Sun Patrol vs Dawn Patrol – Why Dawn Patrol is Over-rated

Most surfers tend to be morning people, or at least most of the surfers I know like to go surfing in the early mornings and some even in the wee early mornings of dawn patrol. I get it, the waves are glassier, as there is less wind in the morning and surf spots are generally less crowded.

However, there are several reasons why I think dawn patrol and surfing in the morning in general is overrated.

• It’s colder and cloudier
  • This isn’t the case everywhere, but it certainly is where I live in San Diego. I’m definitely more of a sunny afternoon surfer, as I like to enjoy the whole surfing experience. I love to relax on the beach, soak up the sun and watch the surfers before I head out and chill out and relax on the beach afterwards.
• You can’t always chill and relax afterwards
  • Surfing can be exhausting, especially on a rougher day or with a longer surf sesh.  After a surf sometimes all I want to do is just come home and chill on my couch because my body is telling me to take a rest. Now, if I surfed dawn patrol or early morning before work, that wouldn’t be possible, I would have to power through somehow.
• Not a morning person reason
  • I don’t care how glassy the waves are, if my eyes are glassed over because I’m barely alive and still need more sleep, I’m not going to be able to be worth anything on these better quality waves anyways.

I’ve tried and tried to just give morning surfing a chance and I almost got out to dawn patrol once. However, as I got myself out of bed to attempt dawn patrol, I was about to change into my swimsuit but then just looked out the window and it was pitch black. I just couldn’t do it.

I hopped back on my bed and snuggled under the covers to some much needed more hours of sleep.

I think the only way I’ll ever achieve a dawn patrol surf session is if I’m in a very warm climate with warm ocean waters and I just stay up the entire night. Then I can have a dawn patrol surf sesh to finish off the day/night and when my body is tired from a long surf/paddle sesh, I can go straight to sleep for the night – well day!

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