This morning found us at 15th street in Del Mar all staring in awe at a fully mature SW swell. After hitting Hawaii earlier this week, it began showing hints of it's potential in San Diego late Wednesday. Thursday and Friday gave us a taste of the honey and like a bear drawn to a bee hive we all wanted more, more, more. Various web sites were calling this morning 2-3 feet; 4 feet at best. I don't know what ocean they were looking at or who calibrates their measuring devices, but about the only thing that was 2-3 feet this morning was the white water. The sets were routinely overhead and the in-betweeners were shoulder to head high.
Screaming, bowling lefts were the soup de jour. Some makable, some not. But hey, it's only water; what's the worst that can happen? Everyone took it on the head at least once, either paddling out, paddling back out after trying to squeeze in that one extra turn (which was one turn too many) or just getting hammered by the outside sets.
But everybody was also grinning from ear to ear when they got out of the water. It was a morning that will fuel stories of late take offs, steep walls, cut backs, floaters, wipe outs, clean up sets, long rides, adrenaline rushes, near misses, snake attacks, and the best surf in a while. Some true. Some not.
So, here are some memories from this morning's session.
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| Big, fat and sassy. |
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| Can you surf like a girl? |
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| Maybe you should learn how |
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| Chuck on a nice head high in-betweener |
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| Did I mention it was glassy? |
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| On the inside deep in the froth |
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| Luke, slotted again |
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| Captain Kurt, style master |
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| Clayfish powering through |
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| 2-3 feet, really? |
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| John, on one of the rare rights |
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| Steve, setting up for... |
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| ...a cover up. |
And the wave of the day goes to Kris. I ask again, can you surf like a girl?
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| Kris, just back from Bali, dropping into a set wave all to herself getting set up for... |
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| ...a 3G bottom turn |
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| Smooth, smooth, smooth. Great wave Kris! |
Have a good one
Aloha
Gary
all photos copyright Gary Erbeck
This morning found us at 15th street in Del Mar all staring in awe at a fully mature SW swell. After hitting Hawaii earlier this week, it began showing hints of it's potential in San Diego late Wednesday. Thursday and Friday gave us a taste of the honey and like a bear drawn to a bee hive we all wanted more, more, more. Various web sites were calling this morning 2-3 feet; 4 feet at best. I don't know what ocean they were looking at or who calibrates their measuring devices, but about the only thing that was 2-3 feet this morning was the white water. The sets were routinely overhead and the in-betweeners were shoulder to head high. 
This is not what it looked like this morning at 15th street. I took this at Pipeline in February of 2010. Sunny, warm water, great conditions and some rather large waves. This wasn't even one of the sets.
This is what 15th was offering up this morning. Gray water, battleship gray sky; no horizon. Glassy, cool air, cool water and waist high slow rollers. A bit inconsistent, so there was a fair amount of waiting around, but there were some sets that had everyone jockeying for position. It was what one would call a "fun" session. The southwest wind came up early and quick, so for some folks it was over before it began. 
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