Day 7 -- Santa Barbara to Malibu

Friday, Aug 17, 2007

Wanted to get an early start for the trip to Malibu, since the Malibu campground had choose-your-own-campsite (the only one on the trip). So I had a pre-dawn breakfast of eggs and sausage:


I use "egg substitutes" instead of eggs, since they're easier to transport (nice little container instead of breakable eggs). Not quite as good, however.

The drive to Malibu was picturesque, and I continued to have perfect weather.

I arrived at Surfrider's beach, the famous Malibu surfing spot. The waves were extremely small, but there was a contest going on anyway.

When a contest happens, the organizers close the spot for everyone but the contestants. This is not often popular. As someone I spoke to put it "I travels all zee way from France to zurf here, and I cannot do eet."

But, you can see that this beach is for surfing, and for surfing only.


I generally didn't have a good feeling about Malibu because of the

• Traffic
• Parking
• Exclusionary Feel

The main problem with the traffic is that the roads here aren't made for, and can't be modified to accommodate, lots of cars. There just isn't enough room between the cliffs and the oceanfront homes. Sometimes you get into what I call "No-U-Turn" syndrome (NUTS). You need to turn around, but there's No-U-Turn allowed, so you make a left, but that street also has No-U-Turn. Adding gridlock traffic is what makes this bad. I won't bore you, but once a state beach parking lot was blocked, and it took me 20-minutes of NUTS before I could get back to my original location. This literally involved driving from Malibu to Santa Monica (and up the famous California Incline, seen in many movies):


The lack of parking was worse. If you want to stop the car and check out the waves, you often just can't do it. A Paris-Hilton-type flipped me a triple bird from her silver Mercedes convertible, and I think it was because I was slowing down to check out the swells.

The parked cars line the Pacific Coast Highway, and all parking lots are fee-based, and expensive:



The lots fill up early even at these rates. State Beach parking is around $10, with the management often outsourced to "Pay and Display" companies.

The final thing about Malibu is the exclusionary feel. I can understand that movie stars and billionaires don't want tourists from Humboldt county looking in their windows, but it's annoying to have a lot of the nice places "off-limits" to normal people. It's fortunate that California mandates public coastal access at least to the average high tide level (click on the image to be able to read the sign):


I planned to take a break from surfing for this day, but when I took a look at the break at Leo Carillo State beach (pronounced "Koreo"), I couldn't resist. I took this picture at low tide, after I came out. Click on this to see a better view, and note the kelp beds.


You can't get a feeling from it from this photo, but the wave would break right next to the big rock you see at the right, and form a nice "right" that could be ridden for a long way. There were usually 4-6 people waiting for the break.

Parts of the movie "Gidget" were filmed here. The scene in which three guys take off on the same wave was filmed right at this break.

The rocks you see on the shore extend out into the water, and as you surf in, it's very shallow (1-2 feet deep) and sometimes I'd hit my fin on a rock. You have to be very careful when you fall that you land flat on the water or you will die. Got a few good rides on 3 foot waves. Small, but nice shape.

The kelp is sometimes a problem. It comes right up to the surface, so occasionally you turn and start paddling to catch a wave, and find that your legs are tangled in the seaweed and you can't move.

Also, you have to walk through 60 feet or so of these rocks when you go in and out, carrying your surfboard with waves washing around you. I walked out at a place where there were a lot of sharp mussels, so I got a few cuts on my feet, but at least it's not coral! Wish I'd worn my booties.

Camping

I'd picked out a nice campsite at Malibu Creek State Park, so I returned there after the surfing. This spot was 7 miles inland, so it was pretty hot and dry. In fact, Malibu itself was very hot.

Here are some views of my site (before the campground filled to capacity):



Click on this one for a bigger version:


Unfortunately, Malibu Creek State Park is Party Central for Los Angeles. This party, across from my campsite continued until 3:15 AM.


To give you a feeling for the party, they had a ski (snow ski) with 4 shot glasses glued to the top. I guess this allows four people to take shots at the same time.

I made the mistake of drinking an orange soda with dinner. I realized at 3 AM that it contained caffeine. So I only slept from 3:30 to 5:30 AM, when the chihuahua next door started barking.

But at least that let me get on the waves in Malibu before the sun came up (see tomorrow's blog entry).