jcm's blog

Photo: Obligatory “action shot”.

So one of the things I’ve been meaning to do for a while now is try surfing. Being from the UK, I’m not really pre-disposed toward jumping into the freezing Atlantic for fun (though I know people do surf) and living in Boston isn’t conducive toward surfing activities either (though I have friends in NC, for example, who do). Anyway, this was definitely something I wanted to get out of my roadtrip, so I called up a few surf schools a couple weeks back and arranged an afternoon as I passed through on Highway 1-S/101-S en route to LA for a conference.

I managed to sneak in a quick preview last week in San Diego (the surf wasn’t very good, but we had fun and I learned the basics) and then arrived in San Buenaventura – commonly known as simply Ventura – this afternoon (after a brief stop in Santa Barbara to see the Mission they have up there – most of the towns around here have a Spanish origin and consequently a Spanish mission of one form or another, divised as a means to control the Spanish colonies in the “New World”…Californian history is an interesting sub-topic in and of itself and I’ve spent some time reading up on it recently) just in time to head on over to the beach for my surfing lesson. I actually managed to locate the surfing dude driving down the highway, so I just followed him to the beach and parked up by the side of the road to change into my gear. I enjoy being 40lbs lighter than I was because I don’t look quite so fat in a wetsuit

By now, I can stand and perform some rudimentary manoeuvres on the board. I understand the mechanics/physics involved but that doesn’t make me an elite surfing dude – but it does help figure out what to do. After a few hours, I was absolutely wiped out and had to stop, but I made some progress and I plan to return to the same surfing school a few more times over the summer (basically, whenever I’m in California again this summer I’ll try to swing by as the surf is reasonably predictable and the location is near enough to LA). I’m looking into places on the East Coast to surf but that’s likely to involve flying to Florida or somewhere a bit warmer – still, I have a standing invitation to try in NC.

Decided not to drive into LA tonight and instead am staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, better known for its role in the “Little Miss Sunshine” movie. These days, it’s a 4 star hotel with swanky gym, pool, and prime location for a sunset stroll along the pier. I’ve been downtown (filled with thrift stores and funky coffee shops like the Coastal Roasting Co. that know how to make good lattes).

Tomorrow: LA. Tonight: Still deciding.

Jon.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 6:30 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.