Big Waves

Yesterday, Wednesday Dec. 5, we had a large westerly swell hit California's coast. For those living in Northern California there were reports of waves coming in at 50 ft. Those living in San Diego there were some reports of waves coming in at 20 ft.

I decided to try to paddle out at Salt Creek in Dana Point, which was consistently getting waves 8-12 ft. A 10 ft waves is just about considered double over head (DOH). We rarely see waves like that, but in all my attempts I couldn't paddle out due to the extreme currents in the water. In a mater of minutes I was dragged about 150-200 yards and when I noticed I was getting close to the point I decided to call it quits.

The humbling part of my journey, is I went out with a friend named Kip who is a really good surfer who just so happened to break his wrist a couple of days before Wednesday. With a water proof cast, he paddled out and caught 1 wave by popping up on his for arm. Unable to duck dive, he just took that wave in and said it was good enough for him.

So to try to redeem myself I decided to paddle out again today. Though it was a bit smaller 6-10 ft waves, there were still sets coming in at DOH. Paddled out no problem but was still pretty scared sitting out in the line up with these monster waves.