The swell was forecast for Friday, and, Friday it was…. Which happened to be a holiday!

My son and I walked up to the railing to give the surf a look before suiting up. The waves… were there, maybe a head high plus set just coming through as we walked up.
But it was crowded. What would you expect, it was a holiday. I said that already.

So let’s do the numbers.

The sets were about 4 minutes apart, sometimes more than that. There were usually about 3 or 4 waves in a set, with the occasional rogue wave and of course there were insiders as well. Sitting on the inside then scratching through sets was not a real good approach with the crowd. It isn’t fun getting run over.

So if you didn’t sit on the inside you were only waiting for the sets.

With at least 40 guys in the water and the set waves pretty much running from the point through the inside, make able the whole way, it wasn’t to easy to get a wave. With say 20 guys in position at any one time for one of 4 set waves makes things hectic. 4 waves every 4 minutes is 60 waves per hour shared between 40 surfers? That makes for a rotation of 1.5 waves per surfer per hour.

If there was such a thing as even rotation it would be one thing. You could sit in the lineup, getting cold but, waiting your turn for your 1.5 waves per hour. You know what? There is no such thing as an even rotation. Some guys have all the luck and some guys don’t. And some guys are unkindly aggressive.

I watched one guy get a good one all the way down the point only to get back just in time to back door my son. Geez, what’s up with that?

Another guy got one of the rogue outsiders only to paddle back to the line up just in time to scoop up a nice set wave… while a hand full of us watched both of his rides and none of us got anything.

I was in the water one day some time back when one of the local guys noticed I was getting no chance. He said “ looks like you couldn’t buy a wave today”!

Friday was kind of like that.

D.R.

Scott Beckley on the H2 mini

Travis Riley riding the H2 mini