This past weekend Pat Olson and I made the five hour drive from Las Vegas to San Diego for a little surfing and beach time. All in all it was a great weekend with lots of little stories.
Unfortunately I was unable to get out from work early so we left with a flurry of other vehicles from Vegas and everyone was in a rush. About an hour out of Vegas we almost got into an accident. We were travelling 75-80mph when a car directly in front of us had a blow-out on the driver’s side front tire. This happened when the highway southbound was only two lanes wide and a semi truck was to the right of the car. I was on the brakes quickly but not too hard and fortunately the driver of the car in front of us didn’t try to put the brakes on at all until he had control. He had to cross a small bridge then pulled off to the side of the road. The car behind me got closer than I would’ve liked and had to swerve into the right lane (I wasn’t swerving at all, not in my truck, not at that speed). It all happened quickly and we were able to continue on our way. Phew.
We arrived at Pat’s mom’s house around 9 and hung out for a bit. We had the big ambition of waking up at 5:30am to catch some sunrise surf.
Sure enough at 5:30am the alarms went off and we got up. We walked to the beach but it was pretty cloudy and cold out. Somehow we weren’t that motivated all of a sudden. We talked with Chris Lindner who knew some local beaches and he agreed to meet us at “Black’s Beach”. It was a bit of a walk to the surf which is good because it wasn’t that crowded. It was still early and there was noone on the beach. The surf was awesome, probably one of the better days I’ve had. The waves were friendly but with good size and easy to catch. We surfed for a few hours before going in to rest. Chris took off to do some work but Pat and I stayed for another session. After resting for lunch we met up with Pat’s mom and sister and went down to the beach to just hang out.
Now it turns out that while the walk to “Black’s Beach” means there is less people surfing, it is also happens to be a nude beach. This wasn’t your tropical paradise with a bunch of fit, good looking girls running around naked. No, this was a bunch of unfit (read fat) old dudes walking around naked. I couldn’t help but laugh. Picture any scene from Family Guy where Peter goes streaking (there’s enough scenes), that’s what it looked like. Oh, and old naked dudes playing volleyball… not cool.
We finished off with an evening surf session where the tide was really high. Enough that the a few sand bars were in play and the waves were really steep. As we were packing up the truck and ambulance pulled into the parking lot. Then a firetruck, a lifeguard truck and another few emergency vehicles. It turns out someone had an asthma attach or similar on the hike out. From our perspective we thought it was a small Asian woman since a group of her friends had waited for the paramedics at the top of the trail. On scene were probably 10 strong, healthy rescue dudes and the person was only 150-200′ down the trail yet still they decided to call in a helicopter. It took about 15 minutes for the helicopter to arrive and the lowered a guy in there, secured the patient and hauled them up. I was surprised they didn’t just put her on a stretcher and walk her out but what do I know.
By Sunday we were exhausted and slept in a bit. We ended up going to Leucadia and having a great day. The sun was out, the waves were gentle but consistent and we got lots of surf. There were enough waves coming through that noone was battling for waves and honestly I was tired enough that I probably let quite a few nice waves just roll by. My shoulders were so sore from paddling I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to turn my steering wheel.
All in all a great weekend but I need to hire a photographer :).
Posted on June 21st, 2010 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Rave | No Comments »
