Say Goodbye to Spring(suits)

All it took was yesterday's cold water to put me back in my fullsuit today. Once again, the day began early. I gave the surf reports—notice I'm speaking in the plural—the benefit of the doubt. I actually believed a SW would fill in overnight. As usual, I was sitting at a point break at the crack of dawn, waiting to see the glorious waves just rolling on in. The surf reports said the swell was coming. They must be right this time. Right? When there was enough light to see the water, I knew once again I'd been utterly misled by these so-called professionals. I was prepared though. I'd brought along two boards: the Tyler in the event a point break was actually working and my Soul Performance 7'0" in the event I ended up at a beach break. Upon seeing the sad little water movements which tried to masquerade as waves, I left. Low tide was an hour earlier. The tide was coming up. If the swell wasn't showing when the sun came up, it wasn't going to get any better, especially since this is a low tide spot. Nevertheless, people stood around watching. What did they expect to see? Was someone going to put a few quarters in the wave machine? There was no way I was going to stand around waiting for Santa Claus to bring us some waves for an early Christmas. I headed to the home break.

I was there early. I didn't get right in. I wanted to see what someone else thought of the waves, which were somewhat closed out. Then, R and B drove up. They were going. And when they go, I go. I can always count on them to hit the spot early. It was going to be me and the 7'0". I'd not ridden that board since June 14. The combination of small waves and my dedication to monogamy—it was me and the Tyler all summer—kept me from that board. However, I did promise myself that once I got on this board, I'd stay on it for good. That means the Tyler will be retired to the garage for a few months. This fall and winter I'll stay true to the shorter board, unless a longboard break is calling to me, in which case I'll take the Slick. Anyway, I felt pretty good on the shorter board today. Since there were so few people out, I wasn't feeling self-conscious. I actually caught some waves . . . with honest-to-goodness pop-ups. I realize now that the transition to this shorter board won't be as horrible as I thought. I still put too much weight on my back foot. I learned to stop doing it on the Tyler. I'll need to work on that with this board too.