Tiny waves at last

Yesterday was the first time I've been surfing in over two weeks. It was unseasonably warm, almost 70 degrees and sunny, certainly the last summery day; and I was so determined to get out that anything over six inches would have been enough to get me in the water. That's about what it was---tiny wavelets. But they were surfable. Of course after being out of the water so long I sucked; that always happens. And who was out on the beach to see my mortifying performance on the baby waves? C., of course. Always. But this time, instead of ignoring me, he was actually trying to be helpful. It's so rare that I get any feedback on my surfing I'll take whatever I can get. And it did help.

Today was not quite so warm but turned out sunnier in the afternoon; a jewel of a day. I was supposed to go out with W., C.'s friend, in the morning; but he checked Surfline and saw it said conditions were flat, plus it was cloudy and rainy, so he bailed. Ha! Silly Surfline, always wrong. What you couldn't see on that site---but you could from my window---was a tiny, infrequent, well shaped little wave, and one determined soul in the water, getting nice little knee high rides.

I waited for low tide and the sun. I was the only one in the water. At first I wasn't even sure the less-than-one-foot waves were rideable; but they were. I ended up getting lots of rides, catching the waves perfectly and riding them all the way in, even turning I think (though I would need someone watching me to tell me if I was or not, and there was no one else there except one fisherman on the jetty, miming his support from beyond earshot, drinking beer and catching no fish).

It was just a perfectly lovely time, my favorite type of session: alone with the sun and the sky and the different colors of the water and my thoughts.

Everyone always says it's bad to ride the little one-foot-or-less wavelets, it's not real surfing and spoils you for the real waves. At least I think that's why they tell me it's bad. It's probably true that the skills you need for surfing the wavelets have little in common with what you need for what anyone would call real waves. For instance, I find myself learning forward more while catching the wavelets in a way that would probably lead to pearling and be no good on a three-foot wave. But at least I don't have to worry about pearling! On the other hand, maybe that's exactly what I need to be doing on the bigger waves, only on the bigger waves I'm too scared of pearling to do it.

It's certainly true that there's much less margin for error when the waves get bigger. Mistakes that won't trip you up on these waves will on the bigger ones---on these you won't even realize you're making them. So in that sense maybe it's bad. Plus you get lulled by the ease of "getting out" (a joke in these conditions) and then are not on your game when it's not so easy. Maybe. Anyone here have an opinion why I shouldn't surf the little wavelets? I had such a nice time today. Wasn't it really surfing?