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| Panama Red guarding the quiver and failing epically. |
According to Siri, San Clemente is 7 hours and 28 minutes away from San Francisco. Five cups of coffee, 3 Waffles, bowl full of gravy and three pieces of chicken, it seemed more like three hours away.
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| Panama Red teaching this kid how to pearl. |
While sitting around the campfire, Panama Red was reminiscing about his epic lefts while living in New Zealand. All of a sudden, this little girl riding her bike past our campsite yelled "Kiwi Hippies!" After a few laughs and "Where the hell did that shit come from?" Don Corleone looked over at me and said "We are now the 'Kiwi Hippies'." When the Godfather speaks, you just listen. And that is how the Kiwi Hippies came to be.
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| Keeping warmed up without a wetsuit. |
After testing the water at Uppers, I said what the heck, stuck on my new Patagonia Wavefarers and a surf Jersey and paddled out. Dub Sack and Manav decided to join me. After about an hour, I look back and both of them kats were in wetsuits! WTF? That water had to be an upwards of 65 degrees while it was about 80 degrees outside. Three hours later as dusk hit, I still wasn't cold. The next day I wore my 4/3 and thereafter.
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| Day camp for middle aged kids. |
Surf, sun, sand and beer. What more can a brotha ask for? That was pretty much our trip. We would do a morning sesh, kick it on the beach and watch others surf, decide to suit up again and hit it for an afternoon sesh. I think we actually did three sessions in one day. The one thing about Trestles is that there is no shade. So all of my Caucasian brothers on the trip were no longer Caucasian after five days of blazing sun. One of them came up to me and said "Brown and proud!" with his fist in the air.
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| Lowers peaking up in the background. |
The U.S. Under 18 surf championship was happening at Lowers most of our trip. But on our way to "Trails" on Saturday we noticed that the buoys for the competition were removed. I assumed that this meant it was over and Lowers was open to the public. Manav and I decided that we were going to wake up at 4:30am and paddle out and test our skills at this legendary point break.
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| Trail head from the Basilone exit. |
Not only is Lowers a legendary wave, but so is the trek. From the Cristianitos trail head, it probably had to be two and a half miles. With our boards, wetsuit and towel, two and a half miles felt more like four. Being a bunch of Trestle Kooks, there is street path from Basilone that would have cut the trek in half. At least Manav and I spent some quality time together (don't worry, nothing happened Ruth).
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| Manav scoping Lowers for SoCal babes at five a.m. |
I've surfed Lowers twice, as a kook and as a novice kook. Lowers has always been a place where I test myself to see where my skill level is at. Even though people are pretty courteous out in the lineup, they aren't gonna give any waves away. When a set is on the horizon, fight for pole position is at it's best out there. I was able to catch five waves, three being really good ones in an hour and half. Manav did the same but was killing it on the lefts. One lesson learned from Lowers: to make a really sharp cutback frontside, I stuck my front heal into the middle of the board and pressed hard. Finally got some sweet spray! Plus this heal action sets my body up for turning my body back around to steam down the line. I'm getting there folks!
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| Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles on Pico in L.A. |
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All good things come to an end and we returned back to reality on Monday with a big thug. I still have epic dreams about spots called Lowers, Uppers, Cottons, Middles and Trails. I don't know anywhere in the world that has a stretch of beach with so many breaks for so many skill levels. Yes, there is the North Shore and the Gold Coast but the waves at the first spot can kill you and the latter spot is to far away for whats in my checking account. At Trestles, all I have gotten was big smiles, good conversation and pleasant hellos. And I always spend next to nothing, including for food (Pedro Tacos has bomb burritos for under $5). I've never noticed any agros or surf nazi's like elsewhere. This spot exemplifies Aloha.
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| Wetsuit Row |
We plan on coming back yearly. Trips are cool, but it's the company that makes it epic. Like I said before and I'll say it again, I am blessed to be surfing with the best crew on the planet. Next year we all plan to get "Kiwi Hippies" tattooed on our chests. Weeeeeee!
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Mahalo and keep surfing like it's your last wave!
