who here has been surfing this week?

That's awesome PJ, this is the first year I've been able to have a garden in a long time, I want to get to where you are at, an over abundance. I did everything from seed for the first time in my life, so far so good. I'm on my forth squash and beans have been producing, getting green tomatoes and a few cukes, and have a bunch of different peppers going but nothing yet.
That's so killer about the figs, my dad had a couple of little trees in his yard in California. Fresh figs are so different than dried.

Got out again today, exact repeat of yesterday but snagged about the same number of waves in half the time. It was probably better with the incoming, but schedules are schedules, I'll take what I can get in July when I can.

 

while my inbox is loading the 1000 emails since i've been on vaca, i'll report on the So Cali mission. Stayed up in Costa Mesa for a few days, surfed mostly Newport Beach in front of the Froghouse Surf shop, close by the river jetties. It was a fast shore break that would usually spit waist+ hi swell. We found that that break would be almost a guarantee while other areas were meh. Surfed south Huntington pier one sess when it was early and less crowded. Did take the whole day to surf trestles, that was one of the better/best breaks. Shoulder hi swell, long walk, thanks to Headhigh for providing a lil more insight on how to make that all happen. Did have a decent run at Salt Creek Beach in Dana Point on another day, that was a popular but fun couple breaks. The waves were picking up over the wknd as we were to migrate down to San Diego. From what i saw from cams and surf reports, waves got size and cleaner in orange county than where we went further south. We even considered Trestles again while down there when it was 6ft+

 

Not for lack of tryin'

 

Monday was a strange day. Woke up and noticed the water was clean, almost tourquoise, and glassy with a gutless thigh-hi bump. Paddled out into a sea as thick with scalps as I've ever seen it. Also, could see the bottom in 20 feet of water. Took a couple waves, ran home and exchanged board for gun. Fresh fish every night this week.

 

Had a great time and caught a ton of waves in Cali over the last week, but let's take a couple steps back. Why do I keep going back to San Clemente?

It all started about 8 years ago on my first visit to CA. I was driving south on I-5 toward my future sister-in-law's place in SD. It was about 1am after travelling all day and I wanted to find a gas station to buy some smokes (I have quit since then). So I pull off at a random exit, onto some random Spanish sounding road.

I locate a convenience store, buy a pack of p-funks, and walk outside to catch a burn. I'm looking around and every building, even the gas station and taco bell, are built in the old Spanish style with stuccoed walls and terracotta roofs. Then I look down the hill and I could see the ocean. It seemed like a pretty cool town, and I promised myself that someday I'd come back and explore it some more.

Next year my future wife and I plan another trip to SD. We buy non-refundable plane tickets and make plans to stay at her sisters house again. Then, about 2 week before the trip they have a huge fight (parents were going thru an ugly divorce), and we were uninvited by the sister. So we had plane tickets to cali and no place to stay. How about a surf trip? Yes. What was that town I wanted to check out? San Clemente. Any surf spots around there? ...oh s***!!!

So we go to SC, and spend every day for a week at Trestles. Cottons to Churches, we hit 'em all. Good swell that week, and the Hurley pro was going on too. It was awesome, but when we left I felt like there was so much more to explore.

Fast forward to 2021. Wifey and her sister are back on speaking terms and it's time to go for a visit. This time I do all the planning. SC again, but closer to downtown. I wanted to surf some of the spots I skipped over on the last trip. I also didn't want the stress of the rental car.

So, to the trip and the surfing. We had a airbnb between t-street and del mar (the main drag). So many great places to eat and drink just a short walk away. Yea NC BBQ is great but the west coast just does food better, especially Asian and Mexican. We took advantage of the ganja delivery services out there which was surreal and awesome for a southeasterner.

We also took full advantage of the time difference and were up at dawn every day. First we hit north SC pier (bleh), then south SC pier (better but, f***ed by the black ball), and T-street (epic, but f***ed by the black ball there too). We also went to SD and hit La Jolla shores and made the walk to Scripps Pier. Scripps was the most surprising of the trip. It broke really well there and the water was super clean and clear, with tons of sealife. Great LB wave. T-st was the best surf of the trip by far and it got to head high on Monday. There were some really good surfers out there. Legit body boarders too. After they kick all the surfers out of the water t-st is a body boarder's paradise. I ALMOST rented a BB and some fins.

