Surfing, or learning to surf, parallels life. It is the toughest thing to learn. It's physically and mentally demanding. Some days are good, some are great, and some just completely suck. Either way you learn something more about yourself, or about how beautiful the place is where you are at that moment, even if its challenging.
This evenings session started at 3:30pm, after work, because James and I are going in at 5am these days. High tide was around 4:30. It took me a while to paddle out. It was like a bit of a crescendo...the farther I got out the bigger the waves got. There were some huge sets coming in.
I've described the ordeal getting out in a bigger swell before on here, but that was then, and now there is a little more knowledge in my head about the swell and surf, at least there should be.
There were big sets and small sets, not much in between. John, the grumpy surfer, was out. He's been surfing for a very long time, and is completely tuned in to what's going on out there. He told me tonight that the waves are very hard to catch, but big. Not what I wanted to hear. He said they "close out quickly", which is a common deal here, but him saying that meant they were peaking and dumping even quicker than normal. They were. I took a beating. I'm not bruised or anything, just some little scrapes from hitting the reef, and a renewed deep deep fear of waves. I haven't hit the reef at the "Shark Pit" for a year. I got rubbed along it for a while this evening after thinking I could jump a 7ft tall wave that was getting ready to close (read crest, slam, dump.....) on me. Ok so picture riding a wave. You don't ride the wave 90 degrees to it, you ride it as parallel as it allows. So, you're cruising down this huge powerful wall of water that is peaking (read crest, slamming , dumping) right behind you. Most times here on Kwaj they "close out"....they dump...they stop being this beautiful wall of crystal clear water that is so clear you see the reef like a magnifying glass thru it and the wave starts turning into whit water at its crest.....Its a huge amount of water, and I chose the wrong method to avoid it....so it slammed me. In the midst of being churned around like a rag doll for 5 seconds it rolled me down enough to bump along the reef. Its not so bad, the reef isn't really sharp or anything in that spot, but it is kind of hard and scary.
The problem with the "big sets" and the "small sets" of waves is that the small ones lure you in. Ok, so the big waves break way outside compared to where the small waves break. I like the "smaller" waves so I hang out on the "inside" remaining vigilant to avoid getting slammed by the larger sets rolling in. Tonight it didn't always work out. At least once it didn't. I was sitting a little inside of John's position far enough that a wave got between us and I couldn't see him for a second. The next time I saw him he was "contemplating" a wave. I could see he was going to take it, and I looked at the wave. Huge. Huge. Immediately I put my chest down on the board and started paddling towards the wave trying madly to get out to it before it broke. Going up and down a "swell" is fine. Getting caught under a breaking wave is not. Its such a fine line. The difference can be 5 feet. Tonight some of the bigger waves were probably ten feet. I know this because one came and John was just down wave of me when it went thru. I thought I was going to land on top of him. He thought he was going to get slammed...dumped. I looked down at him as the wave crested under me.....and I guarantee I was ten feet higher.
It can be dangerous, it was more scary for me today than anything. The waves hold you down for a while, but mostly they don't slam you on the reef. The holding down part is a little ordeal, but not too bad.
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