Sunday, June 6, 2010

Searchin' for the Light

This time of year is probably my favorite time of year, mainly because of the amount daylight that's available. Are there better times of year swell-wise? Yes, but any time you can be in the water at 5:00am and there is actually enough light to see, that's pretty rad. It's a weird feeling to be on the road at quarter to five in the morning, but a lot of times, it can be worth it.

Unfortunately, Friday was not one of those mornings. Surfing before work means your on borrowed time. One more spot check, one more step that you forgot to take care of the night before means minutes shaved off what could already be a short session. Upon checking my first go-to,pre-work, spot, and it looked like tiny junk. Uh-oh. Immediately, my mind began to race as to what do to: Head home, drive around, paddle out anyway? All had their positives and negatives. No waves, lost time, lost sleep were all factors, but I bolted for the north end.

I avoid the North End in most instances, mainly in the months of may to september. Better waves, sure, but I hate dealing with crowds, bros and the inevitable pissing contests that usually occur down there. I realize that maybe I'm just being a baby, but I hate sitting in a line up and look to shore and see one, two or even three guys making their way out to the water. Total buzzkill. The wave quality to crowd debate is always a delicate one to me, but I guess for me, I'll take quantity of quality.

But whatever, the clock was ticking and I was hoping to get something decent, somewhere on the island. Checked one spot, no good. Checked another and it was lining up good enough to justify paddling out and that's exactly what I did. The waves were junky, but they were larger (relatively) and lining up better than anywhere else I had seen.

Despite it being 5:00am, I had the place to myself for a total of fifteen minutes.
In the end, there were only two other guys, it was a fun session and it was good to make an unexpected trip to the North. The building in the first photo is a dead giveaway as to what street.


Sunrise on shoreburbia.

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