choi wan!

Sunday was a really good day of overhead, filthy brown waves at OB. Super typhoon Choi Wan delivered. I surfed around 9:45 with Ramin and Joel, and the tide was making it a bit fat at K st, which made for a relatively easy paddle. Current was pulling south, and after catching a few I got caught inside, paddled through a rip for 15 minutes, and ended up down at Noriega. I was beat, but it was all worth it, because it was firing and hollow at Noriega. I sat on the outside and caught my breath, watching some heavy waves come barreling through. I waited patiently for one that looked makeable, not wanting to get caught inside again, and paddled into a heaving right that was maybe a foot or 2 overhead. Initially I was gonna go left, but as I stroked into it I saw that the right was holding up and pitching, so I went for the backdoor. I thought I'd get obliterated, but I set my rail and stuck my hand in the wave and the whole big brown mess just folded right over me. I got blasted with spray and spit right out of the section. At that point the rest of the wave was closing out, so I straightened out, hollered, and bailed. It was short but sweet, the biggest barrel I've made in a long time, and I'm jonesing for more now.

Despite the bright sunlight washing out most of the images, I managed to snap a few decent shots. Ramin caught a massive walled up left early in the session. Another memorable wave was a left that plowed through, taking 2 guys over the falls really hard as Ramin and I sat watching from the shoulder. One big left I tried to take off deep on and pigdog, but as I was about to get to my feet I saw a guy with a green board right at the bottom of the wave where I was pointed. It was too late to back off, so I ended up trying to bail and still hold onto my board, basically crashing right over the guy. I didn't feel any contact though, so it was OK. Too bad though, I think I could've made that one. Good waves, good times, and now we just gotta wait for the wind to back off again and a new swell to fill in. I love fall in SF!