1-11-11

Cold---28 degrees---but bone dry.
Light winds blowing from the east.
The waves are small---only around 4 feet....at best.

Paddled out on a 10'2 with too much rocker
for such a small day.

I was so incredibly warm.
Even with east winds.
Never even a chill....

My paddle out I produced a serious sweat.
I ducked under water and floated to get some water in
my suit....I needed to cool off.

But it's 30 degrees out?

Bitchin' suit.

4 foot A frame peak.
4 guys out.
Wave after wave after wave.

Tired.

But then....

I watched 3 waves break way off to the left....way out on the headland.
Paddled in ....to my truck.
Put away my longboard.

Get my shortboard.

Walked out a couple hundred yards over the rocks.
1 person followed me out.
It's breaking right on the rocks.
But so perfect.

Unnecessary and undesirable to most who love this wave.
But it was so flawless.
Just a bit rocky....
Right on the rocks that is.

Catch one wave....looking down a barrel.
Perfection.
Got too deep...
Closed out.
Laid flat but my ass bounced off a boulder.

Board wedged in rocks.
Board check....ok.....
paddle back out.

Rocks underwater only 1 foot deep.
Dry rock on one attempted takeoff.
Why?
Because it's so damn pretty.

Rolled a little on the rocks on the third wave.

Small but fast.

So peaceful.

Wait.....
Wait.....
Is that....

Yeah...

It's snowing.

Snowflakes.
Detailed and and symmetrical.

Perfect waves.
Perfect ice crystals.

Here comes a wave....
The biggest of the day.

Clean line.

Coal and Columbia Cocktail

Everything flows downriver....
Everything in the river flows downward, or toward, the ocean.

But not on this part of the river.

This part of the river has an upriver side----pointing inland towards many cities of Oregon and Washington.
And there is a down river side of an ocean with extreme 10 foot changes in water depth every 6 hours...

Constant change.

The tides bring in huge amounts of water from the ocean.

Combine two forces of incoming and outgoing water and you get a very unstable and large mass of liquid moving around
ferociously....

Whip and chap.
Spit and foam.
Burning face.
Rain drops thrown into your eyedrops.




NOW...throw a few football fields of coal into that mixed drink.

A few football fields of coal dumped right in the middle of the deepest and fastest channel of that river.

......Couldn't possibly be of any good.



........??


I hear they are soon going to be shipping coal out of Longview, Washington.

The coal will be shipped to China.
The company (they) who owns the coal, and is using Longview's port, is from Australia.

........?

Hope they appreciate the coal in China and enjoy spending the profit from it in Australia?

And I now have to watch all that coal ship right on out to the ocean via the river flowing in front of my house.

A lot of ships have sank in the ocean river mouth here.
It is called 'the graveyard of the Pacific Ocean'.
The jaws of the Columbia river.....two jettys guiding the ships to the extreme ocean conditions.

So if a ship full of coal does ever go down.....and it will......what is the consequence?

That is a lot of coal in one spot of a river.

Just wondering.

The river here comes in and out....so that slowly disintegrating coal will go up the river-------- and then down again.



.....
Just wondering.

....?