Around The World In 80 Waves

Del Mar is probably most famous for it’s racetrack, where the turf meets the surf. However I have come here looking for a different kind of action. The swell has dropped since yesterday so I head to reef break at the bottom of 15th Street, which is supposed to be the most consistent break of the waves available here.

As you can see there was only one guy out in the water and I didn’t think twice before getting suited up and jumping in. However I haven’t been in the water more than ten minutes and then about 50 school kids start paddling out simultaneously. What had been and exclusive break is all of a sudden mobbed.

I chat to the surfer next to me called Steve, who it turns out is a parent to one of the grommets. It is actually their P.E. lesson. The school doesnt provide tuition but the parents take it in turn to car pool the kids to the beach and keep an eye on them in the water. Given today’s waves Steve wasn’t too upset he had to ‘supervise’ them and it is only right that he paddles out on his own board so he can do that better, whilst perhaps catching a wave or two himself.

I catch loads of rights which is surprising because this is supposed to be a left. That is until my final wave of the day, which went on for ages on my backhand side. I rode the head high wave from all the way out past the breaking waves into ankle deep water on the shore. It was awesome, check it out. 

Given a two second interval on the camera I reckon that was a 30 seond plus ride. Outstanding and definitely the best left of the trip so far.

😎

In my haste to get to this beach I had driven past the break without realising so, but how I managed to miss the Self Realization Fellowship Hermitage & Meditation Gardens which identifies where to pull in is beyond me. After driving past Cardiff-by-the-sea I eventually doubled back because this is another classic right hand point break I had to surf.

Bill had earlier told me this break is known locally as Swarm-ies because it gets so busy, and there is a big crowd in the water when I arrive because the surf has really picked up since yesterday. I dont have a great deal of daylight left after putting the fins back into my repaired board so don’t rig up the GoPro camera, but can tell you the surf was head high and bigger on some of the sets. A lot of the waves are dumping quite heavily and I have to work hard to get out back.

There could be many reasons for it (e.g. surfing a smaller board again, superbowl hangover, the grey sky, not enough wax on my board, etc) but I am feeling really uncomfortable in the water here. I also catch a fleeting glimpse of a fin breaking the surface in the half light and I wasn’t entirely sure it was curved, so spend a few nervy minutes trying to decide if I should paddle in. However sure enough the dolphins appear again right next to me and I havent got my camera with me. Doh!

It is getting quite dark and I haven’t really caught anything, and am only pleased when the rogue huge set of waves rolls through the break absolutely wiping everybody out apart from myself who has stratched just fast enough to the horizon to get over it. Most surfer will tell you there is a massive dose of Schadenfreude whenever this happens and you look back at the carnage and all the boards tombstone-ing behind you, and I am chuckling to myself even if I havent caught anything yet.

About to give up having blanked, I spot a huge wave coming in and go for it. I nail my take off and have a twenty second ride carving the wave, which is walled up and peeling beautifully, all the way in to the beach. Outstanding! I haven’t got as many rides as I would have liked but wanted to end on a high there so walked up the steps going up the cliffs and took this shot of the break from the top.

The only other highlight would be taking a shower to wash off the salt water after my surf session at the same time as Amy, a beautiful surfer girl who lives down the road in Del Mar, and wishes me well on my trip. Grrrrr!

The cruise control on my car stopped working a couple of days ago. I wasn’t going to worry about it because it is a luxury rather than a necessity, but out of curiosity ran the issue past Google and am told it is very likely to be the brake light switch under the brake pedal. A quick check confirms that indeed I do not have any brake lights! Oops.

I drive to Bob Baker Volkswagen in the next town called Carlsbad and am quickly chatting with the General Manager of the operation who spotted my surfboard and wanted to know if the surf was any good. Bill Kornik, pictured here showing off his gorgeous new tenor ukulele, has surfed since he was a child and despite running the operation still takes his surfboard to work every day.

When I let Bill know I’m from the UK he tells me he is going there later in the year with his family to hopefully get some waves in Cornwall, but also because he loves playing ukulele and is going to attend a convention of the George Formby Society in Blackpool. When I produce my own uke and tell Bill about my ukulele world record the two of us are getting on famously and Bill is kind enough to take me to lunch while his team take care of my car. I also suspect that a quiet word has been had in somebody’s ear because his team give my car a good going over (as well as a clean) without charge, identifying a few other niggly things that I am best sorting before things get a tad more rustic. All of which I’m very grateful for.

We have lunch in a wonderful surf themed restaurant called the Beach Break Cafe which has an exhibit by the California Surf Museum at the back. There are loads of classic boards by legendary shaper such as Hobie, Velzy Jacobs and Dick Brewer hanging from the roof and the two of us are having a great chat about surf tours and breaks all over the world.

