[Paddlewise] Another Surfzone Carnage Story

Paddlewisers,

Below is an awesome surfzone carnage story written by Preston Holmes, who is 
a highly skilled and experienced whitewater and surf paddler in So Cal.  He 
also does some sea kayaking.  I received Preston's story through the San 
Diego Kayak Club email list server (<A HREF="http://www.sdkc.org/">SDKC Home 
Page</A>), and he gave me permission to forward it to Paddlewise.

Enjoy!

Duane 

-------

Christmas Day 2000

Sunset Cliffs, San Diego CA

This year saw a near repeat of last year:  Good surf with light Santa 
Ana conditions.  The swell and crowds were a bit bigger, but the 
overall quality of surfing was excellent.

I had talked to my friend Greg on Xmass eve about surfing on 
Christmas day.  My schedule was constrained by the fact that I had 
family in town, but I agreed to try and meet him and another paddler 
Steve at Sunset cliffs in the morning.  I got there about 10 or 11, 
and as I pulled off the bright sunny freeway, I turned right into a 
thick fog bank.

Now, this wasn't just a light fog, we are talking Pea Soup.  I 
couldn't see the water at all.  I knew Greg was out there somewhere 
because his truck was parked.  So we stood around for a while as I 
explained to my brother and parents what the place looked like when 
you could see it.  As the fog started to clear little by little  I 
could see down to the bottom of the cliff, and there was Greg and 
Steve walking along the edge of the cliff dodging waves.  The surf 
was LARGE.  They came up the trail, and I saw that Greg's Mike 
Johnson Waveski was all cracked up.  They had just paddled out when 
the fog caught them - socked them in completely.  All they could hear 
were the monstrous sets on the outside, they were in a channel 
between the shore break and the outer reefs not being able to see 
either.  They decided it was no good trying to catch huge waves when 
you couldn't see them, so they went back in towards the beach. 
BUT...  A longshore current had already carried them north of the 
beach, and put them right off a giant 50ft tall rock pinnacle called 
Birdshit rock (for obvious reasons).  As they came in through the 
shore break, it was too late to do anything, and they crashed around 
the rock and into the cliffs where the high tide was pounding.  Both 
bailed off their boats/board (Steve was in a WS X).  The waves were 
washing them up onto a ledge that was chest deep, and as the water 
drained off it would drag them off for another pounding.  Gregs Ski 
was getting smashed up inside a cave while he clung to rocks nearby. 
Now Greg grew up in the area surfing in large surf all his life, but 
he told me it was one of his biggest scares.  They were able to 
ascend to a higher shelf, and gather equipment and make it to the 
beach.

When they got to the top of the trail, the fog had almost completely 
cleared!  Sounds like it was the worst timing for them when they got 
socked in.  We talked about going somewhere else, but in the end 
decided that the fog was gone for good and went right back out at the 
same place.  Greg went back and exchanged his waveski for a surfboard.

We had some awsome waves, the bigger sets were clearly more that 2X 
overhead.  [as a side note, my brother lives in Bolinas, and he said 
he had never seen surf there even a fraction of the size].  The lefts 
were more like tobogganing than surfing, huge sloping faces.  The 
rights were jacking and hollow, with huge drops, but you could get 
caught inside without the channel that was there when you went left.

One of these times I was paddling out, and saw that I was in the 
WRONG place.  There isn't a whole lot you can do, the wave is too big 
and moving too fast for you to paddle in or out like you can on 
smaller big waves.  I rolled over to take the impact on the bottom of 
the boat to protect the skirt.  KAWHAM - in a single blurred instant 
I was pitched clean OUT of the boat, and in the same motion my 
Booties were sucked off my feat, and the pillars were pulled from out 
of the boat.  I swam under 2 more waves of that set, and then started 
to gather my equipment.  I tried making a went entrance and paddling, 
but I was going too slow.  I didn't see anyone around to help - so I 
started swimming in toward the beach.  Its a Looong swim starting 
from the reefs.  Now I had done the swim before once on another day 
when I swam out to say hi to some friends, but then I was just 
wearing shorts and it was summer.  As I swam with my gear, I saw that 
I was getting swept north to the same BirdShit Rock.  Damn - I angled 
more S, but after some more swimming realized that I wasn't making 
any progress.  I was getting cold and tired, and there was still 
nobody around.  Screw the boat - I started swimming in without the 
boat, but still wasn't making all that good a pace against the 
current.  At this point a couple surfers were paddling out nearby, 
and they asked about my boat.  When I said that I was abandoning it, 
they said they would help and encouraged me to give it another try. 
I got back to the boat, and using a surfboard to rest the tail on, 
was able to drain, right, and get back in the boat.  Someone watching 
all this had already called the lifegaurds at some point and a 
speedboat got there about the time I got back in the boat.  If I had 
been more familiar with the coastline to the north, I would have just 
swum in there, but it was all cliff - and I still had Greg's story 
fresh in my head from the morning.  I did manage to catch two more 
great waves before heading in.

To anyone who thinks they have the ocean mastered, think again.  Greg 
and I are two of the more experienced paddlers in So Cal, and we 
still get spanked.  Always treat the ocean with a good deal of 
respect and humility.

-Preston
-- 

Wonder what I've been up to?  -->  http://www.Ptone.com/

     "Life is what happens to you
         while you're busy making other plans."   John Lennon

Preston Holmes    Neurobiology Unit
Scripps Institution of Oceanography / UCSD
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