It was 7am and the parking lot started to fill up quickly. I did not feel like surfing with a crowd so I paddled down the beach.
I was stoked to get a few waves without the all the smiling faces. The waves were moving in with a slight hint of a south swell mixed in with the north west swell. I caught two large set waves during my two hours in the water that stood out from the rest. The both were moving rapidly down the line, vertical walls with the winds holding them up, they both broke all the way to the inside. It was a fun day and the conditions were on my side.
Friday was a journey day. A good friend of mine called me the night before asking me if I wanted to go north in the morning. I waited about a half second and said I will be ready at the crack of dawn. It was 6:30 am and the conditions were ripe, the wind was blowing slight offshore and the tide was just high. These conditions call for a special place about 45 minutes up the coast in a remote area. My friend is 44 and he grew up here and knows all the spots and all the stories. I have lived here for almost 30 years and saw something for the first time yesterday. We were about 25 minutes into our journey and my pal pulls off the side of the road and pointed to the hills. I was amazed to see a full herd of ELK one large Male with a large RACK on his head with about 15 females and 6 small ones. What a site we pulled out the Binoculars and viewed them in their element they were about 1 mile away but they were on the side of a hill with no trees they were in plain site.
Every time I drive up north the feeling of freedom overcomes me. The open space, the untouched raw land and the wild animals that have survived man's occupation. It is my recommendation that if you ever get the chance to drive from Monterey to San Luis Obispo on Hy 1 do it. People come from all over the world to experience it. You can just drive thru to LA or SF or camp or hike or stay in cabins lots of choices and beauty to experience. Oh yea, the surf it was not all that great, we expected to see some big overhead surf but it was still too high tide. We were there and we were going out. It was a park you car and walk about 1/4 miles down a cliff to the open beach in a remote area with no one home! We were so stoked with our little bit of freedom, just us and the elements. The waves had a little warble because the tide was still a bit high. We had a chill by the time we got into the water and it made the cold water seem warm. The wetsuits they make these days get the job done, your warm and you still have tremendous flexibility.
The waves did not preform all that well but I managed to get two smoking ones that made my day. This big open beach makes you pay the price of admission. The sand bars are nasty the waves break hard on sand with a strong under toe and make it difficult to paddle through. You had to be selective and make sure you got through the shore pound quickly or like I said you will pay the price by taking a 10 to 20 waves on the head to get past the break line.
We both managed to get our quota, we surfed for about 90 minutes and got out. A couple of young surfers we know showed up and they paddled out after we left. The changing of the guard they had it to themselves and we went back to civilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment