When the gang first saw it, they were in awe. The peak rears up out of the open ocean and breaks right and left but the left is longer and hollower and steeper. Up the beach, to the right, the locals surf the first peak which is left also and has a channel to paddle out in. Out at the Jetty, a long right breaks out of deep water down the jetty and all the way into the first peak. The locals jealously guard this wave and threaten to maim anyone they catch surfing it. No one surfs the big peak to the far left that breaks off a sunken shipwreck because this is where the swell focuses and pulses. The paddle out here is too difficult, it takes an experienced waterman up to thirty minutes to get past the beach break out to the lineup where the waves crest. No one surfs the peak except fools. When Zucky first saw the break he exclaimed, “it looks like a huge washing machine,” hence its name that lingers onward into the twenty-first century. “It’s the washing machine, zoom zoom.”
This Saturday at five in the morning, Kool, Playboy and the Wracks gear up for a visit to the strand and the washing machine. Wracks has a new 4mm super suit with a spigot to inflate with air when you are drowning, Kool has a red rocket seven-foot eight-inch pintail shaped by Rdick and Playboy has another potato chip gun because he is a team rider and Wracks has his homemade six-foot eight-inch three fin inspired by Craig Wilson of Makaha and relayed by the Lu—ay. Wracks glassed two trailer fins on his Wilken Meth model so he has one too. Up the PCH past point zero and Sakis and the big rock into the Nards and the turnoff on Channel Islands boulevard to Mandalay and the Strand. The Pang-oh gang heard of this creation of God probably from Kool and they with their girls and their vans and the four-speaker cassette players line up at the store on the beach for provisions before the go out. Yeah says WW who is dressed in a mink coat and spent the whole night dancing and partying and the girls are in mini skirts with trench coats to brace themselves from the cold offshore wind flowing outward from the agricultural valley.
Let’s walk down the beach and check it out says the Wracks
I have to finish my beer and get a new smoke says Kool
Let me put on my jacket says playboy.
The white sand with grey flecks in it is cold to the feet and the three get a first glimpse at 6 thirty am of the washing machine with a hard offshore wind. A huge wave rears up out of the open ocean and grows and crests and then breaks left down the beach like the pipeline on Oahu. Another breaks, then another, and the ocean near shore turns into seething white froth.
It is at least ten foot says Playboy, I can’t tell because it is so far out
I don’t go left that well says the Wracks, I am a Malibu boy
You are going to learn today says Playboy. I hope you learn fast.
I love lefts says Kool. Big lefts and fast lefts, spitting.
They run back to the car and everyone is gearing up. Wracks brought a bar of super psychedelic Sugarman surf wax and they share the bar as they wax their boards.
Remember to time the sets says Playboy. Don’t paddle out till the last wave of the set hits the sandbar or you will never get out. I forgot to tell you, this place swarms with great white sharks. If you see one just paddle into shore, they only hit something that is stationary.
The waves carve a huge ledge of sand from the beach to the break and everyone jumps off into the surf.
Remember to time the sets.
A four wave set hits the sandbar and huge peaks break churning into the shallow sandy beach water The peak waves hit every fifteen minutes. The Wracks wades into the spinning shallows and steps on something that moves out from under his feet. A set hits and the Wracks starts paddling as fast as his body will let him. Luck favors him and a small set begins to break just as the Wracks clears the inner waters and spray shoots out from his board as he barely lurches over the top. He continues to paddle because he doesn’t want to be caught inside and face a long swim in shark infested waters. He sits outside of his friends and notices that he is long way out. A huge set hits and he sees Playboy scratching for the horizon on his purple gun so the Wracks takes the first wave and goes right towards the shipwreck and he barely gets into it because of the offshore and he drops and drops and drops and makes his bottom turn going faster than he ever has his whole life. Shooting towards the top of the waves the centrifugal force glues him to the top of the wave then he spurts out of it in the impact zone. His friends were not lucky, they got cleaned up by a huge set and are swimming in. The set must have been twenty feet high. Not only is it an arduous task to paddle out at the Washing machine but out in the lineup cleanup sets come out of nowhere and drown anyone brave enough to challenge mother nature. The waves are at least four times overhead and no one can tell standing directly on the shore.
The Wracks flounders in the white water, times the sets and paddles out again. He catches a mid-sized left tube and drops and turns backside and trims and the tube catches up to him and it is lights out. Using the backstroke to get to shore quickly, the Wracks retrieves his board and sits on the ledge in the sand. Kool drops down a huge monster, fades and turns and gets a ride like you see on TV and then he pops out the back and scratches for the open ocean and doesn’t make it. A huge wave slams down on top of him, his board is free and he is swimming. Playboy gets a nice left and kicks out in time and so does BA on his NP gun. Wracks time the sets and goes out one more time. He catches a huge wave at the peak, goes to the bottom and turns, rockets to the top and hits a white shark on the back, and is stopped dead cold in the water. He saw the huge shark and couldn’t turn because he was going so fast he hopes the shark is not mad and doesn’t come and get him as he freestyles towards the beach as fast as he can.
That’s enough for me today says the Wracks. I don’t want to press my luck.
He watches his friends get a couple more rides and then the wind turns hard offshore, it is 11 thirty and the session is over.
That was the hardest paddle out I have ever experienced says playboy
I got a big left tube says Kool. Big and round
I ran over a shark says the Wracks and am still alive.
Good session says, Playboy. Let’s head home
The white and yellow Volkswagen camper with blaring tuned exhaust heads south after the boys raid the local dairy for fresh chocolate milk and donuts. Playboy and Kool sit up front and share something smoking and the Wracks lays supine in the back with a rug and the surfboards covering his body.
Time flies by and soon he is home on Bacon land and he unloads his board and suit and thanks Playboy for the ride. He goes inside and his father sits in the green chair and smokes and asks him
Where have you been?
I went surfing up in the Nards
Did you have a good time
I caught some big waves and ran over a shark and it didn’t eat me
You have a fervent imagination says Father Wracks.
I couldn’t believe it either because it was where the waves are breaking
It probably was a huge piece of driftwood says father Wracks
Driftwood doesn’t swim says the Wracks
Whatever says father Wracks, take a warm shower and continue your studies.
I will says the Wracks, I am really tired
The Washing Machine is still there. It breaks three times bigger than any break near it on a northwest swell. No one surfs it because the paddle out is too arduous and difficult. There is a little convenience store on the strand that lets you park there if you buy food from them. Later Wracks would drive up there and watch solo, no one else on the beach with ten to fifteen-foot waves every day, and a couple of times he went out alone. And time moves on and the past is gone and now Wracks doesn’t surf anymore. It was just another Saturday in the past.