How Big Was That?
I manage to break away from work at about 10:45. The weather outside is pleasant - mostly sunny and 68 degrees. When I get to the parking lot, the ocean surface is textured but not particularly rough. The air feels cool as I walk down the stairs.
Once I’m on the beach, I notice the surf looks a little bigger than yesterday. Surfline is reporting 3-4+ but it looks bigger than that to me. Still doesn’t look huge but bigger than it has been in a week or so. I let a set pass and then start swimming out. I soon make my way to what I think is well past the inner break area but then I see a set of waves approaching that are definitely going to break right in my vicinity. I head further out and easily poke through their faces before they fully curl over. Hmm…that last one felt pretty big. As I am swimming west, I am gazing to the south and noticing that the main break is breaking well past where I am and I can even see all the way to the southern cove and notice huge splashes against the cliffs.
I start swimming south and add a little more distance between myself and the shore. I think I am much farther out than I probably need to be. I’m just beyond the primary reef break. Then what looks like a set of monster waves approach. What? This must be an optical illusion. It’s not really gonna break all the way out here. Sure enough it does. I slip over the lip as the curl starts to spray. I pause to take in what I just saw and am seeing further south below the headlands. 3-4+ I think not. I seriously ponder just turning around and calling the swim but I proceed.
Once I get to about the third house from the southern end, I can see more of those waves pounding the cliffs and breakers rolling in well past the big rock in the area where I usually turn around. Ok. I think I’m done for the day. Even though I know I am going to have to swim in and potentially intersect with this same surf, the stress of anticipation is making this not fun. Too bad because this is otherwise a very pleasant swim. The water feels relatively comfortable and it is a very nice day.
Of course, the remainder of the swim is uneventful. By the time I am lined up to where I plan to finish, I am way way out. It feels like it takes a long time to get close to shore. I get to thigh deep water without meeting up with a single breaking wave. On the one hand I am relieved but on the other it feels so anticlimactic. I’m hoping another monster set comes through as I head for the stairs but nothing of that kind of size rolls in. Did I make this all up? I do note that the pack of surfers that were here when I got here are all gone now.
When I get home, I review the Strands webcam history during the time I think I saw that massive set. I never use this feature but I have to see what it was that I saw (if that phrase makes any sense). Sure enough at about 11:20 it comes rolling through. Waves are breaking well past everything else I see in the surrounding 20 minutes of footage. I wonder how big that was? I’m betting 8-9 feet? Who knows?
