The first real swell of the year is always a strange time. First people will say everything’s overhyped. Then the same people will say it’s some of the best surf they’ve had, “In months, dude. In months!” after they notch two or so sessions under their belt. The best surfs happen when you have no time on your hands. The worst when you have all the time in the world and no need to rush to office or whatever. Oh, and it’s almost guaranteed that at least once you’ll drive to the beach, gear loaded up and coffee in hand. But once parked you’ll squint your eyes at the surf then, taking a sip of whatever burnt roast you’re cupping, you’ll raise your eyebrows a bit and think, “Yeah, nah. I’ll wait for the tide to fill in a bit and go this afternoon. Wind’s getting to it anyways.” And then you drive away from perfectly glassy surf only to end up at the bar around 5pm with work friends you don’t even really like but more so tolerate because you’re forced to share a closed space with them for seven hours a day. No one is quite sure why this happens, but it always does. And you always miss out on the best window of surf every time you do it.

With that all said, here’s some footage of Rincon last week during California’s first big run of swell in 2018. Lakey Peterson, Sage Erickson, Pat and Tanner Guduaskas, and Parker Coffin all star. There’s also the briefest of appearances (only two waves, but that still counts!) by Dane Reynolds. –James Royce

Watch our Fairly Normal on Dane: