3-4 ft. - waist to chest high' occ 5 ft.' fair

How many freaking times have I seen that forecast for 17th St. in HB, just to get out and realize that it's every bit of 3-4, occ. 5' but the "fair" part of the forecast is where they are sorely mistaken. It seems that "fair" by Surfline's standards means 80% of the time it's closeouts, the remaining 20% are shoulders that yield 1 or 2 turns/pumps then it closes out on you. What gets me excited is the 1 out of 15 waves on a day like today where you get a clean take-off, stand up and the wave opens up in front of you if even just for 1 big turn or slash or floater or whatever. The reason that 1 wave intrigues me and gets me stoked is when you see photos or video of the waves over in Indo, the shape is pristine; fair is not a word that enters the forecasts over there. 50-yards and more of peeling waves where even when it sections out, there's enough push in the wave to get you around the section and keep on going. I find myself these days catching those waves here and getting ahead of myself; I imagine that the wave will keep on peeling for 50 yards and the water is crystal clear and the reef is rolling along underneath my board like a mural. Then I snap out of it right as the damn thing closes out on me and I'm scrambling to find the surface and my board to paddle back out and try again...

Oh and the water sure isn't crystal clear here. I've got a sinus infection right now and I'm placing the blame solely on the "clean" water here in HB. 2 nights ago I noticed that I couldn't complete my after surf ritual of doing a forward fold on the beach and letting the sea water drip out of my nasal cavity; the old sinuses are holding onto that water and it's causing havoc with my head and this morning I could barely breath or speak without sounding like the guy in the NyQuil commercials. Oh well, a couple days out of the water and I'm usually good to go.

22 days to go...