San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Surfers’ waves full of ups and downs in pandemic
Picture vastly different for those in northern, southern parts of state
Springtime is seldom kind to Northern California surfers. It’s a time for ragged waves and contrary winds — usually in tandem — and the water temperatures can be among the coldest of the year.
None of that seems to matter this spring, because surfers have a huge advantage over the general public during the coronavirus pandemic: They still can get out there and do what they love.
Restrictions and violation policies have changed with great frequency since the beginning of March, but it boils down to this: Beach parking lots and public bathrooms have been rendered inaccessible from Marin County to San Mateo County, where the sheriff ’s office has issued parking tickets to hundreds of violators each week. Although sunbathing and large gatherings are discouraged, beaches have been
“It’s different up here from a place like Malibu, where there’d be a whole lot of people wanting to be in the same place.”
Grant Washburn, surfing regular at Ocean Beach
crowded up and down the coast, especially during the recent heat wave.
Legitimate exercise has been cleared as acceptable behavior — and once surfers hit the water, they enter an entirely separate world.
Out there, it’s just plain rude to sit on your board inside 6 feet of someone else. There’s no point in crowding, although it happens at surf breaks where the best takeoff zone is a very specific, narrow zone. At places like San Francisco’s Ocean Beach and Montara State Beach, there’s plenty of room to spread out. Other spots, notably Surfer’s Beach (“The Jetty”) near Princeton Harbor, have more limited space.
“It’s different up here from a place like Malibu, where there’d be a whole lot of people wanting to be in the same place, and tons of other highquality breaks going all the way to San Diego,” said Ocean Beach regular Grant Washburn. “The crowds are just crazy down there, with the tradeoff of great weather and warm water.”
As a result, in keeping with the recent Bay Area trend, there has been blatant defiance of local government mandates about social distancing and staying off the Southern California beaches. San Diego and Orange County breaks alternately close and reopen, depending on the extent of violations. Los Angeles County beaches were closed for weeks — even for surfers, in some cases — leading to some rather strange events.
On April 2 at Malibu, the pointbreak surf was A1 quality, an absolute dream for one of the world’s most famous spots. No one was allowed in the water. “Just amazing to see that,” said Lon Porter, who has surfed the Malibu area since the 1950s. “Perfect waves peeling through, not a soul on the beach or in the water. All we’re missing is the Rindge Railway (built by a wealthy landowner to keep the public off his ranch) to make it seem like it’s 1900 again.”
Still, when it comes to surfing, there inevitably will be rogue types sneaking through private property, evading security measures or leaping off a cliffside — anything it takes to skirt restrictions. Sure enough, a standup paddle surfer hit the water at Malibu that day and caught several gems before two policelifeguard boats forced him to shore, where he was handed a $1,000 fine.
(Los Angeles County beaches were reopened May 13 for “active use” such as surfing, swimming, walking and running. The parking lots remain closed.)
There have been some tense moments in Bay Area surf, usually of a territorial nature, as it’s considered commonsense etiquette to surf your home breaks and not travel to others. You’re likely to encounter a highway sign instructing you to “Turn around if you’re more than 10 miles from home.” But as Pacifica’s Steve Dwyer said, “Some people just don’t get it. If you’re from out of town, get south of The Jetty and there are miles of empty peaks all the way to Santa Cruz. Granted, they aren’t often as good, but in our minds, this is what we paid and sacrifice for so we could live at the coast. The locals’ priorities should count.”
As bigwave surfer Travis Payne put it, “If you’re desperate enough to go for a paddle, you should be desperate enough to find your own wave.”
“Thank goodness it’s the absolute worst time of the year for waves,” said Payne’s brother, Tyler. “If this was midwinter, when it really gets good around here, this would be a huge issue.”
Through it all, there’s a bottomline aspect to the surfer’s mentality, and it’s especially relevant now. “The great tonic of outdoor sports lies in precisely what we all need right now — flow, escape from one’s own haunted mind, communion with the eternal,” wrote Daniel Duane, a dedicated San Francisco surfer, in Outside Magazine. “At a time when every other human threatens to infect us, it’s only natural to seek solitude on open ground.”
Catching up on the rest of the surfing world: Mavericks: No bigwave contest was held at the break off Pillar Point after the sponsoring World Surf League pulled out in August, and it wasn’t a memorable season, notable mostly for some solid swells in December. “And there was a very good one the first week of January,” said San Francisco’s Grant Washburn, who documents every surfable day at the spot near Half Moon Bay. “Then it just stopped. Along with the rest of the world.”
Mavericks pioneer Jeff Clark spent the winter collecting footage for a videoawards presentation that would honor the best rides, biggest waves and top performers among men and women. His event was scheduled for early this month, but it has been postponed indefinitely. “We’ve got some really cool stuff,” Clark said recently, “but things are so chaotic right now. We’re gonna do it, we just don’t know when.”
Olympics: The surfing event was to be held at Shidashita Beach, a sandbottom beachbreak about 40 miles outside Tokyo in Chiba, with hopes that seasonal typhoon swells would produce good conditions. Presumably, it will be held there if the rescheduled Games take place next summer.
Each competing country was asked to select two men and two women for the event. The U.S. based its qualifying on the 2019 World Surf League tour rankings, in which Hawaiians John John Florence and Carissa Moore finished first. Secondranked Kolohe Andino (Southern California) and Caroline Marks (Florida) were to round out the team. In order to keep things current, the selection process is likely to start fresh next year.
2020 pro tours: Currently on hold. Just one WSL event was held on the seasonopening Australian circuit, March 814 at Manly Beach in Sydney. The rest of the March schedule was canceled on all tours, with all April, May and June events either canceled or postponed. Big Wave Tour: With Mavericks off the schedule, it’s down to two winter events, and both were held: at Peahi (or “Jaws”) on Maui in December and in Nazare, Portugal, in February. San Francisco’s Bianca Valenti competed in the women’s Peahi event, contested in such dangerous conditions. Maui’s Paige Alms was victorious despite catching just one wave — and wiping out — in the final.
Two independent bigwave contests were scheduled for Waimea Bay on Oahu: the prestigious Eddie Aikau event and the firstever Queen of the Bay, for women only. Neither was held because of unsatisfactory conditions.