And Ocean Beach delivered. 9:30 AM start time, very solid overhead waves with offshore winds pushing up to about 8 knots into the face, although occasionally the winds would slacken a little. Swell was smaller early but had picked up to 6 ft 17 seconds 300 degrees. Several of our NorCal crew were there - kdalle, G, lp, me, and Tim.

Tim had no board, so we gave him a choice of 3. He took a minigun 7'7". Unbeknownst to him, three of us were on 8'6"s and lp took his 9'0" out.

The paddle out.  We were watching some people get denied on the paddle out, and it looked pretty thick at spots on the inside break. Then there was a deep channel, and a not so frequent outside break. Kdalle and G took off first and were out first. I went with Tim and lp. I hit the inside break first, and got utterly pounded. I was so close, but I could not muster enough energy to get through. My heart was racing - I needed to chill for a few minutes and attack again. While I am getting pounded Tim flew right by me and beat me out easily. I finally made that section, waited in the channel for a few minutes, and headed out. I'm guessing a 20 minute paddle out.

Then the fun began. We are all on the outside, and sets are infrequent, but the takeoffs are really steep due to the
combination of long period and offshore winds. kdalle and G scored first. But I will mention the notable rides.

lp: Lp made one of the steepest takeoffs I saw anyone make all day. Not just the 5 of us, but anyone. I was inside when he took it, and he went really deep. The spray flew off the lip, his board seemed close to vert, and he was in. I lost sight of him until he reappeared down the line at least 100 yards later.

kdalle: He gets the "silver platter" wave award. Every so often BIG sets were coming through, and most people were not in appropriate position to catch them. On one, kdalle is sitting there, and the wave breaks up from him, he turns, and I am not even sure he had to paddle to drop into this beast. Quite impressive. G took a lot of steep drops but I didn't get a good look at any of them - on one of his mushier rides I saw him holding the camera in his mouth while he worked the wave - which was a little humorous.

Tim: Tim gets the cartwheel of the day award. We may have gotten it on film. Once the film is developed, we will see.
He went for a steep one, had his hands on the rails and his feet on the board, and then the wave pitched him forward in a somersault. G had just caught a wave, was inside, had the camera, and hopefully got the shot.

My wave: My best wave was a sizeable left. I dropped in, and could not do anything. I am in tight, nowhere close to
barrelled though. Too deep to pull out. The wave unfolded nicely in front of me while I just stood there. I took a little
flack for my heft grunt on the takeoff. It peeled cleanly a long distance with me just folded in the pocket.

It is really the absolute best when an out-of-towner comes in, and we get such a classic day. He lucked out, big time. We'll see if we get more decent surf while he is here.

Date: 8 Dec 2001 21:37:47 GMT
From: Dave Blake <dblake@popper.ucsf.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.surfing
Subject: Re: Maddux at Ocean Beach SF