Everything we humans do during our short time on this blue marble is a process. An ancestor discovers the doing of the thing and each successive generation does it better. As time distills our shared knowledge, explanations cease to ramble and like Picasso’s brush strokes, years of lessons are refined into a few words carrying the wisdom of the ages.
The sayings passed down by our waveriding forefathers are examples of this pared wisdom. You’ve been hearing them in dive bars, beach parking lots, and atop cliffside overlooks your whole life. They range from the infuriating “you should have been here this morning” to the infamous “when the wave breaks here, don’t be there.”
Like all cliches, these proverbs convey wise counsel for those paying enough attention. Maybe you need a gentle reminder of these golden nuggets. Or maybe you need to send this to your buddy in charge of forecasting who you all skunked on your last trip.
That being said, these adages are to be discarded whenever the opportune moment arises. The sea laughs at our laws and labels.
“If it’s working where you’re at, don’t check other spots.” Or in layman’s terms, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
It was an evening session on the Seven Mile Miracle. Swell rolling in from the NNW in the 5-7ft and 13 second range. That data is made up. The facts are: it was a beautiful Saturday in late April with Saturday crowds and Saturday traffic as the North Pacific refused to go gently into that good night (summer).
My friend Mike and I had surfed Lani’s that morning. It was good but not a standout session. After witnessing the gladiatorial spectacle that is Rocky Point and shooting the shit at the food trucks, we acquired local knowledge about certain spots and certain swell directions. Armed with that knowledge, we pulled over at Leftovers because a) it looked uncrowded and b) it was firing.
A note on my own personal biases as a surfer and human. I am from the East Coast, specifically New England, where 2-3ft and blown out has all the makings of an epic day. Even after living in Hawaii for 6 months, my scale for evaluating waves has not changed and I hope it never will. You can take the man out of the shitty waves but you can’t take the shitty waves out of the man.
Leftovers. In between closeouts there were loooong pump track lefts with a kick out in safe water for the loooong paddle back to the relatively empty lineup. So what did we do? We drove to check Chun’s and Lani’s further west to make sure we weren’t missing anything. Our corneas were absorbing light and color reflected off of beautifully peeling symphonies of energy that had traveled across the entire North Pacific, for us and a few friends to enjoy …and we drove on. The shame weighs on my soul even now.
While sitting in traffic I looked at Mike and said “we’re overthinking this.” He looked back as if waking up from a bad dream and said “If it’s working where you’re at, you paddle out.”
After burning daylight in excruciating North Shore traffic and growing increasingly agitated we made it back to Leftovers. Long story long, I was riding a 7’4 Harley Ingleby Mid and Mike was on a 5’11 Tokoro. Naturally I made it out faster. I turned and burned on the first set wave I saw. Mike was on the inside perfectly positioned down the line to see the entire thing. Every drop of water remained frozen in time for just as long as it needed to. For the first time in my surfing life I didn’t force anything and slipped into a flow state as I pumped down the face. Racing out ahead of the whitewater perfectly in time with the speed of the collapsing lip. Think Anne Hathaway reaching out her hand in that scene in Interstellar where their ship travels through the wormhole.
It was twenty seconds? It was a lifetime. I kicked out and looked back towards Mike, he was 200 yards away with both fists in the air in the classic expression of surf celebration. The wave of my life, so far.
Surfers today deal with a particular type of FOMO that previous generations didn’t face to the same degree. Every swell event around the globe is tracked and chances are some pro with a film crew is probably farming it for the almighty content. Surfline constantly updates the buoy data from every major wave on the planet, usually including a live feed to boot. Modern media is showing us how good it really gets out there and sometimes that burden of knowledge prevents us from truly enjoying the waves here and now.
Surf what ya got and have fun.