1.21 and 1.22 Capitola and 38th

Capitola - 1.21
Yesterday, Jacob and I woke up early for a dawn patrol session, but there huge close outs everywhere. Later in the day, I met up with Cynthia and Darren at Capitola. I had never been there so Cynthia informed me that it is usually a pretty mellow long board wave with a good vibe. When we arrived, it was head high to over head with larger set waves coming in. There were a lot more short boarders out there than expected.

Cynthia and I started on the outside of the break to avoid the inside white water. We eventually ended over in the break and I caught a really nice right. After that wave, Cynthia got run over by a short boarder! Her wetsuit was cut and resulted in a bruised leg. I caught another one all the way in and got caught on the inside as the big set waves rolled in. The guy next to me shouted, "Ice cream headache!" I just laughed and agreed. 

I paddled back out and as I was waiting for another wave a different short boarder was paddling towards me from about 4 feet away. I tried to sprint paddle past him so I wouldn't hit him or get hit by the wave. Apparently, the short boarder didn't see me or hear me shout, "I  am in front of you…going get out of your way!" He continued to paddle towards me and ran right into me. He started swearing, pounding the water and was really aggressive. I apologized right away and told him I was trying to get out of his way as fast as I could. He continued to swear and was only concerned about his board being hurt. He didn't even ask if I was ok. I was really shocked at his behavior and reiterated that I was truly sorry. He continued to lecture me and at that point I decided to paddle away. I felt that I said sorry enough and that I had the right intentions of trying to get out of his way. This was the first time I had ever had a problem in the water. I am very conscious of my surroundings and surf etiquette. This experience definitely shook me up, but I stayed in the water and caught two more nice waves and decided to call it a day.

38th - 1.22
Jacob and I headed down to Santa Cruz to surf and meet up with our friends, Jay and Rachel. When we arrived, the tide was too high so we had lunch and long board skateboarded around SC for awhile. We hung out at Cowells and watched the massive crowd of surfers. Jay and Rachel don't surf, but were asking about surfing and want us to teach them how to surf. We are going to teach them as soon as they have time and are ready to learn.

Around 4:30, Jacob and I decided to go to 38th and it looked really nice and the crowd wasn't too bad. We paddled out and got some nice head high long rights. It was a great way to end a fun day with friends in Santa Cruz.

When we got back from surfing, we heard about the surfer that almost drowned at Mavericks today (15 foot waves) and we are definitely praying for him and his family. 

Ride Waves and Spread the Swell,
J-Bird