Sidetracked

You’ll have to forgive me for being a little groggy this week. During my mancation last week, I surfed my guts out — six straight days of nothing but surfing, eating, sleeping and more surfing.

It started out with a stop in Malibu, where we spotted Mickey Munoz, a legendary surfer who was Gidget’s stunt double in the movie “Gidget.” At age 70, Munoz competed in a surf contest and won the Legends category.

From there we surfed the beach known as Old Man’s in San Onofre, where we spotted Alex Knost , a young pro surfer who’s one of the best longboarders around. We’d seen him in surf movies before, and now we can say he’s just as impressive in person.

Straying from our campground in San Clemente, we also hit Ponto Beach in Carlsbad and Leucadia Beach in Encinitis. And after hours and hours of surfing each day, I realized that Southern California surfing has several features that Central Coast surfing does not. Here are a few:

1.) Warm water.

Yes, you can actually surf without a wet suit. But if you do it too much, you get a nasty rash on your thighs. I found that baby diaper rash cream works wonders.

2.) Surfers in bikinis.

Going by the Southern California stereotype, you’d think women in bikinis were just there to be seen. But not here. They’re out there because they’re good — better than Gidget even.

3.) Huge crowds.

The beach called Old Man’s is pretty famous for surfing — and, hence, famously crowded.  So it’s survival of the fittest out there, with the best surfers getting the most waves and the rest watching them.

4.) Little kids who ride the nose.

It’s pretty humbling to see 9-year-old kids who are better than you. But in San Onofre, it’s pretty common. I think it has to do with warm water: Because it’s so warm, people tend to surf more. Or at least that’s the excuse I’m going to use.

5.) Bombs.

When you surf San Onofre, you’re in the shadow of Camp Pendleton, so you hear lots of mortar and machine gun fire, which is a little scary given that there’s a nuclear power plant right there.

I shot some video of the trip, but I was too tired to put it together, so I’ll post it here in the future. I’d include a photo of myself on this blog, but Tribune photographer Joe Johnston, who was on the trip, failed to get photos of me. So guess who gets coal in their stocking this Christmas?

The photo at the top is a shot Joe got of John, one of our mancation crew.

Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: Surf stuff