January 20, 2008 Sunday

Half Moon Bay	Dunes Beach
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm	3’ to 5’, sets to head high
High dropping tide	15 to 20 mph NW wind – lots of it
Sunny, high clouds, cold, cold wind	White caps everywhere

Today I played chauffeur to Kevin and his friend Eric.

That wasn’t the original plan. Yesterday afternoon at 2:30 pm Kevin called me to go surfing. It was sunny, warm, a slight offshore wind, a small swell and low tide; ideal conditions for Ocean Beach. “Dad, we should go South, Ocean Beach or Half Moon Bay.” When I’m in the middle of something I don’t shift gears easily. I was working on my photos of the Mavericks contest and I had promised Kate we would go to 5:30 pm church instead of on Sunday morning. “Kevin, tomorrow. Let’s go tomorrow morning. How about 9:00 am?” Done, that was our plan.

Sunday morning I was running late. I finally got it all together, surf gear and board in the car, stopped in town to go to the ATM, get coffee at Peet’s and to call Kevin about being late. As I passed Tamalpais High I noticed the water of the wetlands was right up to the street, which only happens with extreme high tides. Extreme high tide, great, Ocean Beach and the beaches of Half Moon Bay are best on low tide. As I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I could see white caps out at sea beyond Point Bonita and small white caps were just beginning to form on the Bay. The flags at the toll plaza were straight out due to a strong onshore wind. I can hear Kevin now, “Dad we should have gone yesterday.”

I pulled into the driveway of Kevin’s apartment. He was there to greet me, he threw his board and surf gear into my jeep and jumped into the back seat, “Eric is going to join us, we’ll put the boards on top of the car at his place.” 

Kevin had met Eric a few months ago on the shuttle to Sun Microsystems. Like Kevin, Eric is a young guy who recently joined Sun. He does quality assurance testing, is a recent graduate and just moved to San Francisco from a small town near St. Louis. Once on the west coast, he took up surfing. Kevin is his mentor.

We stacked three boards on top of my car and headed off. We proceeded to make the classic mistake that all surfers make; that is to search for waves up or down the coast when the surf is lousy locally. In reality, weather patterns cover a large area, thus if the surf is lousy locally then it is most likely lousy up and down the coast. The time to search for surf is when swell and weather conditions are good locally.

Here was our search:

Ocean Beach was windy, blown out, white caps, choppy, big and nobody out, only a couple of kite surfers. We moved on.

Linda Mar, Pacifica was windy, blown out, choppy and closed out. There were ten surfers out at the very south end who looked like they were having a horrible time. We didn’t even stop.

Montara was the same story: big, white caps everywhere and nobody out. We kept moving on.

The Jetty in Half Moon Bay had possibilities. It’s a south facing beach thus the sideways wind was holding up the waves. But the waves were tiny; the northwest swells were bypassing this beach. I was tempted, Kevin wasn’t, and thus we pushed on.

Dunes State Beach was like the others: choppy, blown out and big. But it had shape. We pulled into the parking lot to get a good look. We almost went out. Kevin was for it, I wasn’t and Eric was neutral, thus we decided to push on further south.

Kelly Ave State Beach was worst: more wind, chop, white caps and closed out waves. The further south we went the coast turned straight west facing, thus the wind was full force onshore.

Kevin voted for returning to Dunes Beach because it was more protected from the wind and wasn’t tiny like the Jetty. Eric was willing and I wasn’t. I volunteered to stay in the car while they surfed. I had one request, which was to let me get a coffee and buy the paper to have something to do while they were in the water. So we crossed Highway 1 and drove into downtown Half Moon Bay. I knew of a good down-home, family run, coffee place, where I got a large coffee and the Sunday paper and off we went.

Since the coast turned from south to west facing between the Jetty and Kelly Ave, Kevin suggested we take a look at the beach north of Dunes Beach. It might be more protected from the wind there. We remember seeing a “Coastal Access” sign when we passed by earlier. North we went, we found the turnoff, took a road through a residential area that ended in a cul-de-sac next to an apartment building that sat on the bluff overlooking the beach. The waves here broke close to the cliff and they looked slow and mushy. We all agreed it look better at Dunes Beach.

Back to Dunes Beach we went. The wind had increased by now. Kevin and Eric only have two chances a week to surf thus they were going out no matter what. I have the luxury of waiting for a better day. They suited up and charged down to the beach stating “just three waves.” Meanwhile I sat in the warm car drinking hot coffee and reading the business section of the paper.

After a half-hour, I got out the camera and ventured out to the bluff to get some shots of them surfing. The wind was strong, stiff and cold. My hands were getting numb just standing there. The waves were head-high, walled and came in sets of four to five. One big set came in that caught both Kevin and Eric inside. Being more experienced Kevin managed to cleanly duck dive five waves and get outside. Being less experienced, Eric got pounded. The five waves drove him way inside. I could see that at one point he hesitated about paddling out. He admitted later that he considered coming in at that point. But no he stuck it out and finally made it back outside.

The above photo is Kevin on the best wave that I observed. It was a head-high wall that reformed on the inside. I caught him as he was turning into the reformed curl. Eric had a hard time catching waves. After I had put the camera away I saw Eric catch a good one; also a head-high wall. Eric took off late, pushed into the curl, which lined up for a good inside section that he skillfully handled. For a guy who is still learning I was impressed.

Once out of the water, changed, boards back on the roof and heading north again on Highway 1, we all stated simultaneously, “let’s eat.” Where to go? Eric reminded us of the barbecue place, which I had pointed out on the way down in Pacifica. “Gorilla Barbecue, good idea.”

I have been watching the remodeling of this old boxcar restaurant for months. For years it was deserted, for another few years it was a Starbucks wannabe, then abandoned again and recently it’s come to life again as the Gorilla Barbecue. We purchased pulled pork sandwiches with cold slaw, which we stood there at the counter and ate. This is a take out place that has no inside seating. There are picnic benches outside but it was too cold and windy today to sit there. Three-fourths of this boxcar is kitchen with a high quality, first rate, stainless steel, industrial-strength smoker. This is obviously somebody’s dream to put this business together and I think we were chatting with him. After complimenting the cook on the great sandwiches I asked him what kind of wood did he use to smoke his meats. “Oak from the foothills of the Sierras. Hickory leaves too
strong of a smoke taste for people of California.” This cook must be from the south to make a statement like that. Kevin and I disagreed with him, we like a strong smoky taste. Gorilla Barbecue is a great discovery; we will be back.

Back to San Francisco we headed, listening to the New England Patriots defeat the San Diego Chargers on the radio for a trip to the Superbowl.  All in all it was a great day.