"Don't Surf Like a Kook!"

This is what I told myself Saturday night in an effort to get into the zone for Sunday's surf session. I'd surfed with two guys from work on Saturday. The session was good enough. The shape of the waves was lacking. The drift from the current was even worse. I got waves, yes, but I felt stiff and kind of kooky that day. I wasn't surfing as well as I could. That got me to thinking. Why is it that I can surf so well and effortlessly at my home break, but can't seem to do that when I go to an unfamiliar break? Saturday was my second visit to that break. On Saturday night, one of the guys called to tell me they were going back on Sunday. Once I got the go-ahead from Soul Brother #1 for a Sunday session, I started getting my head straight. That's when I kept telling myself, "Don't surf like a kook!"

How was Sunday's session? Well, I took a page out of Alan M's book. I went into the session very relaxed and confident of my abilities. The result? The session was great. My first two waves (a left and a right, respectively) were so good that I could have left the water a happy and contented person after the second wave. The entire session was fun. Yes, there were lulls, sometimes long lulls. But when the waves came, they brought beautiful shape. There seemed to be enough to go around. It was crowded, yet it seemed like everyone out there was getting his or her fill. I know I got mine (as did the surf buddy who sits in the cubicle across from me). When I got out of the water after two hours, I could barely paddle. In fact, there was one wave where a guy was yelling at me to go and I was yelling back that I was too tired. We yelled back and forth for awhile. I finally tried, but the tank was empty. I'd just paddled out from a good ride. He laughed and said he was only yelling at me because he was too tired to go. Then another wave came and he took that.

Somehow I knew the breaks in L.A. wouldn't be all that good on Sunday. I'd looked at the surf reports about Saturday and was actually thinking about skipping a session in L.A. on Sunday (because I didn't want to deal with a crowd and terrible waves). Well, there was a crowd where we surfed this weekend. Somehow, this crowd was different from what I usually experience here at home. These folks were friendly, knew how to surf, knew surf etiquette and actually used surf etiquette. Surfing in a crowd of this type is rather nice. I saw no collisions. There was no yelling or telling people off. People just surfed. I'm not used to that!!! Thank goodness I don't mind leaving my comfort zone for surf points unknown. Well, this break is known. I'm just not saying where I was. One clue: I wasn't in L.A.