Labor Day Sunday it was. One of the most interesting sessions I’ve had so far.
Surfline forecast a mushy morning. Low tide was at 13:14. Onshore wind with heavy gusts throughout the morning, then, at 13:00, the wind was predicted to die down and come back later at 14:00 as cross shore.
Eager as I was, I got to Nahant at 12:00. It was bad - cloudy, windy, small and mushy. Still, plenty of people were in the water, struggling to get anything. It started raining a little, so I went back to the car, sat in it and waited, trusting the forecast. Not worth paddling out into that.
A little before 13:00 I changed into my wetsuit, noticing the wind dying down a bit.
Then the magic happened: as predicted, pretty much on the minute, the wind stopped. As the tide turned, the swell picked up slightly. Paddling out I had to turtle roll through a breaking wave - and this was supposed to be knee high. At the turn it was clearly more than that. No wind, glassy, nice rolling waves. And absolutely no one in the water. Everybody had bailed during the rain, probably exhausted and frustrated.
Me and onle one other fellow surfer had the whole break to ourselves for a solid 30 minutes. And those were absolutely magical 30 minutes! First wave I caught, right after paddling out, I turned around and there it was. My best ride of the day by a lot!
Got a few good rides in before people came streaming back. Still spent 2 hours or so out there, catching some really nice ones. At some point I was sitting way further out than everybody else. Imposter syndrome told me I was wrong, but the ocean proved me right. Picked up another really nice, relatively big one, got enough speed out there and rode it all the way back in. After that, people started paddling out to where I was. Guess I earned my local badge with that one.
Snagged a few party waves too, but who cares. Mood is always mellow at Nahant.
Even the sun came out a little, what a magical afternoon!
