Big South last weekend, wind today, Baby tomorrow?

It was 4:48 on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. The P.C.H would be bumper to bumper with folks who only see the ocean and challenge their dermatologists advice for this one holiday a year and cautiously driving their kid stuffed SUV's at 28 mph en route to overcapacity campsites and hotels up north. The weather forecast had confirmed it; the seabreeze had been in the upper twenties at County Line with at least some wind swell and even Topanga was averaging 17mph. The 10 m Griffin argonaut would be perfect with the strapless fish surfboard..
Sarah and I had spent the day at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica shopping, walking, climbing stairs and anything else we could think of to prompt the little guy to come out into the world without the help of pitocin induced eviction notice. The excitement of his arrival and fun with S, eradicated any frustration of missing the first big south swell and high twenty and above winds up in Bu three days last week. I was able to get exactly one hour in last Friday evening at about six with the tide way to high and just enough surfers at Topanga to limit access to the point break wave in front of County LG headquarters,
I had arrived about five PM last Friday and enjoying the sole session when up at Klaus's house the 10.5 RRD obsession I had sold to him for his girlfriend Michelle popped up.. Funny thing is that either M gained a lot of height and weight or Klaus was under that kite and Michelle was on the beach with wetsuit and harness on but no kite to go. Klaus weighs in at 265 and if he was doing well under that kite, she knew it was way to big for her. It is great when the normal gravitationally challenged, become gravitationally blessed and Newton's physics tosses some good wind their scale defying way. M ran back to the house to get the proper equipment while Klaus enjoyed his good fortune.

Watching the wrist watch, it was time to roll it up after an hour. Michele had put up a 7 m GK trix and was doing well when in came Klaus with a lot of red on the side of his face. He had been doing his sky high jumps and spins when one contorted tweaked board twist put his face and board tip uncomfortably close."Can I go back out?" was what he asked though it came out as "what do you think" HIs board had smacked him next to his eye and though difficult to see through the blood, was obvious to a nearsighted pelican that he needed some stitches. Klaus and M reluctantly walked back to his place to glance in a mirror for himself and returned with some home done tape strips and bandaging to hold the split skin together and he was ready to go out again.. Told my old bud once again that he should just go to the ER and get stitches and the water here is not exactly sterile.....The blurry vision from the blood in his eye and the fortunate abatement of the wind when he went back out got him to the ER at Saint Johns in a few minutes. Three stitches later he was up and filming a commercial in Arroyo Laguna the next day good as new.
So it is a week later and it was almost five with S saying go for it, i'm fine, no baby today. The normal 15minutes to Topaga took about fifty, No way to get to the better wind and at least some local wind swell generated surf up at County and more importantly, not good to be more than a few minutes from Sarah, just in case. Allan Sarlo was just launching his kite and a few other guys were out as well. Time restraints demanded a speed jump into the wetsuit without accidentally flashing the tourist packed PCH, throwing the kite on my back. old strapless fish surfboard under the arm and pumping up the kite in a hydraullic blur. Laid out the lines and was ready to launch in minutes.... The thing about self launching is that you need to be just that much more careful and luckily I paid a bit more attention to my gear though in a rush. Just one strand of spectra holding the chicken loop together at the top of the hoop hidden by the frayed outer layers... DOOOOOHHHHH!! The phone rang in the bag on the beach and first thought, "the water broke???" Nope, it was S's mom thought the phone reception on beach is horribly garbled.. It's Sarahs mother...Oh...now I heard her. With the complexity of tech on phones these days, why can't the other person just get a computer generated voice that says " he would of course normally know who is on line and is very embarrased, but could not make out your voice do to a terrible connection, sand and wind in his ears and a Fox news helicopter hovering ten feet over the beach"? Apparently S's very nice and understandably concerned mother can't get through to S on either home or cell line and worried something might be up. Jogged back up to the truck and called S myself. She called back in a few minutes with an, all is well, having just walked to Starbucks down the street. Pheeeeewww...Now I could dig through the entire truck just to realize that the screwdriver needed to pull of the system that held the chicken loop line, was left at home after assembling some furniture for the babies arrival. What is nice about teaching and showing gear is that there are always a lot of different kite bars in the car. A bit of adjusting, adding pigtails and wala!! The eclispe Kima bar with 20 m lines is on the Monkey Griffin kite and the sun is still up.
The longer throw of the bar was a marked improvement on the kite and worked the charm. Allan and I shared the tiny surf with one windsurfer in front of the County Topanga LG station with the Argonout eating up the big gusts and the big fat board floating through lulls. One hour of this fun and it was time to run back to the truck. Alex Kaminskas and David Kramer pulled over in their cars on the way back from kitesurf sessions of their own to ask about the babies arrival. They were stoked on the happyinsurf.com thermals conveniently sitting in a sand covered lump on my front seat and looking for a new home with a couple of friends.
Allan and the crew were so cool in congratulating S and I on the imminent arrival of our little boy and Dave made a point of mentioning how much fun we were going to have. Wow, Sarah and i are so stoked for all the support of our many friends and family who always have a positive word to share through this new and exciting phase of our lives.
Tom is up in Ventura teaching lessons for us over the holiday. Vic, Bayless, Michelle H, Robby, Paul, etc. are heading down to our old Baja wave sailing, surfing and paragliding stomping grounds and we are contentedly hanging here waiting for junior to arrive and maybe even stop by to say happy B Day to Gregor Vassilev and Paul Hill at their kitesurf B Day party at Topanga State Beach tomorrow. That is unless the little man in S's tummy does not decide to demand a holiday road trip to Cedars Med center for a little outside entertainment.
Ain't life grand?
We think so.