Dawn Patrol

Dawn patrolling this morning. Up at 6:30 and on the road for 6:45.

Hit the 'Port just before 8 (still dark) and both beaches had clean, offshore waves.

East Strand would have been perfect for my 9'2 but I had packed a 7'6 mini-mal for convenience so I reckoned it would be better suited to West.

Black Rocks had heavy 4-5 ft sets as I got changed but I decided the 2-3 ft Castle Erin break looked a better bet given there was no one else about and I was still half sleeping.

The strong offshore was holding the waves up a little too much, they were almost making it to the beach before breaking, then they had nowhere to go. I got hammered on the first couple of sets, partly because I've been riding a longboard for the last couple of weeks and partly due to the steeply jacking faces.

Since the waves were closing out on the beach there was no ride to speak of, the thrill was about making the steep drop and then trying to get back over the wave before it charged you into the sand.

After a while a longboarder joined me and said he had left his car about 10 to 9 so I had another 15 minutes or so. I probably only caught one wave between that and my final ride in.

Trying to explain to anyone why you would get up at six thirty am to drive one hour for one hours surfing followed by a one hour drive home and then go to work is fairly pointless unless that person surfs. If that person is a surfer, well you don't need to explain, because they know that nothing beats the feeling of the dawn patrol.

b.