south swell, lost keys & longboarding

 
 
 
 
This weekend a solid south hit, and Santa Cruz lit up. Took the motorcycle down to the Hook for a fun dawn patrol with Nic and Ryan K, shot some photos but unfortunately the ones of Ryan and Nic came out pretty blurry. Some decent shots of randoms though ripping some set waves. After work the same day I headed back down to surf with Ramin and Ryan north of town a bit. It was mostly closed out, but a few makeable corners here and there. Ramin and Ryan were both charging some pretty heavy closeouts. I was the last one out of the water just before 8pm, and scrambled to grab my clothes and my boardbag and hike back to the parking lot. After getting back to my bike I realized that I had dropped my keys somewhere along the beach, and it was too dark to bother going looking for them. Everything was locked in my bike, my wallet, phone, ring, latop, etc, so I was pretty screwed. Ramin is awesome though and let me borrow his car to get back to the city, and also treated me a burrito and modelo at Taqeueria Vallarta. We made a fool-proof plan to meet up the next day so I could return his car and get my bike after bringing the spare key from home. Saturday AM I headed down south around noon, running late as usual. Got to the lot, but didn't see Nic's car, so I grabbed my phone and wallet out of the bike and sent a quick text message to Ramin just before my phone died. I drove down the coast checking every spot for Nic's car, eventually making it to Lazy Town and leaving a note on the door and some wax with Horace. At that point I figured I'd head back up north to the lot and just leave the car there for Ramin to pick up later, and I would call either from a payphone or when I got home to a charger. After more driving, I finally got back to where my bike was, only to find a note on the seat anchored by a few rocks saying that they were there but headed back to Lazy Town. We must've just missed each other, so I turned around and headed back to Lazy Town. After 4.5 hours on the road, I finally got back to Lazy Town and found Nic, Joel, and Ramin suiting up for a longboarding session at 38th. I was relieved they were there, and glad to get out of the car. Nic generously lent me a 8'6" longboard to ride, and we all paddled out. There were long lulls between sets, but some solid sets rolling through, and we were all in good position to snag a wave practically every set for the beginning of the session. The waves were remarkably good, walling up all the way to the inside for some long, fast rides. Having very little longboarding experience, it was a lot of fun gliding and trimming down the line and running the nose for some cheater fives. Definitely a lot more fun than trying to wrestle a 10' longboard out at OB. I'm looking forward to another mellow longboarding session at 38th in the near future. After a couple hours, Ramin dropped me off at my bike and I drove back up the coast in the dark, battling the crosswinds and the fog all the way home to SF. It was an exhausting and crazy weekend, a bit of a farce, but I'm grateful to have such generous and reliable friends keeping me stoked through the whole ordeal. The rest of the pics are here:

south swell