LaPush

After nearly a two-month, holiday induced hiatus, I finally made it back up to the surf. The forecast was looking pretty sad for the Straits and Jeff was looking to head out to the coast with a board-surfing friend of his, Rob. We all met on the West side of the Hood Canal Bridge at 7:00 Saturday morning and consolidated into two vehicles. Our first destination was Rialto Beach, just north of the tribal village of LaPush. Because it looked pretty sloppy, we made the short drive south to check out first beach at LaPush. It was a little cleaner (slightly), especially toward the north end of the beach where the Quileute river runs into the sea, with 2-7 ft waves. Rob's dog, Abby escorted us down the beach and bid us great surfing by barking from shore. She's a great dog, just hanging out on the beach until we came back in.

In spite of the surf being a little less chaotic than Rialto, I still spent a good portion of the first session getting beat up by extremely unpredictable waves. I expect some of my issue was having not been in the water since November, but it didn't help that the break kept moving around at will. Every once in a while, I'd realize I was too far out to catch anything and would move back toward shore. Just about that time, I'd get caught on the inside by a huge wave and would find myself getting Maytagged, hanging upside-down in my kayak. At one point, I was stuck in a side surf, headed straight toward Rob. With no other choice, I found I had the presence of mind to roll and pulled myself off the backside of the wave.

After a quick psychological break on shore, we headed back out for another session. The waves seemed to have gotten a bit smaller. I caught a few and was able to ride a few until they got into a deep spot and petered out before forming again closer into shore.

After another couple hours in the waves, we had a couple beers on shore and chatted with a local while Abby and I bonded over part of my turkey sandwich. All-in-all it was a great day.