Just what I needed

What a refreshing break to a seven hour drive from Malibu to Marin. After transforming this trip from simply a trek to a mini California surf safari, I am inspired and excited. I think I had forgotten the reality that Northern California has REAL waves. None of that knee/waist high crap, shoulder/head+ high---that stuff's where the real action's at.
Genuinely, waking up before 5AM is never exciting, no matter how jaw dropping surf may be. This "too early" response led me to turn off my cell phone alarm and "rest" for a few more minutes. I ended up getting looking at the time for the next twenty minutes and reflected that I really better get going if I want to hit up Pismo without a) getting owned by traffic and b) before winds picked up.

Pismo Beach was surprisingly small. I was expected somewhat consistent waist-chest waves with a decent bit of power. It is a nice slow beachbreak, but the reality is that with this little power in the water it was little more than mush. Early on there was a little definition to it, but even little cutbacks killed the little power pushing the board on. Pumping was a failed effort. It was, however, bigger than Malibu had been since two weekends ago, so I give Central California a 2/5, not for lack of trying. There were some people ripping when I first got there. I guess I brought bad luck.
The experience of the day here was listening to some punk surfer kid talk to his buddy. "Man, I am getting so good. Did you see that? Did you see that? Oh my god such a nice left. Seriously though..." blah blah blah. Seriously though, while amazingly annoying, he inspired me to dick around on mushy waves just so he would think to himself that going in a straight line with legs completely locked for three seconds neither constitutes a good wave nor an exemplary surfer. Either that or I'm just a condiscending surfer---I truly hope the Socal surfing attitude has not corrupted me so.

Ocean Beach was absolutely bad ass. As some employee responded to a customer while I was looking around, "The weather's beautiful, but the surf is/has been kind of small." I wish LA's "kind of small" was 4-6 foot. Far from perfect, certainly, but there is no question that these sectiony, often walled up waves occasionally eased in a steep, hollow shoulder. Cutbacks, wrap arounds, whack-a-faces (truly, I really really like calling it that), the power was there, the size was there along with the atypical beautiful, windless, sunny, warm fall afternoon. Waves truly anywhere from waist to head high, depending on what your sandbar looks like at any point on the beach. Quite literally, in two hours of surfing OB's currents pushed me more than half a mile south, so there was unexpected variety in the waves for sure. I didn't even try to paddle against it, after about ten minutes of trying to stay stationary I realized that I should use the arms for adrenaline-pumping drops and quick carves. People here not only shred more than in Socal, but they have real waves that require one to actually paddle out to as opposed to just walk. The fact that it's Northern California means that there are signs which literally say, "People have died on this beach swimming and wading." means that the only people that actually go in the water are there to surf, not to screw around. Southern California be aware---there are real waves here and people who actually know how to surf (and aren't complete asshats, although that really is an overblown stereotype of Socal...
Inspiring waves, there were many. Perhaps the best were the hollow head high "shoulders" with steep drops where I thought to myself, "I can make it through, I can make it through, comeon don't close out on me..." then immediately the wave flops over me, raping me in pretty much every aspect of the word. However, every fifth or so of those waves, I actually made it through.
I like big waves.
Summary:
Pismo Beach (North of pier), San Luis Obispo County
6'1" Al Merrick White Dove
8:00AM-10:00AM
2-4ft, ~14sec
Still -> slight onshore
2/5 overall

Ocean Beach, San Francisco
6'1" Al Merrick White Dove
2:00PM-4:00PM
4-6ft, ~14sec
Still to light onshore
3/5 overall