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This is one session's worth of work, just a few days into the journey.

This is one session’s worth of work, just a few days into the journey.


The Inertia

Editor’s Note: The following piece is a journal entry from the author’s 3,000 Waves marathon surf trip, navigating from San Francisco to San Diego with the goal of surfing 3,000 waves in 30 days to raise money for Stupid Cancer. 

Ocean Beach, Ocean Beach, Ocean Beach and a couple of other spots mixed along the way. I slept my first three nights in OB, on Judah Street. There’s free overnight parking for RV’s so long as you scram by 7am. I slept the night of Oct 3rd in Bolinas and night of the 4th in Linda Mar. OB was noisy, Bolinas was super quiet and dark and Linda Mar well, didn’t really matter because I was so tired.

It all added up to 405 waves in 5 days. And my daily wave count in order from October 1-5: 100, 101, 31, 72, 101. Those are strong numbers considering swell size and crazy winds that reared their angry heads most afternoons. Add in some beautiful to get to/from. San Francisco is a beautiful place, that’s for sure. I saw and surfed Ocean Beach’s many moods and got just a small taste of what that place would be like with massive surf. The locals in the water were surprisingly super nice and talkative once they opened up. Bolinas has minimal surf but an amazing, earthy vibe and a wild crew of youngsters, reminding me of Telluride.

Local Pete Royce told stories of SF’s surf culture “back in the day” and was a genuinely nice guy and good surfer. We talked boards and he offered up the quote of the trip so far – regarding how nice someone’s weapon/tool/surfboard is/isn’t. “It doesn’t matter how nice the bow and arrow. It matters how good the Indian is shooting them. I guess we can all work on becoming better Indians.” Well said, Pete.

Two guys are sitting in their pick-up truck watching the surf (non-surfers) commented on my RV when they saw the #3000Waves stickers and asked what’s it all about. I told them and they lit up with joy. They were really pumped that I was surfing and raising money to fight cancer. Their niece in her late 20’s had battled breast cancer twice and she still isn’t quite out of the clear. We talked a bit and they both gave me firm handshakes and an “atta boy” before smiling and sending me on my way.

I met Dave and Scott in the same OB parking lot after surfing the bigger, overhead day. Dave locked his keys in his car so I offered them both some breakfast. They declined but were appreciative of the offer. We talked about OB and my trip and they were happy to give me insight on the coastline of SF. Dave gave me some names in the SF surf & cancer communities to reach out to. Originally from Jersey, we talked a bit about East Coast surf as well. It’s always good to reminisce with a fellow EC-er. Scott gave me the scoop on Bolinas and was worth every minute of the 3 hour round trip drive. It’s a beautiful place like no other I’ve seen.

 
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