Getting Away From The Fires

I live near the coast, smack dab in the middle of San Diego County.  Living near the Coast, I didn't really "notice" the fires until yesterday when I saw them burning in the distance from "that reef around the corner from my house".  Black smoke rising into the blue sky, being pushed out to sea was not a good sign.  The winds turned into hot offshore winds during my morning session that day, and I knew that from that moment, families and fireman were going to be put in extremely harsh and dangerous situations until at least dusk or later.  For once in my surf life, I wanted the winds to blow straight onshore to help the strong and the helpless.  But it didn't and several fires in San Diego County raged on.

After work today, I headed out to Trestles to catch some of the swell that was in the water.  But every time I looked south, the picture above is all I saw.  The beach was packed with folks.  Most of the schools in San Diego are closed for the rest of the week.  A lot of adults like me, who work in Inland North County either were told not to come in or can't make it to work due to all of the inland freeway closures because of  the several blazes.  But The 5 is open, which leads to Trestle's door step.  Once we made it down to the beach, The waves looked good.  The wind was side/ offshore, which helped groom the waves, but it didn't help the firefighters that were working to put those fires out.

I had a strong sense of guilt that I was surfing instead of doing something to help others that were caught in the fires either physically or emotionally.  I was just out in inland Oceanside and Carlsbad yesterday for work, and I was cornered by several fires.  I don't know these towns very well, so I was sort of helpless, even with my GPS.  Roads were closed and the only way back to The 5 South was through The 78 that headed directly towards some of the most intense fires.  I thought about how helpless I felt and thought of the hundreds of families who shared that same feeling but a million times more intense.

But than I started to think about my present moment, my feelings, where I was, and who I was with.  I bet at least half of the crowd at Trestles today were effected in some way or another by the fires, and being there, with good waves, eased their worries and helped them make it through that scorching day.  My good friend Steve was out in the lineup with me.  I had my GoPro with me and we wanted to capture the fire from a very unique perspective.  And after working our way through a crowded lineup, this is what we got:

The smoke in the distance is the fire blazing in Camp Pendelton.  I was totally psyched that I was able to catch a clean wave with the smoke in the distance for this capture.  But as I rummaged through the footage, I felt a sense of guilt again, that we did something we love, while others were and still are in harms way.  I still feel that sense of guilt, but I'm praying for the strong and the helpless, that they can get help one way or another, from nature or from others.