E's Surf Report: glassy, waves, duckdives, ice-cream headaches

sunny, crisp skies and no wind this morning. Just when you start thinking it's going to be onshore and grey forever it clears up a bit. Scooted down to VFers around 6:20. Ocean surface still warbled and messy.. a few *maybe* waves on the outside. Didn't look that great.. Onward down the beach.. scattered possibilities throughout the aves.. pulled up to Sloat and took a extended look at an expanse of calm, groomed ocean between jarbled messiness to the north and south.. nobody out. Probably 4 or 5 rows of whitewater but from the parking lot the paddle-out looked cruisy.. but... however... I've learned my lesson the hard-way about making the, "aww, it's mellow out there" assumption from the parking lot and today proved no different. Start paddling and i'm duck-diving little rows of whitewater.. paddling.. duckdiving.. paddling... duckdiving.. ice-cream headache.. more duckdives.. etc.. same penalizing OB ass-kicking.. made even worse by the fact that my expectations were for a mellow paddle. anyway.. i'm still duckdiving rows and rows, getting serious brain-freeze.. it looks like there are about 20 rows left to the outside.. I sit up on my board and seriously contemplate getting out of the water and driving to pacifica.. grumbling to myself about getting denied at OB by a small windswell. But like a good little OB surfer i put my head down and just kept paddling.. eventually the waves let up and i snuck out.. whew.. Super glassy on the outside.. shoulder/head-high+ waves rising and cascading and peeling and sometimes spitting barrels.. I only caught 6 rides in about an hour but most were steep and racy and enjoyable. I took off on this one oversized left with a ledging/cavernous drop that felt great. sped down to the bottom.. then pig-dogged and shoved my hand into the face to help slow me down and turn down the line.. then backhand pumped and rode up high on the lip before the whole thing crashed and i punched through the wall. I've been watching so much of that Teahupoo coverage that i imagined i was dropping into the One-eyed Tahitian Terror myself.. 'cept there was no barrel.. and my wave was only about 4 or 6 foot on the face.. and there was very little risk to my personal welfare.. and no reef underneath... and thick rubber all over my body... and no tropical island paradise as my backdrop... and no radiant, crystal clear water underneath.. but.. except for those things.. my ride was JUST like Slates at Teahupoo..

also a bunch of rotund, lumpy jellyfish out there.. i think i actually got stung on my finger.. long squadrons of pelicans soaring just above water-level, banking and gliding along the unbroken waves.. sun shining.. no wind.. can't complain.. except for all the duckdiving.. soo many duckdives..

here's a classic Occy carve
occy