Pier-ing over the ledge

Checked three spots this morning because of the alleged swell coming in. Sunset first, no. Then OP which looked about the same as yesterday. Then the Pier. Bobby G. and I could hear it before we could see it. The bigger waves were head high with no shape. The waves were stacked up one after the other (annoying at times), and they were hitting the sandbar pretty hard.

Well, that just sounds like fun. We suited up.

I'm still not completely in tune with the thruster set-up. I had a lot of fun drops today, but I'm not sure if it was because of the close-outs or if it was because of how I was surfing that I couldn't really make a true bottom turn on the bigger drops. On the plus side, the thruster longboard is really fast.

Best wave of the day was my second to last. There was a smaller wave in front of a much larger wave looming toward me. I decided to take the smaller wave that had better shape, knowing full well that I was going to get pummelled AFTER my kick-out. The wave had a decent shoulder and I was going frontside so I could see the bigger wave behind it waving at me with its giant, darkening hand. I waved back and saluted (seemed appropriate to acknowledge it at the time). I kicked out of the smaller wave in order to immediately dive off my board into the dark water, under the crest of the larger wave.