Best Wave Ever and Wave Full of Dolphins!

I'm behind on blogging....surprised?  Don't be.  This'll be a regular thing.  So, here is post 1/3 for today.

And it was the BEST DAY OF SURFING OF MY LIFE!

So we went to El Porto, Bryon, Lee and I, and the waves were looking pretty.  As soon as we got there we saw a HUGE pod of dolphins a little ways out, probably 12 or more of them, which is always a good start to a day of surfing.  As usual I was on the QoW, which was perfect for the day since the waves were mostly a little slow breaking.  To be honest, I only caught two waves, and only one of them was good.  There were also two waves with great potential that I messed up.  Let's start with those so we can end on happy notes :) 

The first with potential, I got my feet tangled on the leash and went off the back like a bag of bricks.  I'm sure it was hilarious, and truly wish I could've seen my own face.  Oh well.  The second wave was actually a learning experience.  I caught a HUGE wave...(Massive aside:  I was going for lots of huge waves!  Yayyy progress!  I was probably only doing it cause even though they were big they weren't breaking that meanly...I got tossed a few times off the big ones but it was never awful.  This was probably because they were all corners, it was near low tide, and closeouts weren't happening all that often.  Aside, over.)...and I was looking down a seriously steep face when I realized that I was not getting any purchase in the face and nosedove hard.  Board went into the ocean and I pushed myself off the back.  BUT, as I was falling, I looked left and realized that I was right at a steep corner.  So, if I had just turned as soon as I took off, I might've made it onto the face instead of pearling (another term for nosediving).  Good to know.  Next time, I'll take off at more of an angle on the bigger waves.

Now, for the good news.  I caught the best wave of my life!  I caught a medium biggie, and ran straight down the face, but then as I was waiting for the whitewater to catch up to me I saw that the wave was reforming, so I turned left right onto the face!  I rode left for a ways, then down the second time, then left again, and by this time I had SO MUCH SPEED!!  I was totally exhilarated and actually a little scared since I was going faster than I ever have, far faster than I'm capable of running in a dead sprint.  I almost lost it in the fast section, but I got my balance back and rode down the last face.  At this point I was probably 40 yards north of where I had started and basically at the shore.  It was the most incredible ride of my life.  That's all I'm working for now.  Rides like that one.  The guys didn't see it, but some stranger on the beach did and told me it was an amazing wave.  YAY!

So, as if that weren't enough, there was a time when I was out waiting for the big breaks when all out a sudden a big set rolls in.  That means that waves break, in this case, 15-30 feet deeper than they had been normally.  Since the waves had already been pretty big, these were HUGE!  So as the first wave comes at me, I started paddling like hell toward it, so that I can clear the wave before it bowls me over.  As I do, I see, IN THE WAVE, at least 8 dolphins!  I hear Bryon behind me yelling, "Do you see that?!  DO YOU SEE THAT?!?!"  (He knows of my love of dolphins)  He and Lee paddled in toward shore to get safe while I paddled straight at this group of dolphins each of which was either vertical in the wave or looking straight at me!  It was a mix of the following two pictures, and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen (none of the dolphins were breaking the surface though). 

The whole time I was paddling I was just repeating "Oh my God, oh my God..." because of the size of the wave, the fact that I was SO CLOSE to dolphins, and for fear that they were about to run me over.  Most beautiful thing I have ever seen though, and the dolphins went out the back of the wave and I made it though alive.  I also survived the next 3-4 big waves, only having to turtle roll under one of them.  Bryon later claims that I missed the dolphins swimming about 5 feet from me on their way into that wave, and I have no idea if his depth perception was treating him right, but that's a cool idea too :)

I feel like it doesn't sound that amazing in writing, but in real life, there are just no words for the mix of beauty and fear and power in the situation.  It was incredible.  I will have and cherish that mental image for the rest of my life.

And then I didn't catch a wave for the rest of the day, but it didn't matter.  Best wave of my life and wave full of dolphins?  And then we went to our new favorite breakfast place in Manhattan Beach?  Amazing day.