During the last few years, at least, and according to the tide book for this year, it seems that we have extreme high tides in the evening during the summer months, and in the morning during the winter months. A little over a year ago I first put that to good advantage one fine winter morning.
Dateline: October 16th and 17th.
Wow! Not bad for a couple of flat days! I head out during an exceptionally high tide, and find just the right "sweet spot". Near the point at Terramar the waves are washing up on the sea wall, piling up and then reflecting back OUTWARD.
I get myself "in the pocket", wait for a good-sized wave to come along and reflect, and then catch it on the way out. These outbound rides are the best rides of the day! On a good-sized outbound wave I can ride as much as twenty or thirty yards out to sea.
The REAL fun, though, happens when there is another INCOMING wave as I am riding out. I move rather rapidly outward, line up on the incoming wave, and then hit it like a ski-jump. WHAM! Totally airborne! In fact after two days of this, I now consider myself part of the Airborne Division of the Fraternal Order of Bodyboarders... These jumps into space are quite amazing - I only wish I had them on film. The effect varies quite a bit depending on the resonance and angle and size of the incoming and outgoing waves. The milder versions of the jumps are no more than "whoop-de-do's", sometimes over as many as two incoming waves. Intermediate versions see me sailing through the air in a horizontal pose, and returning to "earth" only to pick up the wave and continue outward.
The wildest jumps happen when I am on a sizable, fast outgoing crest and approaching a steep, well-defined incoming wave. I am thrust vertically upward as the two waves come together, and launched straight into the air like a Poseidon missile! I estimate that on the highest of these jumps I peak out with my flippers at least a couple of feet above the crest! (I estimate this by the time-delay before the soles of my flips slap back down into the drink.)
Eat your heart out, landlubbers!