Day 9 -- Malibu to San Onofre

Sunday, Aug 19, 2007

I haven't had any injuries on the trip so far, but that was about to change.

Another early wake-up day. "Ronin," a surfer from the Early Retirement forum, said he might be able to get away and meet me at Bolsa Chica State park at 9 AM. So I had breakfast on the road, just south of Malibu.


I've talked about traffic, and today I was riding through the belly of the traffic beast, Los Angeles. But, as careful planning *cough* luck *cough* would have it, it was early on a Sunday morning and I breezed along the LA freeways at the speed limit.

Note that "at the speed limit" in LA means about 10 MPH slower than everyone else; it makes you feel like a rock in a stream. I made some poor road choices, based on my map of all California, and spent a lot of time on the PCH, which meant traffic lights and lots of them. Quick note: Gas was only $2.69/gal in Long Beach compared with $3.21/gal at home.

Bolsa Chica beach is three miles wide with tons of parking. I pulled into the rendezvous spot at 8:50, but it turns out Ronin couldn't get away.

This beach is a lot like the ocean beaches I grew up with on Long Island (e.g. Jones' Beach). The people and their belongings have been supersized, however. They bring tables, canopies, big chairs, and fancy Weber gas grills instead of a beach blanket, umbrella and small charcoal grill.

But most importantly, I finally got some bigger waves! Here's a four-foot wave, and I saw some that I estimated at 5-6 feet.


There was a path by the parking lot that was used by tons of cyclists, more than one with a small dog in the front basket.


I surfed for a few hours with my wetsuit on, and I was pretty hot. That is, I was warm in the suit. Had some great fast drops, and a few medium length rides.

I then stopped for a lunch of yogurt and orange soda, and decided to surf another session with no wetsuit. I had to move a few miles down, since there's no mid-day surfing allowed on parts of the beach.

I went out with just my board shorts on, and it was a great feeling. Much easier to paddle than with a wetsuit. Turns out, and this wasn't really a surprise to me, that I can't reach all the areas of my back when applying sunscreen. I'll have to figure out how to do this in the future. I'm guessing that asking a stranger to do it won't work.

One characteristic of this beach on this day was the relatively steep shoreline:


As a result, the waves would roll up the shore, then back down, creating a wave going out to sea. If you've seen The Endless Summer, you might remember a beach called "in and out" at which you could actually surf the waves moving outward, and when meeting an incoming wave, be popped up into the air. Which brings us to...

Injury Number One
I had just stood up on one of the bigger waves, going down the face, when I hit one of these backwash waves. The result was that I instantly found myself five feet above the board, with my butt higher than my head. I had plenty of time to think, and what I thought was "This is not going to end well." Or to quote George of the Jungle "This going to hurt George real bad."

But I don't remember what happened when I came down, other than thinking "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." It's not that I hit my head, it was just a kind of amnesia that happens a lot to me when surfing. I have a big wipeout, and I can't remember how it happened. Like waking up from a dream, and not being able to remember it.

Anyway, I didn't notice any pain, and I had a good laugh about it with another surfer that saw the whole thing.

On the very next wave, the same thing happened, but I was thrown up and to the side, so there was no danger of hitting the board. I did a faceplant in the water, however, and it felt like doing a belly flop off the high diving board. At that point I decided "I'm outtahere" and headed to the beach. As I was walking to the car, I heard someone saying "Hey, did you see that guy get pitched up by the wave?"

It wasn't until a few hours later that I noticed that my ankle was sore and it hurt to bend it. This got worse, until it was hard to walk, and I had a lot of swelling down there. I'm guessing that I either bonked it on the board, or hyperflexed it coming down. It felt like some of the sprained ankles that I've had in the past. In any case, that's why I'm here in the library this morning (day 10) instead of surfing.

But I've iced it, it's getting better, and I plan to surf at San Onofre this afternoon. But back to day 9...

Laundry Day

Well I was out of T-shirts, and passing a laundry on the PCH in Dana Point, I zipped in to take care of the washing. This involved mostly waiting around for the washing and drying.


An important thing to note in this photo is Bert and Ernie on the fire engine, calling to me. This brings us to...

Injury Number Two

I know now that "This will make a good picture for the blog" is a dangerous thing to think. It was in getting off this ride that I had a close encounter with the white post that you can see in the bottom of the picture.

Actually, this injury wasn't so bad, just some blood, but it makes for a good story.

Campsite

Got into the San Onofre State Beach San Mateo campground in late afternoon, and the pre-assigned campsite wasn't bad. It had excellent hammock trees, and a good spot to finish the drying of the laundry.



The partying was tamer here, and I got a good night's sleep.

Well, it looks like I'm up to date on the blog, thanks to Injury 1. Standby for San Onofre surfing on day 10. BTW I've surfed every coastal day on this trip so far, which means eight surfing days in a row!