Turn On It, Tune Out, Drop In

S WIND 10 TO 20 KT DECREASING TO 10 TO 15 KT THIS AFTERNOON.
WIND WAVES 3 FT.
W SWELL 7 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
TONIGHT SW WIND 10 KT.
WIND WAVES 1 FT.
W SWELL 8 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

It usually doesn't bother us...
As long as there are waves coming in...
Lulls in Oregon are usually short...
But when they do hit...
And you're sitting and looking...
A glance at your knees...
Because you can't see your feet...
That's when you wonder...
What's down looking up.

A good story:

So this morning started off the same as many mornings. The great waves of last night were gone, and the morning was gorgeous, but the waves were lacking. By default, I ended up at xxxxx. Maybe not my first choice, maybe not the best choice, but xxxxx all the same. I was feeling bad because I had conned Dano into making the long trek for the dawn patrol based on last night's waves....Ho Hum. So we're out there, picking up the odd scraps, when out paddles Mr. and Mrs. FG. The more the merrier. So we're bobbing around, watching the occasional car pull through, the occasional wave come through, when down the stairs comes a guy with a boogie board.
The tide was going out, and we were far enough south that we weren't really affected by the rip or longshore current. Weren't even paying attention to it, really. Sponge-bob comes trotting down the beach, scowling, and hops in the water. He swims out with his Churchill's, so you know he's serious. He rides the rip out to the point, and catches a solid right, and then peels off and paddles out.
So we're not paying too much attention, getting some solid lefts and rights, little cover-ups, nose rides and the like, just fun, smallish low tide kind of stuff... and suddenly I become aware of this commotion out in the water. Outside, the sponger guy is thrashing around and yelling. Well, I dont have to tell you what went through my mind first. We all just kind of looked over, and then everybody started paddling out to help him.
FG got there first, and slipped off the board so the guy could grab on to it. The guy was pretty nuts, thrashing, and started trying to climb up on FG, clawing at him. FG was wrestling away from him, and Dano paddled up and landed a fist square in the guys face, just a full on, unchecked punch right in the middle of the guys face. That seemed to calm the guy down, and he started yelling "Im ok, Im ok, Im stuck!" I pulled off my leash, and swam down under water to see what he was talking about. I had to come up for another breath, and then when I swam back down I could see the problem, an old, rusty crab pot sunk into the sand, with about 6 feet of line on it, and a float. The guys wrist leash had gotten tangled in it, and then he got a leg wrapped. I swam down, and started pulling at the rope, but it made the guy panic. It was that old cruddy yellow poly-line, so I swam back up, told the guy we were going to try and break it, and then Dano and I swam down, and pulling together we broke the line pretty easily. I still had this panicky feeling. The guy started kind of unwrapping himself, and I think he was pretty shook up. Mrs. FG loaned him her board to swim in on, and FG and Mrs. FG paddled in like you see tandem surfers doing... wish I had a pic of that! Anyway, I grabbed the guys sponge, and paddled it in. It had his name and phone number on it. I think I have met another OSP'er, but we did'nt get to make formal introductions. Once we got into the shore, the guy puked a couple times, gathered his stuff, mumbled some thanks, and started to shuffle off. His hands were shaking like crazy, I think it really rattled him, especially on such a calm day. Mrs Fossil asked him if he was ok to drive, and he was very adamant about "not driving here" clue #2....
Anyway, by then it was time to go to work. All in all, a pretty eventful morning, even if the waves were not what I had hoped for.

...made it outside after a long paddle. I paddled into the spot I had scoped from the beach and it was much bigger than it looked. I dropped into one pitching right and watched the nose of my board as it skimmed the surface on the bottom turn. I barely made the turn and did one top turn before the ride was over. ...paddled back around and went for a second one. This time I didn’t quite get into it and I found my self standing on top of a waterfall. I kicked my board right and dropped off the precipice to the left. I hit the bottom of the pit hard, then got sucked back up the face, over the top again, and then pushed all the way to the bottom. Disoriented, I finally made it up and barely had time for a breath before #2 hit. After three or four more beatings, I was almost all the way in and decided it probably wasn’t wise to be solo in those conditions...