Today in Southern California, a massive storm somewhere out in the pacific caused the surf to hit a high not seen since the 1998 El Nino. Surfers have been all a-twitter about it for days. Twenty foot waves! It could take out the Ocean Beach Pier! Let's go! The San Diego Lifeguard Captain, or whoever makes these kind of decisions, closed several of the beach access points and issued a bulletin that only the most experienced surfers should get into the water today. Go here to read about it from the San Diego Tribune, there's also some pretty amazing pictures.
We have friends here who run the gamut of surfer sterotypes - the reality is, when everybody surfs, the stereotypes don't quite match up. There's the guy that runs a mutual fund for a financial company downtown, who leaves work every day at 2pm (when the market closes) and hits the waves on his way home, almost every day, regardless of how good the surf might actually be. He just likes to be in the water, and he's been surfing since he was a kid. He doesn't like to have to work really hard at it. He reads the paper or checks up with friends about where the good surf might be, but he usually prefers to go off in a quieter area even if the waves aren't as good, thus to avoid the newbies and jackass show-offs. Today, with the surf as high as it was, he went out for a little while but found it too big to be fun.
There's the stay-home-dad who drops his kids off at school in the morning, then launches in at the cove right here in our little town. He usually looks for an easy surf, he learned to surf as an adult. He likes to take the technical approach, checking the internet constantly for updates to weather systems and approaching patterns that might change the height of the waves in one direction or the other. He didn't go out today, it was way to big for him to handle.
And then there's the former lifeguard, also a stay-home-dad. He's weathered tan and fairly shaggy, who can look out his bedroom window at the whitecaps and tell you what's happening with the waves. No reading the paper, no checking on the internet. He gives off an aura of being like a surfer-dude shamen. And he only goes out when its big. Today, he stayed out all morning. This is as good as it gets for him.
I took the kids down to La Jolla Cove to watch the big waves crash and the few surfers who were in the water try to get up on their boards. It looked very futile to me. But the waves really were enormous. One lifeguard guy walked by and said they'd pulled only about 6 people out of the water at that spot all day, but apparently at other spots along the coast there had been lots of rescues. The lifeguards were circling the surfers on waverunners, basically just hanging out, waiting for someone to be in trouble. This guy said they only pull them out if they've lost their board and it looks like they are really struggling, then they tow them in and go back for the board later, usually by then its been smashed into bits against the rocks anyway (Hello?!?)
At one point I looked out over the rocks and saw what I first thought was a dog paddling along, then I realized it was a seal. One lone seal brave enough to paddle around in these tsunami like waves, amongst a bunch of crazy people.
PS - Did you notice 2 of the 3 guys are stay-home-dads? As in, the mommy brings home the bacon? AND, both of them have housekeepers (once a week) and gardeners (what we midwesterners call a yard service - also once a week). I'm really not sure if there's just more of a propensity for that here in SoCal, or if we just happen to know the only two. But I can tell you this: Trip would really like to figure out how to get himself a gig like that.
PPS - And now I give you, pictures! The boys snuggling! The Christmas tree, about to be overwhelmed by presents! The stockings hung with care, or rather, laid out on the back of the wingback chair! Because, take note, the mantle? To my fireplace? Is granite. Nowhere to screw in a tiny little teacup hook in order to hang stockings. Yes, I suppose I could get some of these stocking holder thingies, but then, I'm trying to avoid any head injuries and trips to the emergency room this holiday, Mkay?
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