It's a holiday weekend and my grandson is visiting for our annual surf camp trip. He's itchin' to surf... but it's a holiday weekend. What's worse is there is a marathon from Ojai to the beach which ended at the Fair Grounds. And the course goes down our road so if we want to go somewhere we've got to go out of our way a good 6 miles unless we wait 'til after 10 a.

About 10:30 or 11:00 I tell Merrick the race has passed so let's go down to the point and try our luck at getting a place to park. There was a little south swell maybe we'd get lucky.... and we did.

When we pull into inside point there were no other cars on the street looking to park and the very first parking spot was empty, we pull in. Suited up and went out. It was a bit crowded in the lineup but not terrible. After an hour the crowd thinned out. I counted only 8 people at one point. Merrick had a good time and so did I.

When we got back to the van and started getting out of our suits the fun really started. There must have been 4 cars waiting for a parking space. Across from us there were 2 cars getting ready to pull out making their space available for those waiting. Just when one of the cars pulls out a guy pulls around the corner and snakes one of the guys that had been waiting. I turn to my grandson and say "looks like there's going to be a fist fight over this deal", and there almost was. The sparks started to fly but after some heated exchange the guy that had snaked the spot got back in his car, pulled out and left. I think his wife was telling him he'd taken advantage and that she was not happy about what he'd done.

Usually on nice days and when there is surf the inside point parking is jammed up. But, most people that park there to surf know the parking protocol. You wait your turn and hope every other car that comes down the street will be considerate and wait their turn too.

But hey, it was a holiday weekend... 

D.R.

Oh boy,  Ventura made the cover of Surfer Magazine..........

This picture is a screen print from the Surfer Mag web site.

For perspective,  the number of days that look like this in any given year?  If you are lucky, it would be the number of fingers you have on one hand. Sure it gets good, but to be glassy and good all day... kind of rare. Note the sun is setting in this picture. And to have the perfect swell direction at the same time as the perfect weather, yeah kind of rare.

This really is a great picture but don't go thinking the point in Ventura is consistently like the picture.... that would be a fantasy. As well, when and if you happen onto a day like this.... from the picture, I'm counting about 8 or maybe 10 wave sets. You will get your chance with one of the set waves in a rotation of at least 75 other surfers.

Ok, so how do I know? The arrow in the picture points to the house I lived in. Moved into the place in 1974 and sold the place in 2010.  And lived within a few blocks of that place the 6 years before 1974.  I could ride my bike to the pier, check the surf, ride home, put on my wet suit, put my board in my truck, drive to the point and be in the water in very little time. Which I did all the time.  It was really great too 'cause on those cold winter days I would get out of the water and just drive home in my wetsuit, go into the back yard, turn on my out door hot shower and get out of my suit.

The north west corner of Ventura County has 4 points the last 14 miles along the county's coast line. The 1st one is Ventura and the last on is Rincon. What would be nice to see, along with this picture of Ventura, is an aerial pic of each one of the other points on this same day... you know, just for fun. And to be fair, when coming to Ventura, there are 3 other points that are surf able too. If Ventura looks good just think what the other points would be like. Yeah, they're only a few minutes up the road.

So far I haven't talked to anybody from Ventura that is stoked about seeing The Point on the cover of Surfer Magazine.

D.R.