Today was rather interesting... I didn't know whether or not I'd be able to go out, with reports of 6 to 9 with 13 foot sets... :)

I drove along the coastline through Carlsbad, checking things out. There was no one at all out there, and it was looking pretty large. I stopped by warm water jetty and watched for a bit, and then drove up and parked in front of the power plant.

After watching a while, I decided that I would probably survive if I were to try and go out, so I suited up (trunks and hood) and went for it.

It was a very high tide, and the waves were driving rocks up the steep beach slope, so I had to time my entry carefully. I stepped in a bit too soon, and got my shins pounded by the water-borne rocks, but then I hustled in and started paddling out.

There was a rather strong south current going along the shore, and as I turned to watch my shore reference, I could see that I was being washed northward a lot faster than I was moving outward. When I saw the smallest of the three jettys just north of the powerplant approaching, I caught some whitewater in. I had to be careful inshore because the waves were driving up against a sand cliff and I didn't want them to smack me with my board.

I started walking back to the south, and saw an old fellow approaching me. "Only world-class surfers ought to be out in this stuff" he called out. I smiled and thanked him for his concern, but told him that I go out almost every day and that I wasn't too worried.

I walked almost to where the houses begin just south of the power plant, and tried again. The experience was similar, moving fast to the north and slowly outward. I was almost ready to give up and catch some small slop in to shore, when God offered me a brief lull in the onslaught of waves. I went for it, and soon was outside.

Once past the strike zone, things were really pretty nice. The current was much milder and I had no trouble swimming against it and not only holding my position, but making progress toward the south. The waves, although large, were generally "friendly" - not walling up and slamming down hard, but rather peaking up and spilling, yet sufficiently steep for a take-off in just the right place.

I decided that my goal for the day, now that I was outside, would be to find one "glory wave" and ride it to shore. It took a while to get the measure of these waves - when they are big like this my timing gets all thrown off, and I have to re-calibrate. There were one or two that I might have gotten, but I chickened out of. Then there were a few that I tried for, but had them slip under me. One I went for a bit late, and wound up eating it, but not as bad as waves in the last few days because it was a kinder, gentler wave.

Finally, just the right wave appeared. It peaked up nice and hollow in just the right place, with a shoulder headed to the right. I went for it, got up, and headed to the right. It wasn't super steep, just steep enough to launch me in a cloud of whitewater and yet allow me to make it out of the foam and onto the shoulder.

I rode right for a ways, but the shape kept changing and I found myself trimming and turning to the left to stay with the energy. By the time I had turned left, the wave steepened again and rather rapidly closed out on the right. I continued left for a few moments and then trimmed back straight to stay with it. It reformed once more inside, this time maybe waist high, and so I rode it a little further in before it mushed out.

Of course, as I dropped off the wave I had to shout "Hallelujah!" - it had been really nice! I was pretty close to the beach just south of the power plant, and I caught a big surge of whitewater most of the rest of the way in, followed by a nice left-handed belly ride almost up to the rocky slope. I hustled the rest of the way out on foot between waves.

Well, there you have it, the Big Thursday report straight from Carlsbad California... :) As I was cleaning up, I did notice that one other brave soul had paddled out in front of warm water jetty, but I left before I saw him catch anything.