Ah, the joys of a flex schedule. 5:45 a.m. and I'm up and out, quick stop at the ATM and Starbucks, and I pull up to the San-O ranger booth at 6:30. The day starts out well - the ranger informs me that his cashbox is broken, and thus there will be no fees today. Guess karma swung back my way after my last attempt to surf there.
The place is striking; you can definitely feel the classic California vibe. Big boards and the occasional retro shorty, with the colorful cast one would expect: here was a old guy in a battered old Toyota Land Cruiser, Alaska license plates reading "RETIRED", there was a yound dude trying to coax his Rottweiler on to a twelve-foot tanker. The thing was, by San-O standards it wasn't even crowded. Still, there were at least 75 people out at the point, more still at Old Man's. It's been a whille since I've surfed in crowds, but at first it didn't phase me. "Real friendly crowd", I overheard one guy say to another. "We share waves and so everyone has fun." I didn't really feel like battling every other person in the lineup for a ride. That sounded fine.
Except that it wasn't.
On three separate occasions, I'd lined myself up PERFECTLY to snag peaky rights. And each time, some guy jumped right in, either directly in front of me right as I was taking off, or hopped onto the shoulder (once as I was attempting a cross-step to the nose). As more and more people joined the fun, etiquette flew right out the window. Every wave was a Party Wave. No room to do anything but stand up, and go right. It became obnoxious. I've been trying to push myself to surf the PCM like it should be surfed, to be a REAL longboarder, and this wasn't the place to do that. (I will say that the one guy who consistently scored waves with no one else on them was hanging on the inside, riding a fish, and having a blast.) And all the while the cars kept rolling in to the parking lot.
So one more feat to check off of the "Things To Do Before I Die" list. Will I go back? Maybe, but I'd take a day off, maybe in the fall, go mid-week, bring the fam and plan on staying all day. It occurs to me that I'll take my inconsistant beachbreaks over the San-O circus any day; having marginal waves to oneself will always trump good waves with dozens of others.
