Session 85 - June 7 - Cowell's

Saturday June 7, 5-7 pm, 7'6 Kingfish + Maddy on the 9'6 FSC + Joel on the 9'0 Becker + Mom with 2 cameras snapping away from the cliffside

Nic's Surfboard Emporium was open for business on Saturday afternoon, as Maddy decided she wanted to try her hand at this surfing thing again (although when it comes to surfing and Maddy, it's really more of a photo-shoot thing than a surfing thing, to be honest). So we broke out all the biggest sticks I have, loaded the surfmobile Yaris w/ the two longboards on top and the Kingfish inside, threw in my old wetsuit for Maddy, and cruised on up to beginner longboard heaven, Cowell's. We had been over on the west side earlier in the afternoon, and Cowell's was looking a lot of fun, clean, slow, lined up rollers meandering on in through the soft-top cluttered lineup, looking like fun (albeit somewhat dangerous obstacle course)...it looked a lot different by the time we arrived w/ surf gear later in the day. I had thought the tide would be low enough by late afternoon for it to be good, but guess I overestimated how much the tide was going to go out, plus the wind had gotten to it by then as well...so it was a completely different picture of crumbly, inconsistent, and sloppy waves coming through every now and then. But, much to the benefit of Maddy, there were now only 4 other people out -- not the 50 who were there this morning. Good news for flailing Maddy, good news for the health and longevity of my 3 surfboards that were being called to action! So we'll take it. Suited up while mom was snapping photo after photo, carried the boards down the stair in a constant state of worry (Maddy carrying surfboards makes me worry incessantly -- for the safety of my surfboard, that is), but managed to get in the water with no injury or accident, and were on our way. As I said the surf wasn't much at all, super crumbly not much of anything to catch, but for Maddy it served well. She got to have her choice of whatever she could try to catch (or get pushed into), she got better at balancing on the longboard, learned how to spin the longboard around for takeoff, and...she almost (so close!) stood up for the 1st time. She is good at surfing on her hands and knees. Like dad! Runs in the family.

It was fun to have everybody out there enjoying themselves and I think Maddy had a good time until she got really cold. I'll give her credit for lasting as long as she did in my old holey wetsuit that fits her reasonably well but not that great. Nicely done sis. I don't have the pictures as they are on my mom's camera, but I'll try to get them from her soon and put a couple up here. Maddy the surfer girl, so hot right now!