Sharks in the lineup

I really hate wearing a wetsuit.

Its been months since I've had to don the fullsuit and Tuesday morning was a rude awakening.

Looking to catch the tail of the most recent NW swell, I woke up on Tuesday to a rude awakening. (1) it was cold as shit outside, (2) there was a solid eastern offshore breeze (good for waves, bad bc its cold), and (3) I realized that I couldn't make it out in trunks and would have to suit up.

It may seem obvious, but after months of jumping right in the water with nothing but trunks, a wetsuit seriously affects several aspects of your in-water experience. The biggest is constriction. Not only do you sacrifice mobility, but the suit is intentionally tight which has the ill-intended affect of constricting your chest, making it marginally more difficult to breathe. While this isn't a "danger," when you get in a hairy situation, it's effect becomes exponential.

So, after suiting up I grabbed my board and crushed down to the beach. From my place the waves looked solid and the sets were lining up nicely with enough of a break in the waves where paddling out would be a little workout but wouldn't be an impossibility with a 10 foot log and no leash.

First lesson: Its always bigger and colder than it looks.

After getting in the water, the drop really became apparent... yeah it was 8 am, but still the water felt like ice. I started paddling out and I was getting pounded, there seemed to be no lull or shoulder to paddle to, in the endless closeouts, all I could do was keep paddling forward. Then I took a little break when suddenly a rogue wave broke early and I got drilled, losing my board.

So there I was a good 40-50 yards from shore with no board, right in the middle of the soup. I was in quite a fix because I was already a little winded from the paddle out, and now found myself caught inside of a seemingly endless swell.

This is where I wasn't prepared. The wetsuit not only made my breathing more labored, but constricted my strokes and was adding a few pounds to me. In that paddle back to the beach, I had a couple "oh shit" moments but thankfully I was able to stay relatively calm and in between getting pounded, was able to make the swim back to the shallows.

After that I made a decision to ease myself back into larger swells in the "wetsuit season" (aka now until march) and really get my paddle strength up.

So I guess after my ill-fated sesh on Tuesday I had to make it up on the weekend. The weather was gorgeous and for being October 31 and November 1st, it was one of those weekends where no one would think of going to the beach unless you lived there, simply because the beach is never 80 degrees with light breezes this late into the year.

After working up a sweat with BC, (nd on sunday with BC and BT), we crushed porto for the last trunkin-it sesh of the year. I'm not sure if the cooler waters brought more wildlife out, but the water in porto was uncharacteristically clear and uncharacteristically packed with schools of fish over the weekend. So much so, that on both days, we had several predator sightings, including one 4.5 foot (likely nurse) shark. It was pretty wild, and kinda crazy to be on a wave and look down and see between 12-18 little sharks swimming around.

Nurse Shark

These things are pretty harmless, and if anything are a sign of an active ecosystem.

Looking forward to more weekend seshes as the bros gear up and get wetsuits for the winter,

-Chairseo

PS - Great to see that there is a spike in the readership.

PSS - stay tuned for a recap from OB's ... sweet bar