Turn On It, Tune Out, Drop In

S WIND 25 TO 35 KT WITH GUSTS TO 40 KT THIS AFTERNOON.
COMBINED SEAS 16 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 13 SECONDS.
TONIGHT SW WIND 20 TO 25 KT.
WIND WAVES 6 FT.
W SWELL 18 FT AT 13 SECONDS...BUILDING TO 20 FT AT 13 SECONDS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

Conditions look a little rough right now...things are looking like they could clean up early in the week.

Surfing last week on a building swell that jumped as the tide went out...I got caught in the unenviable position of being about 10' inside of the lip of the outside set wave. I had scrabbled over about 4 or 5 good sized ones, only to come to the easy realization that I wasn't gonna make it past the next one. It's a funny feeling...not fear, because it was only an 8' swell...not panic, because most have been in that position before...not worry...I don't know what it was, you paddle harder, you think "Oh, shit!" thoughts, your heart beats a little faster and as you dive your board down, you hope you went deep enough.

I watched as the that lip came over in almost slow motion...I could see every particle of water on that leading edge...I felt the concussion as the lip penetrated the water on the flat...at the same moment, I sank as deep as I could, felt the turbulence around me, pressed down on the tail of the board hard, extended my arms and let the board draw me up.

It was almost effortless as I popped out onto the back of the wave. Sometimes things don't go as well...I've had duck dives that have ended in boards miraculously vanishing despite your death grip on the rails...I've suffered that secondary mental profanity as you feel your self sucked backwards underwater into a chaos of whitewater...I've had to dive at the ends of sessions where you simply don't go deep enough and get tumbled, tossed and ragdolled mercilessly...

But in this case, I popped out to the sight of a peaking left that I was in good position for...paddle, spin, sink the board, pop out, a couple strokes, feel the wave propel you, drop in, bottom turn and go...