Another Sunday dedicated to surfing. At 10:15 am, I headed out towards town with the SUV loaded with my gear to pick up Katie. Once again it was a foggy morning, and the forecast showed a promising mid-day surf session. We got onto the highway and headed toward Sooke at 11:00 am, making one wrong turn. Good music was playing, I had a bag loaded with snacks, a car filled with good vibes (and expensive gear), the sun was shining and therefore I was feeling good. After about 40 minutes of driving, we came to a halt. Over the course of the next 40 minutes, we would move inch by inch, being inconvenienced by road work up ahead. After over two hours, we reached Jordan River! The sun went behind some clouds, and the beach was infested with families camping. 

The waves were looking a little small, but we got out there anyway. Neither of us had much luck within the first little while, and we weren’t entirely sure where to position ourselves in the ocean as the waves were choppy and irregular. A wave would come and knock me off my board from time to time, shrinking my confidence. After not being able to catch a wave for a while I was feeling a bit defeated and my confidence in the water was standing at 4/10. After about an hour, and catching a few small waves later, we moved closer to the river mouth. From there, the waves started to get bigger, crashing down on our heads and pushing us forward. We were determined to catch one good wave before leaving though, so there was no backing out yet. When a big set would come in we would look at each other screaming “look at THIS one!”.

 We knew we had to go back to shore soon, as the more advanced surfers made their way towards us, catching those big waves. Katie caught a good one and headed back into shore, keeping her promise to go in after a decent wave. I struggled to continue surfing as I was now alone in the water. A small non-crasher approached and I knew I had to get it so I too could get out and return to warmth. I paddled hard, then caught it and stood up long enough to feel ok with my decision to go into shore. It may have not been the best session ever, but we caught the sunset on the way home and felt accomplished knowing we had gone out on our own, and had spent the day in the water. 

Overall Confidence : 5/10

Conditions: 6 foot swell

Busy: Yes

Best Wave of Session: Very small non-crasher

Length of Best Wave: approx. 5 seconds

Session Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes