The Inland Empire, ??

you are from here.....as your location states....then shouldnt you know the answer to this question

 

I grew up on the Jersey shore and surfed there my whole life until I moved inland at 22. I was 2 hours from the beach and tried to surf every swell. It was miserable, I would get up at 4 am and drive down on a predicted swell only to find the wind ****ty and swell/tide not quite right. Sometimes I would surf, other times I would turn right around and drive the 2 hours home. I even started a phone/internet surf report and payed guys to feed me info every morning, Even that sucked because as we all know even a bad morning can turn into an epic evening session out of the blue. I hated it and gained 20 lbs and was bored out of my skull. On the brighter side I did become a damn good fly fisherman over those years.

 

Yes it is possible. I am a die hard surfer living in baltimore now and working just outside of DC. Yes it sucks that you dont get to surf as much but it makes it so much more worth it when you do get to go. Being that the surf is fical here i have taken to alot of skating at Landsdown which is the oldest park on the east coast and PERFECT for surf style skating. Check out some videos on youtube. Also i have taken to Kite Surfing so i can still be in the water when its blowing in the fall/winter and the waves arent good. I put straps on a 5'10 beater thruster and i fly my kite when the winds good and theres no waves.

Theres plenty to do you just have to keep busy and find the right crowd. People from Baltimore who have lived here all their lives just go to the bar and drink. The people here are so fuking lame. Theyre all so ugly too. I believe Baltimore was voted 2nd ugliest city. I used to work down in the Inner Harbor and bodies would float in all the time, its so disgusting. But i have managed to find a few of the right people who are into all of the things i am.

It does get very aggrivating some times because 80% of the swells occur during the week but i just save my days off and make the drive when it counts. It is rare but i remember 2 or 3 hurricane seasons ago there was a point of like 6 weekends in a row with great surf in ocmd.

Also there are other places to surf in the area .

 

not possible you can try as hard as you can but things will come up... you can still surf but you wont be able to be die hard surfer or waters men. i grew up on the bay block away from the beach and wont ever change it i will never be able to live inland i would go crazy

 

Zach-
I think the key point is to live at the beach and work inland. I have a 6 month old (best thing I ever did with my life--enjoy it they grow too fast- although not fast enough to get him in the water on a surfboard) I drive an hour to work everyday---full time job and literally surf every good swell. And for the term "watermen/waterman"......it is overused. If you charge 20 ft swell, pull in, get spit out and then later free dive 40ft to catch your dinner....someone can call you a waterman......you cant claim it yourself......
Anyway, move to the beach! Work inland! Condos in OC are not too expensive right now. The Makai is advertising brand new condos for less than $200K 1 block from OC perfection

 

One thing that I thought of is the fact that the surf is often more consistant than forecasted or reported. You just need to be close enough to get it for that short period of time that it's good. There are plenty of days with knee high dribblers in the morning and for some reason the tide pushes in a swell in the afternoon that only lasts for that tide change. 6 hours later it's gone and flat the next day, or even the next week. Being 2 hours away really sucks and all of those swells are missed by everyone but the locals. This is one consolation for local people in the age of over reported/predicted swells that bring huge crowds on the big advertised swell events. Thank god for those days. Here is a picture of a day that was barely surfable in the morning and for 2.5 hour mid incoming tide this happened.

 

it's just like everything else; you gotta weigh the pros vs cons. Its easy to say (when you are young) I am never going to move away from the ocean but sometimes you have to. I work in a field in which I can't work by the beach (in maryland at least) but I have family, we like the area (anne arundel cty), like the schools, kids have good friends so I choose to make the sacrifice (may not be worth it for some but it is for me). I ain't gonna lie and tell you I surf as much as I want or I never miss a swell because that simply isn't true (you know swells come and go quickly round here). the trick is not letting moving inland be a death sentance; you've got to get your ass to the beach every weekend (no matter what the reports say) and every day off or holiday should be spent surfing. You also gotta have a place to stay as cherry picking the swells is impossible (my parents still live in oc so I am lucky in that area)

good luck with your decision

 

Yup...bottom line-the closer the more you surf. I know guys who moved 15-20 minutes inland and they dont surf as much as they did. Plus if you have kids...forget it.