Instead I ended up buying a 5'6 foamy from the Catch Surf flagship store. They custom stamped it for me and sent me to the corporate headquarters up the hill to get a box so I didn't have to buy a boardbag to get it home. Can't say enough about how friendly and accommodating the catch surf guys were. Southwest destroyed the box but somehow the board survived the trip back. $75 each way for a surfboard on Southwest in case you're wondering.

Anywho, it was an awesome, relaxing, super satisfying trip and I did all the things I wanted to do. TBH I didn't even care about going to trestles this trip. Next time though, I'm renting a couple e-bikes for the week as that is def the locals' preferred transport and spending more time at the cobblestone beach.

TL : DR - Cali sucks and you should never go there to surf.

 

you should check out Animal Kingdom on Amazon Prime Video

 

Stoked for you HH and Unfurled, love hearing west coast tales.
It's been a couple of years for me, and unfortunately my last time was to bury my pops and sell the house. The day I left I took my sis to the airport pre dawn, was going to take the 15 back but said f it, I took the 5 till I can get on the 101 and look at the ocean. The sun was just coming up, dawn patrollers were paddling out, I got a little emotional. Got on the road and drove back east.
I have so much good family out there, they trip on the fact I'm out here. But I live in a great town, and my kid is everything. Life is good.
Yeah, California uber alles, let the haters hate, I love the place.

 

Not gonna lie. I miss it. Well, I don't miss ALL of it. I do miss the easy access to the surf and the Mexican food (don't tell my wife I said that. I SWORE to her we could find good Mexican in RTP, but so far...meh...). I just have to remain grateful that I got to live that life for 5 years and I didn't have to commute more than 7 minutes to work the whole time.

HH and Unfurled, I'm bummed that I wasn't there to meet up while you were in Cali. Now we'll have to hit up some 'cane swell here in the Southeast.

 

Yes indeed! And if you find a legit cali-style burrito in RTP, please let me know. I'll drive 2 hours for that haha.

 

Best one I've found so far was in my kitchen. lol

 

From Wikipedia: Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States. It is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, or more properly, for the three major research universities in them: North Carolina State University, Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill respectively.

Following World War II, North Carolina's economy could no longer depend upon their traditional industries of agriculture, textiles, and furniture; their market share was in decline with jobs disappearing. Academics at N.C. State and Duke University came up with the idea of creating the park so that the universities could do research together, leverage the area's strengths, and keep graduates in the state.

 

work sux. 1500 emails, i underestimated the shyttyness. Bout San Diego, we stopped at Swami's first after leaving Costa Mesa. Didn't see it firing at Carlsbad, Cardiff or Oceanside. Swami's wasn't doing anything, so we took it to Blacks. To see thru the water is great. To ride to shore and be greeted by d!cks wasn't. I did go further south, but i guess that barrier has been broken. We stayed at Ocean Beach, but didn't surf there. Could've a couple times by the Jetty, but we were staying down the pier and there wasn't anything worthwhile on shortys. Times we were considering the jetty, my buddies backed out cuz of how beat we were. We did stop the next day at Swami's again, but it wasn't working so we had to cross that place off our list unfortunately. The further north we went, the better. Oceanside Pier was head hi, and the rides were long north of the pier. Our last surf sess was at Windansea. Cool point break, but the locals had it and weren't letting go haha. I got a lil north of it to take the lefts. Good times tho. Got two solid dingers on my board after all said and done

 

Little north, right before the house is called Simmons for Bob Simmons.
http://www.legendarysurfers.com/2016/11/bob-simmons-1919-1954.html

I got married there.

 

Great pics Carson , congrats on number 2 wife , rumor has it they are keepers .

 

Was pretty sick for about 7 days. Went up to the Chip Miller benefit surf contest on Friday to shoot and surf in the parent child division. Waves were really good during the early heats and remained contestable all day. Low res samples of my shots.

 

CJ

 

CJ , photo was shot from a 28 Mako , although my friend said he couldnt get close he stated this Hammer was large . Est 12 ft plus , bout 1 mile out off Long Branch