It was big yesterday at Sloat. 11-13 on the outer bar, and breaking way, way out near the shipping channel. Several people were out there.
When it starts to get really big, it breaks so far out, it’s hard to judge the size.
Unless someone catches a wave… then you can see big it is by how much of the wave is looming over their head! When it’s twice as tall, that’s “double overhead.” That’s big. Big enough anyway.
Late in the afternoon, I took the 7/9 Parmenter gun – the Aluetian Juice – out. Having been in the water once since July (the month before), I didn’t have high hopes of much more than getting really, really wet.
The longshore was screaming south when I first got in up at the outflow north of Sloat. The tide in SF Bay had been very low, but incoming tide on the beach.
When the longshore is this nasty, I typically do laps. I’ll paddle out as hard as I can and beat my head against the inside break. If I don’t get through the inside break, I’ll ride the whitwater in and walk back up the beach for another lap.
Score!
On my 4th lap, I found myself through the inside break!
There’s typically a sweet spot between the inside break and the outer bar where it doesn’t break very hard, if it all. A deep water channel of some sort. Maybe I got lucky and picked up a rip, or there was a slight lull. I noticed that the longshore had started to die off very quickly as well.
Whatever it was, I was clear of the inside break and facing only two more lines of whitewater to the outer bar.
Too bad it was starting to get dark!
Had it been a little earlier, I would have hung out in the channel and waited for an opportunity to bolt to the outside. In my experience at Ocean Beach, if I can get through the inside break, I can almost always find my way outside.
But I snagged a frothy piece of whitewater instead and took it all the way into the beach.
It was nice out there. While I was changing (in the rain!) back into street clothes, I watched a guy drop into an easy 12-13 footer, make a nice sweeping bottom turn, climb right back up the face of the wave and pull into the barrel at the top. Very, very sweet. A bunch of us watching, thumbs up all around. I’ll get there one day.
Tags: Ocean Beach