May 24, 2014 Saturday

Ventura	Surfers' Point (C Street)
1:20 pm to 2:30 pm	3' to 4', sets head high
Low upcoming tide	West cross wind
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

Day 4 of the Fay Moore Memorial Trip South

We finally did it!

For three years, my good friend Jay the architect from Manhattan Beach and I have been talking about getting together for a surf session at C Street in Ventura. Jay and his family lived across the street from us in Manhattan Beach before we moved to Mill Valley, and our children grew up together. Several times in the past twenty years we have surfed together whenever I was traveling down south. His daughter Julie (same age as my daughter Allison) married Brandon, an avid surfer, and moved to Ventura three years ago. Since then we have talked about meeting in Ventura when I was coming to Los Angeles and he was visiting Julie. And today we finally did it.

Pulling it off wasn't easy. I called Jay before heading south for my mother's memorial celebration tell him that there was a possibility of us getting together Saturday, the day after the service, when Kevin and I would be driving back up the coast with our surfboards strapped to the top of the car.

Next day Jay called back with a suggestion. His wife Nancy wanted to visit with Kate. Original plan was Kate and Allison would fly down the morning of the service, spend the night at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach and fly back the next day. Kevin and I would drive Kate and Allison to the airport and continue on north, surfing somewhere on the way and spend Saturday night with my friend Greg in Montecito. Jay suggested that all of us come over to their house in the morning so that Kate and Nancy could visit and that Nancy would drive Kate and Allison to the airport before continuing on to visit her daughter Julie in Ventura. Meanwhile, Jay would load his board on my car and all three of us would head to Ventura and surf there. Good suggestion, but it didn't happen that way.

There wasn't enough time for Kate to visit with Nancy. She and Allison had to be at the airport at 8 am for their 9:30 flight. So Jay suggested that we meet at C Street at 1 pm.

"Jay, good plan. If the surf isn't any good, at least we can have lunch together."

With a gruff voice he abruptly said, "We're surfing!" And that was what we did.

Kate and Allison took an Uber cab to the airport and Kevin and I drove to Manhattan Beach (our old town) to walk on the pier, get cash, coffee from Peet's and bagels from Noah's. We drove up the coast (Highway 1) checking the waves. The Manhattan Beach Pier had good four-foot peaks, Topanga Canyon had nice three-foot lines with thirty guys out and Malibu looked good and had at least a 100 surfers in the water. We made a stop at Leo Carrillo State Beach where the waves were big overhead closeouts with just a few people out.

We rolled into the parking lot at C Street and found Jay and his son-in-law Brandon suited up and ready to go. We paid $2 to park in the north parking lot (can you believe it's only cost $2 to park all day at the beach in Ventura?). We quickly changed and went right out in front of our car. When paddling out I gave Jay a high-five because we had finally met for a surf session at C Street.

The waves were just my size – consistent 3 to 4 feet with sets head high, gentle "no fear" waves. All four of us had good sessions. Brandon connected on a head high wall, planted his rail mid-swell, stepped to the middle of the board and hummed across a continuous right peeling curl. Jay did the same, screaming across the bottom of the wave just ahead of the fast breaking curl. Kevin took off on a big one. I paddled over the swell and looked back to see Kevin's head disappear and then re-appear further down the line barely ahead of the breaking part of the wave. I managed to connect on two long ones. The rides at Surfers' Point can be long. Given the right takeoff point with the right swell direction, the waves continuously keep reforming and curling into the cove. I did it twice today and twice made that long paddle back out to the line-up.

The wind was picking up and my arms were feeling it, and we had to connect with Greg in Santa Barbara between 4 and 5 pm. After an hour it was time to go in.

Julie, who I hadn't seen since she moved to Ventura, was on the beach with her three children – two boys (3 1/2 and 2 years) and her 3 month old daughter who Nancy was holding. How impressive, I've known Julie all her life and now she is a mother of three. We chatted on the beach, and Jay and I vowed to do it again – to connect at C Street.

Kevin and I quickly changed, packed up the car and headed off for our next adventure, that of visiting my world travelling, life-long friend Greg. That's him in the photo above with Kevin and I. Greg and I grew up together in Palos Verdes, and knew each other's families. Both of us had lost our parents in the last two years. At Greg and Della's favorite Italian restaurant in Montecito, we reminisced about our parents and their slow health declines, something we too will face soon. A good meal and visit with old friends was the perfect ending to this long and interesting day.