Chill(y) Sunday

And it happened as I decreed; there were good little waves late today.

And even though the forecast said Flat, Lordy did the news travel fast. I don't know how. It is true that I called one person, but he already knew about it and was coming out anyway.

I went out at three p.m., and was the only person out...for about twenty minutes. Then four more. That was enough for me to move down the beach to try to get myself some room. I spent about an hour there, and conditions were OK. I was doing OK---getting rides but mostly not able to stay up long enough to try to put all my turning advice to use.

Then I went looking for my friend back at the other jetty, and it had become a zoo. My friend and his friend, Kingpin and his girlfriend, L., guy on a blue board I was surfing with yesterday, B. (a friendly female surfer about my level), R., T., and more I knew or didn't know...about 12 people.

I was ready to go back to the other jetty after seeing the madhouse, but it turned out all right. Under these conditions, you're socializing as much as surfing. Kingpin kept his mouth shut, everyone else was chill, and I was actually glad to see some of them for the first time in a while. Usually I surf worse with so many people, but today somewhat of an opposite effect happened. Those surfers who don't hate me were helpful and actually rooting for me, which made me surf better. I was as surprised as they were when I got good rides, and very pleased. Yeah, I did the turn thing at least once. Sometimes all it takes is one person to point out the obvious to you, "You're taking off too late," "You need to paddle harder."

Why so many people? I might have thought it was due to an article on surfcams that appeared in the New York Times (worst newspaper ever, I don't buy it, don't read it, and don't even steal it now that I no longer have a dog who is papertrained, but it was on the net). However, pretty much everybody out today was a regular, so that's not it.

OK. I have the ability to predict the future. Tomorrow there will be bigger waves, and it will be even more of a zoo.