Transcript: It is interesting being out in the water, surfing today, and just having an absolute incredible wave. You know, it would be nice if the computer knew the context of the surf automatically. In the sense, like, it knows that when I talk about the surf today, it would have my location. It would have the surf conditions. And all of that. Because these are details in the story that are important to capture what today meant, I think. But it is also a fragment of me trying to tell the story of today's waves. And in the modern context that we have today, I am the one that will tell all of those details. So we are building now to this wave. But I want to describe the experience of surfing today. And it was an interesting one. Yeah. It was interesting. There's a big swell that came in. And I looked at the cams, and particularly for SWAMI's and then for TORMO. I was kind of scrolling through all of the breaks trying to figure out where I would feel comfortable surfing today, because it is so large. When I looked at the SWAMI's cam, there were definitely some waves this morning that looked double overhead to me. That is like 15 footers. For me, that is not surf that I would be super stoked and comfortable in. I would probably be okay. But I would be very uncomfortable. And I did not really want to put myself in that position. Because I don't surf enough large waves as it is. So I did have breakfast with Jordan and I walked with Jono and Kenneth. And after that, I went to TORMO to go look at the waves. It was about 11am, maybe a tad earlier. I looked and I was like, pretty big. It looked like consistently eight feet to me, is what I would say. Consistently eight feet, just pretty big, some large waves. So I decided, yeah, I'll probably go back to TORMO. You know, like, that's a good, that'll push my limit enough. I don't need to go bigger than that. So then I actually go surfing. And I go out and it looks a lot smaller, to be honest, to my naked eye. Maybe where the waves were breaking is slightly different because the tide was so high earlier. But I go out and I paddle through and I'm kind of sitting out there and I'm realizing like, oh, it's a motherfucking paddle today. Like, it's really, really far out there. The waves aren't breaking on the inside. I mean, they are, but not the waves that you want to catch. So I paddle and paddle and I realized, oh, if I just, you know, don't paddle, I'm gonna drift to the south. It's just, that's where the current was carrying. Maybe it was how the waves were moving. And... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... On a short board. But one of the people on a long board, or a longer board, who was doing these big sweeping kind of movements going, you know, you drop into the wave and kind of getting some speed, getting to the top of the wave, and then dropping back down and kind of cutting back into the wave and doing these like kind of big S curves. And I felt like I kind of did that. And I did it multiple times in a row. And I don't know, by the time I got off that wave, I think I was just beaming. I was just so joyful to have that experience. Like, it was truly wonderful. It was truly wonderful. Yeah, that's more or less it. I did catch one more wave after that, but I was getting quite tired. The paddle out was intense. And there seemed to only be more and more people showing up, which just made me more and more nervous, to be honest. Partially because there's just a lot of people maybe who don't know what they're doing. I don't know if that is the case or not. But there's just so many people. Like, we're at Tormo, and there's people out there on foamies, you know. And like, that's totally fine. Like, people shred foamies. Like, people shred foamies. But I just don't think all of those people were about to shred their foamy. And I didn't see that many people shredding on a foamy. I saw like one guy on a rainbow, or like, it's green, red and white. Not like the Rasta colors. Or I guess that would be yellow too. There is yellow on that board. But anyhow, there's that one guy. But other than that one guy, ain't no one out there shredding on the foamy today. Like people, I've seen people rip. So I think that made me nervous. And yeah, I don't know. I just got the sense that there's a lot of people that were probably as scared as I was, or more scared. And knowing that, it does make me wonder how many of them should have been out there. Like, basically for their own safety. For me, my level of scared is one thing. But my ability to swim is another. Like, yeah, sure. If I got knocked out, I'd be pretty fucked. But on the whole, if I had to swim into shore, I could swim into shore. So yeah, I don't know. It just, it made me nervous out there for some of those people. I'm sure people were nervous for me as well. So that's also interesting. Because I ate shit the first couple of waves. Like I ate shit. And I questioned whether I should be out there. I was like, fuck it. I'm gonna give it a couple more tries. And it turned out I was right. I was right. I was right. And I was like, fuck it. I'm going to give it a couple more tries. And it turned out I was right. I'm going to give it a couple more tries. And it turned out pretty well. And I just had to like, kind of get confidence in myself, basically. Anyhow, absolutely wonderful day surfing.
I had a morning surf session at Swami's, starting a bit later than intended around 6:20 am and getting into the water by 6:50 am for an hour-long surf until the tide came in. Observing a girl tripping over the rocks offered a cautionary glimpse of the challenging conditions, which proved true as several surfers were washed down the beach later. Carefully monitoring the waves, I managed to avoid getting swept against the rocks, unlike one surfer whose leash tangled, while another provided me with helpful advice on board positioning. The session was enjoyable with consistent four to five-foot waves, sometimes reaching six or seven feet, indicating my board's suitability for good wave conditions and its maneuverability.
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This project serves as a reminder to be grateful, mostly because reflections revolve around things that bring happiness and gratitude, highlighting a positive default mindset. After a morning surf at Swami's with a longboard lent by Kyle, the experience was a mix of thrilling drops and spills, as well as an adjustment to the board's different feel and the technique required to maneuver it. The waves at Swami's were mellow enough to encourage trying without much fear, making the session enjoyable despite a few wipeouts. Despite the stormy conditions with wind and rain, the day turned out better than expected, providing mediocre to good waves for surfing, making it a pleasantly surprising day.
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The surfer had a somewhat disappointing day at Swami's, despite getting out early and having two boards with him. He decided to surf with the longboard and without a leash, which turned out to be a bad move as the surf was mixed up and not suitable for a longboard. He struggled to hold onto his board during a big set, losing it several times. He took some rough falls and learned the hard way that it was a mistake to go out without a leash. Despite the challenging conditions, he still considered it a decent day because any day that allows him to surf is a good day.
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Today yielded perfect waves and a solid surf session, but the challenge was the crowded conditions and a closed parking lot. The surfer is feeling exhausted after potentially surfing six out of the last seven days, and plans to rest and get a tetanus shot due to a scrape. They're also becoming more familiar with the local surf community, having met and conversed with several people in the lineup. Despite being tired and facing competition for waves, the surfer still had a satisfying outing, maneuvering around others and catching a particularly memorable right wave.