 

its spelled FICKLE, not FICAL.

sorry, just a pet peeve of mine

 

I have never lived at the beach, so I don't know the aspect of what it would be like to have it and give it up. However, I picked up surfing when I was slightly closer to the beach, but I now live about 3 hours from the nearest beach (decent EC waves). Other options are 3.5 from beach with better waves and 5.5 for entry point into OBX. That has been true of the last 2.5 years where I have really increased the amount of time that I am surfing, going at it especially hard (multiple trips per month). Given the time and distance though, my water time is not even remotely what it would be if I lived closer to the beach, so I am probably in grom state (even though I am over 30 years old). I know the time is much less than what it could be if I were closer, despite burning up any weekend and vacation day that I have rushing and scrambling to get to the beach to catch anything. If it has been long enough, I do mean anything that is even remotely rideable. Since I am thinking of doing the opposite, actually moving to where you are, considering leaving and sacrificing the better career/job (or attempting to take it with me) in order to be closer to waves that are consistently better, perhaps I can provide some perspective that may help you.

In my own life, I can say that living that far from the beach turns surfing into something that you kick everything else in the trash for. Fickle swell on the way, you ditch important moments in your life or the lives of those around you because you know that you have to haul @$# to get to the beach in time. When you come back, the surfing may have purified your mind and body but the miles add up. It will seem like you are constantly tired during the week. On the other hand if you have time off but no swell is on the horizon, you will be infuriated that the stars are not aligning for you. If no one else around you surfs, then you will alienate yourself from other friends for surfing, as they will want to do "inland" things during the weekend, while you will be off chasing swell, probably solo. Solo because (if you are older) very few people inland are willing to drop and go; you may find a few that will go occasionally. You won't have time during other evenings for anything because you have to get caught up on everything that you blew off during the days that you went surfing. It may impact your marriage; it was a contributing (but not the only) factor to making mine non-existant. However, that will all depend on your situation. In the end, some of the sacrifices are worth it. Surfing will always be there for you. I don't know if all of them are though.

Similar to others, I would say to get as close to the beach as possible. In my mind, the closer you are, the more likely you can work the surfing into your life. If you are too far away, then it seems like it has to dominate your life in order for you to do it consistently.

 

I hear ya there. My parents own a condo and rent it during the summer, so during the off-season I suppose I'm spoiled more than most, but there's usually a way to make it happen regardless. The internet age steals a lot of the sociable aspects, but I think surfers at heart are still generous folks. I've housed plenty of friends over the years and continue to do so now.

And now my story...
I started surfing while going to school in Annapolis. I had a group of friends from SoCal, and we would drive 2 hours and get skunked all the time. A long drive followed by DVD's and lunch at Denny's can be depressing, but good friends make it worthwhile. Having all that extra time (and very little money), we got to know Lee at Malibu's really well. We'd hang out there quite a bit since we had nothing else to do and didn't have reliable surf forecasting or smart phones "back then" (2002). It was a different world, only 8 years ago! Anyhow, we still scored plenty of times, and it felt gratifying to get good waves after so much effort.

Then I moved to Monterey, CA for grad school with a decent point break visible from the front porch. Needless to say, I surfed at least once a day for most of the year.

Then came Hawaii, where the north shore was a 40 min drive. It sounds like a hassle, but it's different when you're almost guaranteed rideable conditions almost every day (kinda like San Diego, I suppose). I'd leave work and make the drive 4-6 days each week.

Then Charleston, 20 min to Folly Beach, generally worse conditions than OC MD. FRUSTRATING! But with the short drive, it was still easy to get 2+ days per week and no problem surfing after work.

