A Comedy of Angles

I hadn't SUP'ed in over four months.   "Desperation session!" Jeff said encouragingly.  Christian was already on the water, and as I trailed Jeff down to the beach I gave myself a pep talk.  It was okay if I didn't catch any waves.   Don't worry if you fall all the time.  Just get out there.  You forgot your gloves in the van.

Thankfully there was little shorebreak.   On the outside, however, it was bizzaro world.  Three to four foot wind blown waves are fine, but they were coming not only straight on shore, but also at 45 degree angles from both sides.   When waves of different direction met, half the time they would cancel out. Sometimes there would still be a wave to catch, but occasionally there's be a single spot perhaps ten feet wide where a head-high isosceles triangle would pop up.   

There was no knowing what you'd get until the wave was upon you.   You'd spot your wave, position yourself, keep an eye on it until the last moment, then paddle like mad, with no idea whether you'd:

A:  Catch a wave.

B:  Find yourself paddling hard for nothing.

C:  Get tossed sideways by the apex of two waves.

A particularly entertaining aspect was that while "you" wouldn't know what was about to happen, your friends watching did.   I watched Christian line up a nice little wave...all of a sudden there was a spike of water cresting over his head right behind him.  I shouted, which surely was no help, as Christian was now looking neither behind him or before him but at me.  Then at the fish.

"The word of the day is 'apex'" Christian said later on shore.

As the session developed the west-to-east waves stopped, the east to west became more useful (we were drifting east) and occasionally an actual clean wave would come through.  Jeff caught an authentic reasonably long right whilst Christian went left, and for a glorious minute it looked like normal conditions.

My hands were cold, but I was happy.  I caught nine waves (counted 'em), was so happy to be out there that I was cackling like Scott, and loved the site, smell, and especially the taste of the ocean.   Gimme more SUP!

 

Comments

[Dennis]

Ah, an SUP physics lesson. Wave interference: sometimes it's constructive, sometimes it's destructive. All depends on the relative phase of the waves. Accounts for large rogue waves in the middle of the ocean on an otherwise relatively calm day.