Oh, Hell No!!!!

What was I thinking, loading up the car, expecting to get in a session today? What was I thinking?!? I knew it would be big, but damn!!! I didn't want any part of that once I saw it.


This is what our home break looked like today. Actually, this is a picture that Uncle Grant took at Venice. My home break looked no different. The waves were massive and truly unsurfable. Did I say massive? Hmm, that's not the right term. Perhaps I meant to say there were gigantic. I've never seen anything like that before.

How do I know how the home break looked? Well, I went there to skate after arriving at, considering, watching, and finally vetoing RPB. For one thing, RPB was firing so hard that I thought I was seeing things. It was a shortboard break today. There wasn't much anyone on a longboard was going to do out there except get hurt. For another thing, there were so many people there that it wasn't safe. The only waves that were working, when I was there, were at The Point. And those waves were way overhead. The guys on shortboards were killing it!!! The guys and gals in the bay, on the other hand, were stuck with slop. I saw nothing there that tempted me to paddle out. Nope. Instead I saw a guy on a longboard get out of the water with blood on his face from what looked like a pretty good cut on his forehead. I also saw a guy whose leash had snapped. He was frantically running after his board (which was going to be pounded up against the rocks). That was more than enough for me. Those waves were no joke. While my skills have improved, I'd be delusional if I thought I could actually go out and tackle what I saw today. Mind you, the RPB cam usually shows a place that's virtually flat. You might see one ripple on the cam if there's a swell. The cam today didn't even do justice to what was going on in the water when I got there.

I watched for awhile and finally acknowledged that those waves were too much for me. At least my skills and wave knowledge are such that I actually know what I'm looking at. I can easily gauge the size of the waves, the strength of the current, etc. Although I desperately wanted to get wet, it wasn't worth the possibility of getting hurt.