I learned something today.

I learned that my new Canon 7D and SPL Water Housing doesn't do me any good at home while groms are killing the inside of Wind and Sea. Here's how it started:

I called my friend Nelz to see if he wanted to get in a session at the Wave House. This was after watching the IB cam on Surfline for 30 seconds. (Yeah, I don't have an account with them, yet.)  The waves looked a little choppy and small on the cam. So Wave House was on. I had a $40 gift card for the BMax that I need to use. And I know Nelz likes that thing but he won't admit it. But instead he said he just got out from WindNSea and it was fun and glassy. Stoked. I'll be right there.

I looked at my camera bag that I just packed from the Wave House and I decided not to take it. I thought it wasn't going to be good to shoot. There was an overcast marine layer towards the coast. So I left the gear.

I get to Nelz and it's glassy and epic conditions. A set rolled in and no one was on it. After a quick check at Mariner, I came back to WindNSee and Nelz took off.

I get back to WindNSea, get ready and paddle out. I went straight pasted the last guys out and sat about 30 yards out from them. Only one set came through that I was able to catch out of the hour and a half I sat there in trunks and an Aleeda wetsuit top. It was getting chilly and the wind came up a little. I caught one more and came in.

As I'm changing, another perfect set comes in and hits the reef perfectly in the middle. I saw this one grom get a couple waves and absolutely kill it. It was cool watching him tear it up being so small.

I looked around and there was only one guy shooting. He was shooting from land and didn't have a tripod. When I realized that I could've gotten so many photos during those two hours, it hit me... I'm a photographer now. Yeah, I love to ride waves and always will but there was a big part of me that wanted to kick my own ass for not bringing my camera.

I had to document with something so I used the Flip Video and my crappy BlackBerry Curve. I say crappy not because of the video quality, that was actually good. I just have troubles with the never-ending hour glass thing that pops up on me alot.

Yeah, I learned something today. I like taking photos.

Here's the video clip and I hope you like it. Next time... I'll have photos! Son of a...