Like an old familiar friend, I recognized its voice cutting through the cold damp San Francisco morning.
The chill hit me when I walked to my van and packed up my board for the day.
Work came and went but my mind was on the water.
By 3;30 I was rigging up at crissy field as the sun peaked in beneath the layers of fog.
The ride up was as smooth as butter. Flat water and 12-16 knots straight from the west.
Perfect conditions for formula windsurfing.
Soheil and I disappeared into the white, dodging incoming freighters, outgoing ferries and this season's first crab boats masking their way in the San Francisco Bay.
Wells and Rathle were already on call paddling their SUP boards in the outer line up- just beyond Fort Point.
In sets of 3s and 4's, the incoming swells would punch through allowing for a decent run up and surf down their faces. At the last critical moment you could gybe off, accelerating as you carved down and shoot off to the left as the wave peels right and enters a windless zone just west of the fort point.
Its a fine line of either or...
If you gybe too late you get sucked into a windless vacuum with the next set looming and the surfers taunting.
Soheil wasn't so lucky and had to swim his gear out twice.
I played it cautious but scored on my first run catching of huge wake of a crab boat and surfing it it for almost a minute into the Bay.
David and Jean were catching wave after wave on their SUP boards and caught a few runs on camera as Soheil and I gybed around them.
Good Times!
We got great runs for at least another 30 min in 12-16k gybing between the south tower and Ft. Point catching the incoming swell. Every so often, a set would come in a surprise me as I looked back to see wall of breaking water.
Time to gybe...
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