Friday, January 06, 2006

Rincon waves

I awaken inside a dark room. The realization that I am house sitting for Sir Angus the cat dawns on me when I hear a gentle "Meow," just behind my head. 'Hmm," I think, "it must be close to 5:40 AM." Sure enough, the cell phone alarm goes off and I shed the last remnants of sleep, slide off the couch and brush my teeth. The sun still remains out of sight but Angus taps his claws on the door, letting me know that he wants to get outside and take care of business. Just before I leave, I say: "Watchout for the coyotes." I take off his little door that block his flap and he slips thru and disappears.

I arrive on the estate with enough time to help Devin unload a couple items from the back of his white natural gas-powered pick up truck. Then we are driving down 150 with the heat cranking out. "I need to build up some heat momentum," I say while trying not to think about my relatively thin wet suit - it is a 2/3 O'Neal Hammer. Devin offers to let me borrow his gloves and hoodie and I agree.

We arrive at Rincon and observe that there are not too many surfers. Devin's surprised, "That's interesting," he says "I wonder what it means?" We walk down a trail to check out the wave situation and discover that there are consistent shoulder to head high with overhead stand outs. After 10 minutes or so, we agree to give it a shot here.

The paddle out is easier for me even though I start after Dev. The waves are big and more powerful than I realize. Sitting on my board, near the top of the line up, I watch some of the surfers catching sweet rides, all of them overhead. I go for a few but am too far back on the wave. I go inside a bit and then a set comes in and I learn how powerful these waves are. The ocean once again humbles me. All of my North Shore confidence gets turned inside out as the thick waves pulverize me and wash me down the point. I finally manage to get out of the inside, just in time to watch Devin catch a big fast wave that takes him all the way to the freeway.

He paddles back and we talk a bit. The sun has risen high enough to warm my back. I can feel the heat trapped in the hoodie and the gloves are doing a good job of keeping my hands warm although I can feel the extra weight in my lats. I paddle a bit further up the point and sit and then I see a wave that makes me believe. Sure enough, I catch and am standing - lickedy split. The ride is big and fast. I shoot along as the other surfers stare at me as they paddle out of the way. I watch as the wave starts to close out and wisely turn and go straight until I am engulfed by the white foam and wildly rushing water.
I let out a few "Woooos" - this is my first Rincon wave. Finally got the monkey off my back.

Later in the day, I end up taking care of a few tasks at John's. They involve weeding and a severe retrimming of the persimmon tree. This took 2 hours and gave me a chance to ground out, nothing like pulling up roots to get connected to earth energy.