It looked pretty small on Saturday. But you don't drive over an hour to the beach with all your gear and then don't bother to hop in the water just because it doesn't look awesome. It turned out I was partially wrong. While it wasn't a big day and the waves weren't glassy, they were fast and hard. And I had them all to myself. No one else in the water.
On the north end of Indian Head there is a strong rip that can haul you out pretty damn fast. I did not get stuck in this. The word is that this becomes a problem only because people panic and try to paddle back to shore. That doesn't work. You're supposed to paddle South out of it until the waves start washing you back to shore.
I am back to the biggest wave of the day breaking right on top of me. Sets were coming in mostly from the West-Northwest with a secondary group coming in from the Southwest. I had just broken through a wave from the SW and was facing that direction when a monster from the WNW curled up over me. You always have to call it a monster in these situation. It was probably only five foot but that seems pretty big when you are on your stomach and noticing this green fang with an icy tip rearing up to strike down on you. Or was it more like a poison dripping scorpion tail? Monster. Since I had my side turned to it rather than facing into it, I was doomed. No trying to duck through this one. Dude. This thing ripped the board from my hands like a cranked up purse snatcher and then tumbled me underwater. You know how movies always make that underwater stuff look all slow motion? This was more like getting my ass kicked by Jet Li if he were several hundred pounds, surrounding me on all sides and made of water. Sometimes I think I like getting blasted by these things more than the actual surfing.
These were all shot at the end of the day when things had flattened out quite a bit.
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