The waves out on the corner looked like decently sized and shaped rights. By the time we were ready to paddle, Jack had arrived, along with about 5-or-6 more board surfers. Jack found out that the drain plug on his boat didn't survive last weeks "rolling practice" in his Toyota, so he ran home to grab another. I paddled out to the corner to check out the waves and the mood of the boardies. By the time I got out there, seeming truckloads more of them were arriving and heading to the same spot.

I really hate introductions out on the line up. Many board surfers are great people and a pleasure to be around, but a few are belligerent morons who often can't seem to get along even with their own species. First eye contact and a "how's it going?" are always risky. Most of the time there is a friendly response, but a few times there have been foaming, snarling tongue lashings.

My first "how's it going?" was met with "great, how about you?". So far, so good.

Waves were coming in sets to about 5-or-6 feet and very well shaped. It was possible to catch waves well on the outside and surf almost all the way into the sandy south facing beach on a nice one. Before Jack came out I had already caught a few nice ones that held up for 150-to-200 meters before petering out.

Our original plan was to paddle about Pt Fermin and surf in Pt Fermin park where the waves are larger and better shaped. Pt Fermin park holds up until about 5-or-6 feet. Above that it closes out violently and punching back out for another try starts to become a real chore. By the time Jack got back and out, all three of us had concluded it was best to just stay here. The surfers were friendly, the waves plenty big, and our estimation was that Point Fermin park would be running over it's 5-to-6 foot fun limit. The corner was a little crowded and Vickie is squeamish about running people over so she surfed the sandy shore break. Jack and I went back out to the corner where the waves were continuing to build. Swell during that time was about 6 feet out of the west at 15 seconds at the San Pedro Buoy. This translated into waves that were building to 7+ feet (dare I say 8 feet?) at their biggest. One guy on a board estimated the waves were 5 feet on the backside. Since no one ever got creamed by the backside of a wave, I do my estimating by looking at the front.

Jack and I took turns with each other and the board surfers at our spot. More board surfers were going at it about 150 meters father west. The guys farther west were a little more competitive and were working a more challenging break. I saw several spectacular wipeouts. One guy in particular was repeatedly catching waves over there and lacing together rides that went past us and almost all the way to the beach. Pretty impressive. Between sets it was really hard to catch a wave. Even on a good one it took a lot of work, but once over the drop it was worth it. The key was proper positioning. Too far east and you couldn't catch anything. Right on the money and you got a really nice long ride, staying right to avoid rocks and weaving in and out of surfers. Start to far to the west and the waves would pitch over as they crossed the reef, leaving you to freefall to the shallow water below and be violently surfed in the soup toward the rocks bounding the west. No one got hurt as far as I could see, but the potential was there. Several times I heard one of the board surfers warn another about straying too far left.

Anyway, we had a great time. The waves were bigger and better shaped than expected and all the surfers were a pleasure to be around. I think we'll be doing it again Sunday afternoon at 2:30PM

    Steve Brown