1. Sands on a Friday evening glass off early summer. Offshore beach break perfection.
2. Del Playa on a surprise West again in the early summer.
3. South Swell at C Street. At the top of the point the set of the hour was approaching. As I paddled my 9' longboard for it I looked to the left to see Shaun Thomson paddling furiously right next to me. The wave rolled and the 9' picked it up. I got a good look at Shaun's disgusted face as he missed it.

Thinking about why I was so stoked to catch a wave that Thomson missed, it occurred to me that surfing is the only sport that the average recreational participant actually can compete with the pros. An analogy is if you walked onto a public court and McEnroe asked you to hit a few balls.