I love Summer!

Perhaps it's just some deep seated connection to having summers off when I went to school.

Summer time I was out and about continuing what was really the most important part of my education.

The weather is warm, the water is (eventually) warm and those cute south swells pop up to give us something to ride. But day after day of "too nice" weather leads to heat induced feelings of complacency. "It's 78 degrees someone turn up the AC!" " I wonder where my other flip flop has gone off to?" and soon someone hands you a drink with an umbrella in it and you are lying in a hammock for the duration of the season.

Spring is really a better time. The earth shakes off it's winter slumber and everything starts growing (the tomatoes have been fantastic this year). It a time of hope and of looking forward for what adventures might be waiting just around the corner.

Fall has gotten to be my current favorite season these last few decades. The weather is still nice.  The beach crowds have returned whence they came. There may even be a crispness in the air that under certain conditions might require you to dip into your wool sock stash. If we are lucky, an early Aleutian swell might  coincide with offshore winds (note to self I have to get a new wetsuit this year).

Winter on the other hand is not something to like or not like it is only something to respect. If it's not gnarly enough for you where ever you are, just head north. Winter will up the ante and call your bluff.

Winter will, if it is a good regulation winter and you are sufficiently north to get a real taste of it, always leave you in some sketchy position paddling out, most likely going to get dragged over the inside shelf again, damn close to freezing to death, in waves of a size you have no business messing around with anyway.

On that day during the dead of winter remember today.

Nice temperatures along the coast, warm water, playful surf.

I love Summer!