Of Waves & Abalone

There are some waves I've heard about just north of San Francisco. These are not exactly the kind of waves you can just drive up to, hop out of the car, suit up and be in the water within a minute or two. You have to do some hiking and bush whacking to get to them. A lot of time invested in the "getting there" without any guarantee of success. It is called paying dues.

I've been adventure deprived for the past couple of weeks. So when I got the opportunity for an all day hike today I decided to call up a friend and go "pay some dues".

Beautiful hike in and out of the fog and sun. Good to explore an area I had not been into before. Got down to the beach and reminded me a lot of the North Coast - all cobblestones and flotsum.

We found some interesting things on the beach. I started off finding a very cool hat. My buddy said, "you may want to keep that, those are expensive". That was enough to make me lash it to my backpack. My buddy also collected (3) wiffle balls - WTF? He says they are great to play with in the house with his son.

Probably the most interesting items we found were all the abalone shells strewn about the length of the beach. Quite a few of them and enough to make us take a mental note and possibly come back on some favorable tides.

Speaking of tides, we walked along the beach as far as we could before we got cut off by the cliffs. Rather than walk back the way we came we actually climbed up the bluff. One of those things you do in life and realize when you make it to the top how stupid it was that you did it.

And for those of you who have not stepped outside of late, Spring is beginning to make an appearance. The wild Iris were out in force - spectacular!

The Great Highway / Dispatch from the shrinking Front Line

It is BIG news around these parts. A portion of The Great Highway has been shut down. Not just a lane - all Southbound lanes have been blocked off to vehicular traffic (northbound lanes are open) due to storm and erosion damage. For those that are unfamiliar, The Great Highway runs the length of and parallels Ocean Beach, which is located on the far western edge of the San Francisco Peninsula. So with all the hub-bub going on I decided to take a walk down and take a gander for myself. What not a better mission to bring my trustful companion and fellow adventurer - my daughter. And as it turned out, we were blessed with a beautiful day!

As we made our way down (we walked and took the stroller) an immediate observation was the extraordinary amount of flotsum along the length of the beach. Logs, branches, trash, telephone pole parts, foam, sections of docks, old x-mas trees and lots of exposed random rocks. Not too much of a surprise since we have recently gone through some good stormy wet weather cycles. But still more than I have seen in a long time.

A second observation was the amount of sand eroded off the beach. Many of the dunes that have been built up over the years are taking a real hammering. Yesterday I ran into Carol Schultz, "Queen of the Beach" in Golden Gate Park. One of her comments to me was, "Jeez DAK, I have never seen so much sand missing off the beach". I concur.

Sure enough, there is some serious havoc that Mother Nature is unleashing at the southern end of The Great Highway. The Sloat Parking Lot's (1st Parking Lot) egress point is completely been compromised due to high surf. And the the 2nd Parking Lot is also in bad shape due to some serious hydrodynamic activity.

While I'd love the opportunity to delve into the very interesting battle that will soon unfold regarding how to resolve this problem and the various stakeholders involved, I need to cut this short and catch some shut-eye.

So tomorrow, THE WHAT, THE WHO, THE WHERE, and THE WHY of this battle between Mother Nature, a City, a National Park System, Environmentalists and the residents of the Outer Sunset.

I almost forgot my 3rd observation. No Sloat Parking Lot means less crowded surf. My daughter and I watched some seriously good surf come through with only a handful of guys on it. Typically there would be twice the amount of people out in the water.

Have you been down there yet? Tell us your observations and your ideas of how to handle The Great Highway erosion issue of 2010!

Ocean Beach (1), Surfer (0)

I've always joked with my buddies about having to be picked up by the Coast Guard out past Seal Rock and having the TV crews waiting for you on the beach!

Well even when the surf is small you gotta watch the currents. As someone commented on the article, I can't believe this guy actually talked to the TV cameras.

My rule: when the current is ripping north at a good pace, I start heading in at VF's just in case. Never had a problem so far. Know your limits.

The video is worth watching - cringe value. At least it wasn't a bodyboarder, F'in surfers!

Read about it and watch it here! Courtesy of SFgate.com and Channel 4 News.

The pic above was taken last year on a well overhead day, probably three times bigger than the day this guy got swept out.

Session No 2

Traveled down the coast last weekend to a break that has been good of late. Got down there and was welcomed by semi-overcast sky. My buddy I went down with knows his way around cameras and encouraged me to shift to B/W mode. While I like the feel of the shots I took, unfortunately there were not a lot of really good pics snapped. Below are just a few "interesting" shots. The tide was really high this day and caused the waves to break on the mushier side. And of course, by the time we had to leave (had to be back home on time) the tide started to drop and the waves were getting better and better. We left with our buddy from SC telling us, "another hour or two and this place will be firing!".

Just good to get out.

First Pics of the Season

Had an opportunity to visit a friend down in Santa Cruz yesterday and spend the night. Had a great time connecting with these fellas, it has been awhile. Good conversation, good beverages all topped off with a great BBQ. Woke up this morning and found some surf and was able to take my first water shots of the season. Felt good to get in the water and snap a couple. Had to get back home so could not stay long unfortunately. Paid the price for not stretching out prior and my back is STIFF.

No spectacular shots with the one below being the best. Just good to get out.

I'm hoping this will be a good season for me out in the water with the camera. I feel like I have the basics down, now I just need good waves and surfers/bodyboarders to shoot.