Well it´s 5.30am and my first concern is to crawl out of the back undetected, pretty tough as the streets are already getting busy. By 5.50 I´m parked up on the main road running over the Interstate highway running between Marine Camp Pendleton in the Canyon and San Mateo point my destination. Next task is to try and change out of my Pj´s and clean my teeth subtly so that I don´t look like I´m living out of my car which of course I am and this task is very challenging at 5.50am when the parking along the road is already busy with surfers trying to get in for a dawn surf to beat the crowd. PAH I follow the ant trail with their surf boards down the path towards the beach and the famed Trestles surfing ground. OK I know I´m trying to surf this infamous way and so obviously it´s going to be busy, the problem is its just a small southerly swell coming through and so this beach is the only place in the OC getting any action. Over the course of 5 days I did manage to fight for a few waves at Uppers and my goofy side was delighted with the break called Cottons, plus it was super glassy each morning which made it a joy to surf despite the crowds. Post surf my next concern was coffee and breakfast then some serious mincing and a spot of yoga before back to the beach for another surf. Early evening I´d hit up the San Clemente State beach car park for a post surf/end of day shower, enjoy dinner whilst the sun was setting and then final task of the day to find a good, sneaky spot to park and crawl back into my hole for a good nights sleep. So went my days in San Clemente living like a proper surf hobo out of the car. The biggest problem was trying to act like I wasn´t living out of my car which is not even remotely easy when, as I´ve discovered, every man and his goat decides to de-camp from their inland dwellings to the Californian South Coast for summer holidays (for the English out there imagine Cornwall in the summer jacked up on steroids). So San Clemente, which I imagine to be in winter, a lovely quaint, coastal town with some delightful architecture, is in fact during the peak of summer, a jam packed car parking nightmare. On my first morning here I surfed alongside the pier at a nice easy little break called T Street, post surf I decided to have breakfast (around 10am) at a beach side cafe. Whilst I waited amongst the hordes to be seated I watched the train decamp thousands of pasty white looking gremlins with their squealing brats, sun umbrellas and cool boxes to head down to find their sq metre of space on the beach........quite a scary site I can assure you :-0
This all seems rather contrary to the Californian people themselves who are actually super laid back chilled and friendly people, on the water whilst the might be hustling for waves that´s not to say they´re not friendly. Indeed I was befriended by a lovely lady whilst surfing Trestles Upper who invited me to a BBQ on the beach Sunday afternoon. In true Californian style everyone heads down for a day chilling, surfing and grilling on the beach. So post surf I chatted with some of the local surfers and a fascinating older guy who it turns out was an ´Óriginal´windsurfer who was friends with the guy credited for inventing 'sailboarding' as he referred to it! Whilst he is a die hard surfer he had some excellent stories to relate of adventures in the waves of Baja with original equipment (and trust me I know that´s some feat as Dad used to have some of the original equipment in the garage) there´s no way I could even lift one of the wave 'sinker' boards single handedly let alone sail it in waves or even my boom to my one piece mast with a piece of string.........come to think about it I wish I'd asked him how the hell he managed to get his mast all the way down to Baja south coast in the car, he must have some good packing tips!
Right I´m writing this at 6.30am back in town by the pier, I was hoping for a surf but the sea is distinctly flat and so instead I think I shall call it quits here and check out the public toilets. FYI as an expert now on the state of public toilets I can advise the best time to go is early morning just after the state beach employees have hosed them down and before the hordes can do their worst!!
