Josh and I are both recovering from the attack "flu" which may or may not have actually been some kind of influenza. It was a three day weekend but we decided to stay local. This whole month has been kind of a rest month since Death Valley. Kind of. At least I got to sleep in on Friday. The waves looked less than inviting and I didn't feel like driving very far, so I ended up surfing as close as possible. I got to the parking lot and enjoyed lunch while I debated paddling out into blown out, vacant surf. It was small and very onshore. During my indecisiveness, one of the guys I know from the BIA pulled up, checked the surf, and deemed it surf worthy. Since it was his local spot, who was I to disagree? I managed to paddle out and get some fun waves, so it was worth the drive in the end. And more sizable than it looked from the parking lot! I made it back in time for Josh and I to go see Pasadena Babalon by the Caltech theater people. Josh was kind of hesitant to go see a play at Caltech but ended up really liking the show. Basically, it was about Jack Parsons, one of the founders of JPL. Caltech did an awesome job and the script was very well done. The audience was mostly Caltech and JPL people, which made for a very unique atmosphere. There aren't too many places in the world where you can find rocket scientists watching a play about the start of rocktry in the United States.
The next day, Josh and I were going to go climbing but it was pouring rain. Instead, we headed over to the rock gym where it turned out lots of local climbers had the same idea. We caught up with friends before Josh decided the pouring rain was perfect hiking weather. On the way to his house to get his rain gear, it started hailing, but we continued on our quest to go hiking. Fortunately the hail stopped by the time we got to Monrovia Canyon, so off we went. Yes we knew there was a danger of flash flooding so we stayed very alert for any hint of one and always had high ground nearby.
We were only going to do a quick hike, but eventually we were on our way to the waterfall. Round trip, its a three mile hike over beautiful single track trails and lots of vegetation. The trees were awesome.
The hike was perfect in the rain. I don't like it when its too hot and we didn't have to worry about that, plus the trees and plants were wet and green. Los Angeles blooms in the rain since its usually super dry.
By the time we got to the waterfall, it was barely raining. I was kind of scared because I didn't want to end up in a flash flood and the rain created ideal conditions for it. Once we turned around and left the flooding area, I had more fun. Both of us were happy to be out there in the empty canyon, just enjoying the area, the wildlife, and the trails. :)
Sunday, I woke up late and drove up north to surf. There was supposed to be a good swell but I wanted to escape the ocean pollution of Los Angeles. When I got to the break, it was in between storm surf and organized, barreling surf. There was no clear paddle out, big whitewashes (for socal), and powerful waves. I spent an hour looking at the water trying to figure out where to surf and how to surf it. The decision was between soft, really hard to catch waves, and steep, easier to catch but very hard to make waves. I decided to start with the steep waves and see what happen. Eventually, I convinced myself to try to paddle out and made it relatively easily. That was quite a surprise. Once I got out there, the usually very crowded spot had precisely four other surfers sharing the lineup. Even so, it took almost an hour for me to pick a wave. I had no interest in dropping into a closeout onto rocks like the other surfers were doing. I wanted one of the very few waves that was make-able and went all the way into the bay. The ocean was behaving very strangely, maybe because of the recent earthquake in Chile. The normally clear water was brown because a small tsunami had actually entered the harbor and drained back into the ocean. Plus, some of the waves were oddly large, powerful and nearly impossible to duckdive. Finally, after getting a better feel for the lineup, my wave came. A couple of guys tried to drop in on me considering I hadn't caught a single wave for an hour, but once I called them off they were super cool and immediately pulled off the back. Then I looked down the line and realized what an awesome wave it was. I couldn't believe I wasn't just wiping out, instead I had a long, long face in front of me! YAY!!! It worked! Eventually, the ride ran out and I was left in the lineup for the hard to catch waves. Miraculously, I got one of those too and continued along until the last lineup, where after a short wait I got a ride in to shore. Wow. That was enough for me and I drove back to LA in time for church...happy that I faced my fear, had faith, and actually got one of the very, very few waves I was interested in trying to ride. :)
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