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First day at Bob Hall. I'm giving it a nine because I've been dying to get out there. I only lasted 30 minutes mostly because I cracked the nose of my board during a wipeout. I was pretty tired, though, not being familar with waves and such, I had to work hard to get everything going.
The first time out I made it out fine, jibed, fell in and waterstarted. Coming in was cool, I slid down some good sized waves, probably waist to chest high, but short in duration and width. Like really big chop, actually. When it closed out (about five seconds later), it crossed with another wave and I hit the crest of the two and went up and stuck the nose coming down and was really launched. Similar things happened several more times, probably when I cracked it.
I went back out a few more times and when I came in to catch my breath, I jibed on the inside, but missed the sail grab and fell back. My board stayed with the wave and it took off pretty far. I had to swim for a couple of minutes to catch up. There is a lot of current running parallel to the beach and it took me, but not so much the board. I caught up finally, waterstarted and came in for a rest. It was when I was going back out that I noticed the crack.
There were a half-dozen sailors out and Bill J. showed me the ropes. He was a big help and it wasn't really a big problem getting out today, but it was a small day. The wind was okay, but I was pretty underpowered. It was a good day to start, though. Nothing too major, I could get my bearings without being worked a lot.
A guy could really get used to this place... mediocre wave sailing, but still fun... bump and jump and flat water nearby, too. The cool thing about Bob Hall Pier was that outside the small waves and the shorebreak there were some big choppy swells, probably over my head in some cases. They weren't breaking shore waves but they were a fun mogul field of big chop, just what I was looking for. When I get more comfortable, those suckers are going to provide some big jumps!
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