Holiday Weekends, Wind and Rough Waves

During the middle of last week, the winds shifted and G-town was flat. I was very disappointed since it was a holiday week, and I would have Thursday off to do some surfing. I opted for my other sports instead since the wind was light and it was flat. The flatness lingered into Friday, but an increase in the south wind caused the waves to get a little bigger by Saturday, and a strengthening of the winds on Saturday afternoon, made Sunday waves a mess. However, waves, at least, had formed! I struggled with whether I should head down on Saturday afternoon or take my chances and wait until Sunday morning. The weather forecast called for rain on Sunday, and I didn't want to be rained out of surfing. Of course, surfing in the rain is not a problem, though surfing in lightning is. After mentally leaping back and forth about whether to head down there or not, I opted to take my chances and wait until Sunday.

Rough and windy

I lucked out! The rain and, more importantly, the lightning stayed away. The wind had picked up and that, coupled with a strong current, made the waves a mess. However, I was itching to get back in the water, so I headed down. Just so happens I ran into a friend/coworker and his son out surfing. They warned me that it would be hard getting to the outside. They had opted to stay a little closer to shore in the whitewater. Of course, I had to give it a try. While the two of them stood on the end of the jetty, I took the rip current to the end of it. I immediately got pushed back by a wave. I tried over and over, but soon tired and decided that I, too, would stay closer to the shore and catch reforms. My friend/coworker said that he had also tried to make it to the outside and couldn't. Of the four or five surfers out, only two were on the outside. I watched a shortboarder manipulate his way past the waves and current by duck diving, which is impossible on my 9' board. I didn't give up completely. At least two other times during my session I attempted to make my way to the outside. Both times I collided with waves and disaster. I had fun on the inside whitewater, but even getting back out into some sort of reform line-up was difficult. All in all, it was great to be back out on the board since it had been two weeks, but I sure wish the wind had lightened up just enough to make it a little less difficult to get to the outside.

Hmmmm....maybe next week...