California Journal Entry 1/24/04

Written on January 24th, 2004:

We arrived in San Diego at Chad's house at around 2:30pm on Thursday the 22nd of January. It was great to see him again. We quickly packed up three boards, a 9'6" pintail longboard, 8' egg and a 7'6" shortboard. The drive down to the coast was a quick ten minutes away. We first checked Scripps Pier and the wave size was very small. The a quick look at Windandsea also proved to be small. Then Pacific Beach's Old Man's proved to be the call. There was a small crowd and the waves were about knee to waist with the occasional head high coming through.

We paddled out and had the best session yet. Super long lines, just perfect for having a ball on a longboard. The 9'6" that I was riding was so much fun. It caught everything and was able to maintain velocity and momentum through the most aggressive turns. Everybody had a good time.

The next day we we were up at 5:00am and drove down to Scripps Pier for a surf check. It was almost lake like. Since it was still dark we drove up the Starbucks for some coffee and then to lighten our personal loads. After a quick wake up session we drove down back to Pacific Beach to check the spot we surfed the day before. The point was just perfection. Waves were about shoulder to head high and peeling for about 150 to 200 yards with a fun workable line. The crowd factor was the best yet. About three other people, plus, Chad, Jeff and myself. Everybody was very nice and no one cut anybody off. Now that's class. We surfed with smiles on or faces for about 3 hours just super stoked. We saw porpoise pods basking at the service from us about 50 yards away. Seals were also spotted among the porpoise. To sum up the San Diego experience would have to be the best part of the trip. Seeing Chad, surfing on real boards, catching fun waves and sharing a great unforgettable time with everyone there is what makes an unbelievable surf trip.

Later on that day we drove up to Rincon and surfed it at about shoulder to head high. There were porpoise pods surfing the waves, which was really cool to see. We paddled out and picked off a couple of tasty little waves without anybody dropping in. We stayed in the water till past sundown. We got out and all the way back to the car breathed out steam. Cold, cold, cold, is the California winter night when the sun sets and the dessert and mountains come together to let you know that you are in a very special place.

It's Saturday morning now and we're filled up on our hotel complimentary breakfast. Everyone is packing and getting ready to vacate our room. The plan is to drive up to Ventura Point which looks to be the best breaking spot according to the surf cams. The break is about ten minutes north on Freeway 101. We'll probably surf for about 2-3 hours and then drive down south to Malibu to drop off our rental boards. We were hoping to get the last session at the Bu but the waves didn't look good.

Well the next journal entry will prove what we actually ended up doing. Hopefully we catch some good waves at Ventura Point and leave with even bigger smiles on our faces. Our flight out is at 9:45pm tonight out of L.A. We'll be back in Tampa at around 5:00am. If we get some sleep on the plane I will more than likely stay up all day to get myself back in the back home sleep pattern. Till then, stay stoked!

- Arsen Brzostek