5:00 AM... Every morning lately has felt the same; I can't beleive I have to get up already. At least this day wasn't for work but for a quick weekend trip up to Santa Barbara and Jalama to camp with my neighbor Matt, meet up with my old college buddy Dan Crawford, and surf, surf, surf.
The weekend starts off with about 15 phone calls to my buddy Kalvin Chalker, who's supposed to be my partner on this trip. I was waiting in front of his apartment complex at 5:45 AM; with each call reaching the same result. No answer. I thought he may have had a late night at the bars so I bailed to meet up with Dan in SB.
Within 15 minutes I get a call from Kal. He slept through his alarm and his ringer was off. I knew this trip was going to be way better with him involved so I swooped back around to pick him up. We had 5 surfboards for 2 people for 2 days of surfing. To be honest, you never know what you're gonna get up there: SB could be 1 ft and Jalama could be 10...
A trafficless drive and we arrive at the UCSB police station at about 8:00. Crawford is a cop for the University; he was still working doing a write-up for a potential drowning in Isla Vista. IV is the best place in the world if you are a drunk college student looking to get an STD, and the worst place in the world if you are anybody else. Crawford has the craziest stories I've ever heard... they are so bad that I'm not going to divulge. Anyway, Kal and I hit up Naples for a quick surf. You have to run across the freeway then hike for about 2 miles to get there, but it's worth it. Dan caught up with us pretty quick and we all caught some pretty fun chest high waves with a very light crowd.
After our surf Kal and I bought a couple tall boys and played a game of Frisbee golf at the local course. We both kinda suck but its a great way to kill an afternoon. We met this stu named Jacob. He was majoring in Religious Studies, Antropology, and Hebrew; any guesses what he's gonna be when he grows up? He asked us if we burn and we both said no. He was pretty good at frisbee golf and schooled both me and Kal. He was a nice Heeb.
After a failed attempt to surf Naples again, we had it in our minds that Jalama was going to be 10 ft and pumping perfect barrels. We both thought Matt was scoring epic waves so we charged up there at about 90 MPH. Jalama! Jalama! Jalama! We finally got there and it was crumbly blown out chest high garbage. I have to say, the landscape on the drive up was nothing to complain about.
At least we had some cool guys to hang out with up there. If you have never been to Jalama, I will tell you it is the windiest place in California. It is perched right above Point Conception where artic currents from the north meet sub tropical currents from the south. This equals 30+ MPH on shore winds at all times that will blow the top off your tent in the middle of the night. I slept about 15 seconds while Kal snored like a bear. He is a more seasoned camper than me.
The next morning we woke up to EPIC crappyness: waist high sloppy onshore garbage. Kal and I met up with Dan and Abby for brekky in Lompoc and I got to meet Warren, his new mini me. Looks just like him. Warren sucked boob, took a crap, and fell asleep all in 5 minutes. Well done young man!
The final stage of our journey was the most unexpected surprise of our trip. We stopped at Rincon on the way home, thinking it would suck since Jalama was so bad. For those of you who don't know, Rincon is considered the BEST wave in California. Even when it isn't breaking it is so crowded you are lucky to get 2 or 3 waves in a 2 hour session. But this was the day. An unexpected windswell was hitting and there were head high sets with only 40 guys. Sounds like a lot, but isn't. I must have caught 20 waves, most of them connecting to the inside passed all the longboarders. There was one perfect head high + set rolling through and I was by myself waiting for it to come to me. No jockying for postion, no sweating someone inside of me, it was HEAVEN! Kalvin was scoring too on his new Bonzer he picked up for $60. He got a nice barrel at indicators then got vibed by a salty old local.
So the weekend ended with a 3 hour session surfing the best wave in California. I wish every weekend could end like that. Now home to my lovely wife. Life doesn't suck.
