March 22, 2008 Saturday

Half Moon Bay	Kelly Ave
10:00 am to 11:15 am	6’ to 7’ sets to 10’
Mid upcoming tide (3 ft at 10 am)	Steady onshore breeze
Bright, sunny and warm	Terrible and terrifying waves

“We should have gone out at Fort Point.”

That became our mantra for the day. At 9:00 am, Kevin and I were parked at Fort Point watching a crew of ten guys catching well-shaped head high lefts. Kevin wanted to go out, I didn’t. I was apprehensive about the big rocks one has to crawl over to get out, the closeness of the waves to the rocks and the up-coming tide. Due to deep water, Fort Point is best at low tide and as the water gets higher it becomes dangerous to exit. We decided to push on.

The swell had come up overnight from yesterday’s eight feet at 13 seconds to this morning’s 12 feet at 14 seconds, that’s Mavericks size.

Ocean Beach was huge, white water everywhere and monster peaks breaking quarter mile out to sea. 

“We should have gone out at Fort Point.” 

“Dad we are breaking one of our rules: if there are waves you go out, don’t waste time chasing dream waves,” Kevin reminded me as we drove down the Great Highway. A few souls were in the water scratching to get out; the paddle out looked impossible to me. 

At Linda Mar in Pacific there were 20 to 30 people in the water spread across the entire cove. The waves were walled, mushy and without shape thus we pushed on. 

“We should have gone out at Fort Point.” 

Montara was huge and closed out. No one was surfing there, plus we hate this place. We pushed on. 

The waves at Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay were big and about ten guys were out. We watched from the cliff for several minutes, and saw several spectacular rides, big drops down faces two feet overhead by skilled short boarders. Kevin was thinking that the peak to the south was smaller, easier to get out and more makeable. 

“I hope you are saying to yourself that we should have gone out at Fort Point,” Kevin stated. Knowing Kevin loves this place I responded, “I have an idea. Why don’t you go out here and I will take pictures of you?” Done, that was the plan. Kevin suited up and I put the big lens on the camera. 

I sat on the cliff, camera at the ready, watching Kevin struggle to get out. He duck-dived under one big wave, then another, and another, and another until he finally made it outside. A strong current had pushed him several yards to the south. I picked up and walked along the cliff trail to the next bench to the south. I repeated moving along the cliff three times as the current pushed Kevin farther south. In one hour Kevin paddled for several waves, all of them huge, and managed to catch two.  On the first, Kevin pushed himself into an overhead peak, angled left, the wave doubled up into a huge wall, Kevin pulled out before going over the edge of the reformed monster that exploded into a mountain of white water. On the second wave, Kevin got a good ride on another overhead peak where he managed to maneuver down a huge left wall before straightening out. 

After this ride Kevin hesitated, I could tell he was considering coming in, but he turned around and started paddling back out. A set of four huge waves, all of them ten feet plus, came marching through with Kevin caught inside. After duck diving all four of them Kevin was closer to shore than when he started, a mere ten feet from dry sand. With that he turned around and came in. I found a path down the cliff and met him on the beach. 

“Dad, what time is it?” Kevin asked. “Eleven fifteen,” I responded. “The Duke game is on,” Kevin stated. Kevin is a graduate of Duke University and ever since he started there in 1993 Kevin and I have been great fans of Duke basketball. The March Madness, the NCAA tournament, was in progress and Duke barely won their first round game and was playing West Virginia today. I responded, “Kevin, there must be a bar or saloon in downtown Half Moon Bay that has the game on. Lets go.” 

Half Moon Bay is one of my favorite towns. The historic Main Street is a collection of practical and tourist businesses: grocery and hardware stores, old style coffee shops, tacquerias, book stores and tourist gift shops. We located the San Benito House, which is a classic old two-story hotel in the center of the business district that had a bar downstairs which was open. Kevin and I walked into a wood paneled bar filled with Half Moon Bay memorabilia. At the far end a local artist was painting a mural on the room’s only stucco wall. Behind the bar was a photo of the building in 1890. The place was empty and the two guys running it welcomed us. We asked if we could watch the Duke game. On went the game, two bar stools were pulled out for us, the bar keep handed me the remote and quickly placed two ales in front of us. They touted their great food, handed us menus and claimed that the latest item, which was not of the menu, their pulled pork sandwich was fabulous. I ordered that and Kevin chose the ravioli. In the hour and a half that we were there, the placed filled up. Every booth and stool at the bar was taken. The patrons were locals, all of them personally knew the proprietors, and they were not here for the game or the beers but for the food, which we concurred was good. What a perfect way to end a surf session: Duke basketball on the tube in a friendly bar with a couple of brews and some great food. The only glitch in this picture was that Duke lost. 

On the way home Kevin and I again confirmed that we should have gone out at Fort Point. We vowed that someday soon we would do it. We set the conditions: mid-week to beat the crowd, minus low tide in the morning and a descent north or west swell. 

But all in all it was a fun adventurous day.