Day 10 -- San Onofre

Monday, Aug 20, 2007

I had a leisurely breakfast at the campground, drove to the surf beach to check out the waves, then went to the library to update the blog. I'd have surfed in the morning, but I wanted to give my ankle some more time to heal.

As I mentioned, I'm on this surf safari because my wife is attending a class reunion, of her grade school, in Luleå, Sweden (pronounced Looly-O). She really enjoyed it, and here's a picture of her grade school classmates, all of whom she remembered (arrow shows wife Lena):

Looks like maybe they're having too much fun:


She won the prize for having traveled the greatest distance (total travel time 42 hours).

Back to me...

Ankle was fine with surfing. It was less fine with walking, so I did a lot of paddling to avoid walking.

Finally some bigger waves (see Day 11 for pictures)! The sets of waves only came in every 20-30 minutes or so, but they were nice 5+ foot swells. It's very different from home. In San-O you'll sit there for 20 minutes with no swell at all, and then a set will roll in. It's much more constant up north.

There are a lot more surfers here -- about 100-200 spread over a wide area -- so frequently, when a good wave comes in there are already three surfers on it. But I got some big rides. I surfed until sunset, with my last ride of the day being the best.

Here are some pictures of the sunset (click to enlarge):





Went back to the campsite and had a late, tasty dinner of hot dogs roasted over a wood fire. I'd eat this meal a lot if it weren't bad for you.

Eating

Speaking of eating -- it's a little harder to eat healthful food on a trip like this than when at home. Luckily, with surfing three or more hours a day I don't think I need to worry about calories. But it's hard to find a picnic table, stop, make a tuna fish sandwich, etc. when it's so quick and cheap to buy a Whopper junior for 99 cents.

The best solution I've found for a cheap, healthful, readily available meal is a Subway Veggie Delite for only $2.89 (price recently reduced). That's my fast food of choice. The sweet onion sauce is recommended. I say "readily available" because every town has at least one Subway.

Note that the "Less than 6 grams of fat" advertisement refers to a sandwich made with no cheese and no condiments. I tried one this way -- I think it was the first time they'd ever made one -- and it wasn't too boring.

Got a good night's sleep.

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!

Day 8 -- Malibu

Saturday, Aug 18, 2007

Here's a shot of the Malibu pier when I arrived and got a good parking spot at 5:50 AM. Remember to click on these pictures, since they look a lot better at their full size.


The contest wasn't scheduled to start until about 10, so I had plenty of time for surfing. I wore my wetsuit since it was so early, and I watched the sun rise over the hill you see in the background as I was waiting for my first waves.

There were only three other guys out there -- probably would have been 50 or more if the waves were larger. I got a bunch of good rides. There were some three foot waves at the start, but size decreased over time. The waves were just perfect, though, and could be ridden for a long way. Again, it was very shallow and I had to be extremely careful to fall flat.

The water was clear here -- much clearer than any of the earlier spots. On one wave, I could see a large (15 inch?) fish fleeing in front of my board as I rode in.

I surfed until 9:30, and stopped because I was meeting "Yakers," an Internet buddy from the Early Retirement forum, and his wife at 11:00. I needed to shower off the wetsuit rubber smell, and do some errands (e.g. daily ice run).

I had a fantastic lunch and visit with Yakers and his beautiful wife. I'm disappointed that this picture doesn't do her justice, and doesn't show off the dimples she has when she smiles.


The restaurant was the Paradise Cove Beach Restaurant.

Yakers works for NASA at the JPL in Pasadena, and his wife is a retired school teacher. I enjoyed hearing about their vacations, and future trip plans. In a week or so they'll be off to the Burning Man Project.

Here's a shot on the way home to give you a feeling for the many beaches in and around Malibu:


After lunch I drove into Santa Monica to update the blog at the public library. My sleep deficit was catching up to me, however, so I saved my energy for the commute back to the campsite, and only worked for an hour or two.

For dinner I had two of the fish tacos from the lunch.

The parties continued that night, but without my dose of caffeine, and my 33 decibel earplugs I got a good night's sleep, getting up at 6 AM so that I'd make a possible rendezvous with Ronin (a surfer from the ER Forum) at Bolsa Chica beach (just south of LA) at 9 AM. See tomorrow's blog for details.

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).

Day 6 -- Santa Barbara

Thurs, Aug 16, 2007

I'm falling behind in updating the blog so I'll make this quick.

Finally remembered to wax the board,

and I surfed near point Devereux in Santa Barbara. Waves were smaller than at "Sands," but I actually got a few long rides.

I updated the blog at the Goleta public library.


Great hammock installation at the final Santa Barbara campsite -- very comfortable:

Day 5 -- Santa Barbara

Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007

No traveling today, though I do have to change to a different campsite.

Here are two pictures to show you a part of the shoreline of El Capitan (these don't show the beach, which is nice and sandy).



After updating the blog at the Goleta public library, and some pizza for a late lunch, I met my good friend Nathaniel for some surfing. Nathaniel is Tom and Berit's son, born at the same time as our daughter, Jenny. So I've known him all his life. He now goes to UC Santa Barbara, and is a big 6' 3" blonde surfer dude (and serious student).

Here he is riding his bike to meet me near the "Sands" surfing spot:

The waves were picking up in size now (4-6 feet??), and surfers were coming out of the woodwork everywhere to head out. He knew a lot of the guys out there, plus one girl, Ericka, a great surfer in a yellow bikini. All very friendly with Nathaniel's old-guy buddy.

Most were surfing short boards, with a lot of serious shredding being done by Nathaniel and others. I got a few good rides in and managed not to embarrass myself too much.

There are natural tar seepages along the coast here near Santa Barbara, so there's an interesting diesel smell in the air sometimes while surfing. You also have to watch out for little tar globules on the beach.

In addition there's a major fire going on in the hills right now, so the sunlight is a little yellow, and there's ash on the car every morning.

After the session, I took a shower back at Nathaniel's bachelor pad.

His place reminded me of some of the places I lived in during college, except for the wide-screen TV. The house is in Isla Vista (Spanish for "party town"), where most of the students at UCSB live. He has four (five?) roomates.

Here's the loft above the garage -- no idea what they use it for:


We then walked over to Freebird's, a fantastic 24-hour Mexican food place. Great food. I ate all of my huge veggie burrito, since Lena (wife) wasn't there to split it with me. A real highlight was sitting outside in the warm air, talking with Nathaniel and drinking my Corona.

Then, by coincidence, Annika showed up. She's also Jenny's age, goes to UCSB, and is the daughter of Gunilla, a good friend who was a member of Lena's Swedish gang when we lived in the bay area.

Then back to the campsite where day five ended with a beer in front of the first fire of the trip.

Camping is Dead

Enough bubbly fun stuff. Enough sunsets, burping, farting, and funny pictures of my butt. It's time for some darkness and despair:

Camping is Dead

This is the type of camping that is dead: The family arrives at a campground, picks out a nice site, and sets up a modest tent. The kids run off to catch bullfrogs or swim in the pond with the other kids. After dinner (after Norman Rockwell leaves), they sit around the fire, talk quietly, listen to the crickets and the wind in the trees, and gaze at the stars.

That type of camping is dead because now, it's party time with as many of your toys as you can cram into your huge pickup truck and trailer. To illustrate, here's one campsite right near mine:

All of that stuff is for just two people!

There were a lot more sites just like that, but I didn't want to disturb the passed out revelers with my flash.

Now I'm not against party time, I'm just showing how effectively it kills off camping as I described it above. These parties go late into the night, and they're usually loud.

Noise

Sounds then: Wind in trees, crickets, happy kids.

Sounds now: Car alarms, generators, boom boxes, cell phone rings, Gameboy music, loud talking over the music.

Sometimes the temperature is a pleasant 75 degrees in the shade, but inside a big RV, it might be as hot as an old Volvo at the Ensenada Walmart. So, the RV owners run the generator so they can have the AC on. That's fine unless you are sitting in the shade at the campsite next door. Some RV generators sound like an idling cement truck.

I understand the attraction of RVing, and I have some good friends with RVs. I've even rented one. It's just that they are not always compatible with someone who wants to sit outside and read a book.

BTW, generators are no longer limited to RV's. I now see a lot of these at campsites:


Something new: a lot of cars have remote locks that briefly honk the horn when you lock the car. So, as you're going to sleep, you hear these little mini-honks around the campground.

Light

When the campers turn on their Coleman maxi-lights at night, the stars fade out until the sky looks like it does in Times Square. It's worse, actually, because in the city, people have their lights on inside their houses.

Last night I pitched my tent after dark, and I put it here...


...so that the car would block out the light from the neighboring site. But that was only partially effective, because the light streamed under car and onto the sides of the tent. In fact, I was triangulated by lights from three separate campsites.

Again, I realize the benefits of a bright light when cleaning up after the party. I'm just observing how it changes the camping experience.

Fire Rings

For some reason, and I'll bet that reason is "liability," the campgrounds seem to have fire rings with very high sides, like this one:

To give you a sense of scale, I've pasted in a picture of the Empire State Building.

This design might be great if the goal is nostalgia for being homeless and standing around an oil drum in a NYC slum, but for sitting around the fire it doesn't work well. Not if you want to actually see the fire. Plus, the cooking grate sits several feet above the bottom of the pit, so don't count on easy cooking.

Perhaps the main reason for this design is fire safety. But this advantage is gone due to fire-ring inflation. That is, the campers now bring tons of firewood, and fill up the entire ring with it, creating a mini-firestorm, with little fountains of embers shooting out the top.

Big Tents

Just a quick observation about those humongous, complicated three-or-more room tents that are popular today: I've observed that tent setting up time is not happy family time.

Backpacking

I've been talking about car camping here, of course. So you might be thinking that if you want to recreate the real camping experience, all you have to do is go backpacking. Yes, that's true in many cases, however:

1. Some Trinity Alps backpacking destinations prohibit firewood collection. That is, there are so many backpackers, that too much of the scrub manzanita is being used for firewood. So, no campfires.

2. At Mount Rainier National Park, there are so many hikers, that backpackers are required to put all of their waste, and I'm not talking about coffee grounds here, into bags and pack it out with them. You thought it was gross to pick up after your dog! Don't open the wrong stuff sack when looking for the trail mix.

WHO KILLED CAMPING?

I'm guessing that two reasons are overpopulation and consumerism.

In California, you can start making online reservations at 12 AM on January 1. By 4 AM, many of the better campgrounds are totally booked for every day in August. As population increases, we can keep building new Starbucks and strip malls, but the campgrounds are limited.

People apparently have to buy a lot of stuff. A campsite with a trailer, two motorcycles and an off-road vehicle is not unusual. How can this person resist buying a high power Coleman lantern?

In conclusion, it sounds like I'm condemning the change in camping atmosphere, but that's not true. I could get into having an RV with me, being able to take a nap in the hot afternoon even if my campsite had less shade than death valley. I enjoy hanging out with a bunch of friends and talking into the night. I'm just observing that car camping as it used to be is dead, and it's not coming back.

OK, enough darkness and despair -- back to farting and funny pictures of my butt.