9/2 — Brooks and Salt Creek

What a day. Nellie and I went to Salt Creek on her friend’s 5' 4" fish. The waves were small and I got a few small lefts in clear water, rocks passing by underneath. We packed up, walked around Laguna, and I got my hair cut. We walked down Brooks and I paddled out at the near-shore break. A great set rolled through right as we were walking down, but no such set came when I went out. I didn’t catch much at all, and I saw that Nels had swam out a bit away from the break. I paddled over to her.

I started diving down, kicking off the sea floor and coming out of the water. Nellie wasn’t very amused, but I kind of was. I dove down, kicked hard, and my head went straight into the bottom of my board. I came out of the water, felt my head, and the blood came.

We went to shore, and two guys said it wasn’t so bad, but we thought we’d head to urgent care anyway. 2 hour wait. So we bailed on that idea (though Nellie did ask them for something to clean it and they gave her a handful of tissues). Nels got creative and we met up with the EMT lifeguards who cleaned it up and said I definitely needed stitches. Nels, clever again, posted on Facebook and we found a friend living with a friend about an hour away who was a doctor and had everything he needed to stitch me up.

We stopped by another urgent care with two funny desk-girls and a doctor that said he’d staple my head, and decided to go to our friend’s place. I got stitched up in the living room while everyone watched Sicario. Afterward Jake (the doctor) and I played some guitar in his room.

We rolled into home a little after midnight, and as I reached under the seat to get my phone and wallet I hit my head on the dashboard and blood started coming out again. We stopped the bleeding and feel asleep exhausted.