At the boarding gate, but six hours earlier:
Morning surf to the left of the river mouth, and also a left. Arrived there before sunrise. It was beautiful out, no wind and a bit of lightning flashing in the clouds over the sea. Paddled out. Already 8 Aussie mates there, all friends, plus 4 loners. Almost nobody was wearing a rash guard cuz early. Aussies talking, others looking stoically at the horizon. I picked a spot about 3 metres closer to shore and picked off three great rides in about 45 minutes. Easy take off when nobody else had a chance to snag it deeper, then long clean face before walling up and closing out. Which was where I jumped. Then about 30 minutes of not getting much. Then one Aussie dude blew a take off and somehow hit me as I was trying to duck dive. I thought I was going to lose an eye but just ended up with his leash wrapped around my leg, and still on my board. Disaster averted. Soon after that paddled and sat on the sand for a while with the beach dogs. Nice last surf.