The way I'm working these days, it is very expensive to take a day off for surfing, but I was caught up with work, we were going camping AND it was predicted that a very long period swell was coming, coinciding with a drop in the wind. Ususally, that means you show up early and it's flat. Not this time. I was surprised to find so few people in the water at Sunglgow pier in South Daytona, but only about three of us started that morning around 7:30 am. You could tell there were more waves than the day before, but the sets, the bigger ones, were really spaced far apart. You could easily paddle from shore to outside the break zone between sets. What I recall more than anything was the power behind this groundswell. You saw a little bump, took a couple of strokes and you were off. I can still remember the guy next to me saying, "Go for the shoulders!". I hadn't heard that since I was a kid, but he was right. I got my butt handed to me many times that day and was thankful for a good leash. It was the kind of day where it became almost impossible to hang on to my large paddleboard when a wave hit me. I'm hoping this year contains many more days like this one.
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