Pacifica, Linda Mar Beach and the Rent-a-log

I arrived in Pacifica, CA on Saturday via the metro and public bus from San Francisco. All my luggage was in storage at the airport and I was able to travel pretty easily. The bus stop was in walking distance to at least 3 surf shops and I chose The Log Shop on Crespi Avenue in case you ever make it there. More pictures are on my Flickr account. I rented a well used 9'6" SurfTech soft top board with a great fin- it was a "Fluid Foil" by FCS I believe. The fellas at the Log Shop were great, letting me use there changing room and then storing the little bag of stuff that I had brought along. I remember feeling the excitement in my chest as I walked over the little hill that had blocked my view from the street where I had landed. The ocean was a little choppy, bigger waves than expected and the crowd in the water was really surprising. I estimated at least 100 surfers, mostly on the south half of the mile long beach. The far northern side is a little rockier, and no one seemed to be surfing there, so I took this as a cue. That being said, I was not interested in trying to surf the same wave as 20 others, so I went to the northern edge of the crowds near the middle of this beach. As the day went on and the tide rose, things seemed to get choppier and the wave size dropped. The pictures are from that part of the day, but I surfed at lower tide and much larger wave sets it seemed. I am quite certain that I surfed my largest waves and longest rides to date at Linda Mar this past Saturday.

There were many people in the surf as indicated, but to add to the mix is that most of these were beginners or at best novices. In fact, I was feeling pretty competent and skilled in comparison to many of the others I saw, but mostly I recall that most of the big crowds didn't seem to be surfing at all, just taking up valuable space in the lineup. Before I paddled out, I realized that my leash swivel had worn out and kept coming apart. Not wanting to walk back for another, I tied it up in knots and paddled out. This will become more relavent later. I caught a few smallish, shorebreak kind of waves and found that the soft top responded well and was very floaty. The whitewash was thick, fast and powerful too. Each time was a bear to get back out, so I decided to move outside a little farther. Soon I realized that the relatively light lineup around me was mostly better surfers that actually were catching some waves. Partially as a matter of respect for the "locals", and mostly my own lack of confidence in being able to route myself around human obstacles, I gave the others a lot of room and found myself on the outside, soaking in the reality that I was surfing in California. That, and I was trying to get my strength and wind back after a hard paddle through the impact zone on my rent-a-log.

My time came. I found myself surprised by some impressive sets that rolled past me. They were much larger than I am used to, but they were deep and had a thick A-frame shape that was not intimidating. I paddled hard and felt myself starting to slip quickly down the face of the wave. I popped up had the luxury of what was to be a nice long ride. On my local breaks, I don't always have the wave or time to make a nice bottom turn and get positioned for a long breaking wave. The rent-a-log was thick and floated me so well I felt like I was riding above the waves a few times. I will not soon forget those rides and maybe never.

I experienced several rides like this, each time the adreniline from the previous ride was enough to push me back through the shorebreak. So when my leash broke, or rather my knot worked loose, I found myself in large breaking waves, in a 4/3 wetsuit and relying on the same muscles and stamina that I had been abusing for the last hour or so. I am a good swimmer, but I realized right then I really need to be a great swimmer, something I will work on for sure. Moving waves on a shoreline make forward movement difficult, and the added weight and constraint of a wetsuit only adds to the problem. I struggled a little, but I saw a few surfers around me and - I think anyway- had I called out for help if I needed it, they would have. A small group of tourists on the beach found my board and moved it on to the shore, they seemed concerned or maybe curious, or perhaps just waiting to be on the front row of some morbidly curious lost surfer show. Not sure if I disappointed them by pulling myself to solid ground, but they were happy enough to take credit for catching my board.

I rested for some time, then walked back to the surf shop. Somewhere along the way I went from turning in my gear and calling it a day to trading in the broken leash for a new one. After a gatorade and a few more minutes on the beach, I was ready to resume. Upon making my way out again, now with a very stout Dakine leash the clerk took of the retail wall, I was securely tethered to my board. The heavy crowds had pushed closer to my spot, and I took the opportunity to scan the others. There was the 50 something, tall , thin Ralph Lauren look-alike on an epoxy Stewart (who knows maybe he surfs Linda Mar?) that helped me get my wetsuit zipper unstuck earlier . There was a stocky guy with a shave head and a bent nose that was on a shortboard, from whom I did my best to stay clear. There were two younger women out together on some performance longboards. They seemed pretty agile and I was impressed that they charged as hard as anyone, though they seeme to come and go pretty quickly. Another shortboarder with a long curly hair and beard. We passed each other pretty close and I took the liberty of saying hello, which was not returned and he seemed to keep a healthy distance from me afterward. There was an asian guy about my age maybe, on a really nice looking board- certainly not a rental. I don't think he ever really made it past the impact zone. There were loads of rental boards and little groups of those who were at a point that I was maybe 2 years ago. Time flies when you are having fun.....

More pics from this trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/surflongboards/sets/72157601254786940/

See what Surfline has to say at...http://www.surfline.com/reports/report.cfm?id=5013