All the issues with the car are addressed by the time we get back and I head south to get a surf in before dark, but I will be catching up with Bill again because he has invited me to a ukulele jam session on Wednesday just down the road from where I will be staying in San Diego. He even gives me his mobile number in case I have any more issues with the car so that he can help out

Upon getting back to the hotel last night I took advantage of the on site laundry facilities. Sorting through everything this morning I am horrified to notice that one of my Animal socks is missing.

They are my favourite pair of socks so I get half the hotel staff looking for the errant sock and am delighted when it turns up. All is once more well with the world.

It always used to be said that if the Soviet Union were ever to invade the USA it would happen on Super Bowl Sunday because everyone would be distracted. I don’t know if that would be true but it is certainly quiet on the road back to Oceanside and I put my foot down because I am missing the start of the game. The Baltimore Ravens are taking on the San Francisco 49ers with brothers coaching the rival teams and when I arrive at the bar just before half time the Ravens have built a commanding lead.

Beyonce is the half time show to which I have only one thing to say. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Baltimore extend their lead early in the second half with the longest return from a kick in the history of the NFL, however their progress is stopped soon after when a power cut takes out the lights in the stadium and the game is halted for over half an hour. San Francisco come out firing once the match resumes and get within a score of winning the match after three great touchdowns. However Baltimore hold their nerve and have enough left in the tank to see the game home. It was a great contest but the Californians in the bar couldn’t see it that way even if most were San Diego Chargers fans they were still supporting their local side. Great fun to watch in the bar but a lot of  people attend house parties, which is apparently how almost everybody enjoys the game in th US.

The bar is desserted soon after the final whistle leaving me with the random bloke from Singapore who tells me he has just got out of prison after a four month sentence for selling US secrets to the Chinese. (A charge that he denies still.) He gos on to tell me that he knows somebody in Indonesia who will sell me his sisters for $10.

Time for bed me thinks!

I get a call early from Ding Dr X who tells me my board is ready. After catching up on a little bit of admin I scoot back northwards to San Clemente where I check out his handywork.

I have to say he has done a brilliant job and he gives me a pile of stickers to soften the blow of the bill, all of which I almost lose straight away, by driving off after leaving them on the roof whilst attaching the board.

I am in San Clemente so check out the break by he pier there. It is the weekend and straight away I notice that there are loads of young ladies looking very fine in bikinis.

I dont take any pictures though (Sorry boys!) because I am pretty sure that they are all jail bait, and my fears are confirmed when I get to the beach and find that there is a high school surf contest going on. The contest is taking place on both sides of the pier monopolising the best of the waves, and the rest of us have to put up with the scraps outside of that.

The surf still isn’t much to write home about, and unless you are in the contest each wave consists of a drop, a quick turn and then the wave closing out, dumping on the shore in the proces.

I still have the hire board so choose to take that out so I can get into the waves as early as possible and also because it will prevent any further damge to the L’Oreal board for at least this session. The paddle out is very easy but as soon as I get out back I am met by a sea-lion popping out of the water next to me just to remind me I am not the only thing in the water.

Unperturbed I catch three great waves (albeit brief ones) and three monster wipeouts soon after, but spend most of the session being heckled by the grommets (or young surfers) who are getting peeved that I am able to catch the waves far easier than they are on the bigger board I am armed with. Surfer don’t get older they just get bigger boards and the groms will learn that soon enough. I dont hang about in the water for long today because I hear there is a big game on, so I get changed quickly and then head southwards again to my hotel and the match.

Whilst still at San Onofre I am joined by a local surfer called Wyatt who I had met previously in a bar a Newport Beach. Wyatt runs a very successful house cleaning business, but is more than a bit jealous of my own exploits and is keen to join me for a few waves along the way. We are not tempted back into the water at San Onofre but decide to head south to see if we can find some more exposed breaks where better waves will be showing. We hit the freeway and as soon as we do I realise that I have got no fuel in the car. By no fuel, I don’t mean in the red. I mean below the zero. Nothing is close by in the USA and Oceanside where we are heading is 20 miles away. I am frankly staggered that the car makes it to the petrol station where I fill up quickly because it is getting late and we are both itching to get another session in.

We go down to the harbour area and choose this salubrious place to park up. At first glance the surf looks naff but the sun is already going down and we both have longboards so we do quick changes into our wetsuits and go in anyway. The wind is actually blowing offshore here and although the waves are three feet high at best we both catch a hat-full of clean rides until we are effectively stealth surfing in the dark, trying to pick out slight changes in the horizon to see if a wave is coming. Surfing so much on my own it is great to have some company in the water and it is just a shame we couldn’t have got in the water earlier. We are both trying to get that last good ride in when it dawns (or I should say dusks) on me that it is fish feeding time, and I paddle in with a degree of haste not often seen on this trip.

