Watch and Learn, Ya Dweebs.
Be really careful what you say before you go surfing in sketchy conditions. Read this warning, and learn. Ya dweebs.
We'd recently discovered a small, but fun, little point break, peeling off a stack of rocks about 50 yards offshore, into a dredging shorey. It was never big, but it was seriously hollow, and easy to ride, you could get right back into the gutter, watch the wave throw over your head, and then panic as you see the water surrounding you change from lovely blue to death orange as the sand got sucked over the falls. The colour change meant you were in the shorebreak, which meant you were about to get slammed into the beach. It's a great spot, you get pitted off your nut, and then flounder around in the shallows trying to get the sand out of your eyes. And then do it again.
This spot, I'll call it BP's, needs quite a swell to get it going, it being fairly sheltered. It also needs the tide to be high, and the stream that flows across the beach to be just right, to wash out the channel. BP's hardly ever works, but it's on our route to our fave spots, so it's always worth a look.
This particular day, it was blowing a gale. Those that know this spot will know which way the wind was going, but I'm not telling. Everywhere else was either too sheltered or too exposed, (the curse of the south coast), and we knew that BP's was our only hope.
We had a full carload, about 6 of us, and we pulled into the carpark, itching to get wet, and had a look. It was working. It was big. Bigger than we'd seen it before, and looking sketchy. The take off point on this break is only a couple of meters from a big pile of jagged, scary looking rocks. When a wave comes in, you get sucked towards them, and as the wave passes, you get pushed out again. It's a leap of faith to be sure you won't just keep getting sucked in to these body crushers. Anyway, we weren't sure of the rips yet at this spot, never having surfed here at size, and the shorey was looking ferocious. We sat in the car, and discussed it.
Nobody wanted to be the one who said no, so we sat in the car and watched. Phil was keen. Craig was less so, but still wanted to go in. Everybody else was not going, but didn't want to admit it yet. Phil suited up in seconds. Craig, more lesuirly. Phil was baiting the rest of us for holding back. The rest of us didn't care. We'd watch to see how Phil and Craig got on. If they were getting filthy rides, we'd be right in. If they got sucked out to sea, we'd just have to think of way to tell their parents.
Phil picked up his board. 'Watch and learn, ya dweebs.' said Phil, and he legged it off across the beach, with Craig walking along behind. We watched. Phil got to the other end of the beach, where it was breaking. The rest of us were watching through the windscreen of the car, trying to see what they were up to through the wipers. Craig was walking slower and slower as he crossed the beach. He said the waves were bigger than he thought.
Phil wasn't having any second thoughts. As Craig slowly put on his leash, Phil jumped into the waves. As he did, a monster shorey dredged up, and sucked Phil up its face, and, arms and legs flailing, over the falls. We all watched from the car. Laughing.
Craig watched from the beach as Phil got slammed into the beach in slow motion, closely followed by a thick ledge of water, piling him into the sand. The backwash started to haul him back out, as Phil tried to stagger to his feet, fingers dragging across the sand. We waited as Phil dragged himself, blinking, up the beach back to Craig. Craig didn't even bother trying it after watching Phil getting killed and turned on his heel and started walking back to the car, followed by a still-coughing Phil. In the car, we were pissing ourselves laughing. We watched and learned, ya dweebs.
