We had such a shaweet run of shawell yesterday, and I was so stoked to catch the last bit of it and that the East stayed away.

Yesterday's 3 to 4 ft swell was just a faint reminder of the epic cranking waves J-Bay can deliver when things work out. I have these vague memories of pulling into a bomb and seeing small heads on surfboards bobbing down the line as I race past hooting friends and hear the noise of fast moving air gushing past my ears with the taste of sea in my mouth and smell of fresh ozone oozing up my nasal cavaties.

I went to church Sunday morning, and after that we had a typical South African Sunday lunch, complete with pumkin tart, two types of meat, rice, salads and stewed fruit ala custard afterwards. When I left early morning I saw the sea looked like a crincle cut chip which results in perfect right handers peeling of the points and I was a little bummed that I would miss out on such a epic dawnie.

Eventually, when my whole family went for their afternoon nap, I took the gap and raced to Tubes. Supers did not look promising at the time and it seemed a couple of times if the onshore wanted to come chop things up, but after a couple of minutes the wind died and things glassed out. I had a couple of screamer waves at Tubes, and we were like 4 people out eventually. One wave I had took me all the way to Point, until my front foot slipped off as I tried to shift weight on my way down after a goofy snap.

It turned out that I was too lazy to paddle back to Tubes and I managed to catch a couple nice ones at Point until I did the starfish move over the rocks. Around that time I saw Ibi, one of the guys from Billabong and his kids as well as his wife, Melanie. Ibi was on parent duty and Melanie got suited up this time around. As she paddled out, I saw a mega set approaching from Boneyards and realized that there was a lull for the moment. I did what any respectable surfer would do. Got of my butt, zipped, leashed and raced through the channel...

How do they say? The rest was history. Have been trying hard to smack the lip and make tighter turns etc. and I really wonder what a backhander like me looks like on a right? With me from the previous session was still Glen (who said he's catching his last wave 2 hours earlier) and we were also joined by Rasool, Melanie, Toby, Roche and a couple of other guys. It turned out that I put in another hour or two until my arms were so tired I could not catch waves anymore. Literally surfed out. One last wave and I made it back through the channel, never touching a rock.

This session reminded me that Winter 2010 is coming, and as I walked up the boardwalk, I daydreamed about the sense of awe and fear when faced with a lip coming from a triple overhead sized wave that's hurtling itself at me for about 4 seconds before the great explosion... Sigh. Endorphin, I love you!

Winter 2010. Bring it on!

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