In praise of the ebike for surfing

'Sup SI.

As I've discussed in a couple of threads, I've been riding a train to work and back the last couple of months. Here in SoCal we can bring a bike on the train. What was holding me back, though, is that I'm lazy - I don't enjoy biking at all - and there are a couple of hills near my house that, while not huge, are just big enough to make biking a real pain in the ass.

I ended up getting my son an ebike for Xmas and after trying it out I decided to take the plunge myself. And like my Slyde handboard, this ebike has just changed my whole life.

From my house to the train station is 2 miles, and from the downtown train station to work is another 4 miles, so I'm doing 12 miles round trip every day. On the ebike I can do this and, if I don't want to get sweaty or if I just don't feel like getting any workout at all, I just crank up the peddle assist and the motor does all the work. If I want to get some exercise I turn down the assist and can work as hard as I want. It's a great and convenient way to get some exercise before and after work...no matter what I do the rest of the day, I'm at least getting the heart pumping at some point.

Where this has really changed things, though, is getting around to the surf. I live about 2 miles from the beach, but there are surf spots all over within about 5 miles; Between Oceanside Pier and North Ponto are probably dozens of rideable waves, and those two spots are maybe 10 miles apart. My bike gets 30-40 miles on a charge and does 20mph so anything within about 10-15 miles each way is very easily reachable; I mean Swami's is less than that from my house. The motor makes riding the bike so effortless that I pretty much never drive to surf anymore.

Imagine the typical scenario: It's Saturday morning. I get up, have some breakfast and coffee while I check the cams. Around 9 I'm ready to head down. Normally I'd throw everything in the car, drive the 10 minutes/2 miles downtown and then look all over for parking. Park, walk down to the beach, check the surf, and then either surf where I parked, or more likely get my crap and then walk however many blocks to where the waves are decent.

Now, imagine the bike scenario. I bike down and it takes 12 minutes, but then I bike right up to the beach. I see the peak I want a half mile down the way...just peddle down, lock the bike to a sign/fence/bike rack/whatever, pull the board off the little side rack, and I'm in the water. No worries about parking. No BS. And all those stretches of beach with no parking allowed at all? No problem there, either. In fact, now all those tracts of beach that the car clowns are too lazy to "walk" to are accessible to me on my bike....great way to beat the crowds!

So, as we get towards summer and surf season, and all that parking BS (and pay parking on the east coast... F that), I suggest that if you live within 10-15 miles of the coast, you may want to consider an ebike. A regular bike works, too, but if you're like me and just aren't into the whole biking thing, an ebike might be just what you need to get you started. It is just so damn convenient, I can't believe I used to drive now.

 

Also want to add: The bike I got is by RadPower Bikes. It's this little folding thing. I haven't tried folding it, but it would definitely fit in a hatchback folded up. Something to consider for Wavestrom and other RI cats; there are tons of breaks with "No Parking" but within a couple of mile bike commute of legit parking out there.

Here in north San Diego County gas is currently $4.15/gallon. I've done the math and I'm basically saving a buck for every mile I put on my bike by not driving to work (that's just gas, if I add wear and tear it's even more). I've already got 500 miles on my bike; at this rate in about 3-5 more months the bike will have paid for itself in gas money savings.

I use bike surfboard racks by Ho Stevie! and I have this little bike carrier rack on the back. I put the towel and wetsuit in that and strap it down with some bungies. It looks super kook, but it works just as smooth as you can imagine. I wear an old backpack with one of those little luggage locks to lock the zipper, and strap the backpack to the bike by running the lock through the top loop. None of this will really deter a determined thief, but I don't bring anything I can't afford to lose with me anyway. So far so good; I'm not sure this would work at Ocean Beach Pier, though.

 

The bike getting stolen is definitely a valid concern. I live in Carlsbad, which seems to be pretty bike friendly and safe in the areas where I surf. When I'm at home I lock it in my garage. My work place is very secure, and both at work and when I surf I use a really thick chain. Sure, it can be cut, but the person would have to have some pretty good bolt cutters and basically be out looking to deliberately steal a bike. I'm not sure anything would deter that.

Ocean Beach is pretty close to where I work and easily bikeable, but I have very strong reservations about parking the bike there. I think there might be some spots that are safer than others, but regardless I understand that there's a chance it will get stolen. I guess the point is that some discretion is warranted as to where I park and lock the bike. It's still uncommon enough that it draws comments frequently, so I know it will get noticed. So far, everywhere I lock it to surf is in town, in pretty heavily pedestrian trafficked areas, so I'm hopeful that most would-be thieves will be deterred.

There are a number of kits out there if you are interested in building your own. I'm not very handy like that, and so I paid for the convenience of getting a pre-built one.

I did quite a bit of research on ebikes before I pulled the trigger on mine. Since I'm racking up a lot of miles, and rely on it to get to/from work, I spent a bit more to get one with a larger engine and battery. If you're on flat land and only driving a few miles a day to go surf and back, those Walmart ones might work just fine. Just understand that a $500 Walmart ebike is essentially disposable, and you're probably not going to get thousands of miles out of it, or 30+ miles endurance. A 300W motor is going to struggle getting you up anything but the smallest hills. It seems that ~$1200-1500 is about as cheap as you can go and get a quality bike. Still, do your own research if you're interested. I read a lot of reviews and watched a bunch of YouTube videos on the RadPower bikes before I bought, but I'm sure there are plenty of other brands at that price point that would work. I got my son a Sondors.

Anyway, with the traffic in a lot of the beach towns, not having to stress over dealing with traffic and finding parking has been a huge relief for me, and I think it could be for some of you, too.