Saturday, August 11, 2012

Such a thing as a bad day surfing ?

I am gonna have to say yes! I mean I know it could have been a lot worse .... I did not get injured and conditions were not Big, or too crazy....and I am one who tries to even make a bad day surfing a good one!

I was too distraught to take pix so I google bad day surfing and this pix came up so I stole it! Because I felt like I almost died a few times yesterday! This pix made me laugh!Maybe the grim reaper was surfing next to me???

Maybe it was my mood ... Maybe it's because i had not been in the water in almost 3 week.... Maybe I was just expecting so much more.. Maybe it's because my friends were all talking about how great surf has been, however crowded!
Even today I have heard amazing fun reports today ....
So what... the 1 day I decide to use my gas $$$ which I have to really be frivolous about ... All this happens?!?!?!

Irma totally sold me and got me all hyped to drive down and surf! Not that I am blaming her for anything... Totally not her fault!

So I tell hubs come on let's go surfing !!!!!! Irma said suns out waters warm and surf conditions are perfect for me!!!
I put on my board shorts and pack a rashguard and throw in my shorty and a 3/2 just in case... Load up Mo and Zeus and head to the cliffs!! 2-3 with occ 4 is what I was told. We decide to meet at 10 am.

We get there early and do a drive by at Blackies !!! Windy and surf is like 1' crumbly mess!!
I text Irma reported what i saw ..she said yep wind was 6kts at Blackies but Cliffs are posting 3kt so anything under 5 is ok in our book! But where did this wind come from??? There was no mention of wind!!!

As we drive down the coast it's not looking very promising .. We see flags blowing straight .. No surfers in water from newport to HB and surf not so great!

We get to Cliffs .. Not as windy... Doable but still windy... People are surfing some shape to waves ... Perfect height 2-4...water is warm... We still were a little dishearten over the wind but decide to go in!

Irma shows up while we are getting ready ..hubs just wore his board short and a rash guard I put my shorty on.

We walk down the cliff to the beach and Irma is looking and says the rip is pretty bad.. We keep walking to find a place to go in.. A guy walks by us and tells us don't enter any where here the rip current is killer today ... So we keep walking all the way past the other parking lot. We decide to go in.

The paddle out was killer!! Not so much as being caught inside by the breaking waves as paddle your fricken heart out and not go any where and trying to get enough speed to get over the oncoming breaking waves was near impossible ! I tossed my board and dived under 2 waves to get out.. And just when I was almost outside another wave beaks and dude is coming at me. He looks as if he is going left so I paddle to his right and was gonna go behind him. Then his board turns and he comes right at me and the wave stats to close out! I threw my board and swam as far to the bottom as I could till I touched the sand with my leg attached to my board pulling the other direction. I start to surface and then before I could get to the surface I am tumbled like I was in a dryer! At this point I am running out of air and thought oh yeah I'm gonna drown! Then I was up and took a deep breath! Reached for my board and just wanted to get outside as fast as I could!
Super nice dude came and said I am Soo Sorry are you ok? Totally my fault....Where did my board hit you? Are you bleeding? I said no I am fine I dove as deep as I could hoping to not get hit!
We are both paddling back out! My focus and goal was to just get outside! He kept talking but I was dizzy and out of breath and was not having fun! I Swear it took me at least 20 minutes to just get out!

Hubs said later he saw the whole thing and didn't see me surface for a while and was really getting worried! He thought that guys board hit me and I was knocked out or something ..

When I finally got out to Irma I said I am not having fun! Told her I paddled in one spot forever and then that whole ordeal with the guys board! She said the rip current is BAD today and reminded me if caught to swim or paddle parallel to shore .. That is one thing I did know :-)

Hubs could not even get outside and later he said he didn't even have fun in the white wash!

After I got outside... I seriously had NO desire to catch a wave! I just did not want to fight to get back out again!
Then we noticed we drifted so far North we paddle south again. Between the wind and the rip that was way too much work!

I tried to go for 2 waves the whole time both wipe outs and both times I tumbled bad! Once swallowing some water!

I was so over it!!! I paddled in and called it a day!

I watched Irma and Karen and the others who joined us and only saw Karen catch a wave ... IDK if Irma got anything..but my point of view .... Only experience surfers and strong swimmers should have only been out there! I know Irma is much better Than I and I believe Karen and her friends were as well! As for me I felt I had more than one near death experience too many that day!

Found hubs on beach and said that just sucked! The only good thing is I got wet and the water was warm. The short time i sat outside was the only enjoyable moment!

He said he just saw my board flying all the time and really was worried I got hit by that guy!

I felt nausea after that session.. We had a long walk back to the Tahoe and decided to go for some Bloody Mary's.

I was and still am so discouraged by yesterday! If that was my first time surfing .. I would never surf again!

Luckily I know there are better days ahead ... But seems like this year it just has not been so great ....
I was hoping with the unemployment I would get more water time and sharpen my skills! But that has not been the case :-(

Speaking of which....

And this could be either good or bad news ... But I have a job interview on Monday. The job is 8:30 to 5:30 Mon. -Fri. and a drop in pay for me. If I get it.. But out of all the resumes I sent and jobs I applied to .. This has been the only interviewed offer ....so????

If anything good came outbid this... I did get 2 compliments on Mo... I had to convince a surfer this was not a Michinton board. But a Mere Made board with the whole story of how it all came about!