The beach parking lots of San Diego County reveal a telling glimpse of modern surf culture. While scanning waves, the sounds of attempted barefoot kickflips and coffee talk and muffled stereos rendered a portrait of surfing that even a Midwesterner could imagine. Motorhomes idled. Soccer moms dumped stacks of wetsuit-clad groms from their large SUVs. Water jugs and Rinse Kits water-falled over heads and electric scooter bikes zipped around the wandering tourists. Cops did paperwork. The whole thing was a familiar California scene, right down to a Rob Machado sighting, somehow connecting everyone to surfing.
At Seaside Reef, friendly, crumbly waves trickled in from the reef outside through to the shorebreak. “I haven’t surfed this wave since I had to surf it for NSSA comps,” Colin said. That must be the story for many Southern California surfers: once the joy of a driver’s license and weekend NSSA comps wears off, we tend to stick to our known locales, even if we need only drive 30-50 minutes, north or south, to access a variety of unfrequented waves.
A bump in the NW windswell offered some novelty rights and lefts off the Windansea reef — where the wind always seems to blow less to the south, and rock formations make for unique setups and ramps. After a slow drive down in our big van overflowing with gear, we were going out no matter what. The well-informed surfers — like La Jolla kingpins Jojo Roper, who was laid up with dengue fever during our pass- through, and Skip McCullough, who was in the Philippines scoring Cloud Nine — really know how to pinpoint the right time, tide and swell direction for these setups. But for us, the beauty of the unknown made each surf a bit of a surprise, and this session was no different: a mystery bag, the shape and contents of which you only discover when paddling out. Spontaneous road trips often manifest these unexpected joys.
Of all the beach scenes we observed on this trip, San Diego was by far the shiniest. Picture-perfect sunsets were inhaled by the recently engaged. Eastern European tourists walked down the beach hand-in-hand. Fish market workers and lot lizards meandered around. Photographers overcharged for the backdrop of a sunset, while extended families moved awkwardly in amoebic packs… All of us shining under La Jolla’s stunning evening light.
Once the sun set, we ventured to a local watering hole where margaritas flowed and crowded pool tables put an appropriate exclamation mark on the day. We gorged ourselves on melted cheese and tortilla creations and found ourselves at a classic La Jolla drinking establishment, The Shack, where a Puerto Escondido/ La Jolla local instantly recognized Mauro, securing our street cred and promising us set waves during future Windansea sessions.
“So-California” is a surfing road trip through our own backyard. A journey in a big van across the three coastal counties that make up the mecca of modern surf culture. This is part 1, see other parts here:
World Premiere / Part 2: Orange County / Part 3: Los Angeles
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