Session 90 - Jerry Garcia

Dawn patrol at K street, and surfline is wayyyyyy off today. Not fair. Poor. Biggest set waves maybe shoulder high, but the incoming tide making it weak, and onshore winds turning it to sectiony junk. I was able to snag 4 waves, but found myself having to take late drops just to catch them, and focus on driving past flat spots and mushy sections. All in all it was a pretty boring session, but a good workout. One of those days where you paddle your ass off through wall after wall of whitewater just to score some dribbly 4 foot mushburger.

However, maybe it's just a perception problem, and 3 weeks in Bali plus these past few days of clean swell have spoiled me. When I paddled in, I walked up towards Judah to head home. A guy in a blue coat had been watching me, and approached me and told me that I was really ripping. He went on to tell me how he was watching me catch some good 'rips' and that the waves further up north were really 'ripping' and that he surfs and darn, he wished he had his board, and maybe he should get his buddy Leland to ship it up here from SoCal. He told me how he surfed County Line once, and he was using his buddy Leland's board, and it was his first time surfing. He was really good, and when he came back to the beach, Jerry Garcia was watching him and told him that he's the best he's ever seen and it's incredible that it was his first time and he could really read the waves and the ocean so well. Then Jerry took his board, which was actually Leland's, and said, let me do something for you, and he signed it. Leland says that board must be worth a fortune right now, but the guy told me that the Jerry Garcia signed board is worth his life, it is his life. You're 40 years old man, you gotta get out there and surf man, fuck it!

Trying to politely end the conversation so I could get to work, I suggested he should check out Mollusk and look to rent a board, and I'd see him out there. But he insisted that it would only cost maybe $20 to just have Leland ship his board and his 'skins' up from LA. He kept talking as I started walking, and then encouraged me to keep up the surfing. Interesting way to start a Tuesday morning.