La Jolla today...couple lessons learned

[Irishman]

I watched and watched the surf and weather reports. Used my subscription to Surfline, gauged swell windows and direction....
Lesson from today....the wind forecast rules all else.
Arrived at the launch at 6:45am. It was literally as good as you could wish for, easy walk into the water and hop on. No stress....looking couple hundred yards north the shores was pumping. Paddled out to the kelp to make bait and you can hear the surf hitting children's pool and along the shores in front of the hotel and condos...boom..boom..boom.
Made bait in no short order, two greenies and three Spanish. Off I go with three way swivel and 4oz lead deployed. Glorious conditions till about 10:15am. Then the wind started, it went from a lake to easily 1-2 foot whitecaps real quick. Paddling back to the reserve was all done with the blade going in on the right side, the wind pushed me into the kelp and it was a bitch to get to the southern most buoy of the reserve. Had a whale come at me in its innocence which only added to the "this is just great" factor.
Back at the shores just as the wind died. Hope the other two guys who were further out than me made it back. Chatted with Dave from Chula Vista and we both were happy to be on land.
Will not do a gamble again when wind advisory is in the news. It was a good learning expertise and made me grateful my wife bought me a vhf a year ago. I had an alternate plan ready if the wind was to much to deal with.
So, no fish but a good day on the water.