Imperial Beach - Saturday, August 5, 2006

Christmas in August? Standing there on the edge of the sand at 6 a.m., half asleep, I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I wiped the crust from my eyes and took another slug of coffee. This just wasn’t supposed to happen in the middle of summer. And considering the fact that there were only three guys out in the water, the rest of San Diego wasn’t expecting it either.
Solid bands of head-high swell were marching across the border into Imperial Beach, groomed to perfection by an unseasonable off-shore wind, bathed in the warm glow of the sun peaking up over the east county mountains. I checked the wind reading on my computer when I woke up and I thought there must be some sort of mistake. Wind out of the east? Likely an equipment malfunction. As I sped past downtown, heading south, the flags were pointing west. I stepped on the gas.
Seeing three gaping barrels roll through un-ridden was all it took.  I had been injected with a healthy dose of adrenaline, my body couldn’t move fast enough to get ready, and I don’t even remember doing so. The rest of the morning was a blur of 10-second tube rides and toothy grins. Christmas in August indeed.