Surf: Knee-Shoulder high. Somewhat clean. 3 ft @ 12.9 sec – NW 323°

I’ll admit, Ocean Beach makes me nervous. I pick days on the smaller side and I’m typically out with a buddy or two. As a longboarder there’s that moment where I’m sprinting for my life to get outside knowing I can’t duck the wave that’s coming. I’m worried about breaking a board. I’m worried about blowing a wave and making a fool of myself. I still remember my terribly kooky first time out at Sloat where I had no business paddling out and, after much floundering, washed back up on shore.

All that said, I don’t want tell someone that they shouldn’t try paddling out (assuming it’s not genuinely dangerous conditions) so when my brother said he’d like to join me at Ocean Beach, I agreed. I worried quite a bit, not that he’d get hurt or he’d break a board, but that he wouldn’t have fun. Chris teased me for reminding Wes he could stay in the whitewater if he wanted, or that he didn’t have to go in if he didn’t want to. And in the end, I was being a little silly. Wes paddled out to his own level of comfort and got lots of whitewater rides to the beach. Everything worked out just fine. Sometimes you can’t help but be a big sister, even when you don’t really have to.

I paddled farther out on my 9’4. I don’t take that board out at Ocean Beach as much since it’s sooo thick and the 9′ has a narrow tail for steeper drops. I got a few really fun waves. It was crowded. It’s funny, I hardly ever notice a big difference switching between my tri-fin 9 and my single fin 9’4, but on two of my waves I had probably the widest bottom turn that could still make the wave. Man, I was leaning so far in, my face was nearly in the wave. Ha!

Afterwards we loaded up on Devil’s Teeth cookies and brownies to take into the office. Mmmmmmm.