The State of California has many camp grounds along the coast. A number of them happen to be at good surf spots. Something I’ve taken advantage of many times over the past 40 years.
This past week was no exception. My son booked Monday through Thursday at one of our favorite camp grounds that is also at one of my favorite surf spots. The really nice thing about the place is it’s only about a 35 minute drive from my house.
The surf spot is a south swell spot and it just so happened that a small south swell was forecast to reach So.Cal. Monday and hang for a couple days. Sure enough the swell showed up Monday but, we ended up running late so getting in some surf before dark didn’t happen.
Knowing the surf would be good all day with the best tide in the after noon to evening we took things slow Tuesday morning getting down to the beach about mid day. The crowd was a little more than I was hoping for but we eventually paddled out and worked our way into the lineup. My son, Robin, was not doing to well with the crowd and was trying to pick up waves at the section down the beach but with not much luck. I hung inside the main line up and picked up a number of the insiders and a few set waves that were missed by the pack… lucky that.
After about a hour in the water I thought maybe we were going to score because the crowd started to thin out. The surf wasn’t real consistent but if the crowd thinned out a little there would be enough surf for every one not to have to hustle too much.
Right when I was starting to feel like things were looking up I glanced at the beach and saw at least a half dozen guys standing at waters edge with boards ready to jump in the water and paddle out. How ‘not fun’ things were going to be was immediate. When Robin found himself in perfect position for one of the smaller set waves and as the wave scooped him up one the many guys that had just entered the water and was actually still paddling out turned around and back doored him. I saw the sleight move and immediately thought “that’s it, we’re done surfing for the day” Robin thought the same thing. We hung a little longer getting a couple left overs but that was it.
What happened Wednesday was a completely different story. We walked down to the beach and checked the surf around 7 or 7:30 a.m. There was still some nice sets showing and maybe 10 or 12 guys in the water. With the tide not changing much all day we decided to skip breakfast, go get our boards and surf for 2 or 3 hours.
When we got back to the beach there were 5 guys still in the water 3 of which got out just as Robin and I started to paddle out. So Robin and I had the place with two other guys. Over the next 45 minutes or so two more guys came out to surf. So at that point there were a total of 6 guys at the break. With 3 and some times 4 waves sets the 6 of us were really enjoying the situation. Talking amongst ourselves, sharing waves…. ‘You goin?...’ nah, go ahead I’ll get the next one’. Total round robin.
One of the guys asked “when was the last time you surfed this place with just a few guys?” “It’s been a long time… maybe the sixties. Yeah, this is rare” I said. We were all so stoked, wave after wave for a good two and a half hours.
Just as I started to wonder how long it would last I notice about four guys heading for the water with their boards. I was getting a little tired and hungry, so was Robin who said “I’m going in”. Knowing we had really scored and the lineup was going to change I said “me too”.
I can still see some of the rides I got in my head. That mental instant replay thing is going to last a long time. How could it not on such a rare day?
D.R.
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