December 24, 2009 Thursday

Pacifica	Linda Mar Ave
12:15 pm to 1:30 pm	4' to 6', sets to 8'
Low upcoming tide (2.1 ft at 11:30 am)	Stiff offshore wind
Sunny, high clouds and cold	A 'just get wet' session

“Where shall we go?” I asked son Kevin as we loaded up the boards at his apartment in San Francisco.

“South,” he replied. Since it was Christmas Eve and we had a family obligation in the early evening, we could not blow the time traveling north to Stinson or Bolinas. South to Kevin meant anywhere between Linda Mar in Pacifica to Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay.

Stormsurf predicted a new ill-defined north swell, 5 ft at 14 seconds with a larger swell (Swell #7) of 6 ft at 17 seconds to arrive at sunset. To us the swell looked much larger.

At Rockaway Beach, the cove north of Linda Mar, the waves were huge and a few guys were out.

We stopped at Linda Mar. The lot was full, 100 surfers were in the water and the waves were walled. The sets stretched from one end of the bay to the other with the north end being twice the height than at the south end. It didn’t look inviting so we pushed on.

At Montara we parked in the lot next to the new Peruvian restaurant, La Costenera, which sits on the bluff at the south end. I’m anxious to give this place a try. Again the waves were huge and nobody was out. Big boomers peaked and exploded over the rocks at the south point. We pushed on.

A few surfers were out at breakwater of the Half Moon Bay Harbor. Even though the tide was dropping the waves mushed up against the breakwater and were barely breaking. We continued on.

Six surfers were going for the big drop waves at Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay. The steep beach at Kelly causes the swells to continue building into vertical faces and to crash a few feet from shore. It’s great for paddling out, but the rides are short and thrilling. The crowd was spread across two peaks, one left and one right. The waves were big, steep and fast. They looked like they had shape. If you could be in the right position, you could get an incredible ride. For fifteen minutes Kevin and I watched one surfer after another free fall down the faces of the waves. They were breaking top to bottom. Just as one pushed into the wave and started to jump up, the wave would pitch out sending the rider tumbling. It didn’t look inviting.

“Kevin, let’s go check out Mavericks. I bet it’s breaking,” I said to Kevin pointing at the white water at Pillar Point. Kelly Ave is about four miles south of Pillar Point and you can see the big rocks and white water of Mavericks. Off we went.

With luck someone pulled out as I entered the Mavericks parking lot to grab the last spot. We walked straight up the hill to the cliff that overlooks Ross’ Cove, which is just north of Mavericks. From there we could see one surfer sitting way outside at Mavericks but we didn’t see any waves come through. However, just below us in Ross’ Cove ten surfers were connecting on some beautiful double overhead waves. The above picture was one of them. Neither one of us has surfed here and the waves were too big for us to venture out to an unfamiliar break.

Instead we walked around the lagoon to the end of Pillar Point where the breakwater begins to Mavericks. The break is about a half mile out from the point. We climbed up the bluff for a better look. One lone surfer sat way outside and he sat and sat and sat. Some stunning waves broke just beyond the inside rock outcropping and exploded against them. They were too close to the rocks to be rideable. I snapped shots of some of the big ones.

“Let’s go back to Pacific,” Kevin suggested, which was what we did. By now we had that “just get wet” attitude. After witnessing the big closeouts down the coast, the walls at Linda Mar looked tame. For one hour, we paddled around in cold water, ducked under tons of white water and coasted down several head-high walls. It was invigorating and we were glad that we did it.

All in all it was a great morning, a leisurely drive down the coast filled with good conversation and marvelous sights; such as: two 300-ft cranes attempting to save an apartment building from sliding down an eroding cliff in Pacifica, and the engineering feat of the Devil Slide tunnel project, which was making great progress. Add to that the bright sun, blue water, offshore winds, spectacular shoreline cliffs and huge waves crashing against the rocks.