From Matt

 

Hi Paul, 

 

Today I went out to my favorite secret spot up the coast a bit.  2nd day of south swell that has graced the area.  Yesterday was just a handful or less of us for 4 hours.  Super!  Today was the day the word got out, there were 10 cars there at 5:30 when I arrived.  And the surfers just kept acomin'.   

I'm not a big fan of crowds, so after a few minutes in the gang I paddled up toward the river mouth, hoping to get a few along the stretch between there and the point.  Long wait.  Maybe an hour.  Anything rideable was breaking right on the rocks.  Then, what I hoped would happen did.  A bigger set wave came, and I was able to snag it well before the crowd.  As I hoped, I made the section between where I took off and the point, and the rest was history.  Wave of the day type of ride.  

On my paddle back out, multiple people commented.  Sic dude, nice ride!, that was pretty, etc.  I felt good, just figured that the wave was big and well shaped.  But I wondered if it was maybe me on the wave?  

 

An hour or so later I got out of the water right after another nice ride from up there.  John stopped me and said he got some pictures of my last ride.  He also commented on the wave I had gotten earlier in the session, that it was very cool to watch.  So I asked, "was it me or was it the wave?"  He responded that it was both.  He said I was going so fast, he didn't think there were many surfers who could have made the section at the beginning of the ride, and he enjoyed the sweeping cutback turns I made when I had gotten out in front of the wave.  That was gratifying to hear, as I have watched many surfers scream across tough sections and wished that I could do that.  I guess I can (and do!)  All thanks to my Standard.  

 

Included is a picture from the last ride, nothing fancy but maybe folks will look at this post if there's a pic.  And if Kenny is reading, just want to say hi, hope to see you out in the water again soon.  John told me he's a friend of yours.  

PS Hope you don't mind me clogging up the blog with pics of me, but after riding the mat for 15 years, my first two pictures in a "matter" of months is sort of exciting.  Today was actually a 6 shot sequence I received.  

PSS, interesting that the two pictures were taken from nearly the same spot, the recent one either closer to the water or with a zoom.  The big rock at center of the recent one is the same as the rock toward the left of the frame in the pic from April.  

 

 Matt S