thursday evening and friday AM dawn patrol

south swell hype = too many people at the hook despite the tepid conditions thursday night. i hit the water around 6:20 and watched people snake each other left and right, resulting in a few heated verbal exchanges over waist high waves. however, it was slowly building and the sets, while still few and far between, were pretty fun. it was walled up so you had to race down the line, not too much room for cutting back on the larger set waves. a lot of fun floater sections though, i landed what was perhaps the longest, cleanest floater in recent memory, which made my session.

went to see a Entrance show at the Crepe Place on Soquel, and then crashed at Ryan's buddy Cory's place. coffee and a blueberry muffin at Emily's, then headed to west cliff around 6:30. Cowell's was a mob scene already, foam boards as far as the eye can see. the Lane looked fickle and had a small crowd, and we drove further up and paddled out at a little cove with 3 guys on it. Some good fast waves, but sectioning and closing out quick, so I only had a few longer rides. Fun drops and pumping down the line though. Paddling back out after one I caught a lip to the back of the head, and smashed my face into my board in a lame attempt to duckdive a pitching set wave. No blood though ;) It was fun but didn't live up to the hype, I'm not sure exactly where to paddle out tomorrow now...

Some pics of Ryan charging in the slideshow, unfortunately one of the better barrel shots I would've had didn't come out clearly. Damn GoPro camera!