weekly surf report

Yesterday I went surfing at Mission Beach. Lifeguard tower #19 is becoming my San Diego home away from home. It was an excellent day for surfing... at least for me. The waves were not too big, and it was a beautiful sunny day! I went for about 2 hours without taking a break. I had at least 10 good rides- maybe more. The kelp was only bad in one place. In that one place, it was so thick, that when I was paddling out- I do not think I was pulling any water, just kelp... It was kinda gross, and I wonder what is hiding down there in that kelp! Anyways, I was doing so well today, that I decided to try and catch the wave before it breaks... That means you have to start "on top of it" in a way. For one thing, it is hard to paddle fast enough to catch the wave, and the second thing is that once I catch it, I do not really know how to advance on it- meaning figure out how not to have my board and me flip. In surfer talk, that is called perling. Since the wave is going so much faster at this point, I really need to learn how to do this in order to have a longer ride. I did catch it once when it was smaller- but I do not care it was still fun. There were a few times, when there were long pauses between the sets. During those times, I just like to lay on top of my board and float around watching the horizon for the next set. It was a perfect day, and I love the smell of the ocean... I'm still not thrilled about the taste of it though