Then upstate NY: FIVE HOURS to Newport, RI. There are plenty of surf vid's of this place going off, but it's pretty inconsistent. I was working shift work at the time and once left Saratoga Springs at 11 pm after finishing my shift and drove through the night and scored amazing waves. I only surfed 5 days in six months.

Virginia Beach...oddly enough, still 15 minutes to the beach, and the waves aren't so good normally, so I usually had to drive over an hour to NC for good surf, which was aggravating.

Now I live in Annapolis again. Like you (Zach), my life has become more complicated. I missed the last two swells due to family/friend emergencies and work. It's incredibly depressing to see the pic's, knowing I was a mere 2 hours away. That "quick" drive suddenly looks a lot longer during the futile effort to ditch work early during the winter, mentally timing the length of the coming session as it dwindles down with the 4:30 sunset. It becomes a totally different ballgame when the drive is over 30-45 minutes and you realize those little surprise swells on the weekdays just aren't going to happen, and the hurricane swell conveniently arrives on a Wednesday morning, leaving shin-high dribble for you on Friday.

It's a trade-off. I would tell the younger guys to just go for it. I wouldn't trade my early-20's surfing life for anything in the world. It was something special that I think defines me as a person. That being said, I have other motives in my life, and it's not just about money. Even if I could live in OC now, I probably wouldn't. That's a tough pill to swallow sometimes, especially on Monday. I skipped out early to make the drive, then got called back in to fill out some forms for a "nomination" to possibly get suckered into an 8 MONTH assignment in Afghanistan. Missing the swell suddenly didn't sound so bad when that prospect reared its ugly head.

 

Well said! I literally spent my entire 2 years in Hawaii in a perpetual state of exhaustion. I'd work eight-ten hours, drive 40 minutes with my friend to surf an hour and a half or so, scarf down some burrito's, then drive 40 min back to our place, wake up barely able to move, then do it all over again...for weeks at a time. Given the chance, I'd do it all over again the exact same way...well, maybe charge a little bit harder.

 

No kids but did the inland gig for 3 years (60 to 90 mins depending on traffic). Not much surfing years 1 & 2 but by year three I had it down. Leave work 2 minutes early to beat the parking lot rush, swing by the house to pick up strategically stored board & suit /drop a load in the toilet, and then full speed to the oceanfront or smack into Hampton Roads tunnel traffic. The days were too short nov-feb to surf with out playing hookie from work for an hour (did it only when it really counted) but the rest of the year I surfed fickle VB at least 3 times a week in consistent spring and fall. The inland surfer does exist. I live minutes from the beach now and don't surf that much more time wise comparatively. More often... yes but longer sessions... no... due to consistent surf. I remember surfing 1st street by boardwalk lights in November or December getting every wave I could out of a evening session. You can make it work to log water time if you want to... you just have to want to.

 

Zach,
Don't limit your job search to just ocmd. If you can deal with catering to the lifestyle, there are tons of nice restaurants in the Rehoboth area that may have some opportunities for you.

 

Wait 'till your years start taking their toll. Wait 'till you what you want to do and used to do turns into what you can't do anymore.

This is gonna sound corny, but I'll say it anyway... laugh if you like. But it sounds like you're at peace with who you are as a surfer. Not everybody is... and that's sort of a torturous life. People who want to prove something to themselves are never at peace. People who have reached a point in their lives where they have nothing left to prove live a life of contentment. A lot of that contentment comes with acceptance. You've nothing to prove to yourself. You've achieved all you've expected of yourself through dedication, commitment, and practice, and you're living the life of what you believe a "surfer" should be. Now there's an opportunity for your life to change, and you need to make an important decision. Where you live, how you earn a living... all that stuff... that's just what you DO, not who you ARE.

Waves were here before you were born, and will be here long after you're gone. All of us go from shorepound groms, to king of the peak, to shoulder hopper, through our lifespan as surfers. The trick with dealing with all these changes is keeping that peace... that contentment in knowing who we are... and knowing that there will always be waves. You can always just go surfing...

 

VERY well said.