Out for Blood

Remember this? After today's session at Malibu, the ding in CYT's board made my fin chop look like a paper cut. "Ding" is such a delicate word sometimes. It doesn't always describe the extent of the damage to one's pride and joy. I forgot to pack the camera today, thus I'll have to provide the right description of the damage to the nose of her board. Let's see, how about "big, gaping crevasse"?

Alright, I'll start at the beginning. We thought the SW might do a few sneak attacks today. I talked about Sunset. She talked about Malibu. It was decided that we'd plan on Malibu, but stay at Sunset (which we pass on the way to Malibu) if it was firing. As we drove past Sunset, I could see there wasn't much there. Well, guess what? There wasn't much going on at Malibu either. The swell hasn't arrived yet. Once out in the water, I spent a lot of time sitting, watching, and listening to the ocean. But, see, my head was in a totally different space than it usually is about Malibu. I have a bone to pick with someone. That someone frequents Malibu but is not a local. When we arrived today and saw that person's car, it was on. I was ready to surf. I wasn't even thinking about the place and my history with it. I was in full on Xena, Warrior Princess "let's go kick some ass" mode. To make a long story short, no ass kicking occurred. Said surfer was departing as we arrived. The good thing was that the attitude stayed with me and it wasn't crowded. So I went for it today. I went there to get waves. I got 'em . . . good ones. I surfed like I do at my home break. I don't think when I surf there. I just surf. I let it all hang out. And that's what I did today in Malibu. As a result, my session was fantastic. There weren't a lot of waves today. The swell wasn't doing much of anything. However, I still managed to get two great waves to myself. The first one I remember not for the ride but for the paddle battle before the ride. Several of us went for this wave. I did something I normally won't do; I paddled through a crowd to get the wave. Those people were just sitting there. I know there was a guy on my left paddling too. I think he got cut off by the crowd through which I paddled. Before I knew it, I was up, taking one of the longest rides I've ever had. There was no one behind me and no one in front of me. Sweet! I don't know what happened on the second wave. I only remember someone telling me how good a ride it was. I'm telling you, I was feelin' it today. In my own polite way, I was out for blood. I still maintained my normal courtesy though. There was one wave I would have had to myself, but I pulled up at the last second. I didn't want to run over the woman in my path. She apologized. There was no need for that. There will always be another wave. The last thing I want to do is run someone over when doing so can be avoided. I think I was surrounded by good karma today. CYT, on the other hand, was not. After I'd gotten my fill, I decided it was time to go. I'd had good rides. The vibe was mellow. And, frankly, there weren't that many waves rolling through anyway. Besides, it got crowded to the point of making me nervous. There'd been no yelling for most of my session. Near the end, once the throngs of people paddled out, the vibe was changing. Exit, Stage Right!! CYT told me throughout the session that she'd had many close calls: boards coming close to her head, fins from her board hitting her hand (but not cutting the skin), and waves that pitched her (and the rest of us) headfirst into the shallow, rocky ocean bottom. She acknowledges now that she should have gotten out when I did. As I got out, she motioned to me that she wanted one more wave. I went to the car and got dressed. When she finally did make it back to the car, she blurted, "Look what happened to my board!" Daaaaaaaammmmmnn! It looked like her board was the loser in bar room brawl. Her board suffered the same punishment that mine did, except that the person who ran her over was moving faster (thus he did more damage). Yes, my friends, another session ended with a trip to Aqua Tech.

Hair update: I took Whiff's advice and postponed the locks until Saturday. I may (or may not) stay out of the water next week and let the locks set for awhile. I'll keep you posted.