This morning dawned kind of dreary. Overcast, a very light spatter of rain, kind of cold, and very little wind. Oh oh, I thought, this doesn’t bode well. But by the time Boyan showed up, the sun had come out, the wind had picked up a bit, and it had warmed up. Last night a new person showed up to join our little band – Magnus is a kayak dealer in Sweden who has recently started selling and paddling surf skis, and he came here with his wife and two very young children. They didn’t bring a car, so I’m not sure how they’re going to manage logistics, but that’s not my problem.
We headed out to our old familiar Punta Paloma. This time, we didn’t do a downwind to the hotel, because the wind was mostly onshore and the tidal current was going the other direction. Instead the four of us just paddled out and surfed in. It worked out pretty well, because you could start paddling out close in to shore in the wind shadow, then swing out past some breakers on the rocks near the tip of the point, and be in some fairly strong surf heading almost directly into the shore. I was in the red stripe V8 which is a bit lighter than the black stripe V8 I paddled so far. The lightness made a surprising difference in how easy it was to get up to speed when chasing the back side of a wave, which I think means you get more rides. I still think I’d rather have the longer and faster V10 Sport when the conditions aren’t overwhelming, but I’m here to learn how to catch waves, not set speed records.
At first I’d been buddied with Frank, and Boyan was giving instruction to Magnus, since he was a couple of days behind us. But after a few out and back runs, Boyan switched to giving instruction to Frank, leaving Magnus and I to our own devices.
Magnus turned out to be pretty good, considering his recent arrival to surf skis – he just plowed out into the wind without any hesitation, and rode them back in like a champ. I’d be paddling hard to get on a wave, and I’d look over and he’d be on a smaller wave but moving faster than me with no effort. But I caught my share of waves too, so we stayed pretty much together. It was heading into the waves that he seemed to really leave me behind. So we surfed in and out a few times, and went back in.
After lunch, the wind had gotten even stronger, the waves bigger, and the current was in our favour, so we went back to Punta Paloma to do a downwind run back to the hotel. Kassie was free of her early morning conference call and was able to join us. So it was me, Kassie and Magnus in the V8s, and Frank and Boyan in the V10 Double once again. With three of us buddied together, and both Kassie and Magnus having proven to be faster than me into the wind, I felt I had to make a real effort to keep up with them. Fortunately I was once again in the red stripe V8 while both of them were in the black stripe V8s, so they were handicapped enough that I was mostly with them.
When we turned downwind for the hotel, it was kind of surprising how well matched everybody was. Even the Double was right there in the mix. For the most part Kassie was taking the closer to shore line, Magnus was taking the way out to sea line, and I was in the middle – although there was some switching around. The seas were both bigger and more confused than any day previous. For the first part, there was a strong wave set heading back towards the beach where we’d launched, but smaller ones heading the direction we wanted to go, so it was a matter of picking the waves you wanted to surf and not being thrown off your stroke or your attempt to get on that wave by stronger waves coming from the side. Sometimes they’d break in and fill up your cockpit, which was disconcerting, but you’d soon get a bit of a push from a wave going the right direction and the scupper drain would empty out the cockpit nicely. (The scupper makes an amusing sucking noise when you’re fully drained and going with a bit of speed – it’s one way to tell that you’re on the wave.) As we got closer to the hotel, the waves going in the direction we wanted were getting bigger and the ones going onshore were smaller, which made it easier to get some really long runs. Kassie and I were both whooping with joy – Magnus was further out to sea so I couldn’t tell if he was making joyful noises that were being whipped away by the wind, or if the stereotype of the dour Swede was true in his case.
I swear I got on one wave that was worth the whole price of admission right there – it gave me a massive push, and it just never seemed to want to end, and when it did start to die, I spotted a wave front moving in a slightly different direction, used my speed from the dying wave to get on it, and got another long push. It was awesome.
When we got to the beach in front of the hotel, all three of us turned back out to have another go. We didn’t go too far, and Kassie said something about not wanting to leave it too long because of the breakers in the shore. We turned and surfed in together, dodging kite boards (and the kite boards dodging us as well). But then Kassie said she didn’t know how she was going to get in. Magnus gestured for me to go first, so I took off my leg leash, closed my scupper, and went to surf the last few dozen meters into shore. I immediately regretted closing the scupper as a wave broke into the cockpit, so I re-opened it, paddled a few strokes until it emptied, and closed it again (have I mentioned how much I love having a foot controllable scupper?) As I got close to the shore, I just angled the boat and jumped out on the wave side and grabbed it. Walked it down until I had the stern handle, and started pulling it into shore. This time Boyan was waiting to grab the front handle instead of Angel, and we got it out of the water and on the beach, no muss, no fuss, no bother. I followed his lead and banked up sand on the side of my boat like he’d done on the double so it wouldn’t go flipping down the beach again – having the red stripe boat, you’ve got the perfect recipe for disaster – a light boat so it lifts in the wind, but fragile and expensive if it breaks. While I was taking care of that, Boyan was catching Magnus’s boat in the surf line, but Kassie still didn’t seem to want to come in and was paddling parallel to the shore. I don’t know if it’s because she’s lighter, and not as physically strong, but she didn’t seem to want to chance it even after Magnus and I had done it with no problems. Frank and I carried the V10 Double up to the hotel, so I didn’t see how she eventually got landed.
So now I’m sitting here in the bar/porch (because there is no wifi in the room) looking at the sliver of moon and a very bright Venus (thank you, “Night Sky” app), the lights of Africa across the Straits, and listening to the surf come in. It’s only 7:30 so it’s probably too early to go to dinner – Spanish restaurants rarely open that early, so a bit more web surfing. Today was a great day.