Last week, roughly 24 hours after the rains stopped, I stood on the cliff at Shell Beach and eyed the waves.
While I know all about the warnings — don;t surf for 72 hours after the first major rain — I also knew that it looked pretty good out there. And my board was in the car.
I walked around, checking out different spots. I watched surfers ride nice, good-sized waves. But that water . . .
Ick.
I assume the brown color was mostly from the sand that had been churned up. But still. In the end, it just didn’t seem worth getting sick for one really good session. So I bailed, surfless.
I don’t know. What do you think:
By the way, the photo above was taken by Mike Baird up in Morro Bay. I thought it was appropriate since it looks pretty stormy. But check out this cool shot of a surfer paddling for a wave as a sea lion looks on.
Also, check out this New York Times piece from Friday, featuring two SLO County doctors trying out wetsuits. They were photographed at surf spots in the county. (Looks like Cayucos in most of those shots.) I noticed that the cheapest suit they tested cost over 300 bucks. The one I bought at Morro Bay Surf Company a couple of weeks ago cost $139 after tax, and it feels pretty good so far.
Posted on October 18th, 2009 by Pat
Filed under: Surf stuff
If you like green snot coming from your lungs and nose and mouth surf in that crap, ever heard of the siano virus, not sure of the spelling but next time you see a seal doing a figure eight with his head and looks sick, he is and he like us surfers are marine mammals, I’ve surfed for over forty years, it is the most addicting sport, I’ve turned down drugs, a career , a scholarship at Questa so I could surf, the spot you speak of is nicknamed sewers for fifty years, so you do the math, avoid creek mouths like avila, and like me just don’t fall off the board then there’s no problem, if you do go get some Jack and pour it down your throat and choke some back up your nose after you surf, this is common practice for some at hazard canyon. Not kidding, don’t get drunk just kill the virus.
As one of only a handful of people who has been involved in collecting and testing stormwater runoff- I think you made the right call.
Beaches are posted ‘closed’ if the bacteria levels come in above 235 MPN/100ml. Urban stormwater runoff routinely tests in around 3,000 MPN/100ml to 10,000 MPN/100ml in our area.
It isn’t unheard of to see results as high as 100,000MPN/100ml.
Yes- the ocean is a big body of water and this runoff gets diluted- but you’re definitely taking a chance.
A relatively unknown fact is that water conducts heat away from the body a lot quicker and more efficiently than air, and therefore when out in the water, surfing, diving or even swimming you will feel the effects of this phenomenon, resulting in you getting out of the water due to feeling the chill. This is not only in cold water regions but also the warmer regions too.