September 23, 2008 Tuesday

Ventura	Surfers Point
9:00 am to 10:30 am	1' to 2', sets to 3'
High out-going tide	Offshore breeze, turned onshore at 10 am
High fog, overcast	So - So session

I ended up at the little point that I lined up with the last time I was here in February. Then the surf was six to eight foot boomers, the prime peak for fast long curls; today it was a gentle one to two feet. There’s an outcropping of big boulders at a slight bend in the land forming a small point. The waves peaked here and slowly broke to the right. I ended up here to separate myself from the crowd. I was the only one there.

I’m on day two of my five-day surf safari to Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes. The plan was to connect with my life-long friend Brad. Brad and I grew up in Palos Verdes and learned to surf together in 1958. We roomed together at UCSB for four years in the sixties. He lives in Los Alamos, New Mexico and his daughter and grand children live in Manhattan Beach. Brad keeps a board there and calls me whenever he is in town. It’s also an opportunity for me to visit my mother who still lives in Palos Verdes and to ride some waves outside of Bolinas. Unfortunately we picked a bad week for surf. The good south swells we have enjoyed for the past two weeks were over, no new swells were coming in until Friday, and we were in for four days of “local wind swell.”

Yesterday I planned to surf at Santa Cruz and then continue south to Ventura. At Santa Cruz, the Hook and Pleasure Point were beautiful, bright sun, blue water, glassy conditions and no waves. All the surf spots down the coast were flat: Pismo Beach pier, Gaviota, Refugio, El Capitan, Santa Barbara Sand Spit, Rincon, Ventura Overhead and Surfers Point.

I spend the night at the home of my brother and sister-in-law, Larry and Joan, and re-connected with my niece Heather who is an excellent surfer. Heather, who is working on a teachers credential, had to teach a class of fourth graders in the morning and couldn’t join me at Surfers Point.

When I pulled into the parking lot at Surfers Point, two guys were surfing out front and another five were at the next peak south. With only seven people out at popular Surfers Point meant the surf is down. I had to go out. I hadn’t surfed since last Friday, it was a beautiful morning, the water was warm, the surface was tabletop smooth, there was no fear factor, knee-high curls were coming through and I had all the time in the world. I paddled straight out from the parking lot and caught a couple of small, slow, closed out walls. No one was ripping it up. An older woman, my age, caught most of the waves. More guys paddled out, thus I moved south to the little point to avoid the crowd. I lined up with the boulders of the point, just like I did last February, with some success. I had the peak to myself, but the waves had no punch. I would drop down decent curls, swing right, and the waves would die. I would work them hoping the swells would reform on the inside but they never did and would end up close to the rocks that protect the bike path from erosion.

After an hour and a half, I kissed it off, chatted briefly with a couple of other surfers who were out there with me, warmed myself up in the sun and headed for Main Street to go to one of those great diners in downtown Ventura for breakfast. I found a good one, Cajun Kitchen Café, ordered the Cajun veggie omelet with hash browns and grits, a real bowl of grits, and wrote up this morning’s session. It was great.

I was off to a good start on this trip.