Part of the Food Chain

I know I don't post enough pictures on here for my family to enjoy, but when I get on here it's too spur of the moment and the camera's not around, plus I'm not in any of the pictures and most of them are boring stuff like scenery or me taking 50 pictures with different settings trying to figure out how to take awesomely stellar pictures like I wish I could take. Despite the 14MP boastings of the camera, there's still a fair bit of camera noise in the pictures.

To keep myself occupied, I'm putting off studying. There's a test Monday on General Pathology. Instead, I'm on here writing about my surfing adventures lately. The scoop goes like so:

I learned to surf at the end of high school on slow mushy point break waves in Ventura using nice big long boards. Those are nice. Very chill with lots of fun potential from actually riding a wave. Here in San Francisco, the surf scene is pretty different. The only true point break within a half hour drive is actually directly under the Golden Gate Bridge and being that it's back inside the inlet, it only breaks when the swell comes from the west and BIG. Ocean Beach fills up the entire west side of the city and it's what most SF surfers call their home break. And it's rough calling it your home break. All summer long it's windy, cold, foggy, no ground swell with 5 ft wind chop, and it's a shifty beach break that's super inconsistent and unpredictable. I stopped checking the Surfline forecast because there's little difference between "Fair" and "Poor." Maybe to SFers, a fair day is a day they can actually paddle out to the lineup. That's my criteria for a Fair day.

Since Emily's out of town, I've gone surfing more in the last week than I did the whole first year of school. Free time is characteristic of UOP's first part of the second year. Free time means school from 8-5 most days without having to worry about much homework or tests afterwards.

My surfing is improving. I finally know what a shortboard feels like under my feet, and it's pretty impressive. It goes from barely floating to zoom rocket sled that responds to every little tilt and lean. Yesterday and today's evenings I went out to Ocean Beach and stood up for a second or so a few times and for a couple seconds once each. It's slow going, I know, but I can see improvement every day.

Aside from the thrill of actually riding a wave, the equally coolest part of surfing is being on/in the water. It's pretty spiritual at times, either from enjoying the calm between sets or praying for my life in the stormy rough seas. Either way, most prayers get answered and even being out is an answer to many prayers. Humbling, also, is the fact that the ocean really is a great big wilderness that scares the noodles out half the people on this planet.

I got weirded out yesterday. Pelicans were diving for fish when I paddled out and that's always fun to see, but it hints that there's a lot of food in the water. When one pelican dives not 20 feet away from me, that's pretty unique. Then it just sits there staring at me. Staring. So I splashed it, grumbled at it, and ignored it. Then I see a sea-lion between me and the shore. A little more weird. Then I see a fin in the water. Split second of panic until I realize it's a dolphin fin. About 5-6 of em just about 50 feet in front of me. Cool, means no sharks. 'Scept they were just passing through.

So I ride the conveyor belt current to the cove at the end of the beach trying my luck at the waves, get out, walk back to my start point and get in again. More pelicans, all around. LOTS! Then a wave's coming at me and out of the face jumps a small sea lion, full out of the water about 20-30 feet away. This is the final draw and since evening was coming, no dophins in a while, and starting to get cold, I call it a session.

Tonight I go out with a friend and same thing happens. Pelicans, sea lions, dolphins make their hello-goodbye, take the current north, and get out. Not nearly so weird the second time. Except my friend says he keeps hitting the jellies so common to Ocean Beach as he's paddling. I can't feel them cuz my gloves but he says he keeps bumpin them. No dangerous, no stings, but still weird.

The only source of comfort about hanging out in the middle of the food web just off-shore is the simple fact that shark attacks are Extremely rare along the whole 3 miles of ocean beach. Marin to the north, Monterey to the south, and San Francisco's Farillon Islands make the Red Triangle of Great White attacks in North America, but most of the sightings happen at the points of the triangle and Ocean Beach rarely sees the action. Good news for surfing. When Emily gets back she's going to have one ripped husband. Ka-Ching!