Surfer Diary:

8:00 a.m. Scotchman's-- lots of sloppy 2-3 footers with some 4-6 ft sets rolling in. I forgot to grab a new leash, so lots of perfect duck-diving required today. The wind was putting a lot of texture on the waves, but it wasn't blown out. I spent twenty-minutes doing laps on three-footers, going right and left, until I decided to wait for a real set.

Sitting there waiting my mind kept flashing images of those sharks they've been spotting off of Will Rogers State Beach. I comfort myself with the thought that the sharks probably hate bumping into the reef just as much as I do and so they probably stay well outside, if not in the channel, at least on the deeper parts of the shelf.

A "real" set comes in and I paddle for the horizon. I scratch my way over three head-high waves and then turn around for the fourth . . . I wimp out and pull back at the last minute . . . I suck.

Then I sit on my board and scan the horizon. A ten-foot fountain of spray breaks the surface just thirty yards from me. I watch as two humpback whales lumber past me. I've never been this close to them before. This also seems to trouble my thesis about the reef protecting me from those eight-foot gentlemen in gray-flannel suits. A big tail breaks the surface. It doesn't even look real. Pretty cool.