From njtravis@cse.lbl.gov Fri Nov 08 22:37:05 1996
Newsgroups: alt.surfing
Subject: Small Pleasures
From: njtravis@cse.lbl.gov (Nancy Jean Travis)
Date: 8 Nov 1996 22:37:05 GMT

Yesterday I watched the little baby swell lines slopping over Pleasure 
Point and decided it would be criminal to get my suit wet, so I went 
for a swim instead. Whilst out there I realized the children were having
a ball at the Point, even with the kayak in the lineup. After an hour of 
stalling, Zeuf strolled by with a couple big Hawaiian girls and said 'we're
goin out to play anyway!' Oh, hell, I think, a chance to hassle my sistas
can't be missed, so I grabbed the longest board I had and the wettie
and paddled out to 2nd peak.

Well the girls neva showed, maybe they were still getting dressed?
But I had a gas trying to snake the kayakers who really had the 
right weapon for the day. Pretty silly out here I mentioned to 
another lady who wisely reminded me that "any day you don't surf 
might be the start of a long time out of the water", and she took
off on a little peeler crouching down as small as possible in case
it might decide to barrell, or maybe just to see the face.

The tide was extremely low, .9 with rides connecting into knee deep 
reefs covered with long flowing seagrass, the water was incredibly
warm and the sun blinding. Filthy beautiful in spite of the size.
One hardcore hardheaded local was ripping apart anything that moved
at First Peak on a little fish, sticking his head in the waves
and thrashing the little peaks into submission.

The day was so nice tho, as if summer returned, so I camped over 
in the ONeill's guest park. I woke before dawn to see a brilliant 
orange stripe on the horizon against the sky.  It was too dark to 
tell if those lines at the Point were 1 foot or 6 so I had to paddle
out to check.  I'd say 1 foot with the occassional sneaker set.  

Now the tide was much too high for PP and the water was f-f-f cold#%@$
When I took off on one of the only decent sets that snuck through,
I realized my feet were so numb the wax on the deck hurt (my feet,
not the deck!) Then the whole joint shut down like a slammed
door as the tide got even worse and I decided to go to work around 8.

Still, with the sunrise, the birds I hassled and the sneaker set, 
I figured I was ahead of the game. Driving up the coast, I called the surf
line to see if it was better elsewhere. Totally unsurfable in
Santa Cruz, they reported. Oh yeah? You shoulda been here an hour ago!

Fang



door as the tide crept even higher.