Another quick change and we go for some victory beers and some grub at a bar next to this lighthouse on the other side of the harbour. You can see how dark it was when we got out though. Wyatt has to drive 30 miles back home to his wife so it isn’t a monster drinking session. Although I now have a powerful thirst on and realise it is Saturday night. It turns out the motel I am booked into for the next couple of nights is just around the corner so I race round there have a quick shower and stroll into town. I take a seat at the bar in Breakwater Brewing Co and am kept amused by the enchanting Christina who is serving me drinks. I’m having lots of banter with her and the other customers, but after scoring two breaks and having so much fun I don’t really want this day to end. I am warned that this is a US Marine party town and that they can get a little boisterous, but it doesn’t stop me briefly checking out a nightclub. It isn’t my scene, but I enjoy people watching for a bit and have one gin and tonic before strolling home.

The damage to my surfboard means that I would be unable to surf for a few days. However on this trip that is unacceptable and after packing up the car in its Mexico rigging at the motel in Newport Beach, I head down past San Clemente where my board is being straightened out and hire a 9’4″ molded board from the Rip Curl shop near the Trestles break where I was surfing yesterday. From there I drive another freeway junction south to the San Onofre state run beach park.

This beach is famously next to a nuclear power plant and I am reminded of that upon turning off the freeway. The facility is adjacent to the sand and one suspects that in this seismically active part of the world they have revised their tsunami risk management procedures in light of the recent events at Fukushima.

The two huge reactors which are actually being closed down are in sight the whole time I am in the water, and for some reason they keep reminding me of something I saw at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

As for the surf it is average at best. There are plenty of people out in the slow knee high conditions, and every ride is a party wave with everybody dropping in. I saw six people on one wave before going in. Having to hire the bigger 9’4″ board was a blessing in disguise because the extra volume meant I could easily catch many of these waves during the two hour session. Things quietened down in the water and for half an hour there were just myself and a lady in her fifties working on our nose riding technique which was lots of fun. (I have to say that hers was much better than mine too.)

On the down side there is so much kelp in the shallow water which keeps wrapping itself around my legs, the fins, the leash. I am not too freaked out by the sensation at first, which I can only equate to feeling like you are having an ongoing battle with an octopus. The good thing about the kelp is that the sharks are not supposed to come through it because they are also afraid of getting trapped and they need to keep moving for their gills to work. However one cheerful soul in the water tells me I should put San Onofre Shark into You Tube, which I do later in the day. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOBeXD91fI) Having moved quite far south I had hoped I would be far less likely to see anything. Apparently not. Great

I’m not glowing like the Ready Brek kid after surfing this nuclear break although I can now turn light bulbs on just by walking into a room and start the car without needing keys!

In my wasted haste to get in to the shore to see if the dolphin pictures came out I surfed the last wave too far in and clattered a submerged rock with one of my fins, nearly ripping the fin box out of the surfboard in the process. Doh!

The knock has put the back of the fin through the fibreglass layer on the underside of the board and I have also broken the figure of eight FCS plug that the fin attaches to, so will need to get this fixed before I can get in the water again

A hectic dash to a local surfshop before it closes and I am put in touch with Ding Dr X who says he can fix it as well as the other minor dings (or damage for the non surfing reader) which I have picked up so far.

It is going to cost me a few bucks to sort the problems out, but a board without a fin is like a ship without a rudder, so I have no choioce but to deal with it.

It will mean I am without my own board for a few days but I can hire one tomorrow (probably treating myself to a longboard for the day) and the Super Bowl is on Sunday when I wasn’t planning on surfing much anyway, so I wont miss the L’Oreal Studio Line board too much. However apart from the unnecessary cost it does create faff for me, because I had already booked a place to stay further down the coast and will have to yo-yo up and down the pacific highway a bit.

There really isnt much surf about at the moment and I have to drive for miles to find a wave. Newport Beach where I am currently based isn’t working, the picture you see here of Doheny will show you that people had paddled out more in hope than expectation. San Clemente Pier was much the same so I push on past the county line to Trestles which is another legendary break that was on my list of breaks that I must surf, hoping for more swell to be showing there.

As well as being a legendary break it is notoriously difficult to find. You park in a burger bar car park, walk over the freeway bridge. Down this track for half a mile turn right continue down that track for half a mile, scramble under the elevated railway pilons (or trestles hence the name) and then across the sand. I feel like I have been hiking by the time I get to the water but am amused by the rabbits running all over the place as I walk down the tracks, because they are a new addition to the Doolittle collection.

The break itself is split up into Uppers, Middles and Lowers and I paddle out at Uppers to avoid the massive crowds in the water at Lowers where the waves can be legendarily good. The sea surface is like glass and I think that I am in for an amazing session but the truth is that there were not enough waves coming through and those that did were only really breaking on the shore. You had to wait ages for a half decent ride. This was todays best shot.

However during one of these long lulls some more dolphins came through and unlike my experience at Rincon I had my camera with me this time. In no great rush they idled by me in the water and I was hoping that you could see them behind me. I was looking for ages but have failed to get the photographic proof I would love. They hung around for about 20 minutes which was awesome.

I’m in the water for a few hours and chatting with some local guys, but the wait between waves is boring so I eventually paddle in keen to see if I caught anything useful on camera.