other from Canada. We had a great time exploring the city-- checking out food carts, going to some pubs, eating too much at one of the wonderful breakfast places, But our eye was also on the coast for the whole weekend to see if and when the conditions were going to clean up.
Saturday was out. 8-10 feet and a mess. What about Sunday morning? Nope, still strong onshores and disorganized short period swell. As of Sunday late afternoon, it hadn't started to clean up at all. There's just not enough time in the weekend... Based on the forecast, there was a small chance the wind would turn east overnight and we'd have a small window of clean waves on Monday morning.
Like most people, I'm supposed to work on Monday mornings. I could explain to my guests which beaches they could check on their road trip south to California, wish them luck, and go about my normal week. Orrr, I could explain to my boss that I wouldn't see these new friends again any time soon, and that I needed to show them around a little longer. Hmmm. I weighed the options... even if we didn't get the clean waves we hoped for, I decided that it would be worth it to go to the coast.
So, I emailed my boss hoping that it wouldn't be a problem, called another friend who I thought might like to go, and we all loaded up just after sunset on Sunday.
Monday morning came and we were lucky enough to get some decent waves and light offshore winds. We spent a couple of hours or so sharing glassy, rainy waves. They weren't epic by any means, but it felt so good to get in the water in the morning before going about normal responsibilities for the week. I haven't had the opportunity to do that in a long time, and it was a healthy thing to do.
When I got to work at 1:30 I knew I had a long day ahead of me to make up for that morning, but it was definitely worth it. My tired arms and legs from swimming a paddling were a reminder of the fun morning, and those good times were a great start to what would have been just another normal week of work. Thanks to my boss for being understanding and letting me take advantage of that little pocket of time